The Shadow of Yserbius
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| The Shadow of Yserbius | |
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| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Genre(s) | MUD |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
'The Shadow of Yserbius' Originally Published by Sierra Online was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community. Opening to rave reviews, Shadows of Yserbius, according to industry critics set the standard at which all future MUDS would be judged by. The game was followed by two sequels entitled The Fates of Twinion in 1993 and The Ruins of Cawdor in 1995. Until Recently only The Shadows of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion were playable in offline mode. Thanks to the folks over at http://www.yserbius.org , who recently re-released the Ruins of Cawdor in offline version, members can now download and enjoy some of the very first online graphical MUDS they pioneered the way for MMO's or today.
Shadows of Yserbius along with it's counterparts remained online until 1996, when AOL purchased the rights from AT&T, then owner, for an undisclosed prices. Rumor had it 40 million and change. Unheard of for a game in those days. Shadows of Yserbius a major competitor and thorn to AOL with their smash hit NeverWinter Nights soon pulled the plug on the Shadows of Yserbius.
With that closing, Shadow of Yserbius and its subsequent releases soon slipped beyond the limelight and into history. For more information regarding Shadows of Yserbius please visit http://www.yserbius.org
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[edit] Game play
The premise of the game was to kill an evil elemental creature called En-li-Kil. There were a number of "rooms", where up to 30, then later 60 people could meet and adventure together in groups of up to four. Combat was turn-based.
The available professions were Barbarian, Knight, Ranger, Thief, Cleric, and Wizard. Player races included Human, Orc, Elf, Troll, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, and Gremlin.
Another popular pastime was player vs player sparring. This later became corrupted by cheating, as well as version compatibility issues, which later versions tried to address, but with little success. The most popular of these cheating software was a macro called VitaminF.
Many players were members of guilds ranging from the large SoF (Soldiers Of Fortune) and KoY (Kingdom Of Yserbius), DEADZ, to the smaller guilds such as TheMercs, KoC (Knight of Chivalry), and KAAOS (Killing As An Organized Sport). Most guilds were based on role playing with very little questing being done later in the game. A handful of the guilds started in Yserbius during the early 1990's, such as SoF, TheCelts, KAAOS, DEADZ, and the New Outriders, still exist to this day.
[edit] The Tavern
The tavern was the social hub for the game. If you spent a lot of time in the tavern, you would be considered a Tavern Rat. Many games and challenges could take place verbally and Role Play was a huge deal to those participating in the Tavern.
[edit] Remakes
Doubtless due to the popularity of Yserbius, the perceived simplicity of its engine, and the fact that most of the Yserbius graphics are easily attainable, there have been several attempts to remake the game play of Yserbius.
The Ruins of Cawdor (second sequel to Yserbius) has been patched to be playable offline.
[edit] Current Projects
As of June 2006, there are no projects that are in active development.
[edit] Abandoned Projects
The first remake attempt was Gandalf's 'Yserbius project', which was in development in 1998. Gandalf, a major force in the Yserbius community, disappeared in early 1999. With his going, all information regarding his project was lost.
In mid 1999, Xenther and EtoneDarkKnight worked together on developing 'Project Asunder', a spiritual successor to Yserbius. Numerous screen shots were shown, with actual gameplay implied. However, EtoneDarkKnight fell out of communication with the public late that year, and Project Asunder was closed shortly thereafter.
In early 2000, Mithrandel announced development of 'Yet Another Yserbius' (YAY). While Mithrandel claimed to have finished development of the Tavern and extended beta test invitations to a small group of testers, no public beta test was ever released. Mithrandel later went on to develop FauxINN, a recreation of The ImagiNation Network.
