Tir Na Nog (game)

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Tir Na Nog

Developer(s)	Greg Follis, Roy Carter
Publisher(s)	Gargoyle Games
Release date(s)	1984, 1985
Genre(s)	Arcade adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64
Media	cassette
Input	keyboard

Tir Na Nog is a ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC computer game published in 1984 by Gargoyle Games. It was ported to the Commodore 64 in 1985. It is loosely based on Irish and celtic mythology.

The game was widely positively received by the gaming media. The game forms part of an unofficial trilogy with the science fiction title Marsport and Dun Darach. Marsport has little to do with Tir Na Nog aside from the similar game styles. Dun Darach, however, is a proper part of the same story as Tir Na Nog.

1 Plot
2 Gameplay
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Tir Na Nog, Irish for "Land of Youth", is the titular location for the game. The protagonist, Cuchulainn, has departed the land of the living and finds himself at an altar in this land, essentially an afterlife. His goal is to reunite the fragments of the Seal of Calum and place it on the altar, all while avoiding the sídhe.

[edit] Gameplay

Cuchulainn standing in the Central Plain.

Gameplay takes the form of an arcade-adventure with the player controlling the hero as he wanders the land of Tir Na Nog collecting objects, solving puzzles and trying to keep out of the way of the sídhe who also wander the land. The game has many features that were groundbreaking in 1984 such as a large central character, animated backgrounds and parallax scrolling.

Because he is in an afterlife, Cuchulainn cannot die and if he is "defeated" by a sídhe he is simply transported elsewhere and loses all his carried objects.

The Land of Tir Na Nog is very large and consists of plains, caverns and forests. Cuchulainn can move north, south, east and west with the player "rotating" the view using the keyboard and then having Cuchulainn move left or right on the screen.