TaskMaker
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| TaskMaker | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Storm Impact |
| Publisher(s) | XOR Corporation (1989) Storm Impact (1993) |
| Designer(s) | David Cook, Tom Zehner |
| Release date(s) | 1989, 1993 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | "Classic" Mac OS |
| Media | 1989: Two 3.5 inch floppy disks. 1993: Download, floppy disks. |
| System requirements | 1989: Apple Macintosh Plus, SE, or II. 1 MB of memory. 2 disk drives or a hard disk. 1993: 600k memory for black and white mode; 1500k memory for color mode. System 6.02 or newer. |
| Input | Keyboard, mouse. |
TaskMaker is a computer role-playing game for the Macintosh developed by Storm Impact and published by XOR Corporation in 1989. In 1993, Storm Impact released an upgraded shareware version of TaskMaker featuring color graphics and compatibility with newer versions of Mac OS. With Storm Impact's demise, TaskMaker is no longer supported or available for purchase (and therefore abandonware); however, the game is still covered by intellectual property rights, including copyrights.[1]
The player is a young hero from far away who has arrived to be trained and eventually become the leader of the land. The TaskMaker, who is a powerful man in the world, is to be the hero's mentor, and throughout the game assigns him 10 tasks, which are generally quests to obtain an item from a different dungeon or town. Along the way, he realizes how corrupt the TaskMaker has become, and in the end kills him.
The gameplay of the game is very reminiscent of the Ultima series, although much of the appeal of TaskMaker comes from its simplicity. Rather than having complex character statistics, creating a character is a simple matter of giving him a name.
The tasks each include a series of interesting challenges, using game elements such as illusionary walls, teleporters, traps, and switches. The enemies the player encounters are frequently typical fantastical creatures, such as kobolds, goblins, and gargoyles, although there are also comical monsters such as spoiled lunch, humpty dumpty, and "El Cheapo PC". The game clearly tries to break the rules of RPGs, and succeeds--as an example, what other RPG has a boomerang as the best weapon in the game?
1997 saw the release of a sequel, The Tomb of the TaskMaker.
[edit] References
- ^ Cook, David. Storm Impact. Robot Room. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
