Dark Ages (1991 video game)

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Dark Ages

Developer(s)	Scenario Software
Publisher(s)	Apogee Software
Designer(s)	Todd Replogle
Platform(s)	DOS
Release date	1991
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	Floppy disk
Input methods	Keyboard

Dark Ages is a platform game written for MS-DOS, published by Apogee Software. It was the first shareware game to feature support for the AdLib sound card.

Dark Ages was distributed as shareware. It consists of three episodes, with only the first episode playable in the shareware version. The episodes are:

Prince of Destiny
The Undead Kingdom
Dungeons of Doom

The game was discontinued, and is no longer sold by Apogee.

[edit] Plot Summary

You play as the prince and heir to the land’s greatest kingdom (referred to as the Great Kingdom). However when you were a child, Garth, a power hungry wizard of immense power and greed, killed your father and took the throne. Rather than kill you he sent you to be raised by peasants, but even Garth’s evil magic could not foresee his mistake, since the very peasant he delivered you to was once the Kingdom’s greatest hero, and as you grew you were taught the ways of a master fighter. One of the things you learned well was how to use magic as a weapon.

In the years after Garth’s conquest, the kingdom had fallen into ruin and despair, with no hope of returning to the times of happiness and prosperity. Garth ruled with an iron fist and terrorized the population with undead creatures.

Your quest is to find Garth and rescue the Kingdom from the dark ages it’s trapped in. Your difficult journey takes you through badlands, castles, dungeons, caves, forests and finally to the Great Kingdom itself, with Garth’s army of undead creatures attacking you at every turn.

The 3rd game ends with a confrontation between you and Garth, who summons a bunch of spiders to defend himself (Garth himself has no attack and once the spiders are gone is easy to kill). After killing Garth, your destiny is fulfilled, you have freed the kingdom from the dark ages of fear and tyranny. You assume your rightful place, as the peaceful King and Leader of the Kingdom. The Great Kingdom is once again free to prosper and grow without fear.

[edit] Gameplay

Dark Ages is a side scrolling game where you can move sideways, jump and shoot. Game play involves killing and avoiding enemies and jumping over obstacles. Progression to the next level often involves a hidden door, revealed by one of several Wise Men type characters after retrieving an item for them. The items include a key, a shield, and an apple.

You use magic to fight your enemies, starting out with a simple energy bolt and slowly gaining access to more destructive spells as the game progresses. There are three spells in the game, a blue bolt that flies straight forward, a boomerang that flies forward then returns allowing enemies to be hit twice, and a magic beam with a shorter range but can kill most enemies in one hit and can be fired in rapid succession.