Kingdom O' Magic
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| Kingdom O' Magic | |
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| Developer(s) | SCi |
| Publisher(s) | SCi |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release date | 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Comic adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 15+ USK: 6+ |
| Media | 2 CD-ROMs |
| System requirements | CPU: 486 DX33 RAM: 8 MB CD-ROM drive: double-speed Hard disk space: 10 MB Display: VGA Sound: SoundBlaster/GUS/Adlib/Ensoniq Soundscape/Roland Rap-10/Microsoft Sound System OS: MS-DOS 5.0 |
| Input methods | Mouse |
Kingdom O' Magic (KOM) is a video game released by SCi in 1996. It is a comic point and click adventure game, or as stated in the manual first published in 1876 under the title "101 fun things To Do with Trolls". However the version on CD-ROM is specially calibrated for short people with red hair.
The game is a parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, as seen in the names of some of the places in the game Rivendull, Minar Tragedy etc.
It was designed by Fergus McNeill who became famous during the eighties for games such as Bored of the Rings (influenced by, but not adapted from, the Harvard Lampoon book) and The Boggit.
KOM should have been released for four different systems: MS-DOS, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Apple Macintosh but only the first appeared.
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[edit] Characters
- Thidney the Lizard Bloke, voiced by John Sessions.
- "A seven-feet tall bright green lizard, with cherry disposition and a super tail! Thidney enjoys action movies, sport and drinking massive quantities of ale. He isn't brilliant at casting spells but, in his favour, he can sustain a lot of blows to the head with virtually no noticeable change to his mental ability."
- Shah-Ron the Girlie, voiced by Lani Minella.
- 5"9, very intelligent, and built like a babe from planet Comely, she's a go-getting girl who has no desire to work with children or old people, and who hates all animals, especially the cute furry ones. Highly skilled at magic, she has little interest in more physical aspect of combat.
[edit] Quests
- The Good, Old Fashioned, Traditional Quest - "Here you and you alone must travel the length and girth of the Kingdom, battling monsters, righting wrongs and lowering property value wherever you go, until you can finally rescue the dragon, steal the princess and kill the treasure!"
- The Magnificent 7-11 Quest - "Flake town is going to be invaded, and you have been personally selected to wander aimlessly round the Kingdom, recruiting between 7 and 11 of the toughest characters you can find to help defend the liberty of the floating metropolis!"
- The Bizarre & Slightly Twisted Quest - "Oooooh it's dangerous! Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to prevent the end of civilisation as we know it (hey, bet you'd never heard that from a computer game before!) by seeking out and uncovering the Lost Lava Lamp Of The Ancient and, time permitting, thrashing the Dark Lord to within an inch of his life!"
[edit] Overview
[1] Neither the protagonists nor the quests are pastiches on The Lord of the Rings. The parody instead rests on the other characters of the game and their surroundings. For instance, we find such immortal legendary figures as The High Steward of Minar Tragedy, Don Elrondo of Rivendull and Queen Galadrag of De-Lorean.
The game world feels quite alive with lots of characters moving around. There are frequent battles between karate elves and ringwraiths, for instance. You can talk with almost all the characters in the game, that is those that do not attack on sight. Conversation is handled by allowing you one of three choices at different points in the conversation. Depending on what choice you make the conversation takes a new direction. This is rather much like the old 80's game Law of the West if anyone remembers that.
Battle is not one of the game's strong sides. While use of magic is OK of sorts, hand to hand combat tends to be kind of silly. You attack someone, you fight for a brief time and then he or she walks away as if nothing had happened, perhaps even approaching you for a chat.
[edit] Hints
Some fun things to try out[2]
- Ask Elfis for a clue. Ask what you get for one gold piece or accept the price.
- Ask the king o' De-Lorean about his tiger wife.
- Be very abrasive when talking to the Queen o' De-Lorean.
- Talk to one o' the elves about vandalism.
- Make a really bad pun with Terrence and the Wig-Meister.
- As Sha-ron, talk dirty to Terrence (or to anyone, really).
- Try to get thrown into prison by the Cop.
- Do try out the thermal detonator sometime. That's one way to finish the game VERY quickly.
- Don't put the Palentire Stone back in the box.
- Look repeatedly into the Palentire Stone after offing Marshgast.
- Talk with Timmy for a long time, repeatedly. Tell him his name.
- Try to get different favors from Don Elrondo and the Elf Guard.
- Comment on Pinhed's voice.
- Have a long conversation with the Beastie.
- Ask the Ninja Baker about his body odor.
- Look at the left tusk o' the Dark Lord's tower.
- Try to rumble.
Easter Eggs
- Call the number 171 585 3308 (SCi's regular phone number) on the cellular phone for a surprise.
[edit] Trivia
- Shah-ron was intended to be humorously overproportioned, although Tomb Raider raised that standard at the time of the shipping.
- The troubleshooting guide in the manual discusses sexual malfunction. The dialogue trees encourage the player to be abrasive and confrontational - "not doing so will cause you to miss out on much of the enjoyment, and many of the puzzles."
- An interesting point is that SCi don't actually acknowledge the existence of KOM on their website.
