Simon the Sorcerer is a series of point-and-click adventure games created by Adventure Soft. The series follows the adventures of an unwilling hero of the same name and has a strong fantasy setting similar to Sierra's King's Quest and Westwood's Kyrandia series. The game varies in style, however, as it is more poised to be a parody of the fantasy genre than a member of the genre itself, with many renowned folklore characters appearing differently from what they are generally presumed to be.
The first two games are often compared with the Monkey Island series in terms of style and humour,[1] and the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels and derivative games. Unlike many older adventure games, the entire series is still available for purchase new.[2] The first and second games in the series are also playable using ScummVM.[3]
Simon the Sorcerer is a teenager transported into a fantasy world as a sorcerer dressed in a cloak and pointy hat; his cloak and hat are purple in the first game, but change to red for the rest of the series (excluding possibility to magically change colour in the third game). He must use his logic and magical skills to solve puzzles as he progresses through the games.
Simon is rude and insulting to many of the characters he meets. This tends to interfere with the success of his quests, forcing him to go to ridiculous lengths in order to complete puzzles. Simon breaks the fourth wall with his comments about adventure games.
Simon the Sorcerer was released by Adventure Soft on 2 January 1993 for DOS and Amiga formats.[4] The story begins with the protagonist, Simon, as an ordinary teenager. His dog, "Chippy", discovers a chest in the loft of his house containing a spellbook titled "Ye Olde Spellbooke". Simon throws the book onto the floor in contempt, but a portal opens above it. Chippy goes through the portal and Simon follows.
After entering the portal, Simon finds himself in another world. After escaping from some goblins who intended to eat him, he discovers that he has been brought on a quest to rescue the wizard Calypso from the evil sorcerer Sordid.
The game includes parodies of various popular books and fairy tales, including Rapunzel, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Jack and the Beanstalk and the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Simon is voiced in this game by Chris Barrie, known for his roles in Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire. This game marks the first appearance of two evil, if somewhat inept, demons, who have since made an appearance in all the games.
Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe, commonly known as Simon the Sorcerer II, was released by Adventure Soft in 1995. The title is a parody of the Chronicles of Narnia book: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The wizard, Simon, the Wardrobe, and the lion all feature in the game. Brian Bowles plays the voice of Simon, making him sound older, presumably in his late-teens.
In the game, the father of a peasant boy, Runt, burns his book of magic and throws it into the centre of a pentagram on the floor, inadvertently bringing Sordid back to life as a spirit. He transfers his spirit to a robotic body, and sends a magical wardrobe to retrieve Simon from his own dimension. The wardrobe mistakenly brings Simon to the door-step of Calypso's Magic Shop. Upon returning to consciousness Simon learns that, in order to return home, he must find the wardrobe's power source, called mucusade (a pun on Lucozade).
A pinball video game released in 1998 by Adventure Soft for Microsoft Windows.
A puzzle game released in 1998 by Adventure Soft for Microsoft Windows. It contains three games:
The game also features a desktop virtual pet known as "Demon in My Pocket" as well as three Simon the Sorcerer desktop themes.
The third adventure game in the series, it was originally intended to be a high quality 2D adventure game (with the game going as far as being fully designed in 2D), however due to Publisher hesitation in picking up a 2D title, the developers decided to switch it from a 2D game to a 3D adventure game.
The game follows on directly after Simon the Sorcerer II's open ending, a cut-scene at the beginning tells the player of the connecting story, of how Simon's body was rejoined to his soul by the new character Melissa.
The fourth adventure game marks a return to the heralded point-and-click interface and features high quality pre-rendered backgrounds. The characters are in 3D.
The German version of this game was released 23 February 2007,[5] and was developed by Silver Style Entertainment.
The English version of this game was released on 17 October 2008,[6][7] and was published by Playlogic.
In the fifth adventure game, aliens threatens the fantasy world. The German version was released for PC on 26 March 2009.[8] It was released for digital download in English on the 17th February 2010.
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