| The Faery Tale Adventure: Book I | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | MicroIllusions |
| Publisher(s) | MicroIllusions Electronic Arts (Genesis version) |
| Designer(s) | David Joiner |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, Mega Drive/Genesis |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media/distribution | Floppy disk |
The Faery Tale Adventure is a 1987 role-playing video game by MicroIllusions.
Contents |
The game is based around the quest of three brothers to retrieve the talisman stolen by the forces of evil and return it to their home village Holm. The player began as Julian, the eldest of the three brothers; if unsuccessful with this character, they'd then take control of Philip, the next oldest, then finally the youngest of the three, Kevin. Each had his strengths and weaknesses—Julian is a brave fighter, Phillip has luck and cleverness, and Kevin is gentle and kind.
The game's gameplay resembles this of Ultima VII (1992). At the time of its release the game featured the largest game world yet (over 17,000 computer screens) with no loadings.
The technique used to store such a huge world involved creating small-sized maps out of small shape-sized blocks. Those small maps were reused and fit together seamlessly to form larger areas. Loading was synchroneous, and would happen when nearing the boundary of an area, without affecting the smooth scrolling, animation and music.
The game also featured good classical-style music tracks for the time, as well as sound effects.
Like most MicroIllusions games, this game was first released on the Amiga and then ported to other systems. Eventually it was released for the Commodore 64 and DOS, although the graphics for these ports were of substantially lower quality due to hardware limitations. In 1988, a port was developed for the Macintosh. The 256 color graphics for the Macintosh port were quite advanced (easily surpassing the original Amiga version of the game). Unfortunately, the only color Macintosh model at the time was the Macintosh II, which was prohibitively expensive for a successful gaming platform. The Macintosh port was never released, but a working beta was completed before the development was cancelled.
Eventually New World Computing acquired MicroIllusions and in 1991 ported the game to the Mega Drive/Genesis. This version was published by Electronic Arts.
A review in Computer Gaming World described the game's user interface as natural and simple, while still being an impressive and playable game.[1]
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.[2] The Lessers reviewed the Sega Genesis version of the game in Dragon #175, giving that version of the game 4 out of 5 stars.[3]
The sequel, Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II, was developed by The Dreamers Guild and released by Encore, Inc. for the PC in 1997. Its gameplay and graphics resemble Ultima VIII: Pagan.