Simon the Sorcerer

Simon the Sorcerer
The box art for the Amiga 1200 release of Simon the Sorcerer.
Developer(s)	Adventure Soft
Publisher(s)	Adventure Soft
Designer(s)	Simon Woodroffe
Series	Simon the Sorcerer
Engine	AGOS
Platform(s)	Amiga, Amiga CD32, DOS, RISC OS
Release date(s)	2 January 1993
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	CD-ROM, Floppy disk

Simon the Sorcerer is an adventure game that was released by Adventure Soft on 2 January 1993 for Amiga and DOS formats.^[1] The game's name comes from the account of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8.

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.

Plot

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.

Available versions

Several different versions of this game were created.

PC Releases

The first game, Simon the Sorcerer, was released in 1993 for IBM PC compatibles running DOS on three 3.5" floppy disks in a large box styled with purple margins, with no speech and only sub-titles used throughout the game. It contained a 30-page black and white manual, which included the compass pictures required to pass the copy protection built into this release.

Two years later, just before the sequel was due to be released, the first game was re-released on PC CD-ROM. This new CD came without copy protection, in a jewel case, with a black & white inlay manual, along with colour inserts for both the front and rear. It was advertised with a new Full "Talkie" Soundtrack, which entirely replaced the original subtitles, frustrating some players, including those with hearing disabilities. The CD-ROM version of the sequel Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe offers the option to switch between subtitles or the soundtrack.

Since its original release, the PC version of Simon the Sorcerer has remained in-print direct from Adventure Soft. Since then, the game has gained "The Original Adventure" as a subtitle, and comes in the same black packaging used by the sequel. The CD has also been updated, first to run on Windows 95/98 using DirectX and later Windows Me/2000/XP. The Windows version CDs introduced an on-disc PDF manual which replaced the jewel case and its inserts. A patch is available for download from Adventure Soft's site, to update older releases to run on Windows Me/2000/XP. Simon the Sorcerer - The Original Adventure has also been published with its sequel in a big box double pack, at a reduced price.

More recently, Idigicon has re-released the latest versions of all five Simon the Sorcerer individual titles in DVD style cases, followed by a combination pack containing four titles, without Simon the Sorcerer 3D, on one disc.

Amiga releases

For the Amiga, the AGA A1200 version with 256-colour graphics was available on 9 double-density floppy disks. Shortly afterwards, a 64-colour Amiga 500 edition was created so that any Amiga could play it, and finally a CD32 version was released on CD with 256-colour graphics and voice acting. This was the first Amiga adventure game to feature full voice acting, but only on the CD version.

Other releases

A 256-colour version of the game was released for the Acorn RISC OS platform on floppy disk, with a CD version including voice acting released later.

In 2009, the game has been re-released for the iPhone and is available via the App Store. This is the talkie version and contains two different control versions, either an original mouse pointer or by simply tapping the screen to select objects and commands.

Recently a new version titled '20th Anniversary Edition' released exclusively for Android using a new cover artwork. It was released on Aug. 26, 2013.^[2] This combined all 7 original languages releases, new hotspots-based touch controls with icons for actions, optional upscaling the graphics to HD and new game menus.

Notably, the original cover art depicts the "demonic robot" form which Sordid would take on in the second game in the series. This version of Sordid does not actually appear in the first game except for a cameo at the end, and even then only a large mechanical arm is seen dragging Simon through a portal back to the fantasy world. Probably because of this, the new '20th Anniversary Edition' only uses the hands from the original artwork, which are mostly covered with gloves that leaves just a small hint of the robotic hands beneath.

Reception

The Amiga version of Simon the Sorcerer received generally high ratings. CU Amiga rated the game 90% and praised the high quality graphics and how much fun the game was to play. ^[4] Amiga Computing gave the game a score of 89% and also praised the graphics. ^[5] The magazine also enjoyed the puzzles and detail in the game. Both magazines compared the game to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge but also pointed out that it is not a copy and is a quality product. Game Rankings states the PC version of game has a rating of 86.3%. ^[3]

See also

• Simon the Sorcerer series

References

External links

• Simon the Sorcerer overview/review
• Simon the Sorcerer at Game Nostalgia
• Simon the Sorcerer series at MobyGames
• ScummVM - Game interpreter
• ScummVM Music Enhancement Project - Enhanced music for use within ScummVM