Dragon Wars - videogames advert in the late '80s (Amiga, Apple IIgs, C64, NES, PC...)

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Description
Dragon Wars is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Rebecca Heineman and published by Interplay Productions in 1989 and distributed by Activision.

Dragon Wars takes place in the magical land of Dilmun, an island of salvation perverted into a world of horror by Namtar (as you might expect - the bad guy).

The player starts with a party of four in the city of Purgatory, equipped with nothing more than.. well - nothing. Worst of all your magic users won't help you out, either, because magic has been banned (to correct this unpleasing situation is one of your main objectives). Other main targets are surviving, getting out of Purgatory and toppling Namtar (maybe getting some decent clothing, one or two shiny swords and the like on your way out).

Alternatively, the player may import characters from The Bard's Tale trilogy into Dragon Wars.

Amiga & C64 screenshots

Trivia - Development

"Dragon Wars was our attempt at merging the lessons learned from Wasteland and Bard's Tale together in an RPG. We took the party-based gameplay of Bard's Tale and brought in the non-linear elements that we liked so much. I think, in the very first area, there were more than four ways to get out of the prison, and people didn't realise it until after they compared notes with other players. It was also quite special that I got to work with one of my favourite artists of all time: Boris Vallejo."
-- Brian Fargo, co-designer

Bard's Tale
Dragon Wars was developed as The Bard's Tale IV, but three months before release the name had to be dropped. Interplay replaced Electronic Arts with Mediagenic as their publisher and Electronic Arts owned the Bard's Tale name. It was decided to rename the game to Dragon Wars. The developers had to rewrite the story so it would fit the new title.

Default Party Characters
The party in the beginning of the game consists of four default party members (which may optionally be deleted and replaced with new characters). The original party members are: Muskels, Theb, Elendil, and Cheetah. Three additional characters may also optionally be recruited in-game, these characters are: Louie, Ulric, and Valar.

The Elendil party character in this game bears the same name with a fictional character created by author J. R. R. Tolkien, the first high king of Arnor and Gondor. One notable scene from Fellowship of the Ring, where Elendil dies fighting Sauron, his broken sword is then used to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand.

Reversed Spelling/Semordnilaps
Some of the names used in the game have a meaning if spelled backwards. Though it may be coincidental, there are numerous names that are used in this manner, among others: * Namtar, the bad guy's name read backwards is Ratman. * Another name used in the game, Lanac'toor, read backwards is Root Canal.

[Marketing]
Interplay advertisements displayed the slogan "Bard's Tale Fans Rejoice!" above the game's name, and mentioned Dragon Wars' ability to import Bard's Tale characters. The designers all felt it was a better game than Bard's Tale III, and indeed, better than any of the Bard's Tale series, but without the tie-in to the old title and without Electronic Arts' marketing muscle, the game did not fare as well.

[Copy protection]
To defend against pirated copies of the game, Dragon Wars included a collection of numbered paragraphs within their manual. Players would receive an in-game message (i.e. "Read paragraph 23"), and have to refer back to the printed material. The game is very difficult to play without references to the paragraphs, and many parts become meaningless. This form of security was widely used at the time.

Sequel
A sequel, Dragon Wars 2 was in the concept stage of development around the mid-1990s but was cancelled because of the original's tepid sales figures and RPGs being out of style at the time.

alternate adverts/flyers

box art covers