Simon the Sorcerer (series)
Simon the Sorcerer (English for " Simon the Magician" ) is a five-part adventure series. The first two parts were developed by Adventure Soft, the third of Headfirst Productions, the fourth of Silver Style Entertainment and the fifth by The Games Company.
While the first two parts are considered milestones of the genre, those behind the success did not continue.
- 2.1 action
- 2.2 characters
- 2.3 Game Design
- 2.4 Development
- 2.5 reception
- 3.1 action
- 3.2 Game Design
- 3.3 Development
- 3.4 reception
- 4.1 action
Simon the Sorcerer
Action
The game follows the adventures of the English young Simon. Simon will take your breath through a mysterious book that he found in his attic, in a parallel world. This contains numerous elements known European fairy tales and legends, such as wizards, dragons, giants, and talking animals. The evil wizard Sordid ( " Outrageous " ) threatens this world, and Simon occurs involuntarily to the fight against him. Despite this initial position StS is not intended for children (although also have this fun with the game ) because the of ironically sarcastic, cynical and absurd to intellectually reaching Humor thwarted the fantasy world and plays in many cases directly to the real world or amused by the processed fairytale clichés.
Characters
Game Design
The game follows the usual structure of point- and-click adventure game with control verbs and inventory at the bottom of the screen clickable objects in the game window and multiple-choice dialogues. Main element of the game is a very high density puzzles, which often demands the utmost creativity and Probierfreudigkeit the player.
Development
The first part was published in 1993 and was developed by the British company Adventuresoft under the direction of Simon and Michael Woodroffe. The game was released for Amiga and MS- DOS, initially on a floppy disk version, later on CD- ROM with audio. The German translation is considered extremely well done and equivalent to the English original.
The game runs on many operating systems and on different hardware ( as Windows, Linux and PDAs), if you start it on ScummVM. On August 6, 2009 Simon the Sorcerer was implemented on the iPhone or iPod Touch and can be downloaded in the App Store. Since August 2013, is also available for Android at Play Store.
Reception
StS was with over 600,000 copies sold worldwide is one of the most successful games of its time, was praised by critics and stands today as a cult game on a par with the LucasArts adventures.
Simon the Sorcerer 2: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe
Action
In the second part Sordid tried to reissue entitled from the dead, and brings Simon by means of a magic wardrobe teleporter back into the fantasy world. However, this is the road out of gas " BedFull " and Simon ends up in the store of Calypso, where he pulls out to get new fuel and thus to return home. He traveled through the now partly modernized ( currency reform, fast-food chains, diverse pieces of equipment ), but still recognizable as a fantasy world that is divided into several large venues - a city, a pirate island (in reference to the competition of Monkey Iceland ) and the Valley of Secrets by Sordid new Deatholme.
Characters
Game Design
Compared with the first part was little change in the well-known design, it was added (scroll of the scenes ), only the user interface easily streamlined ( symbols instead of verbs) and some technical improvements. The level of ambition of the puzzle increased.
Development
The successor of the same developers, subtitled The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe (orig. "The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe ," based on the best-selling The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ) was published in 1995. sts2 exists in versions on diskette or CD- ROM as well as for the systems Amiga, DOS, Mac, and Windows 95 the game runs under many operating systems and on different hardware ( eg Windows, Linux and PDAs), if you start it on ScummVM. The Tübingen RuneSoft company secured the rights to the Amiga version and released a boxed version in 2000.
Reception
The second part has been awarded by many magazines as "Adventure of the Year".
Simon the Sorcerer 3D
Action
As in the first two parts of Simon tries to fight the evil wizard Sordid and get back into his world. The plot follows on from the second part, in which Sordid with Simon exchanges the body. With the help of Calypso and a few other characters Simon, however, restored to its proper body already in the opening credits. Sordid comes back from Simon's world and wants to dominate this time with the swamp -form the universe. Simon's job is to keep him thereof.
Game Design
Unlike its predecessors, Simon the Sorcerer 3D is a three-dimensional adventure game that controls with the keyboard.
Development
The third part of the successful series was a long time coming. After the great success of Simon the Sorcerer II ( 1995) the game was Floyd: There are still developing heroes, which did not address met with great success. 1998 a decision was made to begin the third part. On top of this was planned as a 2D point- and -click adventure with graphics rendering (Similar Floyd ). But when no publisher could be found for a 2D game, the game has been redesigned, this time in 3D. The story has been changed thereby. Although the game was finished in 2001, it was only in 2002 on the German market, because the publisher Infogrames had gotten out of the business. Hasbro then took over the role of the publisher. The developers were called now instead Adventure Soft Headfirst Productions.
Reception
Although this part of the predecessors was content at least equal to both of the puzzles as well as the plot and the humor, it was not as well received by publication. This was mainly due to the completely outdated already in publication graphics and the unfamiliar control. The PC Games describes the 3D areas of the game as " ugly as sin "; the people would look "like blocks of a Lego kit". The operation was " advised unnecessarily complicated." Also, the game initially included numerous bugs that were reversed by patches now. There was praise the game for the " partially quite funny humor". PC games also underlines in their review the " exciting and entertaining story " and the "point -rich dialogues ". She also praises the " high Gagdichte " and the " professional voice ".
Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is the spice of life
On 24 November 2005, a fourth part was announced by the German company Silver Style Entertainment. The game was developed in collaboration with Simon and Mike Woodroffe. The characters in the game are entirely in 3D; the background mimicking this though, but is kept in 2D. Unlike the predecessor, it has a point-and- click control. Originally the game for the third quarter of 2006 has been announced but later the release date was postponed to 23 February 2007.
Is distributed by the game under the final title "Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is the spice of life " by RTL Enterprises.
Action
The fairy world is in danger again, Simon has to rescue this of course again. He encounters a supposed " evil " doppelganger. The game draws on many elements of popular and high culture and also parodies it. Key points are as in the previous parts of role-player as well as fairy tales and Greek mythology.
Simon the Sorcerer: Who wants to contact?
On 20 August 2008, the German publisher The Games Company, of May, 2006 by Silver Style founder Carsten Strehse announced was co-founded and Silver Style meantime belonged, the development of Simon the Sorcerer 5 for 26 March 2009.
Simon will have to face this time against aliens and their invasion. According to developers, there are significant improvements in terms of graphics, synchronization and playing time.
The point and click adventure, entitled Simon the Sorcerer: Who wants to contact? was published on 26 March 2009 for the PC and remained well below the expectations of fans and producers.
Trivia
- Simon Magus was known as Simon the sorcerer (English Simon the Sorcerer ).
- In all five parts Erik Borner be heard as the German voice of Simon.