The Faery Tale Adventure

Infobox VG| title = Faery Tale Adventure


developer = MicroIllusions
publisher = MicroIllusions
Electronic Arts (Sega Genesis version)
designer =
engine =
released = 1987
genre = Adventure game
modes = Single player
ratings = n/a
platforms = Amiga, Commodore 64, Mega Drive/Genesis, DOS
media =
requirements =
input = Keyboard, joystick, mouse

"The Faery Tale Adventure" is a 1987 adventure game by MicroIllusions. It is based around the quest of three brothers to retrieve and return the talisman of their home town, Tambry. Ahead of its time, there were no load screens in the huge world (over 300 screens wide and deep).

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 their strengths and weaknesses— Julian was a brave fighter, Phillip had luck and cleverness, and Kevin was gentle and kind.

Non-player characters in the game include a turtle, a witch, the necromancer, a king, a princess, a spirit and a dragon, amongst many others. Primary enemies were orcs, skeletons and wraiths.

Considered by many an introduction or stepping stone to 'fuller' RPGs, "Faery Tale Adventure" is surprisingly complex and advanced. Each of the playable characters has his own abilities and weakneses, and the key to success is not entirely clear from the outset.

Also, the player's moral actions have an effect on how NPCs in the game react, though perhaps not to the same degree as the time-relevant Ultima series.

A review in "Computer Gaming World" described the game's user interface as natural and simple, while still being an impressive and playable game.citation | date = Feb 1988 | last = Wagner | first = Roy | periodical = Computer Gaming World | title = The Faery Tale Adventure | year = 1988 | pages = 46-47, 50, 53]

Legacy

There is a sequel called "".

Ports

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 Macintosh port was well before its time as only one color Macintosh model existed at the time of the port's development, the Macintosh II which was prohibitively expensive. 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.

References

External links

*moby game|id=/faery-tale-adventure-book-i|name="The Faery Tale Adventure"