Tir Na Nog (video game)

Infobox VG| title = Tir Na Nog


developer = Greg Follis, Roy Carter
publisher = Gargoyle Games
designer =
engine =
released = 1984 (Spectrum, Amstrad)
1985 (Commodore 64)
genre = Arcade adventure
modes = Single player
ratings =
platforms = ZX Spectrum
Amstrad CPC
Commodore 64
media = Cassette
requirements = 48K (Spectrum)
64K (Amstrad CPC, C64)
input = Keyboard

"Tir Na Nog" is a video game published in 1984 by Gargoyle Games for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. It was ported to the Commodore 64 in 1985. It is loosely based on Celtic mythology.

The game was widely positively received by the gaming media. The game forms part of an unofficial trilogy with the science fiction title "Marsport" and "Dun Darach". "Marsport" has little to do with "Tir Na Nog" aside from the similar game styles. "Dun Darach", however, is a proper part of the same story as "Tir Na Nog".

The game has many features that were groundbreaking in 1984 such as a large central character, animated backgrounds and parallax scrolling.

In early 1990s, Psygnosis Software planned to release a PC remake of the game, but the project was abandoned. Several promotional screenshots from it remain on the Web today.

Plot

Tir Na Nog, Irish for "Land of Youth", is the titular location for the game. The protagonist, Cuchulainn, has departed the land of the living and finds himself at an altar in this land, essentially an afterlife. His goal is to reunite the four fragments of the Seal of Calum and place it on the altar, all while avoiding the sídhe.

Gameplay

Gameplay takes the form of an arcade-adventure with the player controlling the hero as he wanders the land of Tir Na Nog collecting objects, solving puzzles and trying to keep out of the way of the sídhe who also wander the land. Many of the puzzles that Cuchulainn is set are cryptic in nature (eg "The backdoor key is me") rather than straightforward and may rely on some lateral thinking.

Because he is in an afterlife, Cuchulainn cannot die and if he is "defeated" by a sídhe he is simply transported elsewhere and loses all his carried objects.

The Land of Tir Na Nog is very large and consists of plains, caverns and forests. Cuchulainn can move north, south, east and west with the player "rotating" the view using the keyboard and then having Cuchulainn move left or right on the screen. The player can collect any objects they come across with Cuchulainn being able to carry several at one time. Some of these objects can be used as weapons with the game allowing the player to "thrust" with any item.

ee also

*Irish mythology

External links

* [http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/ Tir Na Nog walkthrough recording] - for compatible ZX Spectrum emulators.
*moby game|id=/tir-na-nog|name="Tir Na Nog"
* [http://www.crashonline.org.uk/11/tirnang.htm Review of the game from 1984] - from "CRASH" magazine.
* [http://www.luny.co.uk/sinclair/gargoyle/tirnanog.htm Further details plus the solution to the game] - from LunySoft.
*WoS game|id=0005292|name=Tir Na Nog
* [http://wmi.math.u-szeged.hu/~kovzol/tirnanog/dokuwiki/doku.php Assembly code and other internal details of the ZX Spectrum program] by [http://wmi.math.u-szeged.hu/~kovzol Zoltán Kovács] (mostly in Hungarian)