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Swords and Sorcery was originally announced in 1984, as a
revolutionary computer role-playing game, claimed by its designer Mike
Simpson to be the first of its kind. It eventually did surface on the
Spectrum and Amstrad, earning considerable critical acclaim, but no C64
version appears to have surfaced.
The games database MobyGames describes the game as such:
"The catacombs of Zob are believed to contain untold wealth and fortune,
and this is enough to tempt you. That means entering an imposing dungeon
filled with strange foes - Mages, Servants of Set, Revenent Guardians and
many more. After taking 14 days of training to build up your skills, or
taking the default combinations, your magic and swordplay must face the
challenge.
Swords and Sorcery is a dungeon-crawler that uses the proprietory
MIDAS system to present a first-person visual representation of your
position, in a manner similar to Bard's
Tale.
This is on the left of the screen, with a map of your surroundings on the
right, and text messages detailing your current situation below.
Below even that are the menus, which are activated by moving a highlight
bar left and right before selecting the correct option. Enemies you meet
can
be threatened, bribed or grovelled to. You can activate any spells you
collect, including un-poison, weaken enemy, and freeze enemy.
Watch out for magical barriers and traps, and use the transporters to your
advantage. When you encounter magic would will have to test it to
determine
its use or detriment.
The Armour of Zob is split into several pieces, which would will hopefully
find on your quest. There are also extra swords and shields to collect,
plus some treasure as a reward."
Sounds like something which could work well on the C64, so hopefully
something can be traced.
Richard Hewison gains details from Mike Simpson which informs that the C64 version never got started:
"No. C64 was never contemplated."
However, in the scans section, if you read the Zzap snippet, they mentioned that the game was heavily delayed for about a year, and causing Mike Simpson some headaches. Maybe for that reason and for money lost on the game, it is not one which people want to focus on. But then Richard Hewison suggests that this may have been referring to the Spectrum version, and not a C64 version which might have been publicised by marketing in the hope that the Spectrum version sold well.
Does this mean that a C64 version ever existed? Gary Mays recently contacted GTW and said the following (but sadly didn't leave an email address for us to get back to him):
"Hi, I am Gary Mays and I was the publisher not the programmer. The C64 version was never released - the endless delays in release of the Z80 language version cost PSS a small fortune and we frankly lost heart as well as money."
So confirmation is now complete that the C64 version was infact never started after a lot of money was lost on the original game. A huge shame!.
Interestingly though in 2011, Garry Irwin got in touch as he recently created a blog post on Alternative Software and some advert scans. In one of the adverts showed "Swords and Sorcery" being advertised for the C64. It is most likely a mis-print with the format icons, but ironic considering! :-)
Here is the shot...
Case closed!...
Martin Smith and Frank.
(Additional source credits - Peter Weighill, Richard Hewison, Mike Simpson, Gary Mays, Garry Irwin) |
