Kingdom O' Magic
Encyclopedia
Kingdom O' Magic is a video game released by SCi
in 1996. It is a comedic point and click adventure game
, filled with bizarre humour, as seen in the instruction manual: "First published in 1876 under the title '101 fun things To Do with Trolls'. However the version on CD-ROM
is specially calibrated for short people with red hair".
The game is a parody of J. R. R. Tolkien
's Middle-earth
, as seen in the names of some of the places in the game such as Rivendull and Minar Tragedy.
It was designed by Fergus McNeill who became famous during the eighties for games such as Bored of the Rings (influenced by, but not adapted from, the Harvard Lampoon
book) and The Boggit
.
KOM was planned for release on four different systems: MS-DOS
, Sega Saturn
, PlayStation
, Apple Macintosh but fell through for the Sega Saturn.
Kingdom O' Magic is unofficially being remade, using the Adventure Game Studio
engine.
More information concerning the remake, can be found at the Big Blue Cup Forums.
.
Shah-Ron the Girlie, voiced by Lani Minella
.
The game world feels quite alive with lots of characters moving around. For instance, there are frequent battles between karate elves and ringwraiths. You can talk with all the characters in the game providing they do not attack on sight. Conversation is handled by giving the player multiple choices to choose from, each directing the conversations in different directions. This is rather much like the old 80's game Law of the West.
Combat is not one of the game's strong sides; after approaching an NPC with a weapon selected, a cartoon cloud covers the altercation before the two combatants emerge and walk away as if nothing had happened, even re-approaching the player for a chat.
There are also magic spells to supplement the combat system, but their effects, while humorous, are largely unhelpful.
SCi
Square Enix Limited, doing business as Square Enix Europe, is a British publisher of video game software wholly owned by Square Enix. Square Enix Europe has its head office in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
in 1996. It is a comedic point and click adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
, filled with bizarre humour, as seen in the instruction manual: "First published in 1876 under the title '101 fun things To Do with Trolls'. However the version on CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
is specially calibrated for short people with red hair".
The game is a parody of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
, as seen in the names of some of the places in the game such as Rivendull and Minar Tragedy.
It was designed by Fergus McNeill who became famous during the eighties for games such as Bored of the Rings (influenced by, but not adapted from, the Harvard Lampoon
Harvard Lampoon
The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Overview:Published since 1876, The Harvard Lampoon is the world's longest continually published humor magazine. It is also the second longest-running English-language humor...
book) and The Boggit
The Boggit
The Boggit: Bored Too is a text adventure game by Delta 4 released in for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum home computers. The game is a parody of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel The Hobbit and of the earlier game based upon it also called The Hobbit...
.
KOM was planned for release on four different systems: MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
, Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
, PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, Apple Macintosh but fell through for the Sega Saturn.
Kingdom O' Magic is unofficially being remade, using the Adventure Game Studio
Adventure Game Studio
Adventure Game Studio is a free software development tool that is primarily used to create graphical adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an Integrated development environment for setting up most aspects of the game with a scripting language to process...
engine.
More information concerning the remake, can be found at the Big Blue Cup Forums.
Characters
Thidney the Lizard Bloke, voiced by John SessionsJohn Sessions
John Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...
.
- "A seven-feet tall bright green lizard, with cherry disposition and a super tail! Thidney enjoys action movies, sport and drinking massive quantities of ale. He isn't brilliant at casting spells but, in his favour, he can sustain a lot of blows to the head with virtually no noticeable change to his mental ability."
Shah-Ron the Girlie, voiced by Lani Minella
Lani Minella
Lani Minella is a voice actress who has voiced in over 500 computer and video games as well as several TV and anime series. She is best known for voicing Nancy Drew, Millie Strathorn, Loulou the Parrot and Freddie in the Nancy Drew computer games, Ivy Valentine in the Soulcalibur video game...
.
- 5"9, very intelligent, and built like a babe from planet Comely, she's a go-getting girl who has no desire to work with children or old people, and who hates all animals, especially the cute furry ones. Highly skilled at magic, she has little interest in more physical aspect of combat.
Quests
- The Good, Old Fashioned, Traditional Quest - "Here you and you alone must travel the length and girth of the Kingdom, battling monsters, righting wrongs and lowering property value wherever you go, until you can finally rescue the dragon, steal the princess and kill the treasure!"
- The Magnificent 7-11 Quest - "Flake town is going to be invaded, and you have been personally selected to wander aimlessly round the Kingdom, recruiting between 7 and 11 of the toughest characters you can find to help defend the liberty of the floating metropolis!"
- The Bizarre & Slightly Twisted Quest - "Oooooh it's dangerous! Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to prevent the end of civilisation as we know it (hey, bet you'd never heard that from a computer game before!) by seeking out and uncovering the Lost Lava Lamp Of The Ancient and, time permitting, thrashing the Dark Lord to within an inch of his life!"
Overview
Neither the protagonists nor the quests are pastiches on The Lord of the Rings. The parody instead rests on the other characters of the game and their surroundings. For instance, The High Steward of Minar Tragedy, Don Elrondo of Rivendull and Queen Galadrag of De-Lorean.The game world feels quite alive with lots of characters moving around. For instance, there are frequent battles between karate elves and ringwraiths. You can talk with all the characters in the game providing they do not attack on sight. Conversation is handled by giving the player multiple choices to choose from, each directing the conversations in different directions. This is rather much like the old 80's game Law of the West.
Combat is not one of the game's strong sides; after approaching an NPC with a weapon selected, a cartoon cloud covers the altercation before the two combatants emerge and walk away as if nothing had happened, even re-approaching the player for a chat.
There are also magic spells to supplement the combat system, but their effects, while humorous, are largely unhelpful.
External links
- Kingdom O' Magic at GameRankings
- A cache of SCi's Kingdom O' Magic website