''Abandoned Places: A Time for Heroes'' is a 1992 Hungarian dungeon crawler

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed by ArtGame and published by International Computer Entertainment for

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and DOS platforms. A sequel, ''Abandoned Places 2'', was released in 1993 for Amiga.

Plot and gameplay

The narrative sees a band of four heroes from the land of Kalynthia, to save their homeland from the clutches of the evil arch mage Bronagh. During

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games an ...

s the game switches to a

3D view 3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality * Three-dimensional space ** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data ** 3D film, a ...

and plays similar to Dungeon Master.

Development

''Abandoned Places'' was developed by the founders of Hungarian video game development company

ArtGame An art game (or arthouse game) is a work of interactive new media digital software art as well as a member of the "art game" subgenre of the serious video game. The term "art game" was first used academically in 2002 and it has come to be u ...

, István Fábián and Ferenc Staengler, along with musician György Dragon, who joined them in 1989. The game was inspired by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeon Master tabletop role-playing games. Starting in spring 1990 the company pitched the game to several publishers, including Electronic Arts, but they were finalizing the publishing deal for a similar game, Raven Software's ''

Black Crypt ''Black Crypt'' is a role-playing video game. It was Raven Software's debut title, and was published for the Amiga by Electronic Arts in 1992. Its 3D realtime style is similar to FTL Games' popular '' Dungeon Master'', where the player leads a ...

'' just a week before, so they rejected the game. The game was finished and tested by January 1992, a month before its release. The developers received little to no compensation for their work on the game, they were even banned from the game's Hungarian launch event.

Reception

Amiga Power ''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. Philosophy ''Amiga Power'' had several principles which com ...

'' gave the Amiga version of ''Abandoned Places'' an overall score of 80%, praising the size of the game world, and expressed that ''Abandoned Places' '' leverage over other similar RPGs is that it has extensive above-ground locations in addition to its subterranean dungeons, furthermore stating that "what you do above ground is every bit as important as your endeavours below." ''Amiga Power'' also praises ''Abandoned Places' '' level of difficulty, but criticises its "poor" graphics, calling its animations "lackluster" and almost '8-bit' looking in combat, expressing that "when so much effort has been put into every other aspect of something as huge as ''Abandoned Places'', it seems a shame that it's so completely outgunned in such a very important area."

References

External links

* *{{moby game, id=/abandoned-places-2, name=''Abandoned Places 2''
''Abandoned Places: A Time For Heroes''
at Hall of Light Amiga database
''Abandoned Places 2''
at Hall of Light Amiga database 1992 video games Amiga games DOS games Europe-exclusive video games First-person party-based dungeon crawler video games Role-playing video games Video games developed in Hungary