''Eric the Unready'' is an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based ...

developed and published by

Legend Entertainment Legend Entertainment Company was an American developer and publisher of computer games, best known for creating adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu, both veterans of the interactive ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ...

in 1993. ''Eric the Unready'' is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

genre in general, though it parodies numerous other topics as well, ranging from ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

'' to ''

Zork ''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded a ...

''. It tells a comedic story of the titular unqualified knight on a quest to rescue a princess. The game also adapts the character

Morgan le Fay Morgan le Fay (, meaning 'Morgan the Fairy'), alternatively known as Morgan ''n''a, Morgain ''a/e Morg ''a''ne, Morgant ''e Morge ''i''n, and Morgue ''inamong other names and spellings ( cy, Morgên y Dylwythen Deg, kw, Morgen an Spyrys), is a ...

from

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

. The game was well received.

Gameplay

The game engine of ''Eric the Unready'' uses an

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the f ...

style interface. A graphical display of the player's location and viewpoint is provided in a window. Other windows can feature a

point-and-click Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and cl ...

interface, including a listing of the player's inventory and a command list with multiple-choices menus.

Plot

According to a prophecy, King Fudd the Bewildered is expected to die next week, and the unmarried princess at his side shall inherit the Kingdom. His legitimate daughter, Princess Lorealle the Worthy, comes to the castle to be on his side but disappears mysteriously the next day. Early in the game, the player learns of the scheme by Fudd's wife and Lorealle's stepmother, the wicked Queen Morgana the Black, who plots with her lover Sir Pectoral to have her daughter by a previous marriage to be on the dying King's side and therefore become the sole heir. Lorealle has been abducted and held in the castle of Morgana's witch sister with the intent to marry the evil Beast in order to be excluded from the prophecy. In order to make certain that Lorealle will be not rescued in time by any knight, Morgana conspires so that the Union Hall picks the most incompetent and unworthy of them, Eric the Unready – the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not contro ...

. Bud the Wizard (a pun on

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrela ...

) informs the player that in order to access the castle, he must find several magical items: the Pitchfork of Damocles, in the leaves of the tallest tree in the Enchanted Forest; the Crescent Wrench of

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

, within the walls of Blicester Castle; the Raw Steak of Eternity, guarded by the Stygian Dragon; the Crowbar of the

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imagery ...

in the mists around the Mountain of the Gods; and the Bolt Cutters of Doom owned by an enchanter in the Swamp of Perdition. Each mission is somehow timed: the evil Sir Pectoral is after him; if the player takes too long to reach the object, the game will end. With each acquisition, Eric creates some disaster, usually an explosion, which hurls him to the next area the following day. The player can collect a newspaper from each area/day which describes Eric's latest mishaps and other fictional "news" of the game world, usually puns on pop culture. Eric's final destination is the witch's castle, where he uses the magical objects to open its gate. He then prevents the Princess' wedding and destroys the Beast along with a castle full of monsters. After that, the King orders Morgana and her daughter to be exiled along with Sir Pectoral, and Sir Eric and Princess Lorealle are about to marry.

Reception

''Eric the Unready'' received positive reviews, including being rated 4 out of 5 stars from ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptile, reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages hav ...

'', and scoring 78% and 75% from German magazines ''PC Games'' and ''PC Players'', respectively. ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...

'' review stated: "Perfectly realized from concept to execution, ''Eric the Unready'' is a rare treat that's not to be missed." The game received or was nominated to several awards and accolades, including ''Computer Game Review'' Golden Triad Award, ''Game Bytes'' Editor's Choice Award, Computer Choice Awards (finalist), and ''Strategy Plus'' Adventure Game of the Year (Nominee). ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly throug ...

'' magazine in 1993 named it Adventure Game of the Year (with '' Star Control II''), in 1994 called it "a comic masterpiece", and featured it in their 1996 list of the "150 Best Games of All Time" in 103rd place, also ranking it as #9 Funniest Computer Game, #11 Most Memorable Game Hero, and #7 Most Rewarding Ending.

References

External links

* *
''The Official Hint Book''
{{Legend Entertainment 1993 video games 1990s interactive fiction Adventure games DOS games DOS-only games Video games based on Arthurian legend Fantasy video games set in the Middle Ages Fantasy parodies Parody video games Piko Interactive games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games about witchcraft Legend Entertainment games

Gameplay

Plot

Reception

See also

References

External links