''Fountain of Dreams'' is a 1990 role-playing video game developed and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

for

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as a successor to 1988's ''

Wasteland Wasteland or waste land may refer to: * Desert or barren area * an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not Art, entertainment, and media Comics * ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror/ ...

''.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to that of ''

'' since ''Fountain of Dreams'' was originally intended to be a sequel to it. It is considered as being "very unforgiving" near the beginning, making it hard to start the game without dying.

Plot

The game is set in post- nuclear war

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, physically separated from the continental United States by intensive bombing during

World War III World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...

that sparked an enormous earthquake. Central Florida itself was hit heavily with

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...

and chemical weapons, in order to destroy the life there and preserve the technology. 50 years later after "The Change", life on the island of Florida is threatened by

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, DNA or viral repl ...

s due to residual ionizing radiation. Adding to the threat are the deranged Killer Clowns, as well as three organized crime factions: the DeSoto Family, the Obeah Orders, and the Bahia Mafia. The player controls a small band of adventurers who set out to find the purifying waters of the legendary "Fountain of Dreams" to stop the spread of mutation.

Development

The game was originally intended as a follow-up to ''Wasteland'', but neither Interplay nor any of the creative team that created ''Wasteland'' worked on it. In effect, the game engine is similar but was created from scratch, and in 2003 Electronic Arts dropped all claims that the game had any connection to ''Wasteland''. ''Fountain of Dreams'' was part of the beginning of a trend at EA to produce in-house sequels to its previous titles.

Reception

''Fountain of Dreams'' was met with negative reception as it was a much shorter and smaller game than ''Wasteland''. '' Computer Gaming World'' in 1991 described it as inferior to the predecessor, stating that it "incorporat dall the worst features of that game, and not much of the good." The magazine noted that the game had no

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found o ...

, "but then, a product like this probably doesn't need any." In 1993 the magazine called the game "a horrible post-nuke loser" with an "inane plot, ridiculous combat, and terrible ending". In 1996, ''Computer Gaming World'' ranked it as the 41st worst game of all time, stating "''Wasteland'' got stupid as killer clowns, a silly plot, and fear of Disney ruined the sequel."''CGW'' 148: 50 Worst Games of All Time.

References

External links

* * {{Wasteland series 1990 video games DOS games DOS-only games Electronic Arts games Post-apocalyptic video games Role-playing video games Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Video games set in Florida Wasteland (series) Video games developed in the United States