''Thayer's Quest'' is a
LaserDisc video game
An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, ...
initially developed by
RDI Video Systems
RDI Video Systems (Rick Dyer Industries) was a video game company founded by Rick Dyer originally as Advanced Microcomputer Systems, and was well known for its Laserdisc video games, beginning with the immensely popular ''Dragon's Lair''. The co ...
in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
for their unreleased
Halcyon console, and later released in arcades as a conversion kit for ''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television an ...
'' and ''
Space Ace
''Space Ace'' is a LaserDisc video game produced by Bluth Group, Cinematronics and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems). It was unveiled in October 1983, just four months after the ''Dragon's Lair'' game, followed b ...
''.
In 1995 it was ported to home consoles and PC under the title ''Kingdom: The Far Reaches''. The arcade machine had a membrane keypad for controls instead of a joystick. To help players learn the daunting—for an arcade game—controls, a small holder containing instructional leaflets was attached to the cabinet.
A sequel, ''Kingdom II: Shadoan'', was released in 1996.
Plot
One thousand years ago, the Five Kingdoms (Weigard, Illes, Iscar, the Far Reaches, and Shadoan) were united under the benevolent rule of the Elder Kings until the evil wizard Sorsabal allied himself with dark forces from the land of Shadoan. With their dreadful power, Sorsabal destroyed the Elder Kings and claimed Shadoan as his own domain. The Elder Kings preserved their power by parting the Hand of Quoid (pronounced "kwode") - the great Amulet that was the source and focus of all true magic - and creating the Five Relics. They concealed one Relic in each of the Five Kingdoms knowing that, if Sorsabal possessed the Hand, he would wield absolute control over all he surveyed. Indeed, Sorsabal and his dark minions are searching for the Relics. As Thayer Alconred - a sorcerer's apprentice and the last survivor of the Elder Kings' bloodline - the player must find the Relics and restore the Amulet of Power before Sorsabal does.
During the game, Thayer visits only three of the kingdoms and finds their relics.
Gameplay
The game is fully animated like ''Dragon's Lair'' but requires more than simply choosing when to fight or which way to dodge in accordance with the animation. Instead the player has full control over Thayer Alconred's movement to different areas and must find and use a variety of magical objects to overcome enemies and obstacles like in most later graphic adventure games. There are many ways to mess up and permanently lose the game. There are several branching paths, resulting in different dialogue. The RDI'S Computer voice sometimes gives hints and the player's score.
Reception
In ''Electronic Games'', Roger Sharpe concluded "For the home computer adventurer, who has long eschewed joysticks and buttons for the headier comforts of the keyboard, ''Thayer's Quest'' is reason enough to leave the computer behind for awhile and pass some time in the local arcade again."
The home versions of the game received mostly mediocre reviews. Critics disparaged the trial-and-error gameplay,
general repetitiveness,
limited interaction,
and unimaginative and poor quality
full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
(likened by many critics to a
Saturday-morning cartoon
"Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...
).
While Scary Larry of ''
GamePro
Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...
'' praised the gameplay for being much less linear than ''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television an ...
'', he felt this was insufficient to make it appeal to seasoned gamers.
Legacy
A sequel incorporating the rest of Thayer Alconred's journey was planned, but the company went bankrupt before it could be completed. In the mid-1990s, ''Thayer's Quest'' was released to home computers and CD-based consoles titled ''Kingdom: The Far Reaches'', with the characters' names changed (Thayer Alconred became Lathan Kandor, Sorsabal became Torlock, etc., because creator Rick Dyer thought the original character and names were "too 70's") and additional animation and puzzles.
In 1996 ''Kingdom II: Shadoan'' was released for PC and CD-i, including the final two kingdoms and the final battle with Torlock. ''Shadoan'' was developed over nine months on a budget of over 3 million US dollars, with more than 300 animators working on the project.
In 2005 the original ''Thayer's Quest'' was released as a
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
video game by
Digital Leisure, Inc. (true to the original Halcyon version) and could be played on an ordinary DVD player using the remote control. ''Thayer's Quest'' was also released for the
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
by
Digital Leisure.
References
External links
*
''Thayer's Quest''at Dragon's Lair Project
''Kingdom: The Far Reaches''at
MobyGames
MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...
''Kingdom II: Shadoan''at MobyGames
History of LaserDisc games(including ''Thayer's Quest'') at The Dot Eaters
*
* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013190124/http://mrbillsadventureland.com/reviews/k-l/kingdomR/shadoanR.htm , date=13 October 2007 , title= Kingdom II: Shadoan review review (Mr. Bill's Adventureland)
1984 video games
3DO Interactive Multiplayer games
Arcade video games
CD-i games
DOS games
DVD interactive technology
Full motion video based games
Interactive movie video games
LaserDisc video games
Classic Mac OS games
Microphone-controlled computer games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games developed in Japan
Windows games