''Dragon Wars'' is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), 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 ...

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

Rebecca Heineman Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American video game designer and programmer. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies Interplay Productions, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been chief executive officer ...

and published by

Interplay Productions Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...

in 1989 and distributed by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

Gameplay

The player starts the game with a party of four characters, who can be either the default characters or ones created by the player. Alternatively, the player may import characters from ''The Bard's Tale trilogy'' into ''Dragon Wars''. During the game, the seven character slots can be filled with any combination of the starting characters, recruited characters, and summoned creatures.

Plot

The story from the back of the original box:

Development

During the initial design process for '' Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate'', one of the designers came up with a list of enhancements and improvements for the game. With the possibility that Interplay would soon be parting ways with

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 d ...

, it was decided to save these for a future game and stick closer to the original

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, though the auto-mapping feature did make it into ''Bard's Tale III''. These design improvements came in this next game, ''Dragon Wars''. In essence, the game was a fusion of '' Bard's Tale'' and design philosophy pioneered in ''

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/ ...

''.Rebecca Heineman Interview.
Digit Press, 2006. Until a month before release, the game was developed as ''Bard's Tale IV''. However, the rights to the title were still held by Electronic Arts, and thus a new title and setting were needed for the game. It was derived in part from the Sumerian legends of

Gilgamesh sux, , label=none , image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg , alt = , caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assyr ...

, with the chief villain of the game being named

Namtar Namtar ( sux, , lit=fate) was a figure in ancient Mesopotamian religion who, depending on the context, could be regarded both as a minor god and as a demon of disease. He is best attested as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ereshkigal, the goddess ...

. Since to this point the game didn't feature any dragons, the new title meant that Heineman had to add one. Interplay advertisements displayed the slogan "Bard's Tale Fans Rejoice!" above the game's name, and mentioned ''Dragon Wars'' ability to import ''Bard's Tale'' characters. The designers all felt it was a better game than ''Bard's Tale III'', and indeed, better than any of the ''Bard's Tale'' series, but without the tie-in to the old title and without ''Electronic Arts marketing muscle, the game did not fare as well. To defend against pirated copies of the game, Dragon Wars included a collection of numbered paragraphs within their manual.Copyright protection paragraph reference
Classicgaming.cc 2016 Players would receive an in-game message (i.e. "Read paragraph 23"), and have to refer back to the printed material. The game is very difficult to play without references to the paragraphs, and many parts become meaningless. This form of security was widely used at the time.

Reception

''Dragon Wars'' was reviewed in 1989 in ''

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

'' #152 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. Scorpia gave the game a positive review in ''

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 through ...

'' in 1989, noting improvements over the ''Bard's Tale'' series, saying that, "Tighter design, attention to detail, balanced combat, and a carefully constructed plotline all combine to produce a CRPG well worth playing." In 1993 she stated that the game was "a good choice when you want something a bit more than a standard slicer/dicer". The game was later included in the ''Interplay's 10 Year Anthology Classic Collection'' released in 1993.

Reviews

*''Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft'' (1992) *''Amiga Joker'' (Feb, 1991) *''

CU Amiga ''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vi ...

'' (Feb, 1991) *''

The Games Machine ''The Games Machine'' is a video game magazine that was published from 1987 until 1990 in the United Kingdom by Newsfield, which also published ''CRASH'', '' Zzap!64'', '' Amtix!'' and other magazines. History The magazine ran head to head wi ...

'' (Mar, 1990) *''Génération 4'' (Apr, 1990) *'' ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)'' (Apr, 1990) *''

Tilt Tilt may refer to: Music * Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992 * Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993 * Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979 Albums * ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981 * ...

'' (Mar, 1990) *''Enchanted Realms'' (May, 1991)https://www.mocagh.org/enchantedrealms/enchantedrealms6.pdf

References

External links

''Dragon Wars''
Dragon Wars on Steam
''Dragon Wars''
Dragon Wars on Gog.com *
''Dragon Wars''
at Classicgaming.cc

*{{moby game, id=/dragon-wars, name=''Dragon Wars'' 1989 video games Amiga games Apple II games Apple IIGS games Cancelled Nintendo Entertainment System games Commodore 64 games DOS games NEC PC-9801 games Role-playing video games Sharp X68000 games Video games developed in the United States Games commercially released with DOSBox First-person party-based dungeon crawler video games