''The Shadow of Yserbius'', originally published by

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...

and developed by

Joe Ybarra Joseph Ybarra (born ~1954) is an American producer and designer of video games. He left Apple Computer in 1982 to work at the new Electronic Arts that was founded by his fellow ex-employee Trip Hawkins. He was the original producer of the first ...

of Ybarra Productions, was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community. ''The Shadow of Yserbius'' and its successors remained online until 1996, when America Online purchased the rights from then-owner

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

for an undisclosed price (rumored to be $40 million). AOL soon pulled the plug on ''The Shadow of Yserbius'', which was a competitor to its existing online RPG ''

Neverwinter Nights ''Neverwinter Nights'' is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. Aside from also being set in the Dungeons & Dr ...

''. In late 2007, the ImagiNation Revival Project succeeded in resurrecting the long-dormant ImagiNation Network by using the original client software coupled with

DOSBox DOSBox is a free and open-source emulator which runs software for MS-DOS compatible disk operating systems—primarily video games. It was first released in 2002, when DOS technology was becoming obsolete. Its adoption for running DOS games i ...

. ''The Shadow of Yserbius'' was again available for online play with all features, graphics, sounds, and such fully intact and functional. Macros are fully supported and compatibility with old character and map files is enabled for TSN/INN versions 2.4 and higher. In early 2016, the server was shut down making online play not possible until recently. The game was followed by two sequels: '' The Fates of Twinion'' (1993) and '' The Ruins of Cawdor'' (1995).

Gameplay

The goal of the game was to kill an evil elemental creature called En-li-Kil. There were a number of "rooms", where up to 30 (later 60) people could meet and adventure together in groups of up to four. Combat was turn-based. The available professions were Barbarian,

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

Ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

Thief Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...

Cleric Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

, and Wizard. Player races included

Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

Orc An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially '' The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugl ...

Elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...

Dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

, Gnome,

Halfling Halflings are a fictional race found in some fantasy novels and games. They are often depicted as similar to humans except about half as tall, and are not quite as stocky as the similarly-sized dwarves. Similar to the depiction of hobbits in the ...

, and

Gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft and later in other machinery and processes and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widel ...

. Another popular pastime was player vs. player sparring. Many players were members of guilds.

Reception

'' Computer Gaming World'' in 1993 called the online version's static artwork "lovely" and approved of the questing and, especially, the social nature of the game. The magazine concluded that "Those who possess the money would be well served to try out TSN and ''Yserbius''". In June 1994 ''Shadow of Yserbius: Fates of Twinion'' was a finalist for ''Computer Gaming World''s "Online Game of the Year" award, losing to ''

Multiplayer BattleTech ''Multiplayer BattleTech: Solaris'' is a version of the multiplayer ''BattleTech'' computer game which was available on AOL, and on Kesmai's (later named GameStorm) game service between 1996 and 2001. At its height on the AOL server, thousands o ...

''. ''Computer Gaming World'' in 1994 stated that the boxed set of offline versions of ''Yserbius'' and ''Twinion'' "a hollow shell of its vibrant on-line self ... Playing ''Yserbius'' without fellow on-line gamers is like being in an amusement park after hours, on in which the rides aren't all that fun to begin with". While acknowledging that "there is something to be said for" its "refreshingly simple" gameplay, and the usefulness of an offline way to learn and level up characters for the online version, the magazine concluded that most fantasy RPG players would be disappointed when ''

Betrayal at Krondor ''Betrayal at Krondor'' is an MS-DOS-based role-playing video game developed by Dynamix and released by Sierra Entertainment, Sierra On-Line in the summer of 1993 in video gaming, 1993. ''Betrayal at Krondor'' takes place largely in Midkemia, the ...

'', '' Lands of Lore'', and other alternatives were available.

Remake

MedievaLands is a complete remake of The Shadow of Yserbius and its sequel, The Fates of Twinion. In addition to support for modern Windows and macOS platforms, MedievaLands adds quality of life and gameplay functionality inspired by successors of the original games.

References

*Source http://www.yserbius.org Archives *Source http://www.sierragamers.com/ owned by Creator Ken Williams *Source http://www.vintage-sierra.net/index.php

External links

ImagiNation Network Revival Facebook group where members can discuss all things INN and arrange play times.INN Barn - Home of the INN Barn, recreating some of the functionality of the Imagination Network, currently in beta.MedievaLands - a modern recreation of Shadows of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion.INN Revival Forums - This is the forum of the dead INN Revival project.MedievaLand - A page dedicated to recreating online Yserbius / Twinion / CawdorThe Sierra Help Pages - Keeping the classics alive on modern PCs.Yserbius.org - This site is intended for the purpose of Archival of all things Yserbius, TSN, INN.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow Of Yserbius DOS games DOS-only games 1991 video games Fantasy video games Graphical MUDs Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Sierra Entertainment games Inactive massively multiplayer online games Video games scored by Aubrey Hodges Video games scored by Russell Lieblich Video games developed in the United States