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The Dark Crystal (video game)

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The Dark Crystal
Developer(s)Sierra On-Line
Publisher(s)SierraVenture
Designer(s)Roberta Williams
Artist(s)Jim Mahon
SeriesHi-Res Adventure
EngineADL
Platform(s)Apple II, Atari 8-bit
Release1983[1]
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Hi-Res Adventure #6: The Dark Crystal is a graphic adventure game based on Jim Henson's 1982 fantasy film, The Dark Crystal. The game was designed by Roberta Williams and was the first Hi-Res Adventure directly released under the SierraVenture label in 1983.[1] Versions were published for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit computers. An alternate version of the game intended for younger players called Gelfling Adventure was released in 1984.[2][3]

Development

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Jim Henson, director and producer of The Dark Crystal, and Ken Williams, game programmer.

It took Roberta Williams a little over a month to develop the design for the game, which was then turned over to programmers and artists.[4]

Reception

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Softline considered the game to be better than the film, stating The Dark Crystal's "thin story that failed to serve the movie well is comparatively top-drawer material in the game" and called the graphics "delightful".[5] The game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Computer Adventure" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.[6]

InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari Computers recommended the game as among the best adventure games for the Atari 8-bit.[7] In a 1983 review of the Atari 8-bit version for Hi-Res magazine, Mark S. Murley found the game too clearly linear and disliked having to swap between three disks. He wrote:

If the narrowness of the game and the disk-swapping problem were the only negative aspects of The Dark Crystal, then I might be tempted to at least recommend it, however, to novice Adventurers. The graphics themselves are a little lackluster, and the color is not the best. This is distracting in an Adventure of this scope wherein so much of the player's time is spent looking at dozens of screens.[8]

Reviews

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References

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  1. ^ a b "The Dark Crystal - Cover Art - MobyGames". www.mobygames.com. Archived from the original on October 9, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
  2. ^ "Gelfling Adventure". Museum of Computer Adventure Game History. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  3. ^ "Gelfling Adventure". Vintage-Sierra.net. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  4. ^ Anderson, John (March 1983). "The Dark Crystal". Creative Computing. p. 168. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
  5. ^ Tommervik, Margot Comstock (May–Jun 1983). "The Dark Crystal". Softline. p. 45. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  6. ^ Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (February 1984). "Arcade Alley: The 1984 Arcade Awards, Part II". Video. Vol. 7, no. 11. Reese Communications. pp. 28–29. ISSN 0147-8907.
  7. ^ Mace, Scott (1984). InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari Computers. Harper & Row. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-0-06-669006-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  8. ^ Murley, Mark S. (March 1983). "Reviews: The Dark Crystal". Hi-Res. 1 (3).
  9. ^ "Jeux & stratégie 21". June 1983.
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