Sword of Fargoal
| Sword of Fargoal | |
|---|---|
| Stable game | |
| Developer | Jeff McCord |
| Theme | Fantasy |
| Influences | |
| Released | 1983 ({{{relver}}}) |
| Updated | ({{{updver}}}) |
| Licensing | |
| P. Language | Basic |
| Platforms | VIC-20, C64 |
| Interface | Graphical, Joystick + Keyboard |
| Game Length | |
| Official site of Sword of Fargoal | |
From the homepage: "Sword of Fargoal is a dungeon adventure game published in 1983 through a Silicon Valley game company called 'Epyx,' famous for pioneering adventure games such as 'Temple of Apshai' and others. A newly released computer called the Commodore 64, which boasted a whopping 64K of RAM, changed everything for computer gaming history … and so the story began!"
Storyline
The Sword of Fargoal has been stolen and hidden away in the depth of the mountains. Now the only way to save the lands and vanquish the evil wizard Umla is to descend into the dungeon and retrieve the Sword.
Dungeons
Dungeons are random except for the level containing the Sword of Fargoal. This level is found somewhere between level 15 and 20.
Gameplay
Sword of Fargoal is not a pure RL. Monsters move independently of the player, but they their movement phase is very infrequent. The player is controlled using the joystick with spells being cast using the keyboard.
Experience is gained by defeating monsters and through sacrificing gold in temples. Gold, spells and enchantments for one's weapon can be found in treasure chests randomly placed in the dungeon. Occasionally these chests are trapped, but it is often possible to escape the effects by if one has a suitable spell available (teleport against ceiling traps, drift against pit traps) and it is invoked in time.
Once the Sword of Fargoal has been found, one has 2000 seconds to return to the surface. The Sword can be easily stolen on the way up, in which case one again has to descend to the Sword-level and retrieve it.
Versions and platforms
Sword of Fargoal was originally written for the VIC-20 by Jeff McCord. A port was later made for the C64, again by Jeff McCord but this time with some assembly optimizations by Scott Corsaire to speed up parts of the game.
There is also an authorized remake of Sword of Fargoal made by Paul Pridham and Elias Pschernig.
Links
The Official Fargoal Home Page, with history and links to the remake.
The Epyx Shrine, The Sword of Fargoal entry at the Epyx Shrine.
Sword of Fargoal at Home of the Underdogs, review and download of the C64 version of the game.