Game 106: Crown of Arthain (1981)

     

Crown of Arthain

United States

Released 1981 for Apple II

Date Started: 9 July 2013

Date Ended: 10 July 2013

Total Hours: 2

Difficulty: Easy (2.0/5)

Final Rating: 15

Ranking at Time of Posting: 10/107 (9%)

Ranking at Game #455: 86/455 (19%)

     

Crown of Arthain is a slight little game from 1981, winnable in less than an hour, barely worthy of the title "RPG," but you're going to hear about it because a) I played it and won; b) it's an easy victory to add to my list; and c) I can't seem to get anywhere with Space Rogue, so if not for this game, I'd have nothing to post about this week.

The typewritten manual tells a reasonably original story: the kingdom, only 50 years old, was established by a prince named Arthain after he conquered the wild mountainous area from the monsters that had previously lived there. Arthain and his queen, Melora, had two sons, Bertain and Merthain. As boys, they bickered mercilessly, until the exasperated king finally exiled them both and put his hopes in more agreeable children. Unfortunately, the rest of his sons and daughters died one by one, so he was forced, on his deathbed, to write letters to Bertain and Merthain, telling them that whichever of them found his crown first would be the next king. The crown was hidden deep in one of the mountains, and the victor would need to first find the door and password.

Two players can take on the game with different handicaps.

Bertain and Merthain compete against each other in their quest for the crown and kingship, which means the game supports two players who take turns. If there's only one player, he competes against the computer, whose AI is inept enough that it's not really a competition at all. Each human player can set a difficulty level affecting the accuracy and damage of monsters in combat.

The "campaign map," divided by mountains, with each player operating on one side.

The first phase of the game takes place on a divided map. Each player explores his half, throughout which treasures, gold, two key NPCs, and about 30 ogres, goblins, trolls, wraiths, and wights have been randomly scattered. The primary goals in this section are to collect 5000 gold pieces, to use them to pay a dwarf for the map showing which of the "mountains" in the middle of the map (arranged in a north/south line) contains the crown, and to find an elf who provides a magic password to the door. Both the door's location and the password are randomized from game to game.

Buying the map from the dwarf.

A secondary goal is to find and collect the game's magic items--magic sword, magic light, elven cloak, magic amulet, magic shield, magic armor, and copper bracelet--each of which raises the character's attack or defense ratings or confers some other benefit (e.g., the copper bracelet increases the regeneration rate). 

Finding the copper bracelet.

Notable is that the exterior map is composed of hexagons. This is the only time I've seen this staple of wargames carried into a computer RPG, though Wikipedia indicates there are some others. Every hex has at least one treasure--if only a single gold piece--though it might take a few tries to search each one. Some of the hexes feature multiple combats; I came across one with eight or nine in a row. Once cleared of monsters and treasure, hexes remain cleared.

The "goblin" is one of the game's many poorly-drawn enemies.

Combat couldn't be more simplistic, and yet it's not quite like anything else we've seen in the era. You stand face to face with an animated enemy and trade blows. There are three commands: (T)hrust, (H)ack, and (S)hield. I tried experimenting with blocks and such, but in general, the best tactic seems to be to just hold down your favored attack button. Within a few rounds, you get into a rhythm by which all your attacks strike first, and eventually the enemy dies.

The player fights a troll.

Hit points during combat are represented by "bars" of periods at the bottom of the screen. After combat, health regenerates fairly quickly.

The second part of the game takes place in a "dungeon." If my fellow player on the right makes it into the dungeon while I'm still there, we'll see a dungeon map on both sides of the screen.

After you find the password and door location, you enter the mountain and the game takes you to a brief dungeon exploration view, extremely reminiscent of Dunjonquest. Even the movement keys are the same: turn and face the desired direction and then type the indicated number of steps. You face a few more monsters of the same variety you faced outside before ultimately coming face-to-face with a dragon. Defeat him, and you win the crown.

The final boss fight.

Crown of Arthain was created by a Dan and Marilyn Meller of Illinois and originally published by MicroLab/MicroFun, a Highland Park company that published a smattering of mostly-forgotten games in the early 1980s, including Palace in Thunderland (1981), Death in the Caribbean (1982), Ming's Challenge (1983), and Bounty Bob (1984). They also seem to have published some educational software.

I can't find the Mellers credited on any other games.The manual indicates that their primary motivation was to offer a two-player experience. "Two people," they say, "can only play a one-player game for so long before they realize that one of them is merely watching or kibitzing." That's what I'm going to say to Irene from now on when she shots advice as I play Dragon's Dogma: "you're just kibitzing!"

And the winning message.

The version I played was bundled with Softporn Adventure (which I didn't play), so it must have been re-published by Sierra On-Line at some point. The April 1981 issue of Creative Computing magazine indicates that it retailed for $35, which is the equivalent of $90 today and is just astonishing, though it doesn't seem unusual for the time. There are no entries on MobyGames or Wikipedia for Arthain, and frankly I'm not sure how I found out about it.

For such a slight game, it had some very professional box art.

Arthain distills RPGs to their most basic elements: fight, collect treasure, improve your stats, become king. An amusing distraction, but now back to a tougher game.