Lords of Time

Lords of Time
Developer(s) Level 9 Computing
Publisher(s) Level 9 Computing
Designer(s) Sue Gazzard
Engine 32K virtual machine (custom)
Platform(s) Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Enterprise, Lynx, Memotech MTX, MSX, Nascom, Oric-1, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum.[1]
Release date(s) 1983
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Lords of Time is an interactive fiction computer game designed by Sue Gazzard and released by Level 9 Computing in 1983. Originally purely a textual adventure for 8 bit microcomputers, the game was later released as part of the Time & Magik compilation where graphics were added for all floppy disk versions. Like all Level 9 adventures of its time it was written in the in-house A-code language which was platform-independent – this implementation of a virtual machine allowed for quick porting across platforms.

Gameplay

The anonymous hero of the game (controlled by the player) appears to be a computer programmer in contemporary times. At the start of the game the hero is contacted by Father Time who sends the hero on a quest to recover nine treasures in order to defeat the machinations of the evil Time Lords. The game is divided into 9 eras of time (not including the starting section in the hero's living room), such as the 20th century, Ice Age, age of dinosaurs, Dark Ages, future, the Middle Ages, Tudor England and the Roman Empire. Due to the meddling of the Time Lords anachronisms abound, for example cavemen are found living in the same era as dinosaurs.

Access to the nine different eras is via a grandfather clock that turns out to be a time machine in disguise.

The game was re-released in 1988 as part of the Time and Magik compilation alongside Red Moon and Price of Magik. Although positioned within the compilation as the first part of a trilogy it has no real connection to the latter two [2] (as opposed to the sister compilation release Silicon Dreams where all three games did form a trilogy).

Reception

Reception to Lords of Time was positive. Crash reviewing the Spectrum version declared "I find it impossible to justly describe what a brilliant adventure Lords of Time really is".[3] A Computer and Video Games magazine multiformat review claimed "..the game is a light-hearted one which is fun to play, not too difficult to progress in, but will, I suspect, take rather a long time to complete. Who could ask for more?" [4] Personal Computer Games rated it a PCG Hit[5]

References

  1. ↑ Lords of Time at Adventureland by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
  2. ↑ "The Your Sinclair Rock and Roll Years". Your Sinclair (31). July 1988. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  3. ↑ "Reviews". CRASH (April 1984): 30. April 1984. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  4. ↑ "Adventure". C&VG (31): 165. May 1984. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  5. ↑ "Screen Test". Personal Computer Games (5): 74. April 1984. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
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