Kyrandia (Major BBS)

Kyrandia
Developer(s)	Galacticomm
Publisher(s)	Galacticomm
Platform(s)	PC (MS-DOS, Windows)
Release	1988
Genre(s)	Adventure, Role-playing
Mode(s)	Text

Kyrandia is an adventure/role-playing game or MUD for Major BBS and Worldgroup BBS software. It was among the earliest games developed for that system.

History

Kyrandia was originally programmed by Scott Brinker and Richard Skurnick in March-June 1988, and is based on the multi-player interactive game concepts originated by Tim Stryker in games such as Fazuul and Quest for Magic.

Story

The game is set in a classic fantasy world of magic and dragons. The player is tasked with becoming the "Arch-Mage of Legends", a goal achieved by exploring the environment, interacting with it and with other players, and casting spells to increase the player's level and abilities.

Gameplay

Kyrandia uses a command line interface and command set similar to those seen in MUDs and in games like Zork. Items can be carried, manipulated and dropped, and players can interact with other players logged into the game.

Whilst the game works very well for social interaction and offers a fairly good degree of immersion for the genre, the required steps to complete the game are contrived. The puzzles are, for the most part, solved by performing unique (and sometimes obscure) actions in particular locations. The puzzles are logically inconsistent.

For example, to progress from level two to level three, the player must stand in a specific location and enter the command, chant glory be to tashanna. Nothing in the game leads the player towards this action. Towards the end of the game the actions required to progress are substantially more difficult, often requiring copy and paste techniques to enter the commands quickly enough to avoid being killed.

Other elements of the game are very repetitive and time-consuming. For example, to generate magic scrolls (some of which are required to progress through the game), the player must carry pine cones from a tree and throw them into a fountain a short distance away. For every three pine cones, a random scroll appears within the forest. Due to the maze-like structure of the forest, locating the scrolls can be difficult, and getting the specific scrolls needed to progress can take a very long time.

When the first player managed to complete the game and become Arch-Mage, the sysop was notified of this feat and had the opportunity to offer a prize to the lucky player.

Despite its flaws the game is atmospheric, fun to play with multiple players, and offers a reasonable sense of satisfaction from progression. Playing to win undoubtedly requires a walkthrough guide, however.

Environment

The game begins with the player standing beside a mystical willow tree, on a road winding through the forest. Following the road leads to a small village located centrally in the main game map. Surrounding this area are approximately 150 forest locations forming a rectangular shape. Many of these locations are indistinct, offering no identifying factors at all. Other locations do provide some welcome landmarks, including a fountain, waterfalls, caves and clearings.

Navigating the forest can be very tricky due to the similarity between locations. This is complicated further by the fact that movement out of the rectangular forest boundary causes the player to be moved to a random located within the forest. Playing without a map is not advised.

Various objects can be located within the game, mostly gemstones. The different types of stone, in ascending order of value as allocated by the game, are the garnet, pearl, aquamarine, amethyst, opal, sapphire, bloodstone, ruby, emerald, onyx, diamond and moonstone. These may be sold to the gem cutter in the village for gold, and are also needed to solve several of the level progressions within the game.

As further progress is made, the player eventually gets to travel to a golden forest, and finally to a castle inside which a vicious dragon resides. The game is completed within this final area by entering a tortuous series of commands inside various castle locations, allowing the player to ascend to the final goal of becoming Arch-Mage.

External links

• Discussion of how Kyrandia appears to have inspired elements of The Legend of Kyrandia
• Rick Gush, designer of The Legend of Kyrandia, comments on the connection between the names of the two games
• Information and the Elwynor BBS
• Kyrandia maps and walkthrough