Vintage Sierra Walt Disney The Black Cauldron Adventure Game Amiga Computer SoftwareFrom the programmer for Kings Quest
3.5 Disk, Manual, Orig Box
512K Memory Required
Box has some minor wear, Game Disk is in clean condition, Tested, Works 100% Some papers included . Comes from a Clean , Non Magnetic, Smoker-free Home
The Black Cauldronis anadventure gamedesigned byAl LoweofSierra On-Lineand published in 1985. The game is based on theDisneyfilmThe Black Cauldron, which was itself based on theChronicles of Prydainnovelof the same namebyLloyd Alexander. It was made shortly after the firstKing's Questgame, so it resembles that game in many ways. Along withThe Dark Crystalit remains one of only a few adventure games by Sierra to be based on films.
PlotAtari ST screenshot
Theplayer characteris a young assistant pig-keeper namedTaran, who undertakes a quest to stop the evil Horned King, who seeks forHen Wen, the magical pig of the wizardDallben, for hervisionaryabilities. With these abilities, the Horned King would be able to discover the Black Cauldron and rule the land.
Taran's first mission is to lead her to theFair Folkwhile the Horned King's dragons are looking for them. Should the pig be captured (the game allows either possibility), Taran can go to the Horned King's castle and rescue her. As soon as he is inside, Taran will meetPrincess Eilonwywith her magic bauble and may rescueFflewddur Fflam, as well as discover a Magic Sword.
The Cauldron is in the possession of threewitchesof Morva who will trade it for the Sword. A dragon grasps the cauldron and Taran goes back to encounter the evil man himself.
There are plot branches and multiple endings depending on many variables, such as whether Hen Wen the pig was saved, how the cauldron was destroyed, and what reward was chosen afterward.
In order to make the game more accessible tochildren, Sierra used an innovative idea that would not reappear in the genre for the next 10 years: thetext parserwas removed in favor of thefunction keysthat performed various actions:F3would choose an inventory item,F4would use it,F6would perform "Use" near the character's location, andF8would "look". The simplification of the two actions "Look" and "Use" was not reused in Sierra's later games. However, it somewhat resembles the control system of other later simplerpoint-and-clickadventure games, such as theKing's Quest VIIorThe Digwhose interfaces only consisted of "Look" and "Use". Being based on a Disney film, the graphics present some relative 'flexibility', compared to the monolithic and straight sceneries of previous and later games.
