''Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos'', or simply ''Solstice'', is a 1990
puzzle video game
Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion.
...
developed by
Software Creations
Acclaim Studios Manchester (formerly Software Creations) was a British video game developer based in Manchester, England. The company was established in 1985 by Richard Kay. They were primarily known for their video games based on movie and co ...
. It was published by
Nintendo in Europe and
CSG Imagesoft
Sony Imagesoft Inc. was an American video game publisher that operated from 1989 to 1995 and was located in California. It was established in January 1989 in Los Angeles, California, as a subsidiary of the Japan-based CBS/Sony Group (CSG) and in ...
in North America for the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
. The game focuses on the wizard Shadax's bid to defeat the evil baron Morbius and rescue Princess Eleanor, whom Morbius plans to
sacrifice. Shadax aims to gather the six pieces of the titular Staff of Demnos hidden within the fortress of Kâstleröck. The game's setting is non-linear, and consists of 250 rooms, each with a particular puzzle to solve.
''Solstice'' is the first original game to be developed by Software Creations, which had previously only worked on converted titles between 8-bit consoles. The game features a musical score by
Tim Follin, who has named the game's title track as his favourite among his compositions. It became one of his best-known tracks. ''Solstice'' was received positively by critics for its puzzles and graphics, and the audio was singled out for praise. A sequel, titled ''
Equinox
A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears zenith, directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" ...
'', was released for the
Super NES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...
in 1993.
Gameplay
''Solstice'' is an
isometric-perspective puzzle game in which the player controls the wizard Shadax, who must navigate 250 rooms within the fortress Kâstleröck and assemble the six pieces of the Staff of Demnos to defeat the baron Morbius and rescue the princess Eleanor.
[''Solstice'' instruction manual, pp. 11–18] Shadax's basic abilities consist of jumping, and picking up and dropping objects. Early in the game, Shadax can obtain a pair of magic
elf
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
in boots that augment his jumping height. He is additionally equipped with a few
beakers
Beaker may refer to:
Containers
* Beaker (drinkware), a beverage container
* Beaker (laboratory equipment), a glass container used for holding liquids in a laboratory setting
* Beaker (archaeology), a prehistoric drinking vessel
* Beaker culture ...
that can be used to store four different varieties of
potion
A potion () is a liquid "that contains medicine, poison, or something that is supposed to have magic powers.” It derives from the Latin word ''potus'' which referred to a drink or drinking. The term philtre is also used, often specifically ...
s; these potions can either grant temporary invincibility, destroy all moving objects in a room, freeze time, or make invisible objects visible. At the beginning of the game, the beakers can only hold up to two doses of a potion each, though upgrades can be obtained later on. Any number of potions can be cast simultaneously within a given room, but the spell(s) will only last as long as Shadax remains within that room; any effects from the potion(s) will disappear when the room is vacated.
Many of the fortress's rooms feature hazards such as floors covered in spikes,
conveyor belts, vanishing bridges and tiles, and floating
mines
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
*Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
* Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
M ...
, and may also be inhabited by antagonistic creatures such as
troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...
s, giant spiders and
demons. The rooms often include movable blocks that can be found either lying on the floor or falling from above. These blocks can be used to move safely around the rooms and bypass enemies and hazards. Falling blocks can be frozen in mid-air with the time-freezing potion and be used as steps. There are also hovering
crystal ball
A crystal ball, also known as an orbuculum or crystal sphere, is a crystal or glass ball and common fortune-telling object. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying in particular.
In more recent times, the cry ...
s that can be pushed through the air and ridden as transportation, but cannot be picked up and carried. In some rooms,
bomb
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...
s can be detonated to create an entrance to a previously blocked-off passageway, though the detonators are hidden within nearby rooms. Other rooms contain portals that provide the only access to certain rooms within the fortress. Some rooms can only be cleared or accessed after finding and using of one of four hidden magic
keys
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (ma ...
.
Extra
lives
Lives may refer to:
* The plural form of a ''life''
* Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran
* The number of lives in a video game
* ''Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous m ...
can be obtained by collecting blue
pointed hat
Pointed hats have been a distinctive item of headgear of a wide range of cultures throughout history. Although often suggesting an ancient Indo-European tradition, they were also traditionally worn by women of Lapland, the Japanese, the Mi'kmaq ...
s scattered throughout the fortress. Although the screen only registers ten lives at one time, the player can continue to accumulate more lives from that point. The player can also collect
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in orde ...
s that allow them to return to a certain room when all lives are lost instead of having to restart the game from the beginning. At any point in the game, the player can access a map that chronicles any room that they have entered and indicates all possible exits; some of these exits appear on the map, but will not appear in-game until a certain task is performed. Aside from the map, the player can view an inventory listing a percentage of the total number of rooms they have visited, as well as the total number of magic items they have found.
Plot
On the eve of the
winter solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...
, Morbius the Malevolent kidnaps Eleanor, Princess of Arcadia, to sacrifice her ritually and become the Evil Baron of Darkness. Shadax the wizard, after witnessing the kidnapping, heads to Morbius' stronghold, the fortress Kâstleröck, to rescue Eleanor. Once while researching Kâstleröck in the Library of Arcadia to find a way to overthrow Morbius, Shadax learned of a secret entrance into Kâstleröck and the whereabouts of the Staff of Demnos, an ancient weapon with the power to defeat Morbius. The staff was hidden in Kâstleröck because that was where Morbius would least expect to find it. Morbius' spies searched for the Staff but did not find it because it was broken into six pieces and made invisible. However, every one hundred years on the winter solstice, all six pieces become visible. Knowing a way in, Shadax enters Kâstleröck to reassemble the Staff of Demnos, overthrow Morbius' forces of darkness, and save Princess Eleanor. Upon restoring the Staff of Demnos, Shadax seeks out and frees Eleanor from imprisonment and destroys Morbius with the Staff.
Development and release
Conception and design
The development of ''Solstice'' was initiated by the programmer Mike Webb of
Software Creations
Acclaim Studios Manchester (formerly Software Creations) was a British video game developer based in Manchester, England. The company was established in 1985 by Richard Kay. They were primarily known for their video games based on movie and co ...
,
[''Solstice'' instruction manual, p. 20] who desired to create a ''
Knight Lore''-style isometric title for the NES.
''Solstice'' is the first original game to be developed within the company, which had previously only developed converted titles between 8-bit consoles. Mark Wilson, having previously worked as a programmer and a graphics artist for the company, saw Webb's proposal as an opportunity to attempt the role of a video game designer.
In spite of his personal dislike of isometric games up to that point, Wilson thought it sensible to create an isometric title as the company's first original work, as no such format had previously been attempted on the NES. Over the course of four weeks, Wilson designed the entire game as sketches and notes on paper, often within a
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...
on
Oxford Road. All the game's item positions and events were placed on a "master map" hand-drawn on a very large sheet of graph paper, and were based on Wilson's understanding of what the player might think or need at any particular point. This detailed approach put Wilson at odds with Webb, who failed to see why such an amount of time would be taken to design a game as opposed to expediently inserting rooms into a map at random. At one point, Webb presented Wilson with an alternate map created by his girlfriend the previous night, which consisted of 255 randomly-connected empty rooms. Out of guilt for their furious arguments and pleasure with the final product, Wilson would ultimately give Webb a co-designer credit in the game's
attract mode
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
screens. Wilson would later regret this action; during a subsequent interview with Wilson at
MicroProse
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization'' and '' X-COM'' series. Most of their inte ...
, one of the interviewers falsely identified Webb as the game's sole designer.
Visuals and audio
During the game's early stages of development, the player character Shadax appeared as a nondescript purple rectangle; the Shadax
sprite was eventually designed by Wilson.
[CSG Imagesoft Inc. (1990). ''The Making of Solstice''] In creating the game's setting and aesthetic, Wilson acknowledged the slim capacity for storytelling on Nintendo's cheapest available cartridge, and thus focused on the game's atmosphere, which he says "traded on the simplest and most basic of fantasy ideas". On stylistic influences, Wilson stated that "All of the usual suspects at that time probably should be included as sources, from ''Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...
'' to Excalibur
Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in t ...
."
The game's music was composed by Tim Follin.[ The primary background music was made to be atmospheric and dark, while the opening theme was made to be powerful.] On his approach to the score, Follin commented that the "folk" melody style he had previously used for '' Ghouls 'n Ghosts'' was particularly suited for ''Solstice'' due to the game's fantasy-oriented title and setting. The title theme's changing moods and phases were an attempt by Follin to keep the track interesting; Follin felt that the constant evolution required to keep music in general interesting was imperative in video game music due to its lack of vocals and performance at the time. During development, a colleague of Follin played for him several works of game composer Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard (born 1955 in Kingston upon Hull, England) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64.
Early life
Hubbard first started playing music at age se ...
, which convinced Follin that the technical boundaries of the contemporary generation of hardware have been reached, and refocused his attention from the score's technique to the composition. While Follin retrospectively identified the title theme to be his favourite among his own compositions, he felt that his work on the in-game music could have been improved to be "a lot more spacious and interesting", as it "looped too short and became irritating quite quickly".
Publishing and release
The game's development spanned the course of 20 months. While ''Solstice'' was given an early demonstration to Nintendo, Software Creations owner Richard Kay grew impatient and quickly sold the game's North American publishing rights to CSG Imagesoft
Sony Imagesoft Inc. was an American video game publisher that operated from 1989 to 1995 and was located in California. It was established in January 1989 in Los Angeles, California, as a subsidiary of the Japan-based CBS/Sony Group (CSG) and in ...
. After a response from Nintendo stating their desire to publish the title, Nintendo was given the publishing rights for all other regions, and the resulting contract with Nintendo would lead to other high-profile NES and SNES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...
games. Upon receiving the game's publishing rights, CSG demanded that Shadax be changed from a wizard to a bodybuilder in a loincloth. When Wilson refused to make the change, CSG then made the request that Shadax's beard in the cutscenes be shortened, and the alteration was made against Wilson's protest. The package art, designed by Carol Roy,[ was lambasted by Wilson as having nothing to do with the game that was written, and he deemed it inferior to a proposed cover created by Neal Sutton that had already been supplied to CSG.] He also derided the instruction booklet written by CSG as "a mass of illiterate and asinine drivel". Wilson spent the game's development time attempting to obtain a contract from Software Creations covering his work on ''Solstice'', only to be given verbal promises about the percentage of the profits he would receive. Following the game's completion, these promises were casually broken, and Wilson would not receive any monetary gain from the title's sales. Wilson left Software Creations following this development, and struggled to obtain work for the next two years.
''Solstice'' was announced in April 1990, and was released in July 1990 in North America and Europe. It was also published by Epic/Sony Records
Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama.
Between 1978 and 1988 the label operated as a wholly owned subsidiary: Epic/Sony Inc. () was established in August 1978 in Japan on July 20, 1990, under the subtitle ''Sanjigen Meikyū no Kyō Jū''. CSG's advertisement campaign for ''Solstice'' in North America consisted of a photograph of what Wilson described as "an oiled-up bodybuilder with long hair wearing dayglo
The Day-Glo Color Corp. (also styled as DayGlo) is a privately held American paint and pigments manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1946 by brothers Joseph and Robert Switzer and is currently owned by RPM International. It ...
pink posing trunks", which he called "embarrassingly bad". The first 5,000 customers to order ''Solstice'' from CSG Imagesoft received a free "Player's Pak", consisting of an 8 mm video tape on the making of ''Solstice'', a player's score card, trading cards and colored stickers. ''Solstice'' was featured in the 1990 Nintendo World Championships
The Nintendo World Championships (NWC) is a nationwide video game competition series, organized by Nintendo of America at no particular interval.
The first Nintendo World Championships was in 1990, touring 29 American cities, being hosted in ...
, with the first press coverage of the game in March 1990 by ''The Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''The Galves ...
'' as part of the Championships.
Reception
''Solstice'' was met with a positive critical reception upon release. Richard Leadbetter of ''Computer and Video Games
''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'' described the gameplay as "excellent, with some brain-bending puzzles and nice power-ups for Shadax's abilities". Paul Glancey, also of ''Computer and Video Games'', described ''Solstice'' as "a BIG game with an awful lot of secrets to discover", and compared the game's puzzles to those of '' Knight Lore''. Julian Rignall
Julian "Jaz" Rignall (born 6 March 1965, London, England) is a writer and editor. He has also produced content for corporate websites such as GamePro Media, publisher of ''GamePro'' magazine and ''GamePro.com'', marketing collateral and adverti ...
of ''Mean Machines
''Mean Machines'' was a multi-format video game magazine published between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom.
Origins
In the late 1980s ''Computer and Video Games'' (''CVG'') was largely covering the outgoing generation of 8-bit computers ...
'' also made a positive comparison to ''Knight Lore'' and noted that some of the puzzles were "very devious". However, Matt Regan, also of ''Mean Machines'', stated that while ''Solstice'' is a challenging game that "puzzle fans should find interesting", "the excitement fades" as "shifting blocks to stand on or to prevent the attacks of a nasty becomes boring".
While Marc Camron and Ed Semrad of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly
''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews.
History
The ...
'' respectively considered the game to be "unique" and "a refreshing change of pace from all of the me-too type puzzle games", the publication's four reviewers collectively found the controls difficult and awkward. Robin Wyles of ''Raze
Raze may refer to:
* Demolition
** Slighting
* Raze, Haute-Saône, a town in France
* Raze (house-music group)
* Raze (Christian pop group)
* Raze (Underworld), a fictional character in the Underworld films
* Raze (magazine), a videogame magazi ...
'' compared the game's visuals and gameplay to those of '' Cadaver'', and saw ''Solstice'' as "an admirable attempt to relive the ''Knight Lore'' days" that was "quite refreshing" in the face of the NES's lack of isometric-perspective titles. However, he argued that the game's quantity of puzzles negatively impacted their variety, and felt that the puzzles were "a bit too easy to solve, which reduces its long-term appeal". Leadbetter described the graphics as "excellent throughout, with some of the best backdrops and sprites ever seen in this type of game", and Glancey also felt the game's graphics were "really lovely". Rignall, Regan and Semrad described the graphics as "great", and Steve Harris and Ken "Sushi-X" Williams of ''EGM'' said the game was "beautiful". While Wyles appreciated the game's isometric perspective, he saw the colour schemes as "unimaginative".
The game's score was singled out for praise. Leadbetter proclaimed that "the renowned Tim Follin comes up trumps yet again with some brilliant atmospheric scores", and both he and Glancey, along with Rignall, considered the soundtrack to be some of the best they had heard on the NES. Regan described the game's soundtrack as "moody and atmospheric", and Semrad called the music "fantastic". Wyles, however, described the sound effects as "ropey" and the in-game background music as "mediocre". The title theme in particular became one of Follin's best-known tracks in retrospect. Brett Elston of ''GamesRadar+
''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites '' Total Film'', ''SFX'', '' Edge'' and '' Compute ...
'' proclaimed that "if any 8-bit song could take you on a journey, this is it. From its modest, almost hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
-like opening to its soaring jig halfway through, the title screen music tramples over all other NES music." He additionally described the game's primary background track as "considerably more mellow but no less proficient and listenable", and preferred its presence as in-game music "because there's no way I could play ANYTHING with that title screen going nuts". Nate Andrews of Nintendo World Report said that "the regality of the opening track provides a fantastic build up for the ensuing blast, which nearly forces you to take a knee under its spectacle before dropping into extended, kicking jig, then moving into the rest of the prog-y soundtrack". Layton Shumway of VentureBeat
''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos.
History
The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, ...
remarked that the theme "sounds like a lost track from a Yes
Yes or YES may refer to:
* An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no
Education
* YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US
* YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...
album" and that it "psyches you out with its single-note fanfare intro, instantly kicks into high gear with cascading synth lines, then settles into a propulsive 6/8 rock beat".
Legacy
A sequel to ''Solstice'', titled ''Equinox'', was announced in January 1992, initially for a summer release that year, and was released for the Super NES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...
in November 1993. The game's plot centers on Shadax's son Glendaal, who must rescue Shadax from his treacherous apprentice Sonia. The game consists of 450 rooms split between eight dungeons, and also features an isometric perspective, but includes a rotatable camera that incorporates Mode 7
Mode 7 is a graphics mode on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console that allows a background layer to be rotated and scaled on a scanline-by-scanline basis to create many different effects. The most famous of these effects ...
effects. Tim Follin reprised his role as composer and was joined in this duty by his brother Geoff. ''Equinox'' was released to generally positive critical reception. Hiroshi Minagawa
, also known by the nickname ''Nigoro'', is a Japanese video game artist, designer and director.
Career
Minagawa had worked at Quest Corporation alongside his colleagues Yasumi Matsuno and Akihiko Yoshida before they all decided to switch to Squa ...
enjoyed ''Solstice'' and its quarter-view perspective served as inspiration for a prototype design he showcased to Yasumi Matsuno
is a Japanese video game designer. Matsuno was first introduced to video games in arcades while waiting for the train, and first played ''Space Invaders'' and ''Xevious'' there. He attended Hosei University for foreign policy but dropped out, ...
, which formed the technical foundation for '' Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together''.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1990 video games
Fantasy video games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Nintendo Entertainment System-only games
Puzzle video games
Software Creations games
Video games about magic
Video games scored by Tim Follin
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Video games with isometric graphics