''Shadowkeep'' is a first person

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

and

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

with graphics. The game was published by

Telarium Telarium Corporation (formerly Trillium) was a brand owned by Spinnaker Software. The brand was launched in 1984 and Spinnaker was sold in 1994. The headquarters were located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The President of Telarium was C. Dav ...

(formerly known as Trillium), a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in the year 1984. It was the first computer game to be

novelised A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

Reception

In a ''

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

'' interview, Shadowkeep was called "a groundbreaking product at the time", "which paved the way for more complex products like '' Eye of the Beholder'' and its peers".David Cuciz: GameSpy Interviews – Alan Dean Foster. The Writing Game, August 2000
.

Software

''Shadowkeep'' was released for

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

computers and was written in Ultra II. The game was stored on 4

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

s. Progress in the game would be saved directly to the game disk, without the ability to return to the default state, so players were advised to first copy the game onto 4 blank disks so the game could be played from the start again. Players could also save progress in the game to a fifth disk, which could be used to restore progress in the game in conjunction of the 4 modified disks.

Gameplay

The player character is Practer Fime, an apprentice blacksmith. The goal of the game is to rescue the wizard Nacomedon, who has been trapped in his castle, the eponymous Shadowkeep, by an evil Demon, Dal'brad. At that beginning of the game you recruit 9 other characters, whose stats you can decide on, and then use these characters to navigate various room inside the castle in order to find and then release the wizard.

Book

''Shadowkeep'' is a fantasy adventure novel by

Alan Dean Foster Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction. He has written several book series, more than 20 standalone novels, and many novelizations of film scripts. Career ''Star Wars'' Foster was the ghos ...

published in 1984 by Warner Books. It is a novelisation of the video game and the first ever

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of a video game ever produced. The German translation was published in 1987.

Reviews

*''The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine'' #3 (April/May, 1986)

Notes

External links

* * 1980s interactive fiction 1984 video games Apple II games Apple II-only games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Spinnaker Software games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in castles Telarium games {{adventure-videogame-stub