''Shadowkeep'' is a first person

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

and

interactive fiction Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

with graphics. The game was published by Telarium (formerly known as Trillium), a subsidiary of

Spinnaker Software Spinnaker Software Corporation was an American software and video game company. Founded in 1982 by Bill Bowman and C. David Seuss, it was known primarily for its line of non-curriculum based educational software, which was a major seller during ...

, in the year 1984. It was the first computer game to be novelised.

Reception

In a ''

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, 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
.

Gameplay

The player character is Practor 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 the beginning of the game you recruit 9 other characters, whose stats you can decide on, and then use these characters to navigate various rooms inside the castle in order to find and then release the wizard.

Release

''Shadowkeep'' was released for

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

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

Legacy

''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 ghost ...

published in 1984 by

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

. 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

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