Loom

Loom

MS-DOS - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Lucasfilm Games Publisher Lucasfilm Games Published 1990-01-?? Platforms Amiga, Atari ST, CDTV, DOS, FM Towns, Linux, Macintosh Classic, TurboGrafx-CD Genres Adventure, Graphic adventure, Passive puzzle, Puzzle Themes Adventure, Fantasy Distribution Commercial

Loom is a graphic adventure puzzle video game by produced by Brian Moriarty and developed and published by Lucasfilm Games, originally released in January 1990 for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS, and later ported to several other platforms. Although the game uses the SCUMM engine, it doesn't use the typical verb-object control scheme. The game also came with an audio drama which gave backstory to the world.

A sequel for the game entered planning stages. It was going to be called Forge and focus on the blacksmith's guild, but the game was never made.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. EGA and VGA talkie versions on easy difficulty.
Finished	Mid 1990s.

My middle school friend friend Mike had the LucasArts Classic Adventures box set and showed me a short part of this game near the end. I was impressed enough to ask to borrow it, and, after a few days, I had beaten it. Later, I got a copy of the VGA CD version and beat that one as well. I really loved the game and thought it told a very clever and creative story. I was, as expected, a bit miffed at the ending.

Review

7	5	8	7	4

Best Version: CD Talkie

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game's story by Brian Moriarty is really creative and original. Having different guilds, each who see the world in a manner befitting their own trade, was a fantastic idea.
• The game is wonderfully packaged with mixed-media. In addition to the diskettes, the game came with multiple booklets like the manual and the Book of Patterns, which is a nice addition and adds depth to the game world. It also came with a cassette which contained an audio drama setting up the story. I really wish more development companies put this much work into their games.
• I really like the idea of having short songs to act as magic spells, and the fact that you can play them in reverse to have the opposite effect was really clever.
• Even in the 16-color EGA version, the graphics are amazingly well drawn and make good use of dithering.
• Despite just being arrangements of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, the music is wonderful and extremely fitting to the atmosphere of the game.
• The SCUMM engine is well-made and solid, even after being altered to handle this game.
• I like that the game has an easy and hard mode to accommodate players who don't have a good ear.

Bad

• The game is both too easy and too short. More effort should have been put into making more complicated puzzles and extending the game's length.
• The box art is pretty lame. I remember seeing it in stores and having no desire to buy the game because it looked like a cat's cradle simulator.
• The only special thing you get for playing the game on expert difficulty is a brief animation of Cob lifting Bobbin's hood. A bit of a let down for how much harder the game becomes.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

• 

  This is the art used by nearly every region and platform. It's pretty bad and doesn't explain much about the game. However, it does fit with the game's universe. It was painted by Mark J. Ferrari, with help from Dugald Stermer.

• 

  The well-decorated back of the DOS box.

• 

  The FM Towns art is quite different, with the head (no pun intended) of each guild in the background and the the loom looming (no pun intended) over Bobbin. Also not that great.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS - USA.

• 

  Manual - The Book of Patterns - Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS - USA.

• 

  Strategy guide - Loom: Hint Book.

• 

  Strategy guide - Loom: Hint Book (with answers revealed).

• 

  Strategy guide - Quest for Clues III.

• 

  The audio cassette cover.

• 

  The audio cassette back.

• 

  The audio cassette.

• The audio drama.

Maps

• 

  Isle of the Weavers (256 color).

• 

  Crystalgard and Shepherds (256 color).

• 

  Caves and Forge (256 color).

• 

  Cathedral (256 color).

• 

  Fabric of the Universe (256 color).

Screenshots

• 

  Dye room in EGA.

Videos

Longplay, EGA, hard mode.

Longplay, VGA Talkie, hard mode.

Play Online

MS-DOS (EGA), MS-DOS (VGA), TurboGrafx-CD

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Hetchel, Bobbin's teacher, helps guide him in the narrative and saves him on multiple occasions. There are a handful of other women as well.
Bechdel test?	Fail	Women never talk to each other.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Every human character appears white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Download

This is the LucasFilm Games Passport to Adventure game sampler. It contains an MS-DOS demo version of Loom, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure.

• Download (Info) - Passport to Adventure Demo.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Loom
Japanese	ルーム	Rumu	Loom

Links

     

• thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/Loom/Index.html - My old site.