Shadowgate

Shadowgate

Macintosh Classic - USA - 1st edition.

Developer ICOM Simulations Publisher ICOM Simulations Published 1987-07-30 Platforms Amiga, Apple IIgs, Atari ST, DOS, Game Boy Color, Macintosh Classic, NES, Palm OS, Windows 3, Windows Mobile Genres Adventure, Graphic adventure, Passive puzzle, Puzzle, Themes Adventure, Fantasy Series MacVenture, Shadowgate Distribution Commercial

Shadowgate is a graphic adventure puzzle video game created by ICOM Simulations and first released on Macintosh on 1987-07-30, and then ported to a bunch of different platforms including the NES by Kemco on 1989-03-31. This was the third game in the MacVenture series, the third to use the MacVenture engine, and the first game in the Shadowgate series. The game was also ported to several mobile platforms under the title Shadowgate Classic.

In the game's story, you play a courageous knight who has been sent to the ancient keep of Shadowgate in order to find the Staff of Ages and stop the evil Warlock Lord from summoning the Behemoth to conquer the world. The castle is filled with deadly monsters, traps, and puzzles so you must rely on your brains as well as your might.

Personal

Own?	Yes. US NES cartridge with plastic protector case.
Won?	Yes. NES port.
Finished	Late 1990s.

When my step-brothers came from out of state to visit, my step-father gave them preferential treatment. I was rare that we would be allowed to rent NES games at the video rental store, but when they were visiting, we were allowed. However, since my brother and step-brothers were older, they always got to make the decisions about which games we would rent. I complained about this, and my step brother assured me that the next time we came, he would let me rent a game that he thought I would really like, Shadowgate. I had already seen the box art, and, as a fan of swords & sorcery games, was pretty sure that I would indeed like the game, so I relented. Of course, the next time we went to rent a game, I picked out Shadowgate, but the special discount that we got last time allowing us to rent two games was no longer valid, and my step-father didn't want to pay the full-price fee of a second game, so I again wasn't able to rent it. Years later, when I was working at Kroger, they were phasing out their video and game rentals, and I bought it along with Uninvited and Déjà Vu. After all those years, the game didn't let me down, and I eventually beat it without hints. However, a couple of the puzzles left me scratching my head for hours.

Review

5	6	6	7	3

Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has great artwork and the NES port has wonderful music composed by Hiroyuki Masuno.
• The interface is nicely intuitive.
• The script is well-written, and a lot of the scenes are pretty scary.
• The sphinx is a nice addition and adds more depth and make use of the otherwise useless items.
• The magic spells are a nice addition.
• Several ports lets you print a certificate upon completing the game.

Bad

• Death is far too common. Thankfully, the game is pretty forgiving with the reloading.
• There are a lot of useless items that clutter up the inventory, which adds a little complexity to the puzzle solving, but is really annoying.
• The spells are usually only used in a single place in the game, making them kind of arbitrary.
• I don't like the unnecessary timer added by the torches. It requires you to have to reset the game until you get good enough to progress further.
• There is a mild amount out-of-place elements which hurts the Medieval fantasy feel. For example, "death to the Philistines," doesn't fit in this fictional game world.
• In the original game and some of ports, the spells can only be cast a single time. So, if you miscast the spell, you put the game in an unwinnable state. This was a horrible idea!
• Due to the style of the game, there is very little replay value.

Ugly

• There are a couple puzzles whose solutions don't make any sense at all and require you to try every item on every other item until it suddenly works. For example, the puzzle with the unusual torch. Other puzzles have solutions that only become apparent after you've been killed, which ruins the idea of a single-life run.

Media

Box Art

• 

  Amiga, Apple IIgs, Atari ST, DOS, Macintosh Classic - USA. A strange looking monster on a wall. Nice lettering, but a bit too abstract in my opinion. Nice lettering though.

• 

  NES - USA. The gargoyle coming to life is beautiful. The castle clip art and backdrop is boring. The lettering is great.

• 

  NES - USA - Logo.

• 

  Famicom - Japan. A anime collage of some of the game's hazards. Not bad.

• 

  Windows 3 - USA. Special art just for the later Windows 3 release. Decent, but the castle looks too sanitary.

• 

  Game Boy Color - USA. The silhouette is nice, but the sword is boring. It uses the lettering from the Nintendo 64 release and a subtitle to let people know it's the original game, not a port.

• 

  Game Boy Color - Japan. Same art as the US release, just with a different subtitle.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Famicom - Japan.

• 

  Manual - Game Boy Color - USA.

• 

  Manual - Macintosh - USA.

• 

  Manual - NES - USA

• 

  Strategy guide - The Shadowgate Hint Book.

• 

  Strategy guide - Quest for Clues.

• 

  Strategy guide - Keys to Solving Computer Adventure Games: Book II.

• 

  Before Shadowgate, prequel.

Maps

• 

  Map.

• 

  All rooms, plus animation.

Font

See Video game font collection.

Screenshots

• 

  NES introduction.

Fan Art

• 

  Fan art map.

Videos

Review - Hungry Goriya.

Longplay - Macintosh.

Longplay - NES.

Play Online

Famicom, Game Boy Color (Japan), Game Boy Color (USA), MS-DOS, NES (Europe), NES (France), NES (Germany), NES (Sweden), NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no strong women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	No women ever talk together.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Everyone appears to be white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Shadowgate
English (mobile)	Shadowgate Classic
Japanese	シャドウゲイト	Shadogeito	Shadowgate
Japanese (mobile)	シャドウゲイトリターン	Shadogeito Ritan	Shadowgate Returns

Links