DIGITAL HANDS

Fredrik Ekman: Ryds Allé 3:106, S-582 51 Linköping, Sweden ([email protected])

©1996 Fredrik Ekman; first published in Other Hands 12.

As those of you who read Other Hands 10/11 will remember, this is a new regular column about computer games set in Tolkien's world. This second article will be about what is going on today. Before we start, allow me to mention that the list of Tolkien computer games that I described in the first article has been adapted into a set of WWW pages. If you have Internet access, try connecting to http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/ to view them. There you can find further information about all the games mentioned in this article and many others.

At first glance, not much seems to happen with regard to Tolkien computer games these days. The Tolkien Estate's current computer games licensee is Beam Software, who in turn have licensed Interplay. Interplay released The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I, based on The Fellowship of the Ring, in 1990. It then took another year for The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers to appear and, since then, all computer gaming Tolkien fans have been awaiting the third part.

According to unofficial sources at Interplay, the game developers first wanted to do a RPG, then decided on a wargame and finally ended up making Warcraft, a game in the Dungeons & Dragons' "Forgotten Realms" series. Currently, both projects have been put on ice. Why have we yet not seen the third part? We can only speculate, but perhaps the first two games did not do as well as expected.

Still, a few things have happened after 1991. In 1993 The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I was re-released for MS-DOS computers as a CD-ROM game, enhanced with animation from Ralph Bakshi's animated movie, and in 1994 they released a completely reworked version of the game for Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Quite apart from Interplay and official licenses, many games are developed by the Internet community. For those who like wargames, there is a Middle-earth module for the recently released version 7 of the very popular game Xconq. Another wargame where players can develop their own scenarios is Warlords II. Middle-earth seems to be a very popular choice for such scenarios, and there are currently at least four available on the Internet. One RPG constantly under development (though not exclusively based on Tolkien) is The Pits of Angband.

Yet perhaps the most interesting games today for Tolkien computer gamers are the MUDs. "What is a MUD?" I hear some of you ask. Well, I described text adventures in the first installment of "Digital Hands." A MUD is simply a text adventure for several players. In one such, you may choose to go on quests to rescue fair maidens or find treasure, you can hack-and-slash all the monsters that usually inhabit the MUD, you can role-play a character, or you can become a creator and further expand the MUD yourself. Especially this last possibility is what makes the MUD environment so unique. Since the players themselves program the game, MUDs tend to be extremely large and diverse. Unfortunately, this also means considerable diversity in terms of quality.

Three examples of popular Tolkien MUDs are The Two Towers (not yet officially open), MUME, and Elendor. I will not here describe them in detail, nor will I try to mention the countless other MUDs that are more or less based on Tolkien's world. That will have to wait for future articles, but I will say that all three are good in their own ways, and each deserves a try by the Tolkien gamer.

Finally, I would like to mention one rather unusual game. It is actually a contest to promote Middle-earth: The Wizards (previewed in Other Hands 10/11). It is played on the World Wide Web, and the user must find the answers to a series of riddles. The player could originally win decks of cards, but now it can only be played for fun.

In conclusion, even though there are no new official releases to be expected within the near future, there are many interesting games to play and to write about. Do you know about others? Do not hesitate to contact me through the address above.

Computer games mentioned in the text

Elendor, MUSH, telnet to elendor.sbs.nau.edu 1892

The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I, available for MS-DOS (disk, $12.95; CD-ROM, $29.95) and Super NES ($59.95), and The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers, available for MS-DOS ($29.95). Call 1-800-INTERPLAY to order.

Middle-earth: The Riddles, available on the Internet at http://iquest.com/~tstevens/saratosa/riddle.htm

MUME, Diku MUD, telnet to 128.178.77.5 4242 for a list of available servers.

The Pits of Angband, Freeware, available for all popular machines and operating systems from ftp://ftp.cis.ksu.edu/pub/Games/Angband/

The Two Towers, LP MUD, telnet to empires.stanford.edu 9999

Warlords II, available for MS-DOS and Macintosh ($49.95). Call 1-904-469-8880 to order.

Warlords II scenarios available from http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~schikore/Warlords2/scenarios/

Xconq, Freeware, available for UNIX and Macintosh from ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/games/xconq/