| Times of Lore | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Christopher Roberts |
| Publisher(s) | Origin Systems |
| Year released | |
| System(s) | see below |
| Genre(s) | Action-Adventure |
|---|---|
| Modes | Single player |
Times of Lore is an action-adventure game developed by Christopher Roberts and released by Origin System in 1988.
Apart from the Ultima series, Origin Systems released several role-playing games. Of these, some retained similar dialog system and command interface, and became known as Light Ultimas. They are Times of Lore and Tangled Tales. The two games are very differet from each other. First of all, Times of Lore is an action-adventure game, while Tangled tales is a turn-based role-playing game.
Times of Lore features freedom of exploration and characters interaction, but lacks character development. Tangled Tales features all three aforementioned aspects, but its combat interface is similar to a text adventure game.
Introduction
The following is an excerpt of dialogue from Ultima 5: Warriors of Destiny:
- You see: a dashing young farmer.
- Name? Christopher.
- Job? I fiddle in the fields to keep me fed.
- Fiddle? Fields? I pride myself in a job well done, even if one does not enjoy it.
- Enjoy? Job? Done? What I really enjoy is writing works of fantasy.
- Writing? Fantasy? I'm currently working on an epic called Times of Lore!
- Times? Lore? I hope to have it published soon.
- Published? Soon? Through Origin, of course. Wilt thou buy it?
- No: Then I'll be of little help to you in the future!
- Yes: Good! What a nice chap thou art. Enchanted, I'm sure, to have met such an enlightened soul.
Game versions
Game versions, releases & generation:
- 1988/G2: Apple II
- 1988/G2: C64, Amstrad CPC
- 1989/G3: MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum
- 1990/G3: NES (developed in Japan)
The Famicom/NES version has four distinct advantages over all the previous ports:
- Full-screen field of view, three times larger than the previous one.
- The game pauses while the player is selecting a command from the menu.
- The dagger doesn't have to be picked up every time it's thrown.
- Full background music.
It's really the case to say it: "Japanese do it better"!