“At the time, ninjas were new and exciting and everyone loved them […] So basically ninjas meets Lord of the Rings was what we came up with and it turned into a hugely successful game book series.”
-- Mark Smith
A part of our rapid-fire countdown to Christmas, here's a look at Gremlin Graphics' Way of the Tiger computer game from the 1980s.
Having played very briefly in Mark Smith's Orb campaign, I always thought it was a pity it got overshadowed by martial arts mania. There weren't any ninja in the original Orb setting, which was a masterclass in how to use Tolkien-like fantasy elements in a D&D game. Prancing around flinging shuriken and flash powder was far less interesting than all the richly original flourishes Mark had put into his world.
The gamebooks are still available, and there's occasional talk of publishing an Orb RPG. (Basic Roleplaying or Mythras would get my vote.) Fingers crossed -- and I'm not talking about the kuji-no-in.
Spectrum colour clash!
ReplyDeleteI can't stop myself but commenting on this post, Dave, given my copies of those pics formed part of my lost GCSE artwork and I seem to remember my first comment on your blog about a decade ago was relating to this computer game! I think Gremlin Graphics started out in Derby before moving to Sheffield, with some of them staying behind and forming Core Design. Not that I knew them personally being about 11 at the time. I have fond memories of some of those computer games mentioned. I still play Kung Fu Master on an Arcade Machine and Action Biker was a budget Mastertronic favourite at the time. Tie-ins don't come much stranger than Clumsy Colin and KP Skips! Finders Keepers was also excellent. The first one in the classic Magic Knight series.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember The Way of the Tiger played better on the Spectrum than the C64, Simon, despite the colour clash. The C64 version was painfully slow and The Last Ninja came out a year or so later and blew it away. Avenger wasn't bad, though even worse on the colour clash front!