Software:Ancients 1: Death Watch

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Ancients 1: Deathwatch
Developer(s)Farr-Ware Software
Publisher(s)Epic MegaGames
Programmer(s)Mark Lewis
Artist(s)Jason Struck, Matthew McEwan
Platform(s)MS-DOS
Release
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Ancients 1: Death Watch is a first-person medieval fantasy turn-based RPG for the PC. Version 1.2 was released as shareware in 1991, developed and self-published by Farr-Ware. Version 2.0 was later published by Epic MegaGames on August 12[citation needed] of 1993. The game was programmed by Mark Lewis, and its graphic art was created by Jason Struck and Matthew McEwan.

Plot

Players are told that during their youth they got lost while exploring the wilderness surrounding their home city of Locklaven. They were rescued by a beautiful harp playing fairy who put them into a magically enchanted sleep and teleported them back home. Years later, after having done much travelling, the player returns to Locklaven and becomes aware of a new great evil, and suspects that the fairy who saved them has been kidnapped.

Gameplay

Ancients 1 screenshot

Ancients is a standard fare dungeon crawl with a simplified Dungeons & Dragons element of character creation including Warrior, Priest, Mage, Rogue classes; Elf, Human, Dwarf races; and the rerollable statistics of Hitpoints, Dracos (Money), Intelligence, Strength, Constitution and Dexterity. Players control a party of four characters.

The world is a static grid based system with the top level being the relatively safe city of Locklaven including an Inn to recover hitpoints and mana and listen to rumors, an equipment shop to purchase gear, a casino to gamble, a church to heal and resurrect dead characters, and a guild to train characters. Beneath the city is a sewer system followed by a number of different levels corresponding to increasingly difficult monsters.

Combat is randomly triggered by walking through the dungeon and is turn based allowing the player characters to attack first. Combat choices include a Basic Melee or Ranged Attack, Defend, Flee and Magic. Player characters are effectively lined up in a square for combat with the left and right most characters lined up in back and the middle two characters in front, meaning in combat only the middle two characters can use melee attacks while the left and right most characters must attack from range or use magic.

Magic is broken down into the two primary classes of Priest and Mage. There are five accessible tiers of magic usage for each class and access to each tier is based upon character level. The first tier is available at level one. Access to tiers improves by one for each two levels gained, until the fifth tier is achieved.

Leveling occurs when characters receive enough experience from slaying monsters to reach the next level tier. Players must then travel back up to the city of Locklaven and visit the Guild. There are no other major quests than the storyline driven rescue.

Release and later history

The Ancients 1 title screen.

Ancients 1 was released as shareware, allowing other parties to also distribute the game.

Critical reception

Ancients was reviewed by PC-Review magazine, being called "Unusually well-presented in terms of graphics and its user-friendly point and click interface".[1]

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGameStar[2]
The Good Old Days3/6[3]

Shovelware

Both versions of the game have appeared on various shovelware CD-ROMs, especially during the nineties. In 1994, Ancients 1 was included on Aztech New Media Corp's Adventure Shareware Games - Volume 4, STG Computer Limited's Gamefest in August, Tech Express Software's 101 Games #1 in October, and the 13th edition of EMS Professional Software's The EMS Professional CD Collection in December. Walnut Creek CD-ROM included the game on their Giga Games in August 1993, Giga Games 3 in August 1995, and Giga Games 5 in April 1997.[4] Australian software publishing company Nodtronics Pty Ltd included it on volume #3 of their The Best 40 Games compilation series in 1996, as well as their The World's Best 6000 Games six-CD collection in 1998. In July 2010, Ancients 1 was also included on a DVD, 501 Awesome DOS Games!, accompanying issue #179 of Australia's PC PowerPlay magazine.

Sequel

A sequel was created in 1994, Ancients II: Approaching Evil. Although players can choose to import their party from the first game, the sequel has a new storyline that is not explicitly linked to the original. An opening animation shows members of the 'Lockshire Council' discussing an evil that is escaping from a series of catacombs, after an ancient seal formerly containing the evil has become broken. A member of the council explains that he knows of a party that he believes can repair the seal, and summons them to the new city. The seal will only become restored when four special objects are recovered and brought to the entrance of the catacombs.

Unlike the original, Approaching Evil was not shareware and was sold commercially.

See also

  • List of roleplaying games
  • List of MS-DOS games
  • Vinyl Goddess From Mars (also created by Mark Lewis, Mathew J McEwan and Jason Struck)
  • Radix (also worked on by Mark Lewis and Jason Struck)

References

  1. ↑ "Ancients: Epic Catalog". https://sparcie.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/epic-catalog_009.png. 
  2. ↑ Anthony Baize. "Ancients 1: Death Watch - Review - allgame". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=2758&tab=review. 
  3. ↑ "Ancients I: Death Watch Review". The Good Old Days. http://www.goodolddays.net/0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_en_0_397_show_4__0_0_0/. 
  4. ↑ "CD.TEXTFILES.COM: The Past on Plastic". http://cd.textfiles.com. [full citation needed]
  • Play the game in your browser
  • Download Ancients at the Mobygames Archive, $Ancient.zip
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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