March 11th, 2013 by Benj Edwards
“‘The Tolkien estate finally made the right choice with Interplay.'”
[ From Video Games and Computer Entertainment, October 1990, p.155 ]
Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s the best Lord of the Rings- or Hobbit-themed video/computer game ever made?
Tags: 1990, advertisement, computer games, Interplay, Lord of the Rings, PC games, Retro Scan, Tolkien
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“‘The Tolkien estate finally made the right choice with Interplay.'”
March 11th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
I’ve never played a proper, licensed LOTR game. However, after LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring hit the theaters, I came to understand how Tolkien is the granddaddy of much of the fantasy genre.
Thus, I remember sitting in the theater and watching the Balrog sequence and thinking, “Oh, hey! I remember fighting balrogs in Ultima: Exodus on the 8-bit NES!”
March 12th, 2013 at 2:22 am
I remember playing Interplay’s LOTR back in the mid-90s, on my computer (with a whopping 1GB HDD). I also remember getting lost quite easily (I believe I printed out the playthrough guide, and it ended up being 100+ pages in small type). To its credit (or discredit), it used cutscenes from the animated Ralph Bakshi movies. Many years later, I still find time to play LOTR Online, and even War In The North (when I just feel like slaughtering tons of monsters instead of playing an in-depth RPG).
April 19th, 2013 at 12:09 am
I worked for these guys as an artist for a short period in the 90s. I did graphic conversions to the early consoles. My interview consisted of them putting a plastic figure of some sort of demon dude on the table and then making me draw it pixel by pixel on Deluxe Paint.
They also would hire people like real portrait artist who came from oil and water color backgrounds, even when they really hadn’t done much with computers.
I remember there was this uber programming geek there. He was a huge, hairy guy built like a buffalo, who came to work really late and totally barefoot. He was always carrying in a fresh 12-pack of soda every morning.