Siege of Avalon

Siege of Avalon
Developer(s) Digital Tome
Publisher(s) Take 2, Globalstar, Black Star
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s) July 19, 2000
Genre(s) Action role-playing game
Mode(s) Single player

Siege of Avalon (SoA) is a PC computer game created by Digital Tome and published in July 2000. It is a top-down RPG set in the fantasy realm. This game is often compared with games such as Diablo in terms of gameplay.

History

Siege of Avalon was originally developed in the episodic format of six "chapters". Each chapter featured new maps, characters, quests, and an expansion of the general storyline. The first chapter was a free download, but the other five chapters had to be purchased. In 2001, Global Star Software released Siege of Avalon on an Anthology CD which included all six chapters. The chapters on the CD were identical to the ones that could be downloaded except for some minor changes (such as movies for the beginning and end of the game and extra chests containing unique weapons and armor). The chapters are no longer officially available to download and purchase online (Abandonware).

It was originally planned that a sequel would be created titled Pillars of Avalon and Digital Tome intentionally left the ending of Siege of Avalon with many unanswered questions. Additionally in the CD version of the Siege of Avalon, the closing movie includes a book titled "Siege of Avalon" which is placed on a shelf next to a similar book titled "Pillars of Avalon."

Because of publishing problems, Digital Tome folded and shut down the Siege of Avalon website, leaving Pillars of Avalon uncompleted.

Around 2003 a group of fans was given permission to modify the first chapter of Siege of Avalon to run other platforms, continue support and to distribute it as open source under the LGPL license.[1] The source code of the game is available on Source Forge in the project's Concurrent Versions System repository but nothing has been released up to now. While there are very few CVS check-ins, project administrator Dominique Louis assures that progress is still being made, "but Real Life keeps getting in the way of this project."[2] In 2011 the project was moved to GitHub.[3]

Backstory

Siege of Avalon takes place in the fictional land of Eurale. Within Eurale are seven kingdoms: Nisos, Aratoy, Oriam, Fornax, Elythria, Cathea, and Taberland. The seven kingdoms united into an uneasy alliance and built a citadel as a meeting place, which was named Avalon.

Within the land is a race of nomads known as the Sha'ahoul. Their religion values the earth and nature and therefore they are against farming, the building of permanent structures, and similar practices which they feel destroys the earth. After discovering the existence of Eurale, they declared war on the seven kingdoms to eradicate their way of life. As the war progresses, displaced war refugees have taken shelter in Avalon and the seven kingdoms have sent military support to defend Avalon as the citadel is seen as the last hope at stopping the Sha'ahoul. The Sha'ahoul and their leader, Mithras, chose to overtake the citadel by setting up a siege around it.

The game begins with an entry in the hero's journal. The siege has been going on for several years and his brother Corvus serves as part of the military in Avalon. When their father dies, the hero feels that it is his obligation to inform Corvus of the sad news, so he becomes part of the crew of a ship sailing from Elythria to Avalon to deliver supplies. The Sha'ahoul sinks all of the ships except the one the hero is on and the ship reaches Avalon without most of its supplies. It is not possible to make a return voyage to Elythria and so the hero decides to stay at Avalon and help out Avalon in whatever manner he can. The player gains control at this point and begins by speaking to Corvus and informing him about his father's death. The players then helps the people of Avalon with many quests and tasks, eventually becoming a knight, ranger, or wizard of legends.

References

  1. ↑ Going Open Source! In order to give the Siege game an extended practical life, allow ongoing player support, give the game a chance to be made available on other platforms, and to share our technical learning experience with the game development community, the Board of Directors at Digital Tome LP have agreed to release the Delphi source to the Siege game to the Open Source community under an LGPL license! on 23 June 2003
  2. ↑ http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=674133
  3. ↑ CartBlanche/Siege-of-Avalon-Open-Source
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