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King of Dragon Pass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| King of Dragon Pass | |
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| Developer(s) | A Sharp, LLC |
| Publisher(s) | A Sharp, LLC |
| Designer(s) | David Dunham, Greg Stafford, and Robin D. Laws |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Genre(s) | mixed strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows), Mac |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Windows: Pentium, 16 MB RAM Macintosh: System 7.5 or later, Power Macintosh or compatible, 24 MB RAM |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse |
King of Dragon Pass is a computer game published by A Sharp in 1999. Set in the heavily-magical fictional setting of Glorantha (familiar from RuneQuest, for example), it depicts the lives and fortunes of one of several Orlanthi clans, settling the untamed lands of Dragon Pass over the course of several decades. The clans bear some similarities, such as fyrds and lawspeakers, to the Iron Age Nordic peoples.
The most distinctive features of the game are its greatest oddities. KoDP contains no animation whatsoever, and for much of the time doesn't have graphics as much as illustrations or artwork. More importantly, its genre is somewhat unclassifiable and anachronistic (it would be right at home a decade earlier on 8- or 16-bit computers) - it has elements of strategy, some simulation, a heavy dose of macromanagement of the tribe, and some of role-playing, even though it offers no proper alter ego.
The player controls the seven-member clan ring leading the clan — thus providing leadership to the clan, in all aspects of its life from rituals to diplomacy. The ring can make two macro-level decisions per each of the five seasons in the Gloranthan year. Random events that are drawn from a pool of hundreds and often affected by previous ones require multiple-choice selections not counted as decisions. In battle, the player determines the goals and preparations, and possibly chooses the actions of his nobles at pivotal moments.
To succeed, a player must successfully juggle the various needs of survival and prospering, as well as manage the problems presented by the setting or the clan individuals - a lack of food might be solvable by clearing more farmland, but when the forest responds by sending a talking fox to urge leaving the trees alone, a wrong choice could bring the clan hunters to war with their environment. Likewise, should a member of the clan act in a selfish and foolish manner, action needs to be taken to stabilize and defuse the situation, if necessary.
King of Dragon Pass is a cult classic, extremely far from being a mainstream game in its age, and its fans are few but devoted. Unlike most games, KoDP is proving to be virtually immune to loss of appeal from aging, possibly because of its low-technology approach – already at the time of its publication, it was set apart from other published games by its 2D graphics, text-based content and lack of flashy action sequences. While these anachronistic factors certainly contributed to the game's lack of popularity in the mainstream, they did come with the benefit of immunity over obsolescence via rapidly advancing computer technology, as the particular genre had already matured (and even all but vanished) years before.