| Adventure in Serenia | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer(s) | On-Line Systems |
| Publisher(s) | On-Line Systems |
| Designer(s) | Roberta Williams |
| Lead Programmer(s) | Ken Williams |
| Platform(s) | IBM PC |
| Release(s) | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Adventure in Serenia is a port of Wizard and the Princess for the IBM PC, and it was released by On-Line Systems in 1982.
Backstory[]
Through the use of a computer, you are magically transported to the land of Serenia, where the evil Wizard Harlin has made off with the beautiful Princess Priscilla. It has been rumored that the Wizard has taken the Princess to his castle beyond the mountains to the North. It is your task to rescue Princess Priscilla and return her safely to the village where you originally began your adventure.
See also[]
Behind the scenes[]
Beyond the title screen name change, a different 4-color CGA palette, improved text (with both capital and lower-case letters), and alternative inventory graphics there is little difference in the game with original Wizard and the Princess.
There is some message differences, where the narrator will say things a little differently.
There are two different color palette's in the game. These are accessed via use of the F2 key. The primary color scheme "monochrome mode" appears as a grey background with black, fuchsia, and cyan. This actually was originally a monochrome mode but modern video cards assign these colors to it, but wouldn't have been seen on hardware at the time.
The second color scheme the 'color mode' includes blue, green, orange, and red. This color scheme uses less dithering, and uses more solid colors for some elements. With dithering it as some brown-like colors as well.
If a person had a composite monitor/tv available the game would then offer a third color scheme using CGA Mode 4 composite graphics (320x200) that would offer a few more colors and blend some of the colors to give illusion of more.[1] This gave it almost the same number of colors/detail as the C64 and PCJR versions.
Like the apple II and Atari versions, the game uses dithering to give the illusion of more colors or shades. However, the game tends to max out about six or seven 'colors' or 'shades' on any given screen. Thus it appears to have even less colors than the apple II version. The primary color scheme is even more drab than the secondary one (using more gray and blacks). On the one hand, the cacti and the desert scenes in general using the second mode look more colorful than in the Apple II version (which used a rather drab 'grey' made from dithering white and black for both sand and plant life), as the cacti actually look 'green'.
Interestingly, while the second mode offers more colorful, it tends to have less overall contrasting shades on screen at once. For example village of Serenia has about seven different 'shades' or 'colors' on screen at once in the primary mode. Whereas the second color mode, has about six colors or shades on screen. In general this gives the secondary mode one shade less than the less colorful primary mode.
This is said to be Roberta Williams least favorite version of the game, as she thought the graphics looked atrocious.
Many adventure game lists have incorrectly identified the game's title as "Adventures in Serenia" (plural). However, the true title is "Adventure in Serenia."
The reason why Adventure in Serenia wasn't included in the official King's Quest collection is stated in the READ2.WRI file:
- FYI: The Wizard and the Princess was renamed "Adventures in Serenia" and was one of the first games released for the original IBM PC. That version will not work on today's fast computers, so we have included the Apple version instead.
See also[]
- Wizard and the Princess Manual
- Wizard and the Princess prologues
- Wizard and the Princess (C64) artwork (screenshots of the digital artwork in the game)
- Wizard and the princess artwork (screenshots of the digital artwork in the game)
- Wizard and the Princess (Starcraft), the unique Japanese port of the game with original artwork.
External Links[]
- Sierra Help, Wizard and the Princess Help
- Sierra Chest, Wizard and the Princess
- Moby Games, Wizard and the Princess
- Hardcore Gaming 101, Wizard and the Princess
- Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe, IBM grey plastic folder