Simon the Sorcerer is a 1993 point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Adventure Soft, for Amiga and MS-DOS. The story focuses on a boy named Simon who is transported into a parallel universe of magic and monsters, where he embarks on a mission to become a wizard and rescue another from an evil sorcerer. The setting was inspired by the novels of the Discworld series, and incorporates parodies on fantasy novels and fairy tales, such as The Lord of the Rings and Jack and the Beanstalk. The lead character's design was inspired by that of the fictional British television character Blackadder. The character was voiced by Chris Barrie in the CD re-release.

The game was well received by critics, who praised the humour, graphics and gameplay, with some minor criticism towards the plot. Simon the Sorcerer went on to become a video game series, with a sequel in 1995, Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe. The game was later released for PC in 2008 on GOG.com. A 20th Anniversary Edition was developed by MojoTouch and released on Google Play in 2013.

Gameplay

thumb|250px|left|A screenshot of Simon the Sorcerer. The game employed the same style of verbal commands found in other titles at the time, including [[The Secret of Monkey Island.]]

As a point-and-click adventure game, the player controls the protagonist, Simon, by using the mouse. The iOS and Android versions use touchscreen controls instead. A menu system is provided for loading, saving and quitting the game via a postcard contained in the inventory. A fast-travel system is also provided in the form of a map in the inventory that can be used up until a certain point in the story.

Synopsis

Setting

The story takes in a parallel universe to the real world, where magic and monsters exist, although it contains some modern items and elements. The game's world features elements that are parodies of those from popular fantasy novels and fairy tales, including Rapunzel, Sometime after his birthday, Simon hears Chippy playing around in the loft, to which he discovers it holding the book in its mouth. Reading it, he notes it is titled "Ye Olde Spellbooke", and unwittingly blurts out a spell on one of the pages. A portal suddenly appears, which Chippy enters. Simon follows after him and ends up in another world, dressed in a wizard's robe. After Chippy helps Simon escape a group of goblins, Simon follows Chippy to a village, and is brought to the home of the wizard Calypso.

Inside the house, Simon finds a letter addressed to him from Calypso, who reveals he was responsible for bringing him into his world to help defeat the evil sorcerer Sordid. Simon learns Calypso has since been kidnapped and that he must rescue the wizard in order to be able to go home. Per Calypso's instructions, Simon meets with a group of wizards in the village pub and asks them to make him a wizard. Woodroffe said that Adventure Soft (then known as HorrorSoft) had done enough horror games and wanted to try a comedy game. Switching genres prompted the name change. He also explained he was invented because they needed someone to compete with characters such as Rincewind, and that the game was inspired by the Discworld books and Monkey Island. Mike Woodroffe said that the game was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons magic stories. Other influences, according to Simon Woodroffe, included Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, and Monty Python.) continuously. The world was created for the characters rather than the puzzles, and the story was wrapped around characters the team liked. Woodroffe believed that Adventure Soft were able to rival more experienced studios due to their small team, all of whom had the same goals and passion for the game.

Simon the Sorcerer was released on floppy disk in 1993 for the Amiga and IBM PC compatibles. It was re-released in 1994 for the Amiga CD32 and PC CD-ROM, with an enhanced soundtrack featuring Chris Barrie as the voice of Simon. Simon Woodroffe stated that he had Barrie in mind when writing the scripts (Woodroffe said he is a fan of Red Dwarf and Arnold Rimmer The game was published in the United States by Activision. A patch was released, fixing compatibility issues with Windows ME, 2000, and XP. Simon the Sorcerer was released on GOG.com in December 2008. In 2009, the game was re-released for the iPhone by iPhSoft. A new version titled '20th Anniversary Edition was developed by MojoTouch and released for Android in August 2013. This version featured new animations and icons, remastered music, high-definition graphics, and updated game menus. A 25th Anniversary Edition was released on the iOS App Store, Steam and GOG.com on 3 April 2018.

| AdvGamers = 4/5 (DOS)

| AmAction = 90% (Amiga)

| AmComputing = 89% (Amiga)<br />80% (CD32)

| AmFormat = 70% (Amiga)<br />

80% (CD32)

| AmPower = 57% (CD32)

| CVG = 86% (CD32)

| Gamezebo = 4/5 (PC)

| Hyper = 91% (PC)

| JS = 85% (PC)

| JXV = 17/20 (DOS & Amiga)

| PCZone = 86%

| rev1 = CU Amiga

| rev1Score = 90% (Amiga)<br /> 90% (CD32)

| rev5 = The One

| rev5Score = 89% (Amiga)<br /> 89% (CD32)

Simon the Sorcerer received critical acclaim: across all platforms, the humour and visuals in particular were commended, although criticisms included the controls and the linear nature. The game's global sales surpassed 600,000 units by September 1999.

The CD32 version was noted for its speech. CU Amigas Dean Evans was impressed with "sumptuous" backgrounds and the animation, and believed the main selling point was the digitised speech, especially Chris Barrie as Simon. The Ones reviewer corroborated others' opinions on the graphics, finding them to be "stunning", and also believed the atmosphere was augmented by the speech. Computer Gaming World stated that the "wacky, tongue-in-cheek interactive fantasy [...] features a rich world of tasty puzzles designed to test the wits of the most astute adventurer while keeping the humor dial turned up to the max". Jeuxvideo.com described the characters' dialogue as "crazy" and praised the amount of humour, but they believed the adventure is over too quickly. GameRankings wrote the PC version has a rating of 86 per cent. The iPad and Android versions appeared on Pocket Gamers Top 10 point-and-click adventure games for their respective platforms.

In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Simon the Sorcerer the 44th-best adventure game ever released.

References

Sources

  • Official website
  • Simon the Sorcerer Art gallery