The Shadow of Yserbius
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Shadow of Yserbius | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Genre(s) | MUD |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
'The Shadow of Yserbius' was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community The Sierra Network, which would later become The ImagiNation Network. The game was followed by two sequels entitled The Fates of Twinion in 1993 and Ruins of Cawdor in 1995. Only The Shadows of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion were released in offline versions that could be played without an internet connection. These later releases did not become as popular as the original Shadows of Yserbius.
Yserbius was released in 1992 by one of the most popular game companies of its time, Sierra On-Line. In 1994 The Sierra Network was renamed ImagiNation Network and bought out by AT&T. It was then purchased in 1996 by AOL.
Yserbius in its online form was shut down permanently in mid-1996, along with the ImagiNation Network.
Contents |
[edit] Game play
The premise of the game was to kill an evil elemental creature called En-li-Kil. There were a number of "rooms", where up to 30, then later 60 people could meet and adventure together in groups of up to four. Combat was turn-based.
The available professions were Barbarian, Knight, Ranger, Thief, Cleric, and Wizard. Player races included Human, Orc, Elf, Troll, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, and Gremlin.
Another popular pastime was player vs player sparring. This later became corrupted by cheating, as well as version compatibility issues, which later versions tried to address, but with little success. The most popular of these cheating software was a macro called VitaminF.
Many players were members of guilds ranging from the large SoF (Soldiers Of Fortune) and KoY (Kingdom Of Yserbius), DEADZ, to the smaller guilds such as TheMercs, KoC (Knight of Chivalry), and KAAOS (Killing As An Organized Sport). Most guilds were based on role playing with very little questing being done later in the game. A handful of the guilds started in Yserbius during the early 1990's, such as SoF, TheCelts, KAAOS, DEADZ, and the New Outriders, still exist to this day.
[edit] The Tavern
The tavern was the social hub for the game. If you spent a lot of time in the tavern, you would be considered a Tavern Rat. Many games and challenges could take place verbally and Role Play was a huge deal to those participating in the Tavern.
[edit] Remakes
Doubtless due to the popularity of Yserbius, the perceived simplicity of its engine, and the fact that most of the Yserbius graphics are easily attainable, there have been several attempts to remake the game play of Yserbius.
Ruins of Cawdor (the second sequel) has been successfully patched for offline play. The patch is available for download on http://www.yserbius.org forums.
[edit] Current Projects
As of June 2006, there are no projects that are in active development.
[edit] Abandoned Projects
The first remake attempt was Gandalf's 'Yserbius project', which was in development in 1998. Gandalf, a major force in the Yserbius community, disappeared in early 1999. With his going, all information regarding his project was lost.
In mid 1999, Xenther and EtoneDarkKnight worked together on developing 'Project Asunder', a spiritual successor to Yserbius. Numerous screen shots were shown, with actual gameplay implied. However, EtoneDarkKnight fell out of communication with the public late that year, and Project Asunder was closed shortly thereafter.
In early 2000, Mithrandel announced development of 'Yet Another Yserbius' (YAY). While Mithrandel claimed to have finished development of the Tavern and extended beta test invitations to a small group of testers, no public beta test was ever released. Mithrandel later went on to develop FauxINN, a recreation of The ImagiNation Network.
