Showing posts with label Shadowgate 64 for Nintendo 64 print ad (1999). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shadowgate 64 for Nintendo 64 print ad (1999). Show all posts

Monday, March 2, 2015

Shadowgate 64 for Nintendo 64 (1999)

Shadowgate 64 Trial of the Four Towers advertisement
Original ad published in the August 1999 issue of Tips & Tricks (no. 18)

Muddy textures for an obscure Nintendo cult hit


Shadowgate 64. Trials of the Four Towers (1999) is the 64-bit follow-up to the original Shadowgate (1987) for the NES, a point-and-click adventure game originally released for the Apple Macintosh.

The non-console version of the game became somewhat famous for it’s gory and humorous descriptions of your death. Since this was all text-based, it tried to leave little to the imagination of gamers. This same style was ported to the NES version of the game. Apart from that, it was just your average point-and-click adventure set in some fantastical Medieval land. 

All of the original Shadowgate deaths were something of a curiosity back in the days of the NES. The game was also very dark. The music, although repetitive, was memorable and atmospheric. The puzzles, inventive. So gamers expected good things when the sequel for the game was finally released in 1999.

But Trials of the Four Towers lost all of its original quaintness. The graphics are terrible, the sound, almost nonexistent. Like most of the 64 bit games of the era, it places you in a first person view, à la Golden Eye, but in a plodding, grey, boring world. It still was very text-driven. The puzzles are still there, but do not translate well to the muddy textures of Nintendo’s machine. 

That was also the case with the printed advertisement shown here. Trials of the Four Towers looked like a boring game even before you bought it! There’s some weird staff in the very center of the image, and your generic cast of Dungeons and Dragons heroes to the right. On the left are actual game screens that look 100 times brighter than what you would encounter when you inserted the game on your N64. 

A scene every NES owner of the game saw quite a bit. 


Shadowgate 64 for Nintendo 64 print ad copy


Shadowgate 64

Trials of the Four Towers

Available Now!


Vatical Entertainment