Sword of Fargoal Hits the iPhone
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Well, after a quarter of century, I'm proud to announce a brand new incarnation of Sword of Fargoal. For this new iPhone version, Paul Pridham and Elias Pschernig are my partners in crime. They had been diehard Fargoal fans when we met in the early 2000s, and they painstakenly made Mac and PC ports of SoF -- complete with perfect reproductions of the original C64 SID chip sounds! This iPhone version is a whole new beast, however. Though faithfully a "retro" game at heart, the "engine" beneath the hood makes it a Ferrari in classic MGB clothing. We are using OpenGL for subtle 3D rendering of the walls as you walk, and Paul has completely written his own sound synth so that it can handle not only the SID-like sounds, but also the "orchestral" background tracks by our extremely talented composer Daniel Pemberton. Thanks for the nice SoF fan comments! Please sign up for our email newsletter or friend us on Facebook to hear the latest news and release schedule for SoF. --Faithfully, Jeff McCord
If you'd like to learn more about the remake, you can check out this preview on Touch Arcade:
In a nutshell, the game places the player within the top level of a deep series of dungeons with the quest of seeking out the legendary "Sword of Fargoal" and escaping with it from the depths of said dungeons. Complicating matters is the fact that the layout of each dungeon level is randomly generated when the player enters it, and that the dungeons are all initially bathed in darkness, revealing themselves only as the player explores. Those lucky enough to locate the sword have only 2,000 seconds to find their way out of the dungeons which, even on the way up, are randomly generated.. Not a proposition for the meek.
Or this lukewarm review on Slide To Play:
Outside of the fully functional touch controls and noticeably improved graphics, Sword of Fargoal is otherwise a respectful remake of the original. Those with nostalgia for Jeff McCord's C64 classic will probably enjoy it on iPhone too. The rest of us will appreciate the ways it differentiates itself from standard RPGs but be frustrated by the now dated design.
