阿卡拉贝斯:
Akalabeth:
世界末日
World of Doom

理查德・盖瑞特(Richard Garriott)1979
Apple II, MS-DOS 和 iOS*

Richard Garriott, 1979
Apple II, MS-DOS and iOS*

理查德·盖瑞特(Richard Garriott)在游戏业界留下了深刻的烙印,称赞他是游戏史上最重要的人物之一,绝对不能算过誉的说法。从独立程序员起步的他,靠着自身的努力,迅速跻身行业翘楚,成为最知名也最具辨识度的符号性人物。

盖瑞特与游戏界最早期的许多重要标志息息相关,诸如《创世纪》(Ultima)系列游戏,游戏开发公司 Origin Systems,甚至还包括他在游戏世界的分身“不列颠之王”(Lord British)。

每个人都有自己的起点,对盖瑞特来说,这个起点是《龙与地下城》(Dungeons & Dragons)。作为一名狂热玩家,和朋友们的跑团经历激发了他高中时代的另一个爱好:电脑游戏编程。少年时代的他利用学校中原始的电传打字机(译注:早期打字机形式的电脑,程序被列印在纸上),创造出被自己称为D&D 的简单电脑游戏。最终,经历反复更新迭代之后,他在初代D&D 的基础上开发出D&D #28(#28 为修改版本号)。

1979 年,盖瑞特开始对这款游戏进行商业化运作。他在 Apple II 平台上重写了整个游戏,将其重命名为《阿卡拉贝斯:末日世界》(Akalabeth: World of Doom),并把游戏、影印说明书以及一张自己母亲绘制的封面画一同塞进塑料密封袋中出售。

It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that Richard Garriott is one of the most important people to ever make their stamp on gaming. Starting off as a solo programmer, his endeavours would quickly propel him into the position of one of the most famous and recognised figures in the industry.

The Ultima games, the founding of Origin Systems, even his alter ego (“Lord British”); Garriott is directly responsible for several of gaming's earliest icons.

Everyone has to start somewhere though, and for Garriott that starting point was Dungeons & Dragons. An avid player, the adventures he ran with his friends served as inspiration for another of his high school hobbies: programming computer games. Working on his school's primitive teletype machine, the teenage Garriott created a simple game that he dubbed D&D. Eventually, he had progressed through so many iterations that D&D had become D&D #28.

Then, in 1979, he made it commercial. He rewrote the game for the Apple II, renamed it Akalabeth: World of Doom and sold it in ziplock bags with photocopied instructions and a cover illustration by his mother.

《阿卡拉贝斯》能够在 GOG.com 上免费下载,2011 年,App Store 也上架了游戏的 IOS 版。

* Akalabeth can be downloaded for free on GOG, and in 2011 an iOS version was released on the App Store.

游戏中只有 6 件物品。其中食物是生存的关键。斧和盾是最基础的装备。弓和双刃剑为战士专用。只有法师可以使用魔法护身符。

There are only six items in the game. Food is vital to survive, the Axe and Shield are basic equipment, the Bow and Rapier are exclusive to the Fighter, and only the Mage can use the Magic Amulet.

这个最初的版本最终由加利福利亚太平洋电脑公司(California Pacific Computer Company)负责发行,将游戏带向了更广泛的受众。对彼时还年轻的开发者来说,这款游戏算得上大获成功,他赚取了相当不错的利润,为今后的事业奠定了基础。

可惜的是,尽管掀起了热潮,但这款游戏本身并不成熟。玩家主要的任务是向不列颠之王证明自己的价值,足以担任皇家骑士。游戏里当然也有少数精彩的冒险,但主要内容不外乎这些赤裸裸的乏味情节。

踏入地牢,杀死某个特定怪物,向不列颠之王报告,之后他会告诉你,快去杀死另一个更强大的怪物,如此往复,经历数次循环后,你就通关了这款游戏。

单单这样倒也算不上太糟。事实上,之前的 CRPG 目标也无非就是到处搜刮宝物,说起来,这已经算是有了进步。遗憾的是,在玩法上,《阿卡拉贝斯》太过薄弱,无法支撑游戏的整个设计。

游戏一开始就让你选择一个幸运数字,它会作为随机数种子来生成整个游戏世界。然而,无论你选择的是哪个数字,生成的世界都一样的乏味无聊。你能够拜访的城镇里并没有真正的 NPC,怪物也绝不会出现在地下城之外。

角色创建培养的系统也几乎不存在。玩家的状态由骰点随机决定。成为战士还是法师的重大选择其实只能决定你是想使用更多的武器还是选择能容纳一些法术的魔法护身符。虽说战斗也有一点策略的成分,但基本上,玩家只需要不停按攻击键,直到有一方倒下。《阿卡拉贝斯》只能勉强说是一款包含了最初级元素的 CRPG。

This original release would find its way into the hands of the California Pacific Computer Company who offered to publish the game on a wider scale. It would become a hit for the young developer, providing the profits he needed to lay the foundation for the legacy that followed.

Sadly, for all it helped to foment, the game itself has not aged well. You're tasked by Lord British with proving yourself worthy of being a knight in the royal court. While there have certainly been adventures that launched on less, Akalabeth never grows beyond this bare-bones plot.

All it amounts to is entering a dungeon, killing a specific monster and then reporting back to Lord British so he can tell you to kill another one that's even tougher. Do this a few times and you win.

This on its own isn't necessarily a deal-breaker. In fact, none of the CRPGs that came before had any goals beside gathering treasures, so it's already an evolution of sorts. Unfortunately, Akalabeth's gameplay is just too thin to stand on its own.

As you start, the game lets you pick a “lucky number”, which serves as seed for its randomly generated overworld. Regardless of what number you pick, though, the worlds it creates are universally dull. The towns you visit have no real NPCs and you won't encounter any monsters outside of its dungeons.

Character creation and development is almost non-existent. Your stats are rolled randomly and your one big choice between playing a Fighter or a Mage is mostly just picking between more weapons options or being able to use the Magic Amulet, which holds a few magic spells. While combat can have some strategy, you'll often just press the attack button until someone dies. Akalabeth is the CRPG genre boiled down to its most rudimentary parts.

GameDB 相关游戏: 阿卡拉贝斯:末日世界 创世纪

《电脑 RPG 游戏史(The CRPG Book Project)》原书信息

英文原版主编:Felipe Pepe
原项目网址:https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/
授权协议:知识共享 署名-非商业性使用 4.0 国际许可协议 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

这本书历时四年,由 119 名志愿者共同完成。

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