The Quest for Doriath, II. (†)

Tape image from the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History

Note: first two posts about The Quest for Doriath here and here.

I waited few days before giving you all an update, but sadly I have to say that all my efforts to contact Ian Gray and Lee Braine have been unsuccessful. However I finally found someone who owns an actual copy of Doriath, confirming me that it's a quite hard title to get.

Museum of Computer Adventure Game History, which is the most amazing CRPGs/Adventures Online Museum around, is the place you have to visit if you want to see a real copy of this game. In fact here you can find the scans of the inlay and tape.

Here's anyway, the state of the my research so far. 

Description

Authors: Ian Gray, Lee Braine

Official Publication: 1985, Cassette Budget Version (Transparent Case) 

Official Publisher: Virgin/Rabbit.

Other Versions 

Disk Version: appeared in Italy under the name of Merlino on the Loving Disk Compilation 10. Merlino, anyway, is probably an unofficial/not licensed release of Doriath. (TBC)

Literature

Advertising: Probably never advertised (TBC).

Official Reviews: ZZAP! Issue 64, p 18-19, 1985

Webography

Museum: Doriath, official first release Cassette version.

Fanpage: Doriath Dungeon

Software: Gamebase64

However my research for is not over, I will continue my attempt to acquire and preserve another copy of this game and understand - possibly - why the circulation of the game is so low. Of course, any update will be posted here.

And as Fedora said somewhere else: You lost today, kid. But that doesn't mean you have to like it. 

The Quest for Doriath, I. (†)

After few days of researches, I have probably collected few more informations even if I'm still not clear about the two main questions I have raised before.

• Why this game is so hard to find?
• Was a disk version ever produced for Commodore 64?

Let's see some progress I have made and the research path followed.

Official Magazines (Literature)

I found just one review on ZZAP! UK Version which refers only to a cassette version published in the 1985. No advertising or other references found elsewhere.

Videogaming Guides (Literature)
I have managed to find only one reference on Vintropedia 2009 which mentions only the existence of the budget tape version of it.

Webarchives (Archives)

All the main online video game archives do not mention at about a disk version of the game but only a budget cassette version published by Rabbit/Virgin in 1985. Only one collector on Lemon64 actually claims to have Disk version of the game. I tried to contact him with no luck. 

Retro Shops (Traders)

None of the retrogaming shops I know have a copy of the game and it seems to be missing from eBay from at least two years.

Collectors (Human & Historical)

I have contacted some people that could possibily have an original copy of the game. On four people (all collectors and game fans) claimed not to have an original copy but just dumped versions found on internet.

Clues acquired

Scanning the interesting Doriath Dungeon website I realized that actually one disk version of the game existed. An edition of Doriath was published under the name "Merlino" on the disk compilation Loving Disk issue 10. I have to say that in Italy, there was a terrible habit to illegally publish official game just changing their names with something different (e.g. Doriath to Merlin). These games were mainly sold as compilation in the newsagents market channel. This one could be the case, as far as I haven't found any other official reference to an Italian conversion of the game.

Compilation Cover, Italian edition

Article contained in the Compilation manual

Here's a translation of the article above:

The Army Of The Dragon.

Immediately after loading you hear background music.  You press the fire button to begin (joystick in port 2).  In the cloths of an ancient magician you must kill a dragon that lives in the ice.  Guilty of having bloodied the region of Doriath and of causing the death of hundreds of poor peasants, it has taken refuge in a deep cave.

But the magician Merlin is not far away, and goes to the cave with his magic, finding many treasure chests along the way.  His power against the army of the dragon is strong, with the spell by the name of Plebata that allows him to defeat any enemy.  The wisdom of the magician is tested to its limit, as different magic is required in different occasions.

Pressing space selects the spell, and when the spell name turns white, then you can use the spell.  By keeping the fire button pressed you can direct the spell onto the enemy; release the fire button to use the spell.  In the following line you can see the number of stamina potions and keys you've found.  To use items, press F1 to move the selection arrow, and F7 to use.  The magician Merlin should have no problem defeating the evil Dragon made from ice.

Source: Doriath Dungeon.

Next Steps
The only missing thing at this stage, it would be to go straight to the original source. Since Rabbit Software and Virgin wouldn't be a good choice, I will attempt to contact Ian Gray & Lee Braine, the two original game coders instead.

Doriath (Commodore 64, 1985) and the Crux Desperationis (†)

Front Cover, Cassette version

The cross you see in brackets on the title of this post represents the symbol which Greek and Latin translators used to mark inconsistent or unclear part of the text (†). That particular sign was called crux desperationis and similarly I will use that sign when a particular game meets one of the following cases:

• Not easy or impossible to find;
• Release date uncertain;
• Announced and never released;
• Released and never announced.

The first crux I'm presenting it's an example of the first case scenario: "almost" impossible to find. Doriath is a minor Commodore 64 game which I personally never seen in its original form. The best I could do was just to retrieve scans of inlay, a dumped version and a detailed fan webpage. At this stage I can guess that since collectors and users didn't consider this game peculiar and interesting, it never satisfied the basic supply and demand criteria. But still something is not clear: why if even collectors don't really care about it, the original version is not on the market at all?

• It has been printed just in few copies?
• The game didn't sell well and all unsold stocks disappeared?

Last night so, I wondered if I could find any real trace of this piece but nothing again and even if a dumped copy is easy to find, it can't cool down that compulsion to find, possess and know more about it.

Anyway, one thing came up last night: Doriath was released either on disk (only C64), according to what one user claims on his Lemon64 personal game list.

From this tiny clue, I'm going start my research again. Updates - hopefully - soon.

Edit: I just want to mention the only Doriath fan page existent at the moment: site here.