The Legend of Kyrandia: Book One - Fables and Fiends
Released: 1992
Published by: Virgin Games
Developed by: Westwood Studios
Credits: Scott K. Bowen, Quing Yuan, Michael Legg, Rick Parks, Patrick J. Collins, Paul S. Mudra, Rick Gush, Frank Klepacki, Brett W. Sperry, Dwight Kenichi Okahara, Elie Arabian, Joseph B. Hewitt IV, Ren Olsen, Judith Peterson
System Requirements
| System Requirements | 8088 or 8086 CPU (80286 CPU is recommended), 640 KB RAM, DOS 3.3+, MCGA or VGA graphics. Audio support for PC speaker, Ad Lib, Ad Lib Gold, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Roland MT-32 (or LAPC-I), Pro Audio Spectrum or Tandy/PCjr. CD-ROM release requires MSCDEX 2.1 or higher and an 80386 16 MHz CPU minimum and DOS 5.0. |
|---|---|
| Original Media | Original release - four 5.25" 1.2 MB (HD) floppy disks or four 3.5" 1.44 MB (HD) floppy disks. Later release and budget version came on a single CD-ROM. |
| Languages | English, French and German |
| Installed Size | 4 MB |
Introduction
Legend of Kyrandia Book 1: Fables & Fiends is the first graphic adventure game in a trilogy, developed by Westwood Studios.
As Brandon, the prince of Kyrandia, you must pursue the elusive jester Malcolm, who has murdered King William and Queen Katherine, to recover a powerful gemstone. The kingdom's powerful magic users, known as the Mystics, imprison Malcolm in the royal castle, while their chief Kallak goes into hiding in order to raise their son Brandon, his grandson, in secret. Eighteen years later, Malcolm's prison breaks, allowing him to escape and make use of the castle's most valuable treasure called the Kyragem - a mystic stone containing the kingdom's vast magical power, in order to seek revenge. Kallak, sensing Malcolm's escape, leaves a message for Brandon before he is turned to stone by the jester. Finding him petrified, Brandon is contacted by the trees and informed that he is the only one left to defeat Malcolm.
Seeking help, Brandon meets with three of the Mystics, who each help him on his quest, including supplying him with an amulet that has gems he must restore to aid his task. In the process, he quickly learns of his identity, due to Kallak keeping the knowledge from him while he was growing up, and that the Kyragem cannot be accessed without the royal treasures. After restoring the amulet and locating one of the treasures, Brandon heads to the castle, now occupied by Malcolm, finding that his former friends and allies have been turned to stone for aiding him. Upon locating the other treasures, Brandon proceeds to the Kyragem, and defeats Malcolm by making him inadvertently reflect a spell back onto himself, turning the jester to stone.
With the land free, Brandon assumes his rightful role as Kyrandia's new king, reuniting with Kallak to celebrate the restoration of the land and the freeing of the Kyragem.
Similar to other adventure game titles of the time, it has an easy-to-use point-and-click interface, where clicking on anything will automatically initiate an action: walk, talk, pick up, use object, etc.
In 1995, the game was re-released under the budget title, The Hit Squad, and came on CD-ROM. This version required a minimum of an 80386 CPU and DOS 5.0 to run. It lacked the digitised voices of the original when configured to use the Roland MT-32/LAPC-I.
It was followed by Book Two: Hand of Fate in 1993 and Book Three: Malcolm's Revenge in 1994.
From where can it be run?
The game must be installed to your hard disk. To do so, insert the first floppy disk and run INSTALL.EXE:
Running the INSTALL utility:
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Copy Protection
The game has no copy protection.
How to Setup
After the hard disk installed is complete, the setup program will automatically run.
To configure the game's video and audio settings at any time later, you can run SETUP.EXE in the game's installation directory (default is C:\WESTWOOD\KYRACD for the CD-ROM version):
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Problems
Symptoms:
Cause:
Resolution:
To Quit the Game
Supporting Documents
Here are the original documents that came with the game:
Save Games
Versions of the game known to exist
| Version | Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | July 1992 | Original release on floppy disk (some countries came with both 5.25" and 3.5" in the same box while others were single format only). No floppy disk versions have digitised speech. |
| ? | May 1993 | CD-ROM release with digitised speech. |
| ? | 1996 | Budget "The Hit Squad" re-release on CD-ROM. Lacks the digitised speech in Roland MT-32/LAPC-I mode. |
Installed Directory Contents
Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory.
Directory of C:\GAMES\KYRANDIA . <DIR> 06/05/21 20:42 .. <DIR> 06/05/21 20:42 |