Conquests of the Longbow | |
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Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
Producer(s) | Guruka Singh-Khalsa |
Designer(s) | Christy Marx |
Programmer(s) | Richard Aronson |
Artist(s) | Kenn Nishiuye |
Composer(s) | Mark Seibert |
Platform(s) | DOS, Amiga |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Adventure, Puzzle |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood is a graphic adventure game designed by Christy Marx and published by Sierra On-Line in 1991. It is the second (and last) part of the Conquests series, which began with Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail. It features VGA graphics and uses Sierra's standard icon-driven interface first seen in King's Quest V.
The player assumes the role of the legendary Robin Hood in his efforts to restore King Richard I to the throne of England. To do so, he must collect enough money to pay the king's ransom while avoiding the efforts of the Sheriff of Nottingham to capture and hang him and all his men.
Conquests of the Longbow is notable for the amount of historical and cultural research and detail included in the story's setting and puzzles. The game manual lists twenty-eight volumes in Conquest's bibliography, including Robin Hood by J.C. Holt, The Outlaws of Medieval Legend by Maurice Keen, and The White Goddess by Robert Graves. The manual also includes essays by Marx outlining the history of the legend and the approximate dates at which different characters were incorporated into the Robin Hood legend, such as Friar Tuck and Marian in the 15th century. (Though the essay mentions Guy of Gisbourne, Gisbourne does not appear in the game.) Other essays cover the tree lore and early British history and video game piracy.
Most of the game takes place in a standard adventure game mode, in which the player causes an image of Robin Hood to walk between screens and interact with characters and objects by clicking on them. For navigation between screens, the game has several hot spots built into a map. There are also minigames involving archery, combat and Nine Men's Morris with adjustable difficulty.