DragonRealms
| DragonRealms | |
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| Developer(s) | Simutronics |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X (Game is a text game, played using a custom client based on Windows telnet architecture.) |
| Release | February 1996 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG, MUD |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
DragonRealms is a medieval fantasy game set in the world of Elanthia., it was developed from 1992-1995 and released in February 1996. It was originally intended for an online service planned by the Ziff-Davis company. When Ziff-Davis did not launch the service, DragonRealms was offered on GEnie and later AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy. After AOL and other services went to flat fees instead of an hourly rate, DragonRealms was offered on the web on its own site and through the Microsoft Gaming Zone.
The design basis for the game was created by Simutronics founder David Whatley, in response to a production request for a new game to open at the same time as the then-pending Ziff-Davis online service. While in development, the team called its as yet unnamed game many things, including "GemStone IV" and "Project Bob." When the Ziff-Davis contract was cancelled, the game was renamed as DragonRealms, and opened on the GEnie service, where Simutronics already had other games including GemStone III and Orb Wars.
The game was implemented by a team of on-site employees and off-site contractors, led by Eric Slick, Elonka Dunin, and John Donham, with assistance from Tina Hill, Stephanie Shaver, David Dean, Nancy Gross, Jim Penrose, and Melissa (Callaway) Meyer, who later became producer of GemStone III. In later years, GemStone III was extensively updated and took the more appropriate name for itself of GemStone IV, though this was no relation to the earlier working title of the DragonRealms game.
The two games, DragonRealms and GemStone, are said to take place in the same game universe of Elanthia, but in different eras, though it has not always been clear which game world pre-dated the other. Both games are considered flagship products of Simutronics, and have been some of the longest-running and most popular online text games in existence. They were the top two products on GEnie, and in the mid-1990s were the top two games on America Online, together bringing in over one million hours per month of usage.
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