Brian Picchi, host of dozens of Apple II game reviews under the name TanRu Nomad, has discovered and released a previously unpublished Apple IIGS fantasy game. The World of Erimar was developed by Tony K Bounds of Arctic Knights in the early 1990s using HyperStudio v3.1. v0.1b of the game was then submitted for review to Roger Wager Publishing (RWP), developers and publishers of HyperStudio for the Apple IIGS. Accompanying the game was this letter from Bounds:
Dear RWP Guys:
Well here it is, my first beta release of the fantasy computer game I had mentioned a couple months back. Its in a rudimentary playable stage so feel free to try it out. Its kind of a huge project for one person to do the scripting, artwork, writing, etc., etc. but its a very satisfying project. Some of the features I’ve incorporated that you might find interesting are:
- Uses the 256-color mode of the GS giving the game a rich visually pleasing pallet range. Thanks for having this feature in HS.
- Full stereo SynthLAB created music. Currently I’m using music pulled off the SynthTunes disk. In the future original music done by a professional artist will be used.
- Entertaining sounds that enhance the play. Hear the clash of weapons as combat is engaged and the explosion of sounds as spells are cast.
- An original game system with new combat and spell mechanics, masteries (a set of skills particular to an individuals vocation), and even a never before seen new character race
There is a whole lot more to do but I thought I would send you this update so you can see just what can be done with HyperStudio.
See you again in a couple more months…
A PDF of that letter, as scanned by Picchi, is embedded below.
Picchi has made two 800K .PO disk images of the role-playing game available for download from the Internet Archive. When mounted, the volume names are prefixed with MWK — short for The Mystery of Warding Keep. The game is built in HyperStudio, but a standalone copy of HyperStudio is not needed to launch the stack. It is unknown at this time if this is the most recent version of the game, or if Bounds developed it further.
The game was found in Roger Wagner’s collection, which was excavated in December 2022 and January 2023 by Brian Picchi, Chris Torrence, and myself (Ken Gagne). To read more about that expedition, read my article in Juiced.GS Volume 28, Issue 1 (March 2023) or watch episode #148 of Torrence’s Assembly Lines video podcast.
Brian Picchi himself is developer of such games as Lamb Chops and Retro Fever. Hat tip to him announcing this game’s release on Facebook.