The interface sounds interesting on paper, but it cuts out the richness of the text parser. I find the rationale dubious: playing text parser Sierra games as a six and seven-year-old with my grandfather and uncle HELPED me want to learn to read and write—and type—better, and I’ve spoken with lots of adults who had the same experience with these types of games as kids.
"To the best of my knowledge, The Black Cauldron was not just a unique cooperation between Sierra and Disney, but, in fact, the very first graphic adventure game to be explicitly based on a movie (and, as it would turn out, Sierra’s first and last such experience). This fact alone deserves that the game be at least enshrined in a museum or something; but there’s actually quite a bit more to be said!"
I'm not so sure of that. Labyrinth was released by Lucasfilm Games in the same year, and I haven't seen any information on the exact dates for either, so it's a coin toss. I'm surprised to see no mention of that game here, as it's much more historically important today and was far more successful at the time.
Well, (a) at least Labyrinth the movie came out on the screen almost a year later than The Black Cauldron, so I would assume that the videogame probably also came out later; (b) Labyrinth the game did not really follow the plot of the movie. Other than that, you are completely right that Labyrinth is of far more importance - I'll get around to writing about it some day as well.
The interface sounds interesting on paper, but it cuts out the richness of the text parser. I find the rationale dubious: playing text parser Sierra games as a six and seven-year-old with my grandfather and uncle HELPED me want to learn to read and write—and type—better, and I’ve spoken with lots of adults who had the same experience with these types of games as kids.
"To the best of my knowledge, The Black Cauldron was not just a unique cooperation between Sierra and Disney, but, in fact, the very first graphic adventure game to be explicitly based on a movie (and, as it would turn out, Sierra’s first and last such experience). This fact alone deserves that the game be at least enshrined in a museum or something; but there’s actually quite a bit more to be said!"
I'm not so sure of that. Labyrinth was released by Lucasfilm Games in the same year, and I haven't seen any information on the exact dates for either, so it's a coin toss. I'm surprised to see no mention of that game here, as it's much more historically important today and was far more successful at the time.
Well, (a) at least Labyrinth the movie came out on the screen almost a year later than The Black Cauldron, so I would assume that the videogame probably also came out later; (b) Labyrinth the game did not really follow the plot of the movie. Other than that, you are completely right that Labyrinth is of far more importance - I'll get around to writing about it some day as well.