WARRIORS OF THE ETERNAL SUN TM

THE GOBLIN HORDES ARE AT THE WALLS OF THE DUKE’S CASTLE, BAYING FOR BLOOD. SUDDENLY, THE SKY ERUPTS, AND THE HUMAN AND GOBLIN ARMIES ARE SUCKED INTO THE VOID. SO BEGINS THIS EPIC AND EXCLUSIVE MEGA DRIVE RPG. FOR THE DUKE!

WORDS BY GRAEME MASON

Buyouts in the games industry are a hot topic today, with acquisitions such as Microsoft’s eye-watering deal to subsume Activision Blizzard into the Bill Gates empire dominating the news. It’s not a new phenomenon, though; 30 years ago, publisher Virgin saw enough in the Westwood Associates development studio to table a bid and invest heavily in the company. “We sold Westwood to Virgin in June of 1992,” says Louis Castle, cofounder of Westwood along with Brett Sperry, and Warriors Of The Eternal Sun’s chief designer. “The extra investment and the amazing Virgin marketing team helped [us] produce a series of notable games throughout the Nineties.” Sci-fi pointand-click adventure Blade Runner, the hugely popular Command & Conquer series and RPGs such as Lands Of Lore firmly established the studio on the map.

“ED ANNUNZIATA AT SEGA WAS SSI ABOUT GENESIS RPG BASED LICENCE”

LOUIS CASTLE

» [Mega Drive] The goblins and humans face off in this atmospheric cutscene.

“We started Westwood in my parent’s garage,” grins Louis. “After shipping our first game later that year, we moved to a small office in Las Vegas and started to grow.” Having already published a brace of RPGs under the Infocom banner by the late-Eighties, Louis and Brett had forged a relationship with SSI, owners of the licence to create Dungeons & Dragons-based videogames. Hillsfar and DragonStrike came first before Westwood and SSI hit gold with Eye Of The Beholder. Next, it was time to take D&D to the Mega Drive. “Ed Annunziata at Sega was talking to SSI about making a Genesis RPG based on its licence,” says Louis. “Westwood’s history with the Eye Of The Beholder series made us a natural fit given our deep knowledge of D&D and our success in translating the ruleset into a real-time computer-based RPG.” Having run his first tabletop campaign in 1978, Louis’ experience with the game was extensive. The latest campaign, set within the D&D canon, concerned the planet of Mystara, also known as The Hollow World, where life prospered inside rather than outside its outer crust. As Louis explains, the name also formed the Mega Drive game’s working title. “We used the same name to telegraph to D&D fans that this game was set in a new world with slightly different rules than the AD&D set.” With Louis’ experience in Dungeons & Dragons established with his ten years plus campaign, he began formulating a new story. “We didn’t specifically follow any of the prepared modules, but we did borrow liberally from them for characters, settings and subplots.”