Times of Lore
Description official descriptions
The Kingdom of Albereth was under attack of barbarian forces. King Valwyn drove the barbarians away, but was wounded in battles. Searching for a place where he could rest and restore his strength, he left the city - but never returned. Now, a new hero must rise and defend his homeland.
Times of Lore is an action game with light role-playing elements, which follows the adventures of a young warrior (strong barbarian, armored knight, or quick valkyrie) to assist a weakened kingdom from various threats, and to recover special Artifacts that once made the kingdom strong.
Gameplay consists of moving the protagonist in real-time (day and night) through various terrains, like forests, towns, and dungeons. The player character gathers basic items, like health and magic potions, and increasingly powerful weapons as he completes tasks and advances the plot. Conversations are handled through key phrases. Battles involve a few types of creatures (skeletons, orcs, rogues) of which there can be various flavors.
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Credits (Commodore 64 version)
26 People (25 developers, 1 thanks) · View all
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 71% (based on 20 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 46 ratings with 5 reviews)
The Good
I like this one. Can't really remember why - but I do. I used to play this a lot on my XT, but that was like 9 or 10 years ago, so I can barely remember. I've played it again about a month ago and found that the graphics are really well drawn, the controls are decent, the engine is fast and the story is - although minimalistic - fairly compelling.
The Bad
The two real caveats in this game are the horrible music/sound effects (when there are any) and the too-simple control mechanism, which although quite easy and intuitive eventually becomes frustrating.
The Bottom Line
A good RPG games for those who love the genre.
DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4536) · 2000
An Ultima-inspired RPG that performs adequately.
The Good
I liked this game mostly for bizarre technical reasons. It's programmed very well, for one thing; the tile-based game world moves quickly, and the graphical fades/transitions are visually appealing (if a bit slow on a 4.77MHz machine).
The music by the always-talented C64 legend Martin Galway was of approximately the same quality on all sound devices supported, from the Adlib to the 3-voice Tandy chip, which was a neat trick to pull off for the lesser-quality sound devices. And support for the Adlib in 1988 was rare; Times of Lore is one of the first twenty games to support the Adlib.
The Bad
The music sections are mostly at the beginning of the game in the intro, and while very good, are too short (they repeat too quickly).
Times of Lore was also a bit too difficult for my tastes; many times I had to restart at the beginning of a section, only to get smitten once again.
The Bottom Line
Times of Lore is a great game to play if you enjoy Chris Roberts' work and are looking for an Ultima-style game from Origin that isn't Ultima itself.
DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 2000
One of the most inspiring atmospheres of Lord British's catle !
The Good
This game had it all! Good plot, Good graphics, Nice and easy interface, cool sounds, and even cool weapons (especially the knife and the magic axe). Although it is somewhat mixed Ultima, and everything in the game is a series of quests in the form "PLEASE SELECT THE RIGHT ANSWER", the game features some nice storytelling. The game has a lot (and I mean A LOT) of action. Many battles to be fought. And many quests to preform.
The Bad
Loose AI, too long journeys from town to town, and no magic skills!
The Bottom Line
A top down slash nhack from 88
DOS · by Henry Aloni (46) · 2003
Trivia
Game Art Beyond
In 2018, Times of Lore was selected as one of the biggest classics on the Commodore 64 by the creators of the C64 graphics collection Game Art Beyond. Times of Lore was honoured with a high resolution title picture (based on the Amiga title screen artwork) in a special C64 graphics format called NUFLI, along with a new C64 SID interpretation of the iconic C64 original title score.
References to the game
Although not in Times of Lore itself, the game is mentioned in Ultima V by a 'Christopher' in one of the Brittannys surrounding Lord British's castle. 'Christopher' says it will be quite a masterpiece and hopes you purchase it when he sends it off to the printing presses.
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CPCRrulez (in French)
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DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS
Compatibility information page about the original game and its DOSBox versions. -
Hall of Light
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Lemon 64
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Spectrum Computing
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The Tipshop
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Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Encyclopaedic entry for the combined platforms of the game. -
World of Spectrum
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ZX-Art - online archive of pixel art and 8-bit music
For ZX Spectrum: music, credits, pixel art. Artist's graphics artwork.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by George Shannon.
Commodore 64 added by Quapil. NES added by JRK. ZX Spectrum added by Kabushi. Amstrad CPC added by Martin Smith. Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: Terok Nor, Alaka, Malte Mundt, ZeTomes.
Game added January 20, 2000. Last modified April 4, 2024.