The Black Cauldron

Alternate paths

This was one of the first graphical animated adventures to provide true multiple paths through a game. There was the basic route that adhered to the plot of the movie, but completing that route would not net you a full score. The game actually rewarded players more, who tried different paths through the game, such as taking Hen Wen to the Fairy realm under the lake. To get a maximum score in the game you had to take these alternate paths. This encouraged players to think for themselves and be creative, instead of copying the movie storyline. Additionally it meant the game had great replayability because there were many solutions to a lot of the puzzles.

Books

That this game is based on the Disney movie with the same name may be obvious, but the movie it self is based on a series of fantasy books by writer Lloyd Alexander set in the magical land of Prydain.

The first book of the series was released in 1964 and is called The Book of Three. This is the exact title of the book that Dalben is reading when you enter his cottage at the start of the game.

The other books of the series are: * The Black Cauldron * The Castle of Llyr * Taran Wanderer * The High King

Code Decryption

The infamous sierra name of "Avis Durgan" appears in the code for this game as well: it is the key for the code encryption.

Engine

The Black Cauldron was the only Sierra game to be developed in three generations of Sierra's game system, As AGI v1 (a booter disk), AGI v2 and AGI v3.

Freeware release

The Black Cauldron is now available to download from Al Lowe's website.

References

The Black Cauldron features a reference (shameless plug) for another then-current Sierra adventure title, a practice that had already become common by then.

To see this one, walk Taran repeatedly into the east wall of the room where Fflewddur makes his brief appearance. At a certain spot he'll discover a crack in the wall and peek through, finding somebody on the other side playing King's Quest 3: To Heir Is Human.

Remakes

As of 2000, this is the second most remade Sierra title next to King's Quest.

Information also contributed by Anthony Bull, Gerauchertes, jeff leyda, Roedie, Terrence Bosky and Yakumo