ShadowCaster

aka: ShadowCaster CD

Released

1993 on DOS

Releases by Date (by platform)

1993 (DOS)
1994 (PC-98)

Publishers

Developers

Raven Software Corporation

Moby Score

7.6

#5,145 of 158K

Critics

78% (17)

Players

(27)

Ranking

#344 on DOS

Collected By

81 players

Genre: Action
Perspective: 1st-person
Setting: Fantasy

Buy (updated 6/5 10:07 PM)

DOS
$29.99 used at Amazon eBay

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Description official descriptions

Living in a peaceful land with a man he called grandfather, Kirt has always thought he was just an ordinary human. One day, following a storm, the old man told Kirt that he was the last of The People - an ancient race that possessed the ability to shapeshift into magical creatures. Kurt's parents and the rest of The People were slaughtered by followers of the outcast god Malkor - former renegade shapeshifters who got corrupted by his promises of power. Now, Malkor's minions are after Kirt, and he must recall the techniques of his race to defeat evil.

ShadowCaster is a 3D first-person fantasy-themed action game with light role-playing elements. Utilizing an engine similar to that of Wolfenstein 3D, the game adds to it the abilities to jump, swim, and (under certain circumstances) fly. The game's stand-out feature are Kirt's shapeshifting abilities. Throughout the game, he will be able to transform into magical creatures, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, which must be taken into account during combat and exploration. These include a four-armed cat who can see invisible things; a leprechaun who can fit into tight spaces and unleash a swarm of insects; a dragon who can fly, breathe fire and attack with his tail, and others. Some of Kirt's forms can use magic, which requires magic points to cast.

The CD-ROM enhanced version features enhanced redbook audio narration, two new levels, and 3D rendered cutscenes.

Spellings

כוחות האופל - Hebrew spelling
シャドウキャスター - Japanese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

46 People · View all

Design	Brian Raffel Steve Raffel
Lead Programming	Steven Coallier
Programming	Victor Breuggemann Kurt Schallitz Carl Stika
Additional Programming	Ben Gokey Rick Johnson David Stidolph
Music / Sound Programming	John Miles
Graphics / Artwork	Shane Gurno Brian Pelletier Scott Rice James Sumwalt
Music Composition, Arrangements & Conversions	Marc Schaefgen
Digital Sound Effects	Randy Buck
Audio Direction	Marc Schaefgen Randy Buck
Cover Art	Denis R. Loubet
Packaging	Jennifer Davis Colin Dodson Al Carnley
Documentation	Al Carnley Melissa Tyler Victor Penman
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Discussion

Subject	User	Date
Does the game ShadowCaster support keyboard controls?	And Wan	2017-02-01 11:22:31
How It looks, screenshots, details, etc	RaVeN RaVeN (32)	2014-03-12 13:55:13

Trivia

Background

"ShadowCaster was done in 1992-1993. We started off doing it for EA and it was to be Black Crypt II. After we had the game designed, EA bought Origin and felt that we should take advantage of the Ultima World and make it some type of Ultima game. We started to turn it into an anti-Paladin Ultima game. Then it was decided that perhaps we should make it into a Bard's Tale spin-off. But that too fell by the wayside, and finally we came up with the idea of morphing a character into different types of creatures that had different abilities. We licensed a pre-Doom engine from id and we were underway with ShadowCaster. I must add that I really loved the concept for ShadowCaster, but hated the story and the name, and wish I could go back and redo it!" - Brian Raffel

Extra Levels

You can find the solutions of the two new levels added in the CD-Enhanced Version of Shadowcaster (Level 24 and 25) in the "shadowin.pdf" file in the "docs" directory of your Shadowcaster CD. They are added as an addition to the Shadowcaster clue book.

Engine

ShadowCaster used a heavily modified version of the Wolfenstein 3-D engine, licensed from id Software and written during the summer of 1992. The original ShadowCaster was published in 1993; this makes it the first commercial game released with classic "2.5D Doom engine" improvements (distance fogging, non-orthogonal walls, textured ceilings and floors) before DOOM itself came out.

Secret Credits

In the Lava Tunnels (Level 21), after you receive Grost (the final MetaForm), if you backtrack to earlier in the level, there is a wall near the hourglass that only the Grost can break down. If you break down this wall, there is a "Royal Book" behind the wall. When you first pick this book up, you can read the game credits (Producers, Testers, etc) from it. Once you read through it once, there does not appear to be a way to read it again.