The Black Cauldron - ADG Episode 283

[@jasonblalock4429]

I honestly think this is one of the real hidden gems of the Sierra catalog. It's easy to ding it for the Sierra tropes, but for the time, it was incredibly player friendly. And the fact that Al Lowe managed to create a coherent branching narrative (giving it real replayability) in a 1985 AGI engine game is truly impressive. Sierra really could have learned some lessons from his design insights here.

[@Lawnie10]

That epic zoom in noise as you got rid of the annoying black space at the bottom was glorious. It's amazing how you can immediately tell what sort of game this is the second you see the interface. That classic Sierra 'you gonna DIE' graphical text parser!

[@antzpantz]

OMG. I've been wondering what this game was in the deep recesses of my memory! Thanks for making a video about it!

[@MrDVader]

This is the first Sierra game I ever played and got me into all the Sierra adventure games. We played it on a green monochrome monitor and then upgraded to a CGA video card, which was my first ever PC upgrade

[@ProBreakers]

I remember seeing this movie at the theater when it came out. I must have been about 8, we went to visit relatives one summer. The movie stuck in my head for years before it was available on DVD as an adult and I could watch it again.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Ah yes, the one Disney movie that even _Disney_ forgets about!

[@TheUnnamedGent]

Song of the south?

[@JomasterTheSecond]

@@TheUnnamedGent ...well the one _animated_ Disney movie that Disney forgets about. :v

[@AlyxxTheRat]

@@JomasterTheSecond Song of The South had animation

[@JomasterTheSecond]

@@AlyxxTheRat But it was mostly live action, so ergo not an animated movie.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

@@JomasterTheSecond Yeah I'm just being pedantic lol

[@aaronmarko]

Good to see you back and hopefully fully recovered from your recent health issues.

[@Pixelmusement]

I'm not, but I'm well enough to do my job! :B (...mostly; my Sunday livestreams are still out of the question.)

[@rjherche]

I remember my brother playing the CGA version of this game when I was a kid

[@thejoin4687]

"How would you like to *describe* this saved game" :)

[@GodIsTheReason]

It may sound a bit silly, but I actually really love this game, more so even than the first Leisure Suit Larry (which I certainly also have a soft spot for). Maybe it has a lot to do with the fact that I really loved the movie as a kid, and back then I always wished I could wield that awesome sword, and I played plenty of make-believe about it, haha!

[@pjgathergood6987]

Really enjoyed this entry. A long time old school Sierra / LucasArts fan, for whether reason I've never given this game a look, I think as it's tied to a movie that I'm not familiar with (and in truth probably have little interest in), but looks like it might be worth a play anyway. Would love to see more of Sierra/LucasArts/similar adventure games covered. :)

[@fastbreak333]

Man, there is still something weird about Disney hiring Sierra to make a game for them instead of Capcom or doing it in-house.

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

Yes it is weird but it looks really cool

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

@@Beemans whahoa!

[@Pixelmusement]

I think some people forget that Sierra was making games BEFORE they came up with the AGI engine. Definitely have to cover one of their super-old titles someday! ;)

[@stefanfriedt3450]

@@Pixelmusement I still remember B.C.’s Quest for Tires from the C64.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, they did a few educational games starring Mickey and Donald around the same time.

[@mrportfoleyo]

This game was my gateway drug into the Sierra adventure game line up... It was the first game I've ever beaten and the first fame I got a perfect score.. all without using a cheat code. It brings be fondly back to being a kid in the late 80's... after that I moved onto the king's quest, police quest and LSL series.. I'm surprised with all the remakes done on those titles that black cauldron never received a reboot.. I'd be stoked to see one pop up in the future.. GREAT REVIEW!

[@Pixelmusement]

It would require a Disney licensing deal to get such a remake made which would probably be a trip and a half trying to get nowadays. :P

[@TheMoogleMaster]

I remember this one. Never got far into it, but it is one it's an interesting game. I've always felt this movie is underrated, though I wouldn't put it on the level of Robin Hood and Fox And The Hound at the time which are some of my favorites.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

It was Disney taking a risk and doing something darker and more mature. Even if it wasn't as good as their other movies, I still respect them for doing that.

[@lordmithras47]

I remember watching a retrospective review of the film on KZbin. The film was one of the first animations to use some basic CGI, I believe. Thanks for the review!

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Technically TRON was the first Disney movie to use CGI, but that was in a live action movie. I think Black Cauldron was the first one of their animated films to do it. Either that or Oliver & Company.

[@skybite]

I think the great mouse detective used it too

[@AlyxxTheRat]

@@skybite it did during the sequence in the clock tower. The gears and such were CGI.

[@thepirategamerboy12]

I immediately recognize the sound effect at 2:59 from King's Quest III.

[@Pixelmusement]

Keeping in mind this was the third AGI title ever made; King's Quest III didn't exist yet! ;)

[@LeoFan93]

Bit late on this, but apparently the magic food wallet originated from the original books, but it was used by Gurgi instead of Taran.

[@AndrewTJackson]

So it turns out that The Black Cauldron had _way_ more content than kid me realised... Nice!! I got scared playing this game as a teeny tiny kid, not gonna lie. :-)

[@marcsm2008]

That zoom sound effect earned you an award, my friend. I don't know what award it was, but it was an award. Anyway, amazing review, as usual. Thanks for making it. ^^ I have no history with this game. I was already alive and gaming at the time, but since I couldn't speak English yet I avoided story-heavy games. The first adventure game I've ever played was Maniac Mansion (mostly because it was less text-heavy than Sierra games) and ended up loving the genre afterwards. But this game, for some reason, flew over my radar, even though I ended up liking Sierra games more than Lucas Arts'.

[@demogorgonzola]

Game within game in next ADG Pro... maybe Tyrian and its Destruct? :)

[@kcowolf]

Tyrian was my first thought when he mentioned that.

[@EdmondDantes224]

Gurgi love crunchings and munchings! Gurgi love Sierra On-line! Gurgi think Black Cauldron is underrated. Gurgi think books are better, but Gurgi still found movie fun. Gurgi also wonder if anyone else ever notice that Disney Gummi Bears characters look a lot like Black Cauldron. Gurgi go sleep now, head hurt from write.

[@XanthinZarda]

You know, it would be Disney who would go out of their way to insist that AGI engine games are too complicated for kids.

[@IllidanS4]

This looks like a game that would be quite nicely playable with a point-and-click interface without any changes to the game.

[@Pixelmusement]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's possible in ScummVM; as usual I forgot to give that a try. :B

[@stillnotscaredofspiders]

"Eeerwhoop." I could listen to that all day...

[@Maggerama]

Lmao, thanks for showing the worst ending!

[@TheJamieRamone]

If u go UPstream u can recover your flask?

[@Pixelmusement]

Yup. You can indeed get ye flask here. ;)

[@TheJamieRamone]

@@Pixelmusement Design or video reviewer flaw?

[@Pixelmusement]

@@TheJamieRamone ...yes. :P

[@TheJamieRamone]

@@Pixelmusement XD

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Sweet Jesus, this game wins the award for "most unreadable title card".

[@bythegods5683]

Played it as a kid. Definitely too hard for me to get very far at the time! I did like it though.

[@AndrewTJackson]

Same!! I was too young. :-)

[@donwald3436]

12:04 That's what you get for not memorizing the movie lol.

[@Christopher-N]

Though I'm not a fan of this type of game (I'll stick with the parser, provided the game isn't impossibly difficult, like _Humbug_ ), I love the Disney feature... so, thank you for reviewing this game. :) When Disney decided to release dark titles, they were good, and I feel _The Black Cauldron_ goes underappreciated.

[@Lovuschka]

Hey, that game is from my birth year!

[@RoboticMagus]

Huh. I've never heard about this game OR the movie!

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

The Empire of Mike approves this message

[@Dukenukem155]

Hmm freeware I never heard of, I'll give this a try

[@RanFuRe]

I really hope the games within a game - game is system shock ^^ I just can't get enough of that game.

[@SonataFanatica]

Fifty bucks for a boxed PC copy? Yeah right... I wish!

[@Pixelmusement]

Those were the sale prices I was bringing up for recently sold copies. Yes, the ones you can find right now are overpriced, but the prices sellers are trying to get does NOT reflect the prices of items which actually get sold. :P

[@SonataFanatica]

@@Pixelmusement Maybe it's because I'm searching eBay from Europe (having set "worldwide" as a filter option), but the last sold ones I found were 120 dollars for the Apple II version (sold BuyItNow item) and 90 dollars for the IBM PC version (auction, 4 bids).

[@Pixelmusement]

@@SonataFanatica Yeah, region does indeed make a difference. I was checking the standard USA site. :B

[@RoninCatholic]

Honestly I'm surprised they based the game on the movie instead of basing it directly on the books, if anything.

[@Pixelmusement]

Since Disney was footing the bill they clearly wanted the game to reflect the movie they were creating. :B

[@Roobar_Plays]

LOL! No "mature warning" screaming at your face and ears? I still have nightmares from your warning messages...

[@Pixelmusement]

That just means they're WORKING. >;)

[@jasonzuvela]

Do not listen with headphones.

[@Pixelmusement]

I use headphones when getting this all together and checking the final render for balance. So long as you're set to comfortable volume levels and not excessive it should be fine... granted, not everyone's ears can tolerate old PC Speaker or Tandy 3-Voice music. ;)

[@MortimerZabi]

Ah, the game neither Disney nor Activision want to do anything with.

[@zzco]

A game within a game, huh? Is a text game? :p

[@jeremygregorio7472]

The Apple II GS version will technically run on a regular Apple II but it's so slow if you started it in 1987 you'd be finishing it sometime near the end of Joe Biden's second term