Curse of Enchantia is a fantasy point-and-click adventure game with comedic elements, created by Core Design, and initially released in 1992 for DOS and Amiga systems.

Overview

Curse of Enchantia was the first adventure game by Core Design. It was soon followed by Universe, a game based on a modified version of Enchantia's engine, most notably with text and dialogues added.

Curse of Enchantia was one of the first CD-ROM adventure games ever released (although it took little advantage of 640MB storage, adding only a longer animated introduction than the floppy disk version). In 1992, the game was bundled with many of the earliest CD-ROM drives.

Plot

The plot is a typical story in which a heroic boy kills an evil witch. A powerful and cruel sorceress who reigns in another world needs a human boy as an ingredient to her potion of immortality. Summoned into the cursed realm of Enchantia from the Earth, Brad, her chosen victim, must battle through this mysterious and perilous land in order to free himself and return home safely. Unless he wants to become the major ingredient in the witch's next spell, Brad must find and defeat her.

Brad starts in the witch's dungeon, hanging by your feet from the ceiling locked in chains. His further adventures will take him on a whirlwind tour of a volcanic island, an ice palace, a graveyard filled with vampires, and finally to the confrontation with the evil queen of Enchantia in her castle. Brads quest is made all the more difficult with the fact that a myriad of puzzles will have to be solved if he wants to make it in one piece to the lair of the evil witch equipped to do battle. Some of these puzzles are logical whilst some are a little more obscure.

Story

Long ago, in a land far from our own in time, space and dimension, there lived some of the most wicked and evil witches that the universe had ever known. They ruled the now forgotten land of Enchantia and committed the most terrible deeds without cause or reason. The inhabitants of Enchantia prayed for the day when the evil hold over them would be vanquished and they could finally live in peace. One of the coven, who outshone the others in her malevolence, perversion and depravity, had found a spell that would ensure her eternal youth. However, she was finding it difficult to obtain all the ingredients she needed. The main ingredient was a live male child from another dimension, and although she knew where she could get her hands on one she did not know how. The evil sorceress would need a portal and more black magic than she possessed.

She was not to be discouraged and set about her master plan. By persuading two other witches to visit mediaeval Earth on the premise of destruction and mayhem she could solve the portal problem. The two witches agreed to this dangerous task as they were led to believe they would have the power to get there and back. However when they arrived in the new world the task of opening the portal totally drained their power. The evil sorceress from Enchantia sent a "Disperse and Claim" spell through the portal and hit the two witches who had no more power with which to protect themselves. The spell consumed them and dispersed their essence and souls over the fields in which they were standing. From Enchantia the evil witch was heard to say "from this day forth there will always be communication between this field and Enchantia."

With one task complete, the witch needed more power to enable her to recant the spell once she had obtained the ingredients. To do this she needed power from all the other witches in Enchantia. She needed to trick each of them in turn into lending her their power so she could make each one young forever. Of course, each witch gave in to their own vanity and lent her their power. She now had enough to invoke the eternal youth spell. "Now, the only question is time", the witch exclaimed, while she directed her glance through the tunnel.

In the few years that passed in Enchantia, many hundreds passed in the world of men. Around the enchanted field villages sprung up, to be replaced in their turns by small towns. Finally a great city was built and its streets and houses spread into the countryside. But nothing was ever built on that mysterious field, for down the years strange tales were told of the odd happenings which had taken place there. Instead a wall was thrown around the green mantle and only the children who were too young or too stupid went to play games and fight mock battles in its cool bosom.

On one particular day our hero, Brad was playing baseball with his sister Jenny. It was a warm day, with a bright, blue sky. If only he knew that across the void of time and space, other eyes were watching the park. Cold, heartless eyes that were waiting for the moment to strike. Because back in Enchantia the evil sorceress is looking at the field through the portal. Hungrily and excitedly, she incants a summoning spell. The ball left the pitcher's hand. Brad raised the bat, then in the twinkling of an eye he was gone! Once the smoke and sparkling fairy dust had left his eyes, the boy found himself hanging by his ankles in a dank dungeon cell.

1992 computer and video games | Amiga games | DOS games | Adventure games | Fantasy computer and video gamesFreeware