GOG.com is selling Simon the Sorcerer on the cheap

[Ben Paddon]

In 1993 Adventure Soft put out a little LucasArts-style point ‘n’ click adventure game called Simon the Sorcerer. In the game you play as Simon, a young teen thrust into a world of wizard, worlocks, fairytale and copyright infringement disguised as homage. It was quite good.

Later a CD-ROM version was released touting a “Talkie” soundtrack, and the voice of the titular boy wizard was provided by none other than Chris Barrie, who won the role despite being neither a boy nor, crucially, a wizard.

Anyway, GOG.com is having a sale on Simon the Sorcerer games right now, including its sequels (which Barrie isn’t in). They’re $1.49 each in the US, so I can’t imagine they’re more than a couple of quid in the UK. You can buy the first one here, or the second one here. You can also buy the third one, but it’s rubbish so I shan’t be linking to it.

Adventure Soft also put out The Feeble Files a few years later, featuring the voice of Robert Llewellyn. That one isn’t on sale, but you can buy it anyway if you like. I’m not your dad.

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[Richietee]

I bought these a while ago as I played the first one years ago and had no idea back then it was Chris’ voice!
Never heard of The Feeble Files but will have to check it out!

[Moonlight]

I really enjoyed it. It just took forfucking ever to figure out to use the pig on the door.

[Captain Bollocks]

It’s a shame Chris Barrie is on public record as suggesting people should do other things with their time than play video games, especially when he will happily accept money to perform in them.

[Nick R]

I bought one of the CD-ROM releases of Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2 years ago, when Game used to stock several shelves’ worth of Sold Out Software budget re-releases. As I recall, the main thing that annoyed me was that unlike every other talkie point-and-click adventure, you could have either subtitles or voice acting, but not both at the same time. I think that was fixed in the sequel, but I didn’t play much of that because I wanted to finish the first game first. Which I never did because, let’s be honest, it was never one of the great adventure games, was it? (Though I remember the original Amiga release getting some praise for its lush graphics: nine floppy disks!)

Robert Llewellyn turned up in Discworld Noir as well. Unfortunately, most people without access to a Windows 98SE-era PC are unlikely to ever play it again. I know my copy stopped working after one graphics card or OS upgrade. (And unlike Grim Fandango, which stopped working for me at around the same time, Discworld Noir isn’t likely to get a remaster.)

[Phil]

“It’s a shame Chris Barrie is on public record as suggesting people should do other things with their time than play video games, especially when he will happily accept money to perform in them.”

I agree. It really is a shame that Chris isn’t a gamer, yet received remuneration for a great job he did in something that many people continue to enjoy.

…wait, what?

[Hamish]

Well, there is a difference between not being a gamer and slagging off an entire medium as a waste of time that people should avoid, but I do need to see the original quote first. For all I know the entire thing could be dog shite.

[Ben Paddon]

As I recall, the main thing that annoyed me was that unlike every other talkie point-and-click adventure, you could have either subtitles or voice acting, but not both at the same time.

They did fix that for the iOS re-release a few years ago, but I think that’s since been pulled from the App Store, which is a shame. It actually highlighted some differences in the dialogue – I guess they tightened and tweaked some stuff during recording.

I think the assumption, way back in the Year of Our Lord One-Thousand-Nine-Hundred-and-Ninety-Three, was that if you could hear the characters you wouldn’t need to see what they were saying. Which, y’know, I can understand the thought process that goes into that sort of decision, but what I don’t understand is exactly zero people during this process stopping to say “Hang on, what about deaf people?”

Personally I was always more baffled by Chris’ read of the line “There you are” when Simon gives the Wizards their gold coins. He reads it like he’s found someone he was looking for. It always sticks out to me.

[Author]

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