Realms of Arkania Trilogy to be Rereleased Though JoWooD

JoWooD included a release list in a PR about their about their quarterly results a couple of days. On it was a particularly interesting detail: DSA Nordlandtrilogie, among the games listed for worldwide release.
The Nordlandtrilogie, is the series of three classic RPG in the The Dark Eye p&p universe sold under the name Realms of Arkania in the English gaming world. Back in the day these games were published by SirTech. Part of the trilogy are Blade of Destiny, Star Trail and Shadows over Riva.
Not many details are know yet. Only that the product will be sold for a budget price, the DVD will contain the CD versions and all games are working under both XP and Vista. At least one of the original games came with a sound track on a separate CD. I wouldn't necessarily see this post by JoWooDs' community manager as a confirmation it will be included. The exact release date is still unclear. The release list says Q4.
The NLT hasn't been available at retail for years. This could be the last chance to get your hands on these classic RPGs.
Thanks Alrik!
More information.

Great let's see how many bugs they can create to destroy these timeless classics.

Oh God I loved Realms of Arcania… as far as I recall I was stumped by a bug that prevented progress. May have just been me, though - time to find out

With the great success of the latest Dark Eye game, Drakensang, in Germany, JoWood does itself and the fans a favor to put this out. I played the first two games of the trilogy - they were pretty good for its time, except for the fact that the cities often felt like labyrinths. It was so easy to get lost in them.

Originally Posted by Gorath
JoWooD included a release list in a PR about their about their quarterly results a couple of days. On it was a particularly interesting detail: DSA Nordlandtrilogie, among the games listed for worldwide release.
The Nordlandtrilogie, is the series of three classic RPG in the The Dark Eye p&p universe sold under the name Realms of Arkania in the English gaming world.

Don't get your hopes up: this is likely only a rerelease of the German language versions of the three games, there is no word about Realms of Arkania or any other languages…

This might only be available in German because the reason for it is the success of Drakensang, that, unlike the other language versions, is released under the same trademark as the DOS games in Germany. Other language versions may not be able to cash in on this….

JoWooD wrote "weltweit".

This is safe money for both J. Hamma and JoWooD. They print a few thousand copies, put the games and a pre-configured DosBox on them and make a stealth release. The Drakensang hype, even if it's small outside of Germany, will pull it through.

Rereleased Though

Mistake by purpose?

Sort of.

Originally Posted by Gorath
JoWooD wrote "weltweit".

Yeah, they also wrote "DSA Nordlandtrilogie" which is the German language version and nothing else… this is also not the first time only the German versions are going to be rereleased that already happened twice: in 1997 (by TopWare) and in 2001 (by dtp).

Some US shops already had the trilogy listed a few weeks ago.

Originally Posted by Gorath
This is safe money for both J. Hamma and JoWooD. They print a few thousand copies, put the games and a pre-configured DosBox on them and make a stealth release.

This is the only way to get this to work on modern Windows versions and release on one DVD, put the four CDs as bin/cue images on the DVD and and have the installer do setup DOSBox for you, I don't think that the source code was touched at all

Originally Posted by Gorath
The Drakensang hype, even if it's small outside of Germany, will pull it through.

The problem is that only people who know what the Realms of Arkania games are will make the Drakensang connection. Drakensang fans will not.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Some US shops already had the trilogy listed a few weeks ago.

Yeah well, all I've seen is German title, German packaging etc, Amazon Germany listed it's the release date as November 28, 2008, but it was changed to "in 1-2 months" on November 29…

Guido Henkel mentioned somewhere on a german RoA forum that the original source code seems to be missing. So no adaption of the source code I guess.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Some US shops already had the trilogy listed a few weeks ago.

Yep - I noted that in my weekly release posting at GamingWithChildren.

I managed to get all three through Goozex, but it would be nice if a proper release that worked like the Good Old Games stuff came along. Might pay just to not be bothered with that,

Jowoods new games are so bad that they need to dig decades into the past to find somthing worth to sell.

Not much to dig. Jochen Hamma (Attic founder/owner) and Dr Blanck (The Dark Eye gatekeeper) are working on Gothic 4.

I'd buy those they were all great games. I also ran into a bug that kept me from finishing the first one. I played most of the first and all the way through the third, and thought they were great CRPG's. Never played Star Trail; most people I know who played all three said that was the best. Hopefully they'll do an English release.

Because DSA is currently popular still Europe but not the US, my fear is it doesn't get rereleased here. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Hm, it would be even cheaper if they put both the English-language version and the German-language version both on the DVD … One pressing, all countries included ! So to say.

Me, I never had the English-language version of the game. I saw it many years ago, but for a price I wasn't willing to pay.

By the way, I honestly donΔ't know whether this game series was ever translated into other languages … I wold be happy to know if this was done, then …

Originally Posted by Sir Markus
Never played Star Trail; most people I know who played all three said that was the best.

I'm not sure where that myth comes from but imho Star Trail is the worst out of the three games. All it has over Blade of Destiny is a more colorful UI with a few new features and a slightly bigger equipment inventory. Everything else is lacking, e.g. the reason attic dropped the traveling from Shadows over Riva is that it was pointless in Star Trail: there was nothing to be found. There are only two quests in that game and one of them is a joke/easter egg.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Hm, it would be even cheaper if they put both the English-language version and the German-language version both on the DVD … One pressing, all countries included ! So to say.

I'm not sure how they going to fit the games on one DVD (all the CD versions of the games have CD Audio music, it's the only reason Star Trail came on two CDs). I guess we all have to wait and see.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
By the way, I honestly donΔ't know whether this game series was ever translated into other languages … I wold be happy to know if this was done, then …

I have seen screenshots of a Spanish language version of Shadows over Riva. You can still dig up the old German attic website to see where the games were released by U.S. Gold.

I liked Startrail most. It was in improvement against Blade of Destiny, has some things better than the first game (for example automated jobs meanwhile resting/camping).

I liked Blade of Destiny, too, but it had a few more "edges" compared to Startrail.

I never played Shadows over Riva through, I don't wquite know why … The area was a bit too small for my taste, and there was no free roaming possible like in the first two games. Everything was a bit more "condensed".