Stonekeep - On Steam now

Saxon1974 said:

I never liked the use of pixelated live action graphics using real movie clips and actors. That kind of ruined this game for me. Handful of games did this in the same era and I always thought it looked terrible.

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I absolutely get that. Was never an issue in Stonekeep for me though.

But I absolutely hated it when they used these graphics in Lands of Lore 2 where the cheap costumes and pixelated graphics just looked horrible.

Doesn't mean that the graphics in Stonekeep were amazing.
I mean, just look at the Ice Queen

Mortmal said:

Stonekeep did not get good reviews in france either in the 90's , it was a simplistic dungeon master clone, technically not outstanding , and of course no where close to the competition like wizardry 7.

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Wizardry 7 was no competition for Stonekeep. More pure dungeon crawlers like Anvil of Dawn and Dungeon Master 2 released at that time. Out of these three Anvil of Dawn was the most fun imho.

There is another game in Stonekeep series. Made for Nintendo Wii. Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancestors, a really awful title.

Dark Savant - good shout back to Anvil of Dawn! That *was* a good example, and I agree it was more fun than Stonekeep. What I liked about AoD was that it wasn't afraid to go "out of the dungeon" and show (briefly) overworld locations as you moved between dungeons. This was probably because it was an NWC (Might and Magic) game, and they always liked to allow world exploration. Either way, it gave Anvil of Dawn a sense of place and world, in a way that left Stonekeep feeling quite limited in its "different levels of one dungeon" approach.

Most fascinated me the scene of the blue angelic female spirit speaking, she felt so comforting....
many years ago. Good game!

Irien said:

Dark Savant - good shout back to Anvil of Dawn! That *was* a good example, and I agree it was more fun than Stonekeep. What I liked about AoD was that it wasn't afraid to go "out of the dungeon" and show (briefly) overworld locations as you moved between dungeons. This was probably because it was an NWC (Might and Magic) game, and they always liked to allow world exploration. Either way, it gave Anvil of Dawn a sense of place and world, in a way that left Stonekeep feeling quite limited in its "different levels of one dungeon" approach.

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Actually it was a Dreamforge game. NWC was also a publisher back in the 90s not just developer. Dreamforge was well known for mixing world exploration with dungeon crawling. Think Menzoberranzan and Ravenloft series.

Also Stonekeep was released in a really cool tombstone shaped box with actual novella included in the box. All that as a standard retail release. Good old times…

Yeah and the picture had a cool 3d effect in it.

I never played the (though I was gaming at the time - i remember playing half-life around 1996 and had played duke nukem around 1994 - there was also some starcraft at some point - but rpg didn't really hit my stride until wiz 8 in 2003 or 2004? Also there was Diablo and then the diablo clone divine divinity. But games like bg2 and might and magic didn't catch my interest until 2007 or so when my sister sent me a box of old games she had (who knew my sister played more games than myself - i certainly didn't).
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Anyways this game is too old for me to pick up today (graphics dont' scale well to modern large monitors); but given all the great old games it begs the question - stop making new games and just remaster everything old.

That was back when I was a diehard Mac fan, alas, so I never had the pleasure.

I remember watching my dad play this game back in the day. I want to give it a go for the nostalgia factor, although I know it wasn't considered one of the better RPGs.

Oooooh, Stonekeep ... now that one was fine .

Blah, I've played this one a few times in the past five years, it stands the test of time well. It certainly isn't perfect, but to this day it outshines much of the drek that passes for gaming nowadays.

God damn, I FEEL OLD!!! I remember a time people attacked Stonekeep for not being RPG enough, and catering to mainstream audiences, now it's seen as an old school RPG. LOL That's why I laugh at dumbasses that attack Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Tides of Numenera, or any of the other bigger RPG titles because I know the hate will be conveniently forgotten and they'll tell others how they loved it and played it day one.

Seriously, Stonekeep was hated by many hardcore RPG fans.

It's not really Black Isle's fault, back then everyone was trying FMV movies. They all looked about the same, processors could only do so much pre Pentium. I can't even remember if we had 3D Glide back in 1994.

I think the 3dx came out around 1995 - at least that's when i picked up the video card. Somewhere around 1994-1996. hum let me google it (I loved that card - used it as a very fast 2d frame buffer until 2008). Well so much for memory - the voodoo3 came out around 1999 - so only used it for about 9 years. Wonder what I did with it - I gave one to my sister (not the gamer sister) and she finally dumped that pc around 2010. No clue maybe the other one is in a closest somewhere - i think it was agp so worthless now - my sister had the pci one.

Was a decent game back then..nothing awe inspiring. Great graphics for the time though.

This title always warms my heart a little.

Funny thing, as you guys are very correct - it was perceived as a dumbed down streamlined title back in the day.

Heck, even I thought so - to an extent.

But there was something about the story and the excellent dungeon crawler atmosphere that just worked for me. I remember getting a real kick out of that novella, too.

It hasn't aged very well, I must say - but there will always be room for this kind of game icon on my desktop

Acleacius said:

I had a lot of good fun playing Stonekeep even though it was buggy at release.

Good news, but Steam has never been very supportive of older games. Too bad Steam doesn't really employ people for Support, to Patch Fix older games for modern systems. GOG has always done a better job and it's a great reason to support them.

Edit: Iirc, almost everyone (if not everyone working at Interplay from 1991 to 1995) worked on Stonekeep at one time or another. At one point they had something like 200 people working on this game.

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Haha. Too true. When I was still green I remember making a pile of slimy garbage that had a few variations that players would sift through. I think I did a couple of other small bits and pieces, but mostly it was all Kevin and Leonard driving the in-game art.

Michael Dean said:

Haha. Too true. When I was still green I remember making a pile of slimy garbage that had a few variations that players would sift through. I think I did a couple of other small bits and pieces, but mostly it was all Kevin and Leonard driving the in-game art.

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Haha, please say your the guy who did the poop art!

The mere mentioning of Stonekeep in a thread like this always transports me back to an instantly memorable period of my life. It was pretty much right after high school ended in '96 - I went on a massive binge playing lots of cRPGs as a reward for study and exams. Stonekeep was right at the top of the list: Then came, Dark Queen of Krynn, Eye of the Beholder 2, Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession and Pools of Darkness. Alas, times of the like I'll never see quite with the same dedication ever again.

A friend of mine actually bought me a pirated version of Stonekeep for my birthday after I'd rented it for a weekend from a local store and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately I don't have an original boxed edition (which was fantastic to simply look at as those in the thread can attest to) yet I was very happy to purchase the game off GOG and somewhat absolve for my sin.

The game had a fantastically detailed journal system and most players would fondly recall marking the maps and making notes upon exploration. The combat had several quirks and tricks to make some of the more difficult fights more simple. Throwing items in real-time repeatedly or somehow making enemies stop at a certain point would sometimes trivialise the fight. I remember this played a big role in the Throggi temple areas my first time through.

It's amazing to have a developer that worked on it here at the 'Watch even if it was for such a humble part. *toasts in Michael Dean's honour*.

Even the sound it made when searching through the debris for knives, rocks and edible plants was memorable! And friends and I always made stupid juvenile mimicry gags about Drake's gluttonous sounding eating habits.

Here's to 'Watcher Alrik as well - I know he's a big fan of the game too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSs1UGSomOI *falls on his axe*