Notes / Clarifications: 12:13 You can try shooting either of the animals with your bow, but Robin won't let you, saying either "We've plenty of rabbit in the larder." or "The larder is well-stocked with venison for now." 45:32 This is, at least, the translation as given in the official hintbook. I do not know whether the original Latin is that tame. 01:25:20 I mentioned earlier in the video that there are some minor dead-man-walking scenarios. This is one of them. If you enter the hedge maze without first blowing your horn and letting your men know of your plan, then you'll die once you enter the witch's court. The other one is if you click past Marian's password without noting it. 01:30:37 You can view this document, detailing the number of outlaws lost, here: pastebin.com/E1DcyzW9 01:48:19 In fact, early pre-release screenshots show the player starting with 22 outlaws instead of 31. But if you lost as many outlaws as possible under version 1.0 rules, you'd only have four left at the end, which wouldn't make any sense. Because at the very least, the five merry men are still alive. So maybe when they changed the initial outlaw count, that's when they added this -9 stuff.
When i wrote "classical", I didn't mean "antique" but "real, used Latin". Even in the Carmina Burana there is not Latin like in the game. Or do you have examples?@@zimriel
I always heard a little spicier translation of "Stercorem pro cerebro habes" (the meaning is ultimately the same) and I suspect it may be somewhat dog-latin, iirc it's from a humor book about funny uses of Latin in everyday life.
For accessibility they kinda were. Most games from the late 80’s and 90’s had extreme flashing lights at almost every turn making gaming with epilepsy almost impossible (especially on sega consoles) and PC games normally were just “figure it out lol.”
@@jackhazardous4008 you mean voice acting in 90s point-and-click adventure games? That was a thing, just not universally. Famously, many Lucasarts adventure games, such as Sam and Max: Freelance Police, or Day of the Tentacle, were fully voice-acted. Sierra's own games, such as King's Quest V, as well. It was however a novel enough thing, and expensive, that not every game was automatically doing it all the time. I suppose Sierra thought this didn't warrant the budget for it
That would be way cool, but some acting was better then others - I'd at least hope for the sake of this game, much more historically authentic story then King's Quest, there'd be close to right English accents for everyone.
@@hisho2255better yet- make drinking a core feature of her worship but Amethyst is her sacred stone and the reason her drunken followers never seem too out of sorts
This might be the greatest review of an old game I've ever seen. Not only it breaks down the game in great, GREAT detail, but it plays along and sumarizes THE WHOLE THING. And adds VOICE ACTING, to top it all off. I swear I've never seen a perfect review like that before.
You'll want to look up the 'Game Dungeon' series on the Accursed Farms channel. It's run by Ross Scott and a lot of episodes on adventure games get this treatment, it's amazing.
This game is surprisingly self aware and shows that sierra's designers were aware of many of the sierra tropes. The only major dead man walking situation even game overs pretty quickly instead of other games that leave you wandering the game world with no clue that you cannot progress.
Harsh times. I didn't know any english back then, except yes, no, return and press play on tape.. therefore Sierra games were always a bitch since you could loose real bad in one of the few point & click.
My mom and I worked together to beat this game in 1996. One of the fondest memories I have of her. She learned the Druid Alphabet, and Nine Men’s Morris from this, and thankfully passed it on to me as well. Miss you mom.
Oh my god... this was THE game that we had on our family computer back in 93. I played this with my cousins COUNTLESS times and it's been seared into my brain ever since. I remember we'd use the hand code to spell secret messages to each other, pretend certain trees in the woods were the Green Man, and draw out the map of the labyrinth behind the abby to try and save Marian faster... you've unlocked a huge set of precious memories for me, truly. Thank you! I'm also so glad to see this now 30 years later with more knowledge and see all the references that went waaaay over my head back then. This video rocks!
Yeah, you'd think a *Queen's knight,* of all people, would know how to read. I imagine it'd be kind of an important part of his job. Not to mention, the whole druid hand code thing, which would probably require one to recognize letters. And if Little John is about to become the new Sheriff, then he should probably learn to read as well. Also, one thing I've always found pretty funny, is that you can give some money to the tailor, while disguised in the beggar rags. "A beggar giving ME money! Now I've seen everything!"
TIL I learned why many Sierra games had accessibility settings even way back when. As someone with a partially paralyzed hand/arm, this was greatly appreciated.
For speedrunning, is it legitimate to exploit this glitch on the tower at the very end? 1. Climb to the top of the tower. 2. Do not go through the window. Instead, talk to the monks at the top to trigger the joke conversation you're aware of. 3. The scene used for the arcade sequence appears, except you have no control and the knight isn't in the boat. No problem! Before the rock hits you, go into the menu and drop the arcade difficulty to minimum. 4. Robin climbs down into the boat, and the ending begins.
@@OneShortEye Good to know it will finally be useful to people. I discovered it in the late 1990s, back in the days of installing off the original 3.5-inch disks and long before DOSBox or ScummVM. I was messing around trying to get the best and worst endings, but I still have no idea why I thought to try messing with the difficulty slider at that moment. I never knew anyone else who played it, so had never mentioned it to anyone until today. Thank you for everything else you have delved into here. I had wondered about intermediate endings, and got at least one of them, but certainly hadn't seen all four. I did explore enough to see things like the changing beard color messages, but not the red to blond ones. I like that in 1:32:52 you hide by going to the Old Man Oak scene and turn into an oak tree. I never knew that was possible. Conquests of the Longbow also impressed me for being the first adventure game I played (and I played most of the Sierra and LucasFilm Games / LucasArts releases) where the character was really part of the world. Robin has knowledge, beliefs and values appropriate to his time and place, and this is emphasised by speaking to the player in the first person. I was used to LucasArts characters doing this, but the way Robin spoke felt very different.
@@asdbanz316 Good question! If it's already on minimum, you have to go into the menu, put it up, exit the menu, then go back into the menu and put it down again. And you have to do that before the the rock hits you, which isn't very long. @asdbanz316
I have to say, this is extraordinary. All the work that went into editing and keeping a suspense bow. and the voice acting is beyond belief. I thought this was a release version, when i first heard it. The quality is unbelievable. Keep up the excellent work!
As a game designer I'm deeply impressed by the sheer amount of work done to cater to a truly tiny minority of players who will ever see it. Makes me feel way better over the times when I've done that and then doubted if it was at all worth it.
It always feels more special when game has reactive content to weird crap you can do :'D Like it doesn't really matter if most people never see it, the fact it exists makes the game more memorable
For a programming assignment in college, my team made a very short adventure game and I learned just how much text goes into it if you don’t want any generic “I can’t do that” responses. Multiplying action types by the number of interactive objects adds up really fast.
I remember replaying Mass Effect trilogy to see ALL possible outcomes and party combinations etc., stuff that depends on play order or sidequest flags, and there's several things you cannot see without editing your save (i.e. Thane referencing Princess Bride in the Biotic God dialogue)... I think one of the reasons devs implement stuff like that is the playtesters who replay same sections over and over so much they always find new ways to break the game lol.
I have beaten this game roughly 20 times, I happily share my notes. 6:47 don't forget to pay her. Give the poor woman some money IF you decide to save her.. that is such an interesting concept. "IF" you want to save her. You should also pay the poacher later. 9:30 I found this horn thing myself because I tried using it each day. That is also how I found out about the refilling money chest. 17:05 the woman there on the screen with the cat. You can offer her money with each disguise. She works on clothing so she always has something to say about what you are wearing. 28:25 if you keep leaving and not bringing the ale you will get caught and killed. The barkeep won't give you some unless you bring back the cask. But I wonder what happens if you have enough money to pay him? Either way during the drinking talk to the abbot a lot between rounds for points and extra dialog. 33:02 Now is also a good time to mention you can use the arrow keys to move. Very useful for the hedgemaze. 52:10 After rescuing the prisoner and every second counts between escaping or getting caught, make sure to give Fulk some money for points. lol 1:05:16 So here is a bit of a bug. Your character is meant to auto-walk off screen. But some sections of the screen you can't get through. This leaves robin trapped. A good example is just south of the druid as most of the north from there is impassible. 1:07:48 (this might be wrong and not happen. I swore it happened to me, but I'm old and forgetful) In this form ALONE. This is the biggest "screw you" in the game. This could get people to stop playing and never finish it. The druid cast the protection on your current clothes. But what if you put the spell on one of the disguises? You know the ones Tuck gave away? This means at 1:32:52 you cannot use the spell and you are stuck. Congrats you played yourself. This was a lot of fun. Thank you for covering a game I love.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, I left out most of the instances of giving people money. But you can give money to almost everyone. In the first version of your comment, I believe you asked about talking to the rabbit. Robin will say, "The day I talk to a rabbit, I'll know I've been in the forest far too long." If it were possible, and you try to talk to the deer, Robin will say "I think the hunted would have little to say to the hunter." As to your 28:25 note: if you don't bring back the cask, and try to give money to the barkeep (even if it's ALL of your money), Robin says it's his personal money, and the barkeep interprets that as Robin asking for ale himself. The barkeep gives Robin two mugs of ale, which Robin promptly drinks. So it looks like you *have* to bring the cask in order to give ale to the Abbot. 52:10 I also found it funny that this is the only time you can give Fulk the amethyst. 1:05:16 I've had that happen before too! Bit annoying. 1:07:48 How are you able to do that? Because if you try to talk to the Green Man while in an outfit other than your normal clothes, the game won't let you. Says something like, "He won't answer me in this guise." So you can't initiate the riddles unless you're wearing the default outfit.
@@OneShortEye yeah I deleted that when I realized they didn't actually say anything. Believe it or not I turned on the game again just to find the bunny thanks to you. 1:07:48 really? Am I just forgetting it happens, because I swear that was the case. keep in mind I remember doing it back around 1999. The druid put the spell on my black monk robes. Those were given away. Then I just couldn't do the spell. It was obvious 1.0 and on disc.
@@YukoValis I just tried on 1.1, 1.0, and 1.0 unpatched, and couldn't get it work on any of them. But I'll put it out to the rest of the crew to see if anyone knows anything.
The fact that they considerd giving the game a strategy battle section shows me how far they were willing to go which is just really impressive to me, the funny thing is i think everything they wanted to implement could definetly be done so today, truly one of those games ahead of its time
"Conquests of the Longbow" has always been my definitive interpretation of Robin Hood. For Day 11, I think it might depend on how many men you've lost, but I remember selecting Alan's plan for the treasure train and it going so disastrously that Robin blows his horn, declaring "Retreat! Retreat! The battle is lost!" with an obvious decrease of outlaws.
The voices and audio on this are incredible. Legit kept tricking myself into thinking it was cd audio from some special edition that never existed. Amazing work everyone
I saw this video and kinda listen/watched it to the side the first time thru and I didn't hear/realize that the voice acting wasn't from this game itself. So, I have to say that all the people and their voice acting in this is ON POINT! Congratulations and Praise upon you all!
By that time I completely forgot that this video was fan-voiced, I was completely convinced that was the voiced dialog from the original game (which obviously didn't have any) 😅
Wow. This is a really staggering video. I can't even imagine the amount of work, the writing of the script, the coordination with all these voice actors (most of whom were surprisingly good), the clearly extensive editing and - yes - love that went into this. I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm not only impressed, I'm a bit astonished. One of the most underestimated and greatest games of all time, and you're giving it the good look that it deserves. I was born in the '70s and I really learned how to type via Sierra games. My Aunt, who prematurely passed away in 2007, collected Sierra games, including Conquests of the Longbow. And this one, I never finished. Nobody in the family ever did. But we all loved it, we were always impressed. It kinda wasn't necessary to finish it, just to experience as much as we did. (I think I could never figure out the marsh priory area; if I recall after all these years, that's where I ultimately gummed up and gave up, and sadly never went back to the game in later years). Now, all these years later, just watching you cover what we missed in such style and detail and devotion... and oh how much we missed. How much we all missed! This was a real pleasure. Thank you, thank you, thank you! A truly impressive game, more so than I even imagined or remembered by FAR, and a truly impressive documentary, a labour of love on your part!
Fun fact: It's believed that Nine Men's Morris dates all the way back to Ancient Rome. There's also similar variants found throughout parts of Africa, like Morabaraba. Though the oldest game with archaeological evidence is the Royal Game of Ur.
the "interaction" with the monk in the chapel reminds me of certain responses coded into Conquest of Camelot. When you are gathering all your stuff in Camelot, if you write "Fuck x" into the parser in the presence of certain characters, they have unique responses that are...oddly appropriate. If you say it to Gwenhyver, she will respond with "Really, husband. There will be time enough for that if... I mean, when you return" and if you say it to Merlin he will respond with "My dear boy, I did not know you cared." There are also other characters that mostly call you out for having a pottymouth, but it's still quite astounding they specifically coded and wrote unique responses for players writing curse words into the parser
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy adventure game you have the option to "enjoy" Ford Prefect as Arthur Dent, but you just get a message saying this isn't that kind of game.
This is such a lovingly crafted video of a guy just talking about a game he loves for almost two hours. This is some good fucking content. It's a crime this game isn't as well known because it's such a great example of old point and click design. I'm glad I know about it now 🎉🎉🎉
I love the accessibility consideration with the minigames. It's baffling that countless games are still missing these kinds of features today (obvs I'm aware of budget constraints, but for triple-A publishers and others with the time/means. Or I'm sure just adding a 'skip' button wouldn't break the bank), but great to see that some games were getting it right even back then
That still doesn't stop them from adding a skip button to minigames tho... Edit: I think I misunderstood ur comment and thought u said due to the bigger scope it'd be hard for triple A publishers to organically take into account if the player chose 2 skip or nah...
That is such a great element of this game. I'm physically disabled and grew up on Sierra games. Seeing the thought that went into accessibility from a company that sparked my love of gaming...that's just awesome all around. Especially when, like you said, big companies today could do a lot more in this arena.
Adding accessibility is always a smart choice, but its benefits extended to all players as the technical performance of games in this era varied wildly, and were highly dependent on the strength of your CPU and the input devices you used. Sierra was smart to know that an "arcade" toggle was a necessary tool, for as many computers of the day were hardly "Arcade" capable!
Honestly if "skip gameplay thing" is seen as a good thing i'd argue that it shouldn't have been in the game in the first place. Minigames are supposed to be something players want to do.
The choice to let Robin Hood screw up his Robin Hoodery and still continue to (an) ending contrasts with Sierra's prior game _Conquests of Camelot,_ where failure to be King Arthurly enough leads to getting zapped with divine retribution at the end of the quest. Which I guess qualifies as getting a bad ending, but it's a pretty boring one.
True, it feels more like an ending when there's a big cinematic cut-scene judging you before you're executed. Funny that Richard is restored even if you fail to raise any money though - it's all or nothing for Camelot, but an ending where Arthur comes home and "somehow" Lancelot doesn't would have been interesting. I love CoC though, amazing game for Christie's first.
@@Sochsun Yeah, he's actually yet to play it. If he did do a documentary, I'm a little scared of the magic diminishing if I learn all it's secrets. It's cool how much I didn't know about Longbow though.
@@timothymcleanI don't disagree with that per say, but making discoveries myself as I play it is much more magical. I like that I still haven't solved all the riddles for instance, but occasionally I get another, or uncover a cool response with the parser. I can't deny it would be cool, and get more the play the game, it's just double edged in a way.
I played this game when it first came out over 30 years ago, and somehow never discovered the jeweller path since the archer one was so obvious. Now I can see how I missed out on the perfect score. Also the fact that the game doesn't quite account for saving Marian while doing everything else wrong is still hilarious
This method of explaining old adventure games is amazing. I have huge nostalgia for them but never really played much sierra. This is so much better than a simple play through. Well done!
Along with Quest for Glory series, this was the high point of Sierra Adventures. Quality-wise, as good as any Lucasarts adventure. A gem, with art and music making it perfectly playable today. Two thumbs up! Also, I don't know who Robin's VA (name is unfamiliar), but he is AMAZING!
This is so awesome. Over a decade ago I Let's Played this horror game with a friend on our joint channel. She had the German version which made it even worse since the translation was beyond any grammar rules and completely lacking any sense of language. Yet, we managed to accomplish the second best ending and were quite satisfied with that. Thanks for all the insights, for nearly two hours of exquisite entertainment, and congrats to all your friends who are terrific voice actors. ♥♥♥
This is one of the finest reviews I've ever seen and for one semi obscure one at that. I have loved this game since I watched a longplay of it back in the early UA-cam days and what made me instantly fall in love with it was the great dialogue and music. My god, the music is stellar in this game. Thank you so much for the effort you put into this!
I just stumbled onto this video through UA-cam's recommendations, and you've got yourself a new subscriber! This was such a fun and engaging video to watch, on a game I've never heard of before. All of the voice actors did a fabulous job. Thank you so much for putting in the effort to voice everything: it really did a huge job at making everything more interesting. I genuinely forgot the voice acting was done in post instead of being part of the game at times. I think we all agree that Snowy the Robin Hood did a super professional job, but let's not forget the rest of the cast. Very well done, everybody! :)
I played this game when it came out! It was one of my favs! I remember the piracy protection was to have the key for the palm signs to spell out tree names located in the manual. BTW, I found this video because I was looking to see if anyone had remade it. I think of it fondly and often.
These voice actors were better than some professionals I've heard, great job and thank you so much for this amazing deep dive! You've outdone yourselves this time, can't wait for the follow up
Seriously excellent voice acting guys. It really made this video exceptional. Editing, presenting and writing was obviously already solid if not great. That voice acting really pushed it over the top, great choice for Robin. Enough gushing. One of the things I miss about old games is all the new systems and graphics that require dozen men teams working simultaneously have really narrowed the scope of possible narratives and drastically reduced world reactivity. On the bright side I think it has not only caused a sort of nostalgia for the older games but has also given audiences a hunger for more interesting narratives than straight forward ones allowing one or two man dev teams to produce their passion projects and be accepted by a hungry audience starved for truly wide open worlds. Last decade or so we really confused "open world" with "big map full of checklist crap to do." Instead of what it really meant which is an untethered and immersive experience empowering the players agency.
Snowy made a great Robin. As for the game, that is really interesting. Reminded me of Chrono Trigger's beginning with the trial. The ways one can be a great Robin Hood vs a bad one is well used here. Also this game didn't sugarcoat certain things. I missed the age rating for the game but I know I would've gotten in trouble if I had this game as a kid. Thank you for this video. I can definitely see a lot of effort was put here.
Thanks for the kind words! As the for the age rating... there was none! This was released in 1991. The ESRB didn't form until 1994. Parents had to just sort of look at the box and guess.
@@OneShortEye Generally the rule was, "if it's Sierra and it's fairytale; it's kid friendly". So: Kings Quest got the nod; Space Quest was in the PG-13 range, and no leisure suits at this establishment. With other content... yeah. We didn't get to play Manhunter. We did get Thexder.
My mom bought me leisure suit larry because we had a boxed version in germany that wasn't explizit or hinted much at the content. Just some comic characters so it is kids friendly. I was a very happy 11 year old lol. One year later i bought some random pc magazine and it had free puzzle games on it. Special puzzles with lots of cars and motorbikes and people 'presenting' them. If you know what i mean. What a time... i loved the 90s. Still much safer for kids that gen tik tok unfortunately.
Goddamn. The layers and nuance to these choices exceeds most RPGs of the day abd katches even the best of them, like BG3. The designers deserve immense praise, they put some deep and clever thought into this game
Your videos are always bangers, but this was on another level. Everything was absolutely phenomenal, from the storytelling, to the voice acting (seriously, everyone killed it!!!), to the editing, and of course the humor was on point. You made me fall in love with a game I’ve never played before. I’m super excited for the upcoming speedrunning video!
This is such a well done video review. I thoroughly enjoyed every segment of it, from the narrative script, to the moments of humour added in (e.g., Robin Hood walking away from everything and pissing everyone off, the church organ musical segments), the narration syncing perfectly with videos of gameplay, showing EVERY POSSIBLE CHOICE AND OUTCOME in the algorithm within the game (the number of branches that the game allows totally blows my mind), while making the whole video incredibly coherent and easy to understand, even going so far as to have voice acting done for it (Snowy did an AMAZING job voice acting for Robin Hood by the way). The only downside to it was that it was (only) 2 hours long. Haha! What a fantastic job done with this video! Great job 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
EXCELLENT video. Such a treat. Your friend who voiced Robin was really, really good! I mean, everyone was great, but he was particularly good. As a beggar, he was giving me Mando vibes.
This really does sound like a special game, absolutely what a game of this kind should be. It's so surprising to see how well made and player friendly everything is, knowing that most games of the era were packed full of dead man walking shenanigans that seemed designed to trip players up. I especially love how kind it is. Robin feels bad when he messes up, but the game makes sure not to mock you unless you did something purposefully silly. It always assumes the player was trying their best for the big puzzles, that's so wholesome. A small theory- I'd guess the reason you can go back using the wisps from the final tower area might be because the solution isn't a super clear one. Most things in the game seem to at least hint as to what you're supposed to do, and if you can't figure it out the game eventually moves you past the section you're stuck on (even if that does mean failing to accomplish your goal.) But with the vines there are no obvious nudges, and you cannot bypass it by failure. It's a good little puzzle and a good final test of your skills, but you do have to make the connection by yourself. If someone couldn't figure it out (which is more likely if the player is a young child), being stuck on that one screen would be immensely frustrating. Letting players go back means they can at least find entertainment in enjoying the game's world while they try to think on the solution. It also makes helps avoid thinking they're soft locked or that the game is broken, as players are more likely to think something is simply unbeatable if they're stuck in one place with no escape.
Voice acting added SO much to this video. It’s just such a fun time watching, thank you for all the effort put in by you and your friends, I really enjoyed learning about this game.
I never knew about this game but the look and feels of the game is amazing. I could only imagine how happy I would be if I played this when I was a kid, this looks exactly like those type of game I enjoyed.
The conquests games were among my favorites because they were so well thought out, historically accurate and had great narratives. This video was so thoughtfully researched and presented and had a great narrative as well. Great job all around, best video ever made about this game.
The video itself is awesome as always, but I gotta give props to the voice actors too! So many of them are so good I forget they weren’t set into the game to begin with.
I gotta say, its always a treat whenever you upload. As someone born in the 2000s, I kinda look at the world of Sierra games as a fascinating thing of the past; your videos are my main and favourite way of learning about these games that honestly look more fun than stuff that comes out today. And boy, what a way to learn about them. Your videos always have a great amount of polish, detail, and care - this one particularly with the voice acting, I loved it. And nearly 2 hours of run-time is nothing to be sneezed at. So thank you for showing off these hilariously intricate games that have inspired me a lot!
Having finished the video and reached the Easter eggs section and learning about the bubble thing reminds me of something hilarious. The one time we triggered this when playing the game as kids, the game coincidentally crashed at the same time. The music that normally plays for the planning scene started, but the outlaws never showed up and we never got the actual planning scene, instead the game just locked up and remained permanently stuck in the camp with the music playing. The fact that this happened with the bubble blowing made my family and myself all assume the bubble was ALSO part of the bug/crash and we were so confused about how a bug like that was even possible.
While you've covered other Sierra games, this video of a relatively obscure title (even in the 90s, the 'Conquests' series was never as renowned as the various 'Quest' series) is the ultimate love letter to Sierra Online. If anything, Conquests of the Longbow is even more impressive 30+ years later. The attention to detail (and hundreds of hours of extra work) required to allow the player to solve puzzles using a variety of different means while still having the game respond in a way that's logically consistent is astonishing. The obvious care and passion for the source material shine through in the beautiful manual (Sierra always had top-notch feelies). Christy Marx doesn't get nearly the credit she deserves for being a cutting-edge game designer.
I love all your videos, but this is by far my favorite! From showing the amount of options a player has at any moment, to the voice acting provided, this video was a thrilling watch! I can't believe I never heard of this game, it's incredible how many variables there are! I can't express enough how much I love this video and this game! Thank you for all the hard work that went into this and I cannot wait to see the speedruns!!
This game was a favorite of my childhood that i always held as the gold standard of point and click games. This video was an absolute joy to watch, and an amazing production. Thank you!
I need to give this game a go sometime. It looks really good and a lot more intuitive than most adventure games to boot. The voice acting in this video is fantastic by the way. Robin’s voice acting in particular was inspired.
I saw the first little intro chapter - closed the video, and went to go play the game - then returned to watch the rest of the video. Thank you for showing me this game, I missed out on a ton of the early Point and Click/text prompt gems just because they were slightly before my time - and this one was a blast.
The suave and debonair boasts juxtaposed with the lingering rasp of his soliloquies, Snowy was #1. Also the Prior, Sheriff, Green Man, and King Richard were all great, and Maid Marian was fantastic!
I've already watched this video multiple times and I can't seem to stop, everything from the overall structure of the video to the voice acting I love it all!
One of the very best videos I've ever seen on UA-cam. About as detailed, meticulous and polished as the game itself is. The community voice acting was overall excellent and made the video even more enjoyable. The voice for Robin though, absolutely perfect. I would accept no less for Robin's voice if this game ever got an official talkie version.
This was great. At first I looked at the timer and thought to myself 2 hours!? I'll watch a bit of it from time to time. Sat through and watched the whole thing in one go. Brilliant.
When this game came out I thought you weren't supposed to win the archery tournament (since you're recognized later). I didn't know about changing your beard. I honestly thought it was cleverly subversive to have a Robin Hood game where you had to think outside the box and not do the one thing Robin Hood is known best for doing. I also was obsessed with the handbook's lore about gems and trees. This game was truly magical.
Having this channel's crew of VAs voice act the play through makes the watching SO much fun! First video of yours I've come across and I'm sold and I can guarantee you many many others will enjoy this format. Keep it up and thank you for the video!
i remember a robin hood from way back in the C64 days... terrible platformer, lots of ways to jump up and climb through the trees, but you lost health for every few pixels that you 'fall' ... there was no minimum ceiling for the health loss.... if you jump, you lose health dropping back to the ground... you have 100 life, pretty standard, enemies hit for between 25-50, and falling hurts enough to kill you from about half a screen of 'fall damage' ... i honestly think you weren't meant to get past the first level (at least i couldn't when i was like 6)
Wow! I've seen a longplay of this game before and knew there were multiple solutions to some encounters, but I didn't know there were this many! Makes me hope we'll get a spiritual successor someday. Loved the addition of the voice actors. It honestly wouldn't have surprised me if it was in the game itself if I didn't know beforehand.
Duuuuuuuuude! 2 Hours!!!! D: Conquests of the Longbow is certainly your favorite Sierra game because you've outdone yourself this time! I played Longbow only once ten years ago and aced it first try, as such I missed most of the alternate routes, solutions, and easter eggs the game had to offer. It was great to finally be able to witness all of the game's intricacies and get a deep long look at just how complex the game actually is. It is also making me sad the third Conquests game never saw the light of day, the life and time of Charlemagne would have been a wondrous setting. For the longest time I felt ambivalent toward the Conquests duology. It bothered me that there wasn't that many traditionnal adventure game puzzles in them, and I thought they both relied too much on the manual for their puzzles, to the point where it feels too much like copy protection. But over the years I've grown quite fond of them, especially when I realised the Conquests games (and the first two Police Quest games for that matter) were not meant to test your puzzle solving skills, but your courage, wisdom, instincts, righteousness, and the purity of your heart. Plus the bittersweet ending to Conquests of Camelot hurts so good every playthrough. Regarding how lenient the game is with the player: Early on during your video I thought maybe it was designed in the wake of Leisure Suit Larry 5, where Al Lowe did away with dead-ends and gratuitous deaths after listening to player feedbacks. But in the case of Longbow this indulgence seems to be a conscious design choice: The designers clearly wanted the player to reach the ending no matter what, even if they made poor decisions, if only to be judged by King Richard and be encouraged to do better the next time. This tidbit about the planned but canned real-time strategy aspect, and having to manage outlaws thorough the game, either by using your wits to avoid losing men, or by throwing them at the problems, was very interesting. Rescuing the widow's sons the canonical way, I never stumbled upon the alternate solution. There is another Robin Hood themed video game that also featured outlaw management and storming strongholds, specifically Robin Hood The Legend of Sherwood, by Spellbound. (It is a real-time stealth strategy game, not unlike the Commandos or Desperados game series.) I always suspected the popularity of Defender of the Crown played a role in that aspect of The Legend of Sherwood design. And witnessing how Conquests of the Longbow featured an outlaw management system too, and also hearing about the canned RTS aspect, makes me think the designers of Longbow were also inspired by Defender of the Crown. (Off-topic but due to the similarities in the choice of colors for both Foulk's and Malcolm's (from Legend of Kyrandia) attires, I also wonder if their clothing trace their origins from some old medieval movie, the same way Richard Thorpe's attire in the 1952 movie Ivanhoe seems to have inspired the design of King Graham.) Your videos are the best thing that happened to the Sierra community in years, OneShortEye, and this one is no exception. Quite different from your speedrun documentaries but just as enjoyable to watch nonetheless, I hope we'll see more such in-depth documentaries from you in the future (should you ever make a video about Police Quest 1, gimme a poke, for I am one of the few who believes Jim Walls poured his very heart and soul into that game). And snippets from The Sierra Adventure book are always a welcome sight. Happy new year, I can't wait to see what you'll have in store for us in 2024. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a couple Longbow speedruns to watch. Cheers! :)
16:55 One of things that made some major things like saving Wrex in Mass Effect worth it was the option to, well, not, and the devs had the gall to make some of bad choices the default ones for ME2, so you always felt like you worked for the heroics instead of the good outcome being default and the bad ends optional curiosities. I like when developers put that into games. Make the normal story options take effort.
No no no... no no no. Day 5, we need to do this ONE MORE TIME. You left the RIGHT amount of Money. You left Not Enough Money. But what happens if the Guards walk in, and you left ALL the Money... and now they are RICH?!?! If they need 4 Pennies for a Bucket of Ale... but you let enough to buy a whole Tavern?
Unfortunately, the dialog isn't different from when you give them exactly what they need. Though the table shows a LOT of coins on it (the game puts a coin sprite on the table for every penny you put down)
I never comment on videos, but I wanted to say that I love the content you're putting out. I adore adventure games but never really got into the Sierra ones so it's wonderful to see that point of view. Can't wait for the speed run video now that you have provided the full context of the game. Great work.
Kudos to all the voice actors for understanding exactly how to copy the style and pathos of 90s adventure games! tbh I wouldn't have noticed that you dubbed it for most of the video if you hadn't mentioned it.
I am so confused, why is no one talking about the thumbnail? Where is the arrow? Where is the bow string? Is that even a bow? He's just holding a stick
Thanks so much for making this incredible video about my favorite point-and-click adventure game! It's so awesome to see how many views it has gotten in one day! Hope many people discover the game through this and enjoy it as much as I do.
Notes / Clarifications:
12:13 You can try shooting either of the animals with your bow, but Robin won't let you, saying either "We've plenty of rabbit in the larder." or "The larder is well-stocked with venison for now."
45:32 This is, at least, the translation as given in the official hintbook. I do not know whether the original Latin is that tame.
01:25:20 I mentioned earlier in the video that there are some minor dead-man-walking scenarios. This is one of them. If you enter the hedge maze without first blowing your horn and letting your men know of your plan, then you'll die once you enter the witch's court. The other one is if you click past Marian's password without noting it.
01:30:37 You can view this document, detailing the number of outlaws lost, here: pastebin.com/E1DcyzW9
01:48:19 In fact, early pre-release screenshots show the player starting with 22 outlaws instead of 31. But if you lost as many outlaws as possible under version 1.0 rules, you'd only have four left at the end, which wouldn't make any sense. Because at the very least, the five merry men are still alive. So maybe when they changed the initial outlaw count, that's when they added this -9 stuff.
Latin teacher here: The translations are spot on. Only the latin phrases are kinda englishised, ...
@@michaelahellmich7843 mediaeval Latin had a few differences from Cicero.
When i wrote "classical", I didn't mean "antique" but "real, used Latin". Even in the Carmina Burana there is not Latin like in the game. Or do you have examples?@@zimriel
I always heard a little spicier translation of "Stercorem pro cerebro habes" (the meaning is ultimately the same) and I suspect it may be somewhat dog-latin, iirc it's from a humor book about funny uses of Latin in everyday life.
Like on day three you read a response to Robin but not what he says. Aw, man, I can't see. It's a shame
The voice for robin was so professional it should be the official voice for a rerelease
Thanks! 😊
@@adventuring_sam6589were you robin!? You sound amazing
For real. If I hadn't been told that the dialogue was fan-dubbed I would've sworn it was straight from the source.
agree, it could have been like anything from Sierra's original dubbings. Marian is also good.
@@adventuring_sam6589 you should look into doing more voice work, you're quite good
A game in the 90s having not just a difficulty slider but an honest to god accessibility mode is beyond impressive.
The 90s weren't the dark ages you know.
For accessibility they kinda were. Most games from the late 80’s and 90’s had extreme flashing lights at almost every turn making gaming with epilepsy almost impossible (especially on sega consoles) and PC games normally were just “figure it out lol.”
If trusting the player to figure it out is the "dark ages" then throw me right in. @@sandsunderthetable.6625
@JohnyG29 bro it wasn't too uncommon to not be able to enter places cause no ramps even today
Snowy KILLED it, as Robin. What a voice.
Thanks! 😊
I was surprised the voice acting for an old adventure game was so good until i realized that wasn't a thing in the 90s
YES, this! The perfect casting, honestly!
@@jackhazardous4008 you mean voice acting in 90s point-and-click adventure games? That was a thing, just not universally. Famously, many Lucasarts adventure games, such as Sam and Max: Freelance Police, or Day of the Tentacle, were fully voice-acted. Sierra's own games, such as King's Quest V, as well. It was however a novel enough thing, and expensive, that not every game was automatically doing it all the time. I suppose Sierra thought this didn't warrant the budget for it
@@jackhazardous4008 It was a thing in the 90s (usually for cd-rom editions), but not for this game.
1:52:45
The King: "I miss Marian so much..."
Marian: "My lord, im still here"
The King: "I can still hear her voice on the wind..."
So poor he lost his memory 😔
@@genericname2747because you raised so little ransom he was in prison for longer and got dementia 😢
Meticulously researched, and even community voice-acted? A rare treasure and delight.
It's insane how much work it must have taken them
Why is Robin Hood's voice actor SO GOOD. Dude needs to be a movie VA or something.
Thanks! 🙂
i think a big factor is that its quality stands out a lot against all the other voices..lol
Agreed he sounds like an experienced VA@@akpokemon
@@adventuring_sam6589subbed in case you do more
yeah Snowy did well!!
most of these va's FIT RIGHT IN with 90s adventure games
I'm not even two minutes in, and I'm already obsessed with this game. There needs to be a version entirely voiced by your friends.
It's wonderful.
If you ever play it, make your own map, and note the different trees in the forest.
Mods exist, so if the right person can get their hands on the audio files, then they just have to figure out how to mod in the voice acting!
Gonna make a sound pack entirely by using my "Cedric the Owl" voice for everyone
This game is amazing, yes. An all-time classic.
That would be way cool, but some acting was better then others - I'd at least hope for the sake of this game, much more historically authentic story then King's Quest, there'd be close to right English accents for everyone.
I like the way his merry men roast Robin on game over screens. "I hope he saved his game before that one."
29:49 note: amethyst crystals were indeed once thought to prevent drunkenness. “Not drunk” or “not intoxicated” is even what the word “amethyst” means
I wish I had know that in college
what were they thinking lol; "α- a-, "not" and μεθύσκω (Ancient Greek) methysko / μεθώ metho (Modern Greek), "intoxicate"@Sickofyourshit83
I have an amethyst god in my dnd campaign. Im adding no drinking as one of her tennants
@@hisho2255better yet- make drinking a core feature of her worship but Amethyst is her sacred stone and the reason her drunken followers never seem too out of sorts
@@tux_duh I have already written a lot about this god and her followers.... But ngl I like this idea better
"May god give you everything you deserve and may I live to see it" is such a FIRE line, I love it
This game's Robin Hood is the king of verbal backhands.
This might be the greatest review of an old game I've ever seen. Not only it breaks down the game in great, GREAT detail, but it plays along and sumarizes THE WHOLE THING. And adds VOICE ACTING, to top it all off. I swear I've never seen a perfect review like that before.
Agreed! Huzzah!
Just like the game itself it's amazingly needlessly detailed
You'll want to look up the 'Game Dungeon' series on the Accursed Farms channel. It's run by Ross Scott and a lot of episodes on adventure games get this treatment, it's amazing.
What an absolute gem of a video. Thank you all for the hard work and dedication to documenting this unique game
Thanks for the kind words!
Ugh, the obligatory, omg the legend himself. Yada yada yada ... He definitely had a cup or 2 of tea while watching this!
Bri'ish people enjoying Bri'ish themed game? Nice
This game is surprisingly self aware and shows that sierra's designers were aware of many of the sierra tropes. The only major dead man walking situation even game overs pretty quickly instead of other games that leave you wandering the game world with no clue that you cannot progress.
It does seem like later Sierra titles softened on their infamous cruelty. Character development!
Harsh times. I didn't know any english back then, except yes, no, return and press play on tape.. therefore Sierra games were always a bitch since you could loose real bad in one of the few point & click.
My mom and I worked together to beat this game in 1996. One of the fondest memories I have of her.
She learned the Druid Alphabet, and Nine Men’s Morris from this, and thankfully passed it on to me as well.
Miss you mom.
Thank you for sharing that. Your comment resonated with me.
Your mom is awesome!
Oh my god... this was THE game that we had on our family computer back in 93. I played this with my cousins COUNTLESS times and it's been seared into my brain ever since. I remember we'd use the hand code to spell secret messages to each other, pretend certain trees in the woods were the Green Man, and draw out the map of the labyrinth behind the abby to try and save Marian faster... you've unlocked a huge set of precious memories for me, truly. Thank you!
I'm also so glad to see this now 30 years later with more knowledge and see all the references that went waaaay over my head back then. This video rocks!
The good old times....
As a brit, Snowy's VA work here is my canon Robin Hood voice now
Mine too!
Yeah, you'd think a *Queen's knight,* of all people, would know how to read. I imagine it'd be kind of an important part of his job. Not to mention, the whole druid hand code thing, which would probably require one to recognize letters. And if Little John is about to become the new Sheriff, then he should probably learn to read as well.
Also, one thing I've always found pretty funny, is that you can give some money to the tailor, while disguised in the beggar rags. "A beggar giving ME money! Now I've seen everything!"
"If only my self-esteem was as kind as this game." Brother, I felt that, and hard.
TIL I learned why many Sierra games had accessibility settings even way back when. As someone with a partially paralyzed hand/arm, this was greatly appreciated.
For speedrunning, is it legitimate to exploit this glitch on the tower at the very end?
1. Climb to the top of the tower.
2. Do not go through the window. Instead, talk to the monks at the top to trigger the joke conversation you're aware of.
3. The scene used for the arcade sequence appears, except you have no control and the knight isn't in the boat. No problem! Before the rock hits you, go into the menu and drop the arcade difficulty to minimum.
4. Robin climbs down into the boat, and the ending begins.
Uh... IT IS NOW! Thanks so much for the tip. None of us knew about this before.
That's amazing!!
@@OneShortEye Good to know it will finally be useful to people. I discovered it in the late 1990s, back in the days of installing off the original 3.5-inch disks and long before DOSBox or ScummVM. I was messing around trying to get the best and worst endings, but I still have no idea why I thought to try messing with the difficulty slider at that moment. I never knew anyone else who played it, so had never mentioned it to anyone until today.
Thank you for everything else you have delved into here. I had wondered about intermediate endings, and got at least one of them, but certainly hadn't seen all four. I did explore enough to see things like the changing beard color messages, but not the red to blond ones.
I like that in 1:32:52 you hide by going to the Old Man Oak scene and turn into an oak tree. I never knew that was possible.
Conquests of the Longbow also impressed me for being the first adventure game I played (and I played most of the Sierra and LucasFilm Games / LucasArts releases) where the character was really part of the world. Robin has knowledge, beliefs and values appropriate to his time and place, and this is emphasised by speaking to the player in the first person. I was used to LucasArts characters doing this, but the way Robin spoke felt very different.
What if your difficulty already was on minimum?
Or there's special flag that ignores difficulty level, but changing it midway initiate check?
@@asdbanz316 Good question! If it's already on minimum, you have to go into the menu, put it up, exit the menu, then go back into the menu and put it down again. And you have to do that before the the rock hits you, which isn't very long. @asdbanz316
Man. That Robin voice goes hard. Crazy impressed.
Thanks! 😊
You should consider voice acting. 100%. @@adventuring_sam6589
I have to say, this is extraordinary. All the work that went into editing and keeping a suspense bow. and the voice acting is beyond belief. I thought this was a release version, when i first heard it. The quality is unbelievable. Keep up the excellent work!
As a game designer I'm deeply impressed by the sheer amount of work done to cater to a truly tiny minority of players who will ever see it. Makes me feel way better over the times when I've done that and then doubted if it was at all worth it.
It always feels more special when game has reactive content to weird crap you can do :'D Like it doesn't really matter if most people never see it, the fact it exists makes the game more memorable
Its always worth it. Thats what makes them special
The tiniest details are the biggest sign that somebody cared.
Keep up your good work!
For a programming assignment in college, my team made a very short adventure game and I learned just how much text goes into it if you don’t want any generic “I can’t do that” responses. Multiplying action types by the number of interactive objects adds up really fast.
I remember replaying Mass Effect trilogy to see ALL possible outcomes and party combinations etc., stuff that depends on play order or sidequest flags, and there's several things you cannot see without editing your save (i.e. Thane referencing Princess Bride in the Biotic God dialogue)... I think one of the reasons devs implement stuff like that is the playtesters who replay same sections over and over so much they always find new ways to break the game lol.
Really enjoyed the voices for the wisps and the ewe - and Snowy as Robin is fantastic!
Man, that Robin VA did a great job lol. Love these vids.
Thank you, really appreciated 😊
Unlike a lot of other Robin Hoods, he has a British accent. ;P
I have beaten this game roughly 20 times, I happily share my notes.
6:47 don't forget to pay her. Give the poor woman some money IF you decide to save her.. that is such an interesting concept. "IF" you want to save her. You should also pay the poacher later.
9:30 I found this horn thing myself because I tried using it each day. That is also how I found out about the refilling money chest.
17:05 the woman there on the screen with the cat. You can offer her money with each disguise. She works on clothing so she always has something to say about what you are wearing.
28:25 if you keep leaving and not bringing the ale you will get caught and killed. The barkeep won't give you some unless you bring back the cask. But I wonder what happens if you have enough money to pay him? Either way during the drinking talk to the abbot a lot between rounds for points and extra dialog.
33:02 Now is also a good time to mention you can use the arrow keys to move. Very useful for the hedgemaze.
52:10 After rescuing the prisoner and every second counts between escaping or getting caught, make sure to give Fulk some money for points. lol
1:05:16 So here is a bit of a bug. Your character is meant to auto-walk off screen. But some sections of the screen you can't get through. This leaves robin trapped. A good example is just south of the druid as most of the north from there is impassible.
1:07:48 (this might be wrong and not happen. I swore it happened to me, but I'm old and forgetful) In this form ALONE. This is the biggest "screw you" in the game. This could get people to stop playing and never finish it. The druid cast the protection on your current clothes. But what if you put the spell on one of the disguises? You know the ones Tuck gave away? This means at 1:32:52 you cannot use the spell and you are stuck. Congrats you played yourself.
This was a lot of fun. Thank you for covering a game I love.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, I left out most of the instances of giving people money. But you can give money to almost everyone.
In the first version of your comment, I believe you asked about talking to the rabbit. Robin will say, "The day I talk to a rabbit, I'll know I've been in the forest far too long." If it were possible, and you try to talk to the deer, Robin will say "I think the hunted would have little to say to the hunter."
As to your 28:25 note: if you don't bring back the cask, and try to give money to the barkeep (even if it's ALL of your money), Robin says it's his personal money, and the barkeep interprets that as Robin asking for ale himself. The barkeep gives Robin two mugs of ale, which Robin promptly drinks. So it looks like you *have* to bring the cask in order to give ale to the Abbot.
52:10 I also found it funny that this is the only time you can give Fulk the amethyst.
1:05:16 I've had that happen before too! Bit annoying.
1:07:48 How are you able to do that? Because if you try to talk to the Green Man while in an outfit other than your normal clothes, the game won't let you. Says something like, "He won't answer me in this guise." So you can't initiate the riddles unless you're wearing the default outfit.
@@OneShortEye yeah I deleted that when I realized they didn't actually say anything. Believe it or not I turned on the game again just to find the bunny thanks to you. 1:07:48 really? Am I just forgetting it happens, because I swear that was the case. keep in mind I remember doing it back around 1999. The druid put the spell on my black monk robes. Those were given away. Then I just couldn't do the spell. It was obvious 1.0 and on disc.
@@YukoValis I just tried on 1.1, 1.0, and 1.0 unpatched, and couldn't get it work on any of them. But I'll put it out to the rest of the crew to see if anyone knows anything.
@@OneShortEye maybe it is my old memory going or a defect with my discs. If you checked them all then I'm going to say I'm wrong.
Fun fact:
At 1:10:00, that's actually Lori and Corey Cole voicing themselves.
Shame that OneShortEye couldn't get Christy Marx into the project. Or Dan Quayle.
The fact that they considerd giving the game a strategy battle section shows me how far they were willing to go which is just really impressive to me, the funny thing is i think everything they wanted to implement could definetly be done so today, truly one of those games ahead of its time
"Conquests of the Longbow" has always been my definitive interpretation of Robin Hood.
For Day 11, I think it might depend on how many men you've lost, but I remember selecting Alan's plan for the treasure train and it going so disastrously that Robin blows his horn, declaring "Retreat! Retreat! The battle is lost!" with an obvious decrease of outlaws.
Yes! I'm not sure if you've gotten to that part of the video yet, but you need 28 outlaws for Alan's plan to succeed.
The voices and audio on this are incredible. Legit kept tricking myself into thinking it was cd audio from some special edition that never existed. Amazing work everyone
The "I also dreamt, but I couldn't see you. I danced and felt you watching, but I wasn't afraid." line is sort of amazing.
I saw this video and kinda listen/watched it to the side the first time thru and I didn't hear/realize that the voice acting wasn't from this game itself. So, I have to say that all the people and their voice acting in this is ON POINT! Congratulations and Praise upon you all!
Voice acted "**no response" is way more hilarious than I can ever imagine
The voice work on the will o the wisps was so ethereal and interesting. Y'all went above and beyond on that one, very nice.
And the wisp voice that was mistimed from the others made it so much eerier
Agreed
By that time I completely forgot that this video was fan-voiced, I was completely convinced that was the voiced dialog from the original game (which obviously didn't have any) 😅
It reminded me of SHODAN from the System Shock franchise
@@uuuuNB Yeah, I was waiting for them to call me Insect
Wow. This is a really staggering video. I can't even imagine the amount of work, the writing of the script, the coordination with all these voice actors (most of whom were surprisingly good), the clearly extensive editing and - yes - love that went into this. I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm not only impressed, I'm a bit astonished. One of the most underestimated and greatest games of all time, and you're giving it the good look that it deserves.
I was born in the '70s and I really learned how to type via Sierra games. My Aunt, who prematurely passed away in 2007, collected Sierra games, including Conquests of the Longbow. And this one, I never finished. Nobody in the family ever did. But we all loved it, we were always impressed. It kinda wasn't necessary to finish it, just to experience as much as we did. (I think I could never figure out the marsh priory area; if I recall after all these years, that's where I ultimately gummed up and gave up, and sadly never went back to the game in later years).
Now, all these years later, just watching you cover what we missed in such style and detail and devotion... and oh how much we missed. How much we all missed! This was a real pleasure. Thank you, thank you, thank you! A truly impressive game, more so than I even imagined or remembered by FAR, and a truly impressive documentary, a labour of love on your part!
Thank you for the very kind words! Happy you liked it. :)
The VA is so good! There needs to be a version where its dubbed exactly like this. The voice for Robin is ridiculously good
Fun fact: It's believed that Nine Men's Morris dates all the way back to Ancient Rome. There's also similar variants found throughout parts of Africa, like Morabaraba. Though the oldest game with archaeological evidence is the Royal Game of Ur.
One of the greatest videos ever made in UA-cam. Never played the game btw. I wish we could have retrospectives of this quality of any 90's game.
the "interaction" with the monk in the chapel reminds me of certain responses coded into Conquest of Camelot. When you are gathering all your stuff in Camelot, if you write "Fuck x" into the parser in the presence of certain characters, they have unique responses that are...oddly appropriate. If you say it to Gwenhyver, she will respond with "Really, husband. There will be time enough for that if... I mean, when you return" and if you say it to Merlin he will respond with "My dear boy, I did not know you cared."
There are also other characters that mostly call you out for having a pottymouth, but it's still quite astounding they specifically coded and wrote unique responses for players writing curse words into the parser
Lol omg 😂
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy adventure game you have the option to "enjoy" Ford Prefect as Arthur Dent, but you just get a message saying this isn't that kind of game.
This is such a lovingly crafted video of a guy just talking about a game he loves for almost two hours. This is some good fucking content. It's a crime this game isn't as well known because it's such a great example of old point and click design. I'm glad I know about it now 🎉🎉🎉
I love the accessibility consideration with the minigames. It's baffling that countless games are still missing these kinds of features today (obvs I'm aware of budget constraints, but for triple-A publishers and others with the time/means. Or I'm sure just adding a 'skip' button wouldn't break the bank), but great to see that some games were getting it right even back then
That still doesn't stop them from adding a skip button to minigames tho...
Edit: I think I misunderstood ur comment and thought u said due to the bigger scope it'd be hard for triple A publishers to organically take into account if the player chose 2 skip or nah...
That is such a great element of this game. I'm physically disabled and grew up on Sierra games. Seeing the thought that went into accessibility from a company that sparked my love of gaming...that's just awesome all around. Especially when, like you said, big companies today could do a lot more in this arena.
Adding accessibility is always a smart choice, but its benefits extended to all players as the technical performance of games in this era varied wildly, and were highly dependent on the strength of your CPU and the input devices you used. Sierra was smart to know that an "arcade" toggle was a necessary tool, for as many computers of the day were hardly "Arcade" capable!
@@bullshooter4040 Absolutely true, and another good point!
Honestly if "skip gameplay thing" is seen as a good thing i'd argue that it shouldn't have been in the game in the first place. Minigames are supposed to be something players want to do.
Whoever voiced robin did an excellent job. I could legitimately see him as the actual VA
The choice to let Robin Hood screw up his Robin Hoodery and still continue to (an) ending contrasts with Sierra's prior game _Conquests of Camelot,_ where failure to be King Arthurly enough leads to getting zapped with divine retribution at the end of the quest. Which I guess qualifies as getting a bad ending, but it's a pretty boring one.
True, it feels more like an ending when there's a big cinematic cut-scene judging you before you're executed. Funny that Richard is restored even if you fail to raise any money though - it's all or nothing for Camelot, but an ending where Arthur comes home and "somehow" Lancelot doesn't would have been interesting. I love CoC though, amazing game for Christie's first.
I hope that Conquest of Camelot is a future OneShortEye project
@@Sochsun Yeah, he's actually yet to play it. If he did do a documentary, I'm a little scared of the magic diminishing if I learn all it's secrets. It's cool how much I didn't know about Longbow though.
@@MagusMarquillin For me, at least, learning how something works doesn't diminish the wonder I feel towards it. Quite the opposite.
@@timothymcleanI don't disagree with that per say, but making discoveries myself as I play it is much more magical. I like that I still haven't solved all the riddles for instance, but occasionally I get another, or uncover a cool response with the parser. I can't deny it would be cool, and get more the play the game, it's just double edged in a way.
I played this game when it first came out over 30 years ago, and somehow never discovered the jeweller path since the archer one was so obvious. Now I can see how I missed out on the perfect score.
Also the fact that the game doesn't quite account for saving Marian while doing everything else wrong is still hilarious
This method of explaining old adventure games is amazing. I have huge nostalgia for them but never really played much sierra. This is so much better than a simple play through. Well done!
I love games were you can “fuck up” but the game keeps going. Makes you sit on those bad decisions
First game I encountered like this was Morrowind, and seeing videos like this shows me it was simply one in a grand tradition of similar games.
Along with Quest for Glory series, this was the high point of Sierra Adventures. Quality-wise, as good as any Lucasarts adventure. A gem, with art and music making it perfectly playable today. Two thumbs up!
Also, I don't know who Robin's VA (name is unfamiliar), but he is AMAZING!
Thanks! 😊
Good and emotive enough to be a legit voice actor honestly.
This is so awesome. Over a decade ago I Let's Played this horror game with a friend on our joint channel. She had the German version which made it even worse since the translation was beyond any grammar rules and completely lacking any sense of language. Yet, we managed to accomplish the second best ending and were quite satisfied with that.
Thanks for all the insights, for nearly two hours of exquisite entertainment, and congrats to all your friends who are terrific voice actors. ♥♥♥
This is one of the finest reviews I've ever seen and for one semi obscure one at that. I have loved this game since I watched a longplay of it back in the early UA-cam days and what made me instantly fall in love with it was the great dialogue and music. My god, the music is stellar in this game.
Thank you so much for the effort you put into this!
Thank you for the kind words and the support!
I just stumbled onto this video through UA-cam's recommendations, and you've got yourself a new subscriber! This was such a fun and engaging video to watch, on a game I've never heard of before.
All of the voice actors did a fabulous job. Thank you so much for putting in the effort to voice everything: it really did a huge job at making everything more interesting. I genuinely forgot the voice acting was done in post instead of being part of the game at times. I think we all agree that Snowy the Robin Hood did a super professional job, but let's not forget the rest of the cast. Very well done, everybody! :)
I played this game when it came out! It was one of my favs! I remember the piracy protection was to have the key for the palm signs to spell out tree names located in the manual. BTW, I found this video because I was looking to see if anyone had remade it. I think of it fondly and often.
These voice actors were better than some professionals I've heard, great job and thank you so much for this amazing deep dive! You've outdone yourselves this time, can't wait for the follow up
Seriously excellent voice acting guys. It really made this video exceptional. Editing, presenting and writing was obviously already solid if not great. That voice acting really pushed it over the top, great choice for Robin.
Enough gushing. One of the things I miss about old games is all the new systems and graphics that require dozen men teams working simultaneously have really narrowed the scope of possible narratives and drastically reduced world reactivity.
On the bright side I think it has not only caused a sort of nostalgia for the older games but has also given audiences a hunger for more interesting narratives than straight forward ones allowing one or two man dev teams to produce their passion projects and be accepted by a hungry audience starved for truly wide open worlds.
Last decade or so we really confused "open world" with "big map full of checklist crap to do." Instead of what it really meant which is an untethered and immersive experience empowering the players agency.
Snowy made a great Robin. As for the game, that is really interesting. Reminded me of Chrono Trigger's beginning with the trial. The ways one can be a great Robin Hood vs a bad one is well used here. Also this game didn't sugarcoat certain things. I missed the age rating for the game but I know I would've gotten in trouble if I had this game as a kid.
Thank you for this video. I can definitely see a lot of effort was put here.
Thanks for the kind words! As the for the age rating... there was none! This was released in 1991. The ESRB didn't form until 1994. Parents had to just sort of look at the box and guess.
@@OneShortEye Generally the rule was, "if it's Sierra and it's fairytale; it's kid friendly". So: Kings Quest got the nod; Space Quest was in the PG-13 range, and no leisure suits at this establishment.
With other content... yeah. We didn't get to play Manhunter. We did get Thexder.
Thanks! 😊
My mom bought me leisure suit larry because we had a boxed version in germany that wasn't explizit or hinted much at the content. Just some comic characters so it is kids friendly. I was a very happy 11 year old lol.
One year later i bought some random pc magazine and it had free puzzle games on it. Special puzzles with lots of cars and motorbikes and people 'presenting' them. If you know what i mean.
What a time... i loved the 90s. Still much safer for kids that gen tik tok unfortunately.
Goddamn. The layers and nuance to these choices exceeds most RPGs of the day abd katches even the best of them, like BG3. The designers deserve immense praise, they put some deep and clever thought into this game
Your videos are always bangers, but this was on another level. Everything was absolutely phenomenal, from the storytelling, to the voice acting (seriously, everyone killed it!!!), to the editing, and of course the humor was on point. You made me fall in love with a game I’ve never played before. I’m super excited for the upcoming speedrunning video!
This is such a well done video review. I thoroughly enjoyed every segment of it, from the narrative script, to the moments of humour added in (e.g., Robin Hood walking away from everything and pissing everyone off, the church organ musical segments), the narration syncing perfectly with videos of gameplay, showing EVERY POSSIBLE CHOICE AND OUTCOME in the algorithm within the game (the number of branches that the game allows totally blows my mind), while making the whole video incredibly coherent and easy to understand, even going so far as to have voice acting done for it (Snowy did an AMAZING job voice acting for Robin Hood by the way).
The only downside to it was that it was (only) 2 hours long. Haha!
What a fantastic job done with this video! Great job 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
EXCELLENT video. Such a treat. Your friend who voiced Robin was really, really good! I mean, everyone was great, but he was particularly good. As a beggar, he was giving me Mando vibes.
This really does sound like a special game, absolutely what a game of this kind should be. It's so surprising to see how well made and player friendly everything is, knowing that most games of the era were packed full of dead man walking shenanigans that seemed designed to trip players up. I especially love how kind it is. Robin feels bad when he messes up, but the game makes sure not to mock you unless you did something purposefully silly. It always assumes the player was trying their best for the big puzzles, that's so wholesome.
A small theory- I'd guess the reason you can go back using the wisps from the final tower area might be because the solution isn't a super clear one. Most things in the game seem to at least hint as to what you're supposed to do, and if you can't figure it out the game eventually moves you past the section you're stuck on (even if that does mean failing to accomplish your goal.) But with the vines there are no obvious nudges, and you cannot bypass it by failure. It's a good little puzzle and a good final test of your skills, but you do have to make the connection by yourself. If someone couldn't figure it out (which is more likely if the player is a young child), being stuck on that one screen would be immensely frustrating. Letting players go back means they can at least find entertainment in enjoying the game's world while they try to think on the solution. It also makes helps avoid thinking they're soft locked or that the game is broken, as players are more likely to think something is simply unbeatable if they're stuck in one place with no escape.
52:00 This is great! If someone bothers me with nonsense irl, I will be sure to tell them "No response given by designer".
Voice acting added SO much to this video. It’s just such a fun time watching, thank you for all the effort put in by you and your friends, I really enjoyed learning about this game.
What an amazing holiday gift! Thanks, OneShortEye! Conquest of the Longbow is a great hidden gem.
It's probably my favorite Sierra game!
I never knew about this game but the look and feels of the game is amazing. I could only imagine how happy I would be if I played this when I was a kid, this looks exactly like those type of game I enjoyed.
Trip to Jerusalem is a great pub...and I love how you can see it in this game. No other Robin Hood production has ever referenced it.
I concur, Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem is Great. Good food, good drink though I certainly feel like Little John in there
The conquests games were among my favorites because they were so well thought out, historically accurate and had great narratives. This video was so thoughtfully researched and presented and had a great narrative as well. Great job all around, best video ever made about this game.
The video itself is awesome as always, but I gotta give props to the voice actors too! So many of them are so good I forget they weren’t set into the game to begin with.
I'm so grateful for everyone who lent their voice for this. :)
I don’t remember this game back in the day, it looks really cool. Was it pc only? I only had an amiga in the early 90’s
@@spongeknock7387 it came out for both DOS and Amiga. Although the Amiga version doesn't look great, tbh
I gotta say, its always a treat whenever you upload. As someone born in the 2000s, I kinda look at the world of Sierra games as a fascinating thing of the past; your videos are my main and favourite way of learning about these games that honestly look more fun than stuff that comes out today. And boy, what a way to learn about them. Your videos always have a great amount of polish, detail, and care - this one particularly with the voice acting, I loved it. And nearly 2 hours of run-time is nothing to be sneezed at.
So thank you for showing off these hilariously intricate games that have inspired me a lot!
Having finished the video and reached the Easter eggs section and learning about the bubble thing reminds me of something hilarious. The one time we triggered this when playing the game as kids, the game coincidentally crashed at the same time. The music that normally plays for the planning scene started, but the outlaws never showed up and we never got the actual planning scene, instead the game just locked up and remained permanently stuck in the camp with the music playing. The fact that this happened with the bubble blowing made my family and myself all assume the bubble was ALSO part of the bug/crash and we were so confused about how a bug like that was even possible.
While you've covered other Sierra games, this video of a relatively obscure title (even in the 90s, the 'Conquests' series was never as renowned as the various 'Quest' series) is the ultimate love letter to Sierra Online. If anything, Conquests of the Longbow is even more impressive 30+ years later. The attention to detail (and hundreds of hours of extra work) required to allow the player to solve puzzles using a variety of different means while still having the game respond in a way that's logically consistent is astonishing. The obvious care and passion for the source material shine through in the beautiful manual (Sierra always had top-notch feelies). Christy Marx doesn't get nearly the credit she deserves for being a cutting-edge game designer.
I love all your videos, but this is by far my favorite! From showing the amount of options a player has at any moment, to the voice acting provided, this video was a thrilling watch! I can't believe I never heard of this game, it's incredible how many variables there are! I can't express enough how much I love this video and this game! Thank you for all the hard work that went into this and I cannot wait to see the speedruns!!
One of the best up and coming channels. The work you've put into all your videos is outstanding. Looking forward to a cozy night of this video later.
Those are very kind words. Thank you!
This game was a favorite of my childhood that i always held as the gold standard of point and click games. This video was an absolute joy to watch, and an amazing production.
Thank you!
I need to give this game a go sometime. It looks really good and a lot more intuitive than most adventure games to boot.
The voice acting in this video is fantastic by the way. Robin’s voice acting in particular was inspired.
Thanks for the kind words! 😊
I saw the first little intro chapter - closed the video, and went to go play the game - then returned to watch the rest of the video. Thank you for showing me this game, I missed out on a ton of the early Point and Click/text prompt gems just because they were slightly before my time - and this one was a blast.
The suave and debonair boasts juxtaposed with the lingering rasp of his soliloquies, Snowy was #1. Also the Prior, Sheriff, Green Man, and King Richard were all great, and Maid Marian was fantastic!
I've already watched this video multiple times and I can't seem to stop, everything from the overall structure of the video to the voice acting I love it all!
One of the very best videos I've ever seen on UA-cam. About as detailed, meticulous and polished as the game itself is. The community voice acting was overall excellent and made the video even more enjoyable. The voice for Robin though, absolutely perfect. I would accept no less for Robin's voice if this game ever got an official talkie version.
42:37 "Longbow is special, and it's going to get crazier."
I think that I'll have to stop watching here then and play it for myself.
That voice over is SO good! I would pay actual money for it!
Indeed, they even got a robin with a proper english accent.
This was great. At first I looked at the timer and thought to myself 2 hours!? I'll watch a bit of it from time to time.
Sat through and watched the whole thing in one go. Brilliant.
Strangely enough this video helped me get through a very, very hard weekend psychologically. I have to thank you for that. Best wishes
When this game came out I thought you weren't supposed to win the archery tournament (since you're recognized later). I didn't know about changing your beard. I honestly thought it was cleverly subversive to have a Robin Hood game where you had to think outside the box and not do the one thing Robin Hood is known best for doing.
I also was obsessed with the handbook's lore about gems and trees. This game was truly magical.
Having this channel's crew of VAs voice act the play through makes the watching SO much fun! First video of yours I've come across and I'm sold and I can guarantee you many many others will enjoy this format. Keep it up and thank you for the video!
i remember a robin hood from way back in the C64 days...
terrible platformer, lots of ways to jump up and climb through the trees, but you lost health for every few pixels that you 'fall' ... there was no minimum ceiling for the health loss.... if you jump, you lose health dropping back to the ground...
you have 100 life, pretty standard, enemies hit for between 25-50, and falling hurts enough to kill you from about half a screen of 'fall damage' ...
i honestly think you weren't meant to get past the first level (at least i couldn't when i was like 6)
Wow! I've seen a longplay of this game before and knew there were multiple solutions to some encounters, but I didn't know there were this many! Makes me hope we'll get a spiritual successor someday.
Loved the addition of the voice actors. It honestly wouldn't have surprised me if it was in the game itself if I didn't know beforehand.
Duuuuuuuuude! 2 Hours!!!! D:
Conquests of the Longbow is certainly your favorite Sierra game because you've outdone yourself this time!
I played Longbow only once ten years ago and aced it first try, as such I missed most of the alternate routes, solutions, and easter eggs the game had to offer. It was great to finally be able to witness all of the game's intricacies and get a deep long look at just how complex the game actually is. It is also making me sad the third Conquests game never saw the light of day, the life and time of Charlemagne would have been a wondrous setting.
For the longest time I felt ambivalent toward the Conquests duology. It bothered me that there wasn't that many traditionnal adventure game puzzles in them, and I thought they both relied too much on the manual for their puzzles, to the point where it feels too much like copy protection. But over the years I've grown quite fond of them, especially when I realised the Conquests games (and the first two Police Quest games for that matter) were not meant to test your puzzle solving skills, but your courage, wisdom, instincts, righteousness, and the purity of your heart. Plus the bittersweet ending to Conquests of Camelot hurts so good every playthrough.
Regarding how lenient the game is with the player: Early on during your video I thought maybe it was designed in the wake of Leisure Suit Larry 5, where Al Lowe did away with dead-ends and gratuitous deaths after listening to player feedbacks. But in the case of Longbow this indulgence seems to be a conscious design choice: The designers clearly wanted the player to reach the ending no matter what, even if they made poor decisions, if only to be judged by King Richard and be encouraged to do better the next time.
This tidbit about the planned but canned real-time strategy aspect, and having to manage outlaws thorough the game, either by using your wits to avoid losing men, or by throwing them at the problems, was very interesting. Rescuing the widow's sons the canonical way, I never stumbled upon the alternate solution. There is another Robin Hood themed video game that also featured outlaw management and storming strongholds, specifically Robin Hood The Legend of Sherwood, by Spellbound. (It is a real-time stealth strategy game, not unlike the Commandos or Desperados game series.) I always suspected the popularity of Defender of the Crown played a role in that aspect of The Legend of Sherwood design. And witnessing how Conquests of the Longbow featured an outlaw management system too, and also hearing about the canned RTS aspect, makes me think the designers of Longbow were also inspired by Defender of the Crown.
(Off-topic but due to the similarities in the choice of colors for both Foulk's and Malcolm's (from Legend of Kyrandia) attires, I also wonder if their clothing trace their origins from some old medieval movie, the same way Richard Thorpe's attire in the 1952 movie Ivanhoe seems to have inspired the design of King Graham.)
Your videos are the best thing that happened to the Sierra community in years, OneShortEye, and this one is no exception. Quite different from your speedrun documentaries but just as enjoyable to watch nonetheless, I hope we'll see more such in-depth documentaries from you in the future (should you ever make a video about Police Quest 1, gimme a poke, for I am one of the few who believes Jim Walls poured his very heart and soul into that game). And snippets from The Sierra Adventure book are always a welcome sight.
Happy new year, I can't wait to see what you'll have in store for us in 2024. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a couple Longbow speedruns to watch. Cheers! :)
This game looks fun, but unfortunately I can't read
Lol, I just skipped to that part accidentally
16:55 One of things that made some major things like saving Wrex in Mass Effect worth it was the option to, well, not, and the devs had the gall to make some of bad choices the default ones for ME2, so you always felt like you worked for the heroics instead of the good outcome being default and the bad ends optional curiosities. I like when developers put that into games. Make the normal story options take effort.
No no no... no no no.
Day 5, we need to do this ONE MORE TIME.
You left the RIGHT amount of Money. You left Not Enough Money.
But what happens if the Guards walk in, and you left ALL the Money... and now they are RICH?!?! If they need 4 Pennies for a Bucket of Ale... but you let enough to buy a whole Tavern?
Unfortunately, the dialog isn't different from when you give them exactly what they need. Though the table shows a LOT of coins on it (the game puts a coin sprite on the table for every penny you put down)
Holy, are your friends professional voice actors? This performance was definitely worthy of this amazing game!
1:46:05 The most calm trial ever
This whole production was tremendous. The voices were so well suited for the characters. It really illustrates the love you have for this game.
I never comment on videos, but I wanted to say that I love the content you're putting out. I adore adventure games but never really got into the Sierra ones so it's wonderful to see that point of view. Can't wait for the speed run video now that you have provided the full context of the game. Great work.
Thank you for the kind words!
I keep forgetting the voice acting isn't originally part of the game it really reminds me of kings quest, so I'd say they did a fantastic job.
Kudos to all the voice actors for understanding exactly how to copy the style and pathos of 90s adventure games! tbh I wouldn't have noticed that you dubbed it for most of the video if you hadn't mentioned it.
The voice acting was so good. Lots of fun, amazing vid
I am so confused, why is no one talking about the thumbnail? Where is the arrow? Where is the bow string? Is that even a bow? He's just holding a stick
Frontiersman of handicap controls and the implementation of things like Modern controls in SF6. "He did it for his brother-in-law." That's legit.
Thanks so much for making this incredible video about my favorite point-and-click adventure game! It's so awesome to see how many views it has gotten in one day! Hope many people discover the game through this and enjoy it as much as I do.