The Shadow of Yserbius
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'The Shadow of Yserbius' was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community The Sierra Network, which was later known as The ImagiNation Network. The game was followed by two sequels entitled The Fates of Twinion and Ruins of Cawdor.
Yserbius was released in 1992 by one of the most popular game companies of its time, Sierra On-Line. Later, the ImagiNation Network was bought out by AT&T, which was later bought out by AOL. Yserbius and Twinion were later released in offline versions that could be played without an internet connection.
Gameplay
The premise of the game was to kill an evil elemental creature called En-li-Kil. There were a number of "rooms", where up to 30, then later 60 people could meet and adventure together in up to groups of four. Combat was turn-based.
The available professions were Barbarian, Knight, Ranger, Thief, Cleric, and Wizard. Player races included Human, Orc, Elf, Troll, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, and Gremlin.
Another popular pastime was player vs player sparring. This later became corrupted by cheating, as well as version compatibility issues, which later versions tried to address, but with little success. Later the Fates of Twinion (released in 1993), and the Ruins of Cawdor (released in late 1995) were released, but never reached the popularity of the original game. Yserbius in its online form was shut down permanently in mid-1996, along with the ImagiNation Network.
Many players were members of guilds ranging from the large SoF (Soldiers Of Fortune) and KoY (Kingdom Of Yserbius), DEADZ, to the smaller guilds such as TheMercs, KoC (Knight of Chivalry), and KAAOS (Killing As An Organized Sport). Most guilds were based on role playing with very little questing being done later in the game. A handful of the guilds started in Yserbius during the early 1990's, such as SoF, TheCelts, KAAOS, DEADZ, and the New Outriders, still exist to this day.
The Tavern
The tavern was the social hub for the game.
Remakes
Doubtless due to the popularity of Yserbius, the perceived simplicity of its engine, and the fact that most of the Yserbius graphics are easily attainable, there have been several attempts to remake the gameplay of Yserbius.
Current Projects
As of June 2006, two projects are in active development.
The staff at Yserbius.org have been working on a remake since mid 2005, and have recently placed the Tavern back in service, allowing fans and former players to chat in the Tavern once more. More details can be found at [Yserbius.org].
In addition, Xenther's new 'Yserbius Project' has been in active development since 2004, with regular updates on his website, [XenSoft.com].
Abandoned Projects
The first remake attempt was Gandalf's 'Yserbius project', which was in development in 1998. Gandalf, a major force in the Yserbius community, disappeared in early 1999. With his going, all information regarding his project was lost.
In mid 1999, Xenther and EtoneDarkKnight worked together on developing 'Project Asunder', a spiritual successor to Yserbius. Numerous screen shots were shown, with actual gameplay implied. However, EtoneDarkKnight fell out of communication with the public late that year, and Project Asunder was closed shortly thereafter.
In early 2000, Mithrandel announced development of 'Yet Another Yserbius' (YAY). While Mithrandel claimed to have finished development of the Tavern and extended beta test invitations to a small group of testers, no public beta test was ever released. Mithrandel later went on to develop FauxINN, a recreation of The ImagiNation Network.
External links
- [Yserbius.org - This site is intended for the purpose of Archival of all things Yserbius, TSN, INN .]
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