Cireneg's Rings

Cireneg's Rings

Release type: Demo game
Release date: 1993 (original release)
Levels: 12
Author: Don'Pan Software
Related games: Dusk Rose, Sample, Dungeon Erghuck

Cireneg's Rings is an RPG in the tradition of Dragon Warrior, including a generic medieval setting, an evil overlord with a princess in captivity, sprawling towns hiding opaque yet important secrets, and a very slow-moving character.

There are a few subversions. You know the convention, popularized by Dragon Warrior, where exiting a city reduces it to the size of a single tile on the world map? The idea is that the journey between points of interest is heavily abstracted -- both visually, in the representation of scale, and mechanically, in the random battles that represent personal trials and learning experiences on one's journeys. In later JRPGs, the convention just becomes a convention: towns grow tiny, while a huge character walks around the map.

So I decided to play with that; whenever you leave a town, the game halts for a moment while your character erupts to an enormous size. This enormous character is then used to tromp the countryside between towns.

Strolling the Royal City in Cireneg's Rings

Other curiosities include the large "Groucho Rock" formation on the world map, a large healing sauna in each town, and -- in early versions -- lots and lots of nudity. That's mostly gone now, though there may be a couple of incidental flashes hidden away. Even without the nudity, most of the townspeople are deliberately wonky. They stand in place and stomp or wave their arms, as townspeople do in games like this -- except more so.

If any of this sounds clever, it's more than offset by the inanity. The game, for instance, is filled with useless items such as armor, which often comes at a steep price. This is not so much commentary as an oversight; Game-Maker provides no way to raise or lower a character's defenses, and yet I had to include the armor shop. Why? Because this was an RPG. Were I more astute, I could have turned the fact into a gag about in-game financing and genre conventions.

Tromping the overworld in Cireneg's Rings

That is, I could have if Game-Maker if Game-Maker supported text overlays -- which it didn't, which probably should have given me pause before I attempted an RPG. Later on the engine got support for interstitial text and animation between levels. Although that made the premise a little clearer, it still left the player to wander aimlessly.

Not that it would have mattered, as at this point I had little concept of how to pace or structure a game. Even if you know precisely where to go and what to do, the smallest of tasks can take forever and the most important events can pass without a hint that something happened. There is no comprehensible flow from place to place, and no build-up or release of tension.

Just to make the continuity even stranger is my failure to account for Game-Maker's lack of event flags or counter resets, meaning that in theory the player can re-enter a dungeon and collect ten copies of a priceless artifact, or continually leave and enter an area to collect a key or health upgrade. It's kind of a mess.

On the plus side, Cireneg's Rings is probably one of the biggest games designed with Game-Maker. I learned early what the game industry in general would take another ten years to figure out: if you can't do quality, you can always make up for it with scale.

There are two very similar versions of this game; one featuring an acquaintance from my home town, and an edited version for public consumption. The latter was eventually folded into the 3.0 CD release of Game-Maker. As with Barracuda, the version distributed with Game-Maker has a few corrupted files.

- [Azurelore Korrigan]

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Story

The land of Roant, in Cireneg's Rings

Aderack Enoob is what you are called, and your homeland is - was - called Roant, until the Evelsherk Zachan arrived. He conjured up monsters too fearsome to speak of and soon became ruler of the land.

Needless to say, he also took the princess, Dusk Rose, with him to his imperial fortress. The people now hide inside towns, the bravest joining clubs of warriors, who go on raids, destroying every monster in sight. You are one of these - the best and most celebrated one.

The king called you a few moments ago. You weren't told why you were summoned, but it's not hard to guess - popularity is not always all it's cracked up to be. You arrive at the king's chamber. The guards let you in without a question.

When you approach the throne, the king begins to speak. He tells you what you thought he would, that you have been cosen to destroy Zachan. You begin to protest, as you know you are not powerful enough for the task, but the king signals to stay your lips. He begins to explain his reasons.

The Royal City in Cireneg's Rings

Your ancestor, Cireneg Hugwoh, defeated the Evelsherk once before, using five magical rings. As his descendant, you are the only one who can wield these rings. You must locate them, as well as the very helmet, armor, and shield he wore, else you would be killed instantly by Zachan's evil Magic.

In addition, while Cireneg used the rings to defeat Zachan, he dealt the final blow with a lightning sword he crafted. This is also necessary for your journey.

As you process this data, the king mumbles to a robed old man who you hadn't seen before. The man points his index finger at you and mumbles some gibberish. A strange feeling comes over you, and a couple bolts of electricity wander up and down your body for a moment.

The elderly figure reports to you that your powers have been increased threefold and whenever you are in an immensely dangerous situation, you would grow to fully thrice your current size and would be able to cast spells so powerful that any other mortal man would die casting them. You don't know the words or gestures to them, though, so you must find books in which these are written.

In addition to this, you have been given minor telekinetic powers, and are now able to swing a weapon merely by thinking about it.

You are dismissed abruptly, and are asked to leave.

Instructions

The Northern Cave in Cireneg's Rings

Up Arrow: Walk upwards

Down Arrow: Walk downwards

Left Arrow: Walk left

Right Arrow: Walk right

<SPACE>: Attack

1: Lightagin spell

2: Watagil spell

3: Earnimor spell

4: Fironimar spell

P: Pick up item

D: Drop an item

Credits

This was done almost entirely by [Azurelore Korrigan]. Seth Brown provided about half of the voices and the overall idea, plus he looked over the project the majority of the time, so he belongs here as well.

Tips

The game offers little direction, either verbally or in its actual design, so it can be very difficult to get started. Here are a few suggestions.

1. From the King's chamber, walk left and up. A very long corridor will take you to the right, and out of the castle. When you exit, immediately turn around and re-enter. You will find yourself in the town adjoining the castle.
2. Enter the weapon shop near the entrance and buy yourself a dagger.
3. Leave the town and wander the nearby area, hunting monsters and collecting money. Keep it up until you have enough to buy a stronger weapon, maybe a magic book, and plenty of health. Ignore the armor; it does nothing.
4. Next, think about tackling the first cave. The cave can be treacherous, and some parts require brute force. Before you enter, you should try to build up dozens or hundreds of hit points.
5. When you are strong enough to tackle the local monsters, move on to the next continent and the next town. Explore each, particularly the town, thoroughly.
6. Continue in this way, building up your supply of health and money, trading up to better weapons, and moving forward to new places.
7. One of the best and quickest ways to soak up hit points is in the hot springs -- if you have the money.
8. Along your journey, keep an eye out for anything out-of-place. You're looking for four special rings that grant you access to the final dungeon.
9. Even when you have all of the rings, think before entering the dungeon. Do you have enough power? Have you the best spells and weapons?
10. Remember to save constantly.

Availability

This game is distributed as gameware with Game-Maker 3.0 (in a corrupted version).

During the early 1990s the game also was available for download from GameLynk's Frontline BBS.

Archive History

Cireneg's Rings was retained as part of the archive from the game's inception.

Links

Interviews/Articles

• The History of A-J Games: Part Four

Misc. Links

• Play Cireneg's Rings online

Downloads

• Cireneg's Rings (745.4 kB)
• Roant World Map (325 kB)
  • Town 1 (Royal City) Map (193 kB)
  • Cave 1 (Northern Cave) Map (69 kB)
  • Town 2 (Sylvana) Map (261 kB)
  • Cave 2 (Western Cave) Map (66 kB)
  • Town 3 (Mirewell) Map (183 kB)
    • Old Well Map (21 kB)
  • Old Castle Map (95 kB)
  • Town 4 (Bastion) Map (151 kB)
  • Zachan's Dungeon Map (116 kB)