An American Tail: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends

Last updated
An American Tail: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends
American Tail DOS Cover.jpg
Developer(s) Manley & Associates
Publisher(s) Capstone Software
Producer(s) David Turner
Designer(s) Jonathan Sposato [1]
Programmer(s) Robert Ridihalgh
Artist(s) Miik Nichols
Jonathan Sposato
Composer(s) Tom McMail
Platform(s) MS-DOS
ReleaseAugust 1992 [2]
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

An American Tail: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends is point-and-click adventure game published by Capstone Software in 1993 for MS-DOS and developed by Manley & Associates. It is based on the films An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West . The manual includes a glossary to define difficult words for younger players. [3] In 1994 the game was released with Trolls and Rock-A-Doodle Computerized Coloring Book on the Capstone CD Game Kids Collection. [4]

Contents

Gameplay

The player guides Fievel Mousekewitz to find and protect his family. The gameplay is a simplified click and point set of options without any deaths or dead ends. Whenever the mouse pointer is placed over a particular something, the icon changes to indicate that an appropriate action will take place to correspond with that icon, such as talking to characters, picking up items, looking at objects and going to another location. When talking to a character, the player will have multiple dialogue responses to choose from. Clicking on Fievel himself allows the player to give one or more items from his inventory to a character on screen. Throughout the game, the player must solve some mini-games to gain required items. Losing a mini-game has no consequence but requires the player to try again until the game is won by Fievel.

Development

The game uses digitized scenes from the first two films and was presented to the Chicago 1992 Summer Electronics Show. [5] [6]

Reception

Judy Muldawer reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World :

Solving these adventures promotes a feeling of accomplishment. However, because it is so difficult to assess any one age group as a target for An American Tail, the best use of this adventure game for children might be to share it as a group experience. In this way, children and adults can assist one another and, together, share the joy of accomplishment when the adventure is completed. I recommend this game as a family project for parents and children of elementary school age. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Sam & Max Hit the Road</i> 1993 video game

Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphic adventure video game released by LucasArts during the company's adventure games era. The game was originally released for MS-DOS in 1993 and for Mac OS in 1995. A 2002 re-release included compatibility with Windows. The game is based on the comic characters of Sam and Max, the "Freelance Police", an anthropomorphic dog and "hyperkinetic rabbity thing". The characters, created by Steve Purcell, originally debuted in a 1987 comic book series. Based on the 1989 Sam & Max comic On the Road, the duo take the case of a missing bigfoot from a nearby carnival, traveling to many American culture tourist sites to solve the mystery.

<i>Discworld</i> (video game) A point-and-click adventure game

Discworld is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions and published by Psygnosis. It is based on Terry Pratchett's novels of the same name. Players assume the role of Rincewind the "wizzard", voiced by Eric Idle, as he becomes involved in exploring the Discworld for the means to prevent a dragon terrorising the city of Ankh-Morpork. The game's story borrows elements from several Discworld novels, with its central plot loosely based on the events in Guards! Guards!

<i>Hugos House of Horrors</i> 1990 video game

Hugo's House of Horrors is a parser-based adventure game designed by independent software developer David P. Gray and published as shareware in 1990. The game follows the character Hugo as he searches for his girlfriend Penelope in a haunted house. To progress through the game, the player uses items and interacts with the environment to solve puzzles and access more rooms in the house. The gameplay was inspired by Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Hugo's House of Horrors was praised for its environment and atmosphere, but it was criticized for its plot and visual design. It was followed by two sequels: Hugo II, Whodunit? and Hugo III, Jungle of Doom!, and a spin-off first-person shooter game, Nitemare 3D.

<i>An American Tail</i> 1986 animated film directed by Don Bluth

An American Tail is a 1986 American animated musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth and written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss from a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film stars the voices of Phillip Glasser, John Finnegan, Amy Green, Nehemiah Persoff, Dom DeLuise, and Christopher Plummer. It is the story of Fievel Mousekewitz and his family as they emigrate from Russia to the United States for freedom, but Fievel gets lost and must find a way to reunite with them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capstone Software</span>

Capstone Software was a subsidiary of IntraCorp, a Miami-based computer and video game company. Founded in 1984, Capstone created first-person games such as Corridor 7: Alien Invasion, Operation Body Count, William Shatner's TekWar and Witchaven, and is also known for releasing games based on movie/TV licenses. Capstone's first-person games used the Wolfenstein 3D engine, and later, the Build engine.

<i>Veil of Darkness</i> 1993 video game

Veil of Darkness is a horror-action-adventure game for MS-DOS, FM Towns and PC-98, which was developed by Event Horizon Software and published by Strategic Simulations in 1993. Veil of Darkness is a third person, 2D point-and-click adventure game with RPG elements featuring a fixed isometric perspective and a fair share of action-RPG style combat.

<i>An American Tail: Fievel Goes West</i> 1991 animated film directed by Phil Nibbelink

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is a 1991 American animated Western comedy film directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells, with producer Steven Spielberg for Amblin Entertainment and animated by his Amblimation animation studio and released by Universal Pictures. A sequel to 1986's An American Tail, the film follows the story of the Mousekewitzes, a family of Russian-Jewish mice who emigrate to the Wild West. In it, Fievel is separated from his family as the train approaches the American Old West; the film chronicles him and Sheriff Wylie Burp teaching Tiger how to act like a dog.

<i>Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel</i> 1990 video game

Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel is a graphic adventure computer game for the Macintosh computer line created by Cyan, Inc. It was published in 1989 and won the 1990 Mac User's Editors' Choice Award for the "Best Recreational Program" category.

<i>Kings Quest VI</i> 1992 video game

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is a point-and-click adventure game, first released in 1992 as the sixth installment in the King's Quest series produced by Sierra On-Line. Written by Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, King's Quest VI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its landmark 3D graphic introduction movie and professional voice acting. King's Quest VI was programmed in Sierra's Creative Interpreter and was the last King's Quest game to be released on floppy disk. A CD-ROM version of the game was released in 1993, including more character voices, a slightly different opening movie and more detailed artwork and animation.

<i>An American Tail: Fievel Goes West</i> (video game) 1994 video game

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is a Super NES video game released in 1994. It is the second game released based on the film of the same name, the other title being an adventure game for DOS, published by Capstone Software.

There have been a variety of Sesame Street video games released for video game platforms. Most of the Sesame Street video games were published and developed by NewKidCo.

An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of genres. Most adventure games are designed for a single player, since the emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. Colossal Cave Adventure is identified by Rick Adams as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include Zork, King's Quest, Monkey Island, Syberia, and Myst.

<i>Eternam</i> 1992 video game

Eternam is a graphical adventure game from Infogrames, released originally in 1992 for MS-DOS. A CD-ROM version with full speech was published in 1993. The game was developed by Hubert Chardot, who is better remembered from his Lovecraft-themed games Shadow of the Comet and Prisoner of Ice. While the game is mainly a two-dimensional adventure game, it contains a three-dimensional subgame, which pays homage to Drakkhen, a roleplaying game from Infogrames. This game was re-released digitally on GOG.com in mid 2019.

An American Tail is a franchise based on the 1986 animated feature film of the same name directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios/Amblin Entertainment.

<i>Trolls</i> (video game) 1992 video game

Trolls is a Troll doll-themed platform game developed and published by Flair Software for the Amiga, MS-DOS and Commodore 64 in 1992. In 1994 it was ported to the CD32.

Detective Barbie is a series of three mystery themed point and click adventure games starring the character Barbie. The series consists of Detective Barbie In the Mystery of the Carnival Caper! (1998) Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery (1999), and Detective Barbie: The Mystery Cruise (2000). The first two games were developed by Gorilla Systems Corporation and published on the PC by Mattel Media/Mattel Interactive. The third game was developed for the PlayStation by Runecraft.

<i>Computerized Coloring Books</i> Video game series

Computerized Coloring Books is a collection of three games developed by Capstone Software and published by its parent company IntraCorp for MS-DOS and Amiga. A port for Windows 3.1 was planned but never released. The games are based on Bill Kroyer's film FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Don Bluth's film Rock-a-Doodle, and John Hughes's film Home Alone. The Rock-a-Doodle game was as released with Trolls and An American Tail: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends on the Capstone CD Game Kids Collection.

<i>Marios Early Years!</i> 1993-1994 video games

The Mario's Early Years! series is a trilogy of point-and-click educational games released on MS-DOS and Super Nintendo Entertainment System by The Software Toolworks. The three games consist of Fun with Letters, Fun with Numbers and Preschool Fun.

<i>Die Kathedrale</i> 1991 text adventure game

Die Kathedrale is a 1991 German text adventure game developed by Weltenschmiede and published by Software 2000 for the Amiga and DOS. Die Kathedrale is part of a text adventure trilogy; it is preceded by Das Stundenglas (1990) and succeeded by Hexuma (1992). The trilogy lacks an overarching plot, and in each entry the setting, role of the protagonist, and goal differ between each game. Games in the trilogy do not require knowledge of the other entries and may be played as standalone games.

<i>The Dark Half</i> (video game) 1992 video game

The Dark Half is a 1992 video game published by Capstone Software. The game is based on Stephen King's 1989 novel The Dark Half.

References

  1. 1 2 Muldawer, Judy (October 1992). "Catch of Two Tales". Computer Gaming World . No. 99. Ziff Davis. pp. 90, 92.
  2. ↑ DeCoster, Jeane; Crook, David (1992-08-29). "The Mouse That Didn't Roar". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  3. ↑ Elko, Lance (October 1992). "Reviews - An American Tail". Game Players PC Entertainment. Vol. 5, no. 5. GP Publications. p. 42.
  4. ↑ "Capstone CD Game Kids Collection". Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  5. ↑ Elko, Lance (September 1992). "Software Extravaganza". Game Players PC Entertainment. Vol. 5, no. 4. GP Publications. p. 29.
  6. ↑ "Celebrities and More". Amazing Computer Magazine. Vol. 7, no. 8. August 1992. p. 56.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.