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Gateway To The Savage Frontier




  developer Stormfront Studios
  publisher Strategic Simulations, Inc
  engine Gold Box
  released 1991
  genre Role-playing Game
  modes Single Player
  platforms Amiga , MS-DOS
  media 3½" Floppy Disk
  followed By Treasures Of The Savage Frontier


Gateway to the Savage Frontier ( 1991 ) is a Gold Box Dungeons And Dragons Computer Game developed by Stormfront Studios and published by SSI for the Commodore 64 , PC and Amiga Personal Computer s. The title was the #1 selling game in North America in August of 1991.

When SSI began work on the Dark Sun Game Engine in 1989 after the completion of Secret Of The Silver Blades , they passed responsibility for continuing the Forgotten Realms Gold Box games to Stormfront. Designers Don Daglow , Mark Buchignani , David Bunnett and Arturo Sinclair set the action for the game in an area of the Forgotten Realms that TSR had labeled ''The Savage Frontier '', north of Waterdeep and south of Luskan along the Sword Coast . The area was far to the west of the region that hosted the action for Pool Of Radiance and its sequels.

Neverwinter sits in the center of the region and was made the starting point of the game. This proved to be important when Stormfront gained the support of AOL executive Steve Case to create the first-ever graphical MMORPG , and to base it on the Gold Box engine. To leverage the existing game and cross-promote the titles, Daglow based the new MMORPG in Neverwinter and named it '' Neverwinter Nights ''.

The game's principal technical enhancement to the aging Gold Box engine was the addition of ''wilderness play'', where the party traveled long distances on the map while following the basic D&D rules for combat with wandering monsters.

The game also featured character-specific side-quests, with two NPC s who can open these optional missions. The side quests in turn open different endings for the game.


PLOT OVERVIEW


The game revolves around a standard (for Gold Box adventures) party of six adventurers who inadvertently get caught up in a plot by the Zhentarim to conquer the entire Frontier area.

The storyline, in rough terms, follows:

  • The party being hired to Assassinate a Cleric of Bane , only to discover that this evil priest was the only individual standing in the way of the conquest.

  • Rescuing the Magic User Amelior Aminitas, an eccentric and somewhat absent-minded wizard who explains how to stop the Zhentarim.

  • Finding four magical statues scattered across the frontier before the Zhentarim, led by a General Vaalgamon, gets to them.

  • Traveling to the dead city of Ascore to end the Zhentarim plot.


Basically, Zhentil Keep plans to use these magical statues to open a way through an otherwise-unpassable Desert for their armies. If successful, the party is hailed as the "Heroes of Ascore," which is carried over into the sequel.


SEQUELS


The game spawned one sequel, '' Treasures Of The Savage Frontier '' ( 1992 ).


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