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Game News The Dark Heart of Uukrul released on GOG

Infinitron

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Tags: The Dark Heart of Uukrul

In a pleasant surprise, the classic 1989 roleplaying game The Dark Heart of Uukrul was released on GOG today. Although an obscure title by most accounts, Uukrul is well-known on our forums. That's due in no small part to it being the favorite game of our former editor Crooked Bee, who interviewed co-creators Ian Boswell and Martin Buis back in 2012. We owe its return to one Scott Greig, a fan who contacted Ian & Martin and organized the logistics of its release on GOG, apparently via his publishing company Moon Books. Sadly, Scott passed away in March, leaving Uukrul as his final legacy. GOG's release announcement begins with a tribute to his efforts:

Highly requested first-person RPG classic The Dark Heart of Uukrul joins GOG.COM’s always-growing library of titles today. Originally released in 1989, it's one that holds a special place in many people’s hearts, including Scott Greig (Kill0byt3), who sadly passed away while working on bringing this game back to gamers everywhere.

Scott had a monumental role in re-releasing this game. Sadly, he passed away back in March 2020, while working on making it a reality. According to GOG Stream Team member, Kilg0re, “Scott was a huge fan of the game. He contacted the devs, got them interested, and organized the re-release with the two people responsible for making it, Ian Boswell and Martin Buis.”

His friend, Gregory Wilson (ArvanEleron), also wanted everyone to know how dedicated Scott was to the project: “Canada and Winnipeg area native Scott Greig was a graphic designer and web designer, an aspiring author, streamer, and lover of video games. For a number of years, he was the webmaster and principal graphic designer for GOG's Twitch streamer ArvanEleron, responsible for many of his on stream videos, overlays, and graphics (several of which are still featured every week on Arv's Pen & Pixels show on GOG). Scott was also a mod on a number of channels, and both well-liked and well respected by many online and offline communities.”

So, if you aren’t familiar with this classic game, we’ll catch you up to speed so you can hopefully get a better understanding of why Scott and so many others wanted to see this game brought back from the limbo of history and onto modern PCs everywhere.

The Dark Heart of Uukrul is a first-person turn-based RPG that has you playing as a party of four. You’ll take control of some classic high fantasy characters: a fighter, a paladin, a priest, and a magician.

In Eriosthe, a huge underground city, there are winding tunnels and twisting caverns, monsters that you’ll need to fight, and puzzles that you’ll need to solve. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as safe havens created by the Ancients will give you a place to heal yourself, teleport to other areas, and even level up your team of adventurers.

Need to get some new gear? You’ll need to make your way over the lone marketplace, where traders and cooks are more than happy to make a deal with you. In the case you’ve lost party members along the way, you’ll be able to revive them at the mausoleum, or you can visit the local guild to replace them.

The game is a hidden gem in a sea of RPGs from that era, and what makes it that way is that not only was it not really marketed, but it was released near the end of the Apple II’s lifespan, meaning many gamers missed out on this title.

Thankfully, through Scott and other people’s hard work, The Dark Heart of Uukrul is getting a second life.​

What a story. Somehow it seems appropriate that this would be the game to inspire a loyalty literally to the death. If you'd like to see it for yourself, The Dark Heart of Uukrul is available on GOG for $6.
 
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mindx2

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How did Scott die?
Thinking the same thing. Regardless it's pretty cool that he was able to get the ball rolling on this. The normal, "...but, but this was abandonware!" chatter will ensue but by being on GOG it will get more exposure and seems like the original creators will be getting some of the profits. A win/win in my book. Great game and it was because of Crooked Bee that I discovered this gem years and years ago. :salute:
 

Morpheus Kitami

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I think its pretty cool that the guy was so dedicated to getting the game sold again. Sure, the game was available to everyone who was willing to go to an abandonware website, still probably is, but people seem to think if they visit one they'll get the black plague and get sent to a maximum security prison.
 

KeighnMcDeath

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As soon as i saw this on gog I had to chrck here. Woot for the news. Damn good. Just don't confuse with
Td3JInZ.jpg

This is seriously hilarious though and always brings back memories as I was watching Black adder with the prince so this hit home.

f06bb27e3f3db95772c81237e01656457414c3280450dd8d2c38bc302cdb11bd_product_card_v2_mobile_slider_450.jpg
 

Zed

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CB's favorite game IIRC? Unless it's one of the Wizardries.

I never played it. It's very high up on my retro play list.
 

Doctor Sbaitso

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Love this game. Some unique mechanics and satisfying exploration and puzzles. I haven't finished yet actually, but every so often I jump back in with my party.
 

Fowyr

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The normal, "...but, but this was abandonware!" chatter will ensue
It was abandonware. But there is a great difference, because finally original creators are involved, not some sort of company like EA who killed and cannibalized original lesser developer.
I haven't finished yet actually, but every so often I jump back in with my party.
I've spent the eight years of real time from start to finish. :M
 

MrBuzzKill

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Always exciting to see older games released on Gog (even though it literally used to stand for good OLD games)

Is this the one with the unwieldy combat system?
 

Fowyr

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Is this the one with the unwieldy combat system?
Nope, combat is pretty fast and fine. You have a little combat map, just one screen, with your characters and monsters, where you kill all your foes in the TB. Spells should be typed, though.
 

KeighnMcDeath

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Its been a long while. I should play this and Tunnels of Doom reboot. I honestly can't recall if this game had ranged other than spells. What really set this apart from say Shard of Spring/demon's winter imho was the first person dungeon exploration and a hell of a lot more detail. Shard/demon... eh it leaves you wanting. My appleII days...
 

Doctor Sbaitso

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The automap features was rather advanced and even featured in some puzzles.
 

Azdul

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Sure, the game was available to everyone who was willing to go to an abandonware website, still probably is, but people seem to think if they visit one they'll get the black plague and get sent to a maximum security prison.
GOG release means that there is 'standard' version of the game, which is important for unofficial patches, mods, or support in ScummVM. Of course freeware release by original developers would be even better.

Once I've downloaded 4 different versions of the same game from 4 different abadonware sites, and none of them had the files with checksum expected by open-source engine rewrite. There are official patches, unofficial-official patches (Anachronox, Ultima 9, Wizards and Warriors), widely adopted unofficial patches, official patches should not be used - because they break more than they fix, fixed re-releases, budget re-releases, custom versions for specific retailers, not mentioning different cracks. Even if downloaded game works fine - from the point of view of preservation it is a mess.
 

lightbane

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The game for one of the finest LPs in the Codex is finally in Gog? And with a tragic history behind the release to boot!

Still, it's cool to see such determination. He got his wish in the end, and he won't have to worry about the game getting a "modern remake" bastardization.
 

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