1992 Virgin
Platforms: Commodore Amiga and PC MS-DOS
Not to be confused with the text adventure trilogy of the same name, Legacy of the Necromancer was a planned dungeon crawling RPG in the style of Dungeon Master. It was to be developed by a team at Virgin, and not Westwood (as it was incorrectly reported by press at the time). The title was even shown at the Winter CES that year on Virgin’s stand, but it never saw release.
The game’s storyline was a familiar but ambitious fantasy setup with a story as follows:
Two centuries earlier, a necromancer had unleashed an age of darkness and cold as punishment for mankind’s attempt to kill him. His curse rebounded however and he ended up imprisoned in a frozen temple beneath a dungeon near the player’s village. With geothermal heat melting the ice and threatening his escape, the necromancer was once again close to regaining his powers. As the chosen hero, players were tasked by the village elders to descend into the necromancer’s lair – overcoming deadly traps, puzzles and monsters to destroy him once and for all.
Previews in the press promised thirteen levels of exploration, puzzle-solving and real-time combat against a wide range of enemies which included undead, chaos creatures and even giant mushrooms. A wide selection of characters and attributes were to be offered, with progress visualised in new ways to show the growth of the hero’s power. The game was praised for its early graphics and atmosphere, which magazines described as “sumptuous”, alongside fluid animation and a digitised soundtrack.
Legacy of the Necromancer was tipped as a potential RPG highlight of 1992, standing alongside Eye of the Beholder and Black Crypt. Sadly, despite the buzz from CES and the previews, the project quietly disappeared and never saw the light of day.
The question now is about what happened to the title? Screenshots were shown, which suggest that the game got far – and so is there any chance that something of the game could be found and recovered? We hope so – for now, we need to learn who was behind the title. If you know anything more, please do get in touch.
In the meantime, Indie Retro News‘ Twitter account commented that they recalled it being talked about years ago, and the game was put aside for Lands of Lore. They shared details from community discussions and archival research. Reports suggest that Legacy of the Necromancer was indeed presented at both the Summer and Winter CES conventions in 1992 on Virgin’s stand, confirming it as a Virgin-edited title. However, the exact development team remains uncertain. Early magazine coverage mistakenly attributed the game to Westwood Studios, likely due to Virgin’s association with Eye of the Beholder at the time.
Community investigations at the likes of rpgcodex.net have pointed to the possibility that the game may have been developed internally by Virgin, and later set aside when the company secured the Westwood deal, possibly to avoid overlap with Lands of Lore, which launched in January 1993. Other candidates for development include Synergistic and Cryo, based on visual style and contemporaneous Virgin releases, though no definitive attribution has been confirmed. Contacts such as recurring artists Robert Stein III and Cryo team members have been suggested as potential sources for more information.
A former Westwood Senior Artist and Designer, Joseph B. Hewitt, clarified that Legacy of the Necromancer was not a Westwood project, and the studio’s focus at the time had shifted to supporting Lands of Lore and preparing for emerging 3D RPGs like Ultima Underworld. Here is what Joseph had to say:
“Hi. I was Senior Artist and Designer at Westwood. This game was not from Westwood. I’ve never seen or heard of it before. SSI took over Eye of the Beholder franchise when we were bought and merged into Virgin Games, though we did help them with EoB III. We went ahead with Lands of Lore. I don’t remember there being another vision for it, though I do remember that we we conerned about the real 3D games that were starting to come out, notably Ultima Underworld, which is why we added the fake turning illusion at the last minute. I will point out that there is another D&D, EoB-ish, dungoin crawler game that I worked on at Westwood: Order of the Griffon for the NEC TurboGrafx 16. I hear it is a rare and a little costly game to get a-hold of but there are some play-throughs on YouTube. Just remember, it is a 16-bit console system with character graphics, but pretty cool for it’s time.”
Despite being shown in a playable state at CES, Legacy of the Necromancer game quietly disappeared, and details about its cancellation, team, and how far development progressed remain largely a mystery. The search continues to uncover more information and possibly recover elements of this lost RPG.
With thanks to RetroBorgo and Karl Kuras for both highlighting the title, Indie Retro News for the great information and Edicola8bit.com, archive.org, mocagh.org, gamingafter40.blogspot.com and abandonware-france.org for scans
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