As the saying goes, every coin has two sides: A good one and a bad one. In case of the two “Conquests…” games by designer Christy Marx, which deal with the heroes of the British mythology, the first part, “Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail”, is the good side, whereas its sequel, “Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood”, represents the bad side - well, at least in terms of the Amiga version. But I don't want to put the cart before the horse, so let’s start with the original release of this adventure… on PC…

Just like Robin Hood’s famous predecessor King Arthur, also the noble outlaw of Sherwood Forest enjoys a great popularity in worldwide media, like books, films, computer/video and even board games. Particularly in 1991 there seems to be an omnipresent “Robin Hood” hype: Not just one, but two motion pictures were shown in cinemas around the world. The first one was the simply titled “Robin Hood” (starring Patrick Bergin, Uma Thurman and Jürgen Prochnow), which was an epic flop; the other one was “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (starring Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman). The latter was a huge success at the box office – especially in England. Rumour has it, that in Robin’s homeland, the movie made everyone laugh, because of Costner’s American accent. However, after the multi-award-winning epic Western “Dances with Wolves” Costner could do whatever he wanted to do; each of the following films (e.g. “JFK”, “Perfect World” or most notably “The Bodyguard”) was a capital hit. But after this streak of success, his production of the post-apocalyptic thriller “Waterworld” became a financial disaster and Kevin Costner’s career went downhill – but that’s another story…

…so, “Prince of Thieves” was extremely profitable back in 1991, nevertheless there was only one game, which made use of the lucrative license. That title (certainly using the same name) was released on Nintendo’s NES as well as on Game Boy in ‘91/’92. But also the British company Millennium, formerly Logotron (best known for their “James Pond” series), released their own vision of this historical subject matter in fall of 1991: “The Adventures of Robin Hood”. Actually, it was an icon-driven action-adventure, which showed a striking resemblance to Bullfrog’s evergreen “Populous”. Critics were generally positive, albeit German magazines blamed the program because of some bugs and consequent dead ends as well as the fact, that it’s possible to complete the game within half an hour! Anyway, it seems to have sold well, ‘cause one year later the much more extensive successor “Rome AD92: The Pathway to Power” was released.

So much about the rival products, but let’s get back to Sierra’s contribution to the legendary figure, which was first available on PC in early 1992 and later ported to the Amiga in autumn of the same year…


Welcome to an Outlawed Life…
“When the idea of doing a Robin Hood game was suggested to me, I was delighted. Robin Hood has always been one of my favorite heroes, not to mention how much I love the Medieval time period, in fact. I’m fascinated with the details of how people lived their lives, how they thought and reacted, what they ate and wore, and so on. I’m fascinated by ruins, by ancient writing and tantalizing hints of lost knowledge.

So here was another chance to mix legend and history. Robin Hood himself is pure legend, but the setting of twelfth century England allowed me to explore and use history.” - Christy Marx, game designer of “Conquests of the Longbow”

Just like its famous precursor “Conquests of Camelot”, also “Conquests of the Longbow” starts with a nice intro – but this time in watercolour style instead of the former graphic novel presentation: Here we become witness of Sir Richard the Lionheart’s escape from the Holy Land after the end of the Third Crusade. The retaking of Jerusalem proved to be a failure, so he and his men try to get back to England. Unfortunately, he was captured near Vienna by Leopold of Austria, who claims a high ransom for him. But Prince John doesn’t make the faintest attempt to free his “beloved” brother from the clutches of Leopold. So, the once aristocrat Robin of Loxley and his “Merry Men” – Little John, Alan-a-Dale the troubadour, Much the Miller’s son, Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck - step into the breach for their disgraced King and take the fight against the power-hungry Prince John and his accomplice, the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham… well, actually everybody should be familiar with the story…

The game starts at Robin’s secret hideout in Sherwood Forest; inside a cave to be exact: Grab the horn (in case of need Robin’s able to summon his men with it) and the money out of the chest, then go outside – there, your band of loyal followers awaits your arrival. But after some chit-chat Will Scarlet as well as Little John leave the place, merely Alan-a-Dale the troubadour and Friar Tuck remain. Now our aspiring “Defender of the Crown” (by the way, in this famous Cinemaware classic Robin has a small but nevertheless important supporting role, too) has three options: Should he help Little John to ambush “generous” travellers or would it be better to join Will to practice his archery skills? Finally, he could explore the surroundings of Sherwood Forest – after all, there are many interesting “hot spots” on Robin’s comfortable map…

So, is “Conquests of the Longbow” a non-linear adventure? Well, actually it isn’t, because the game is separated in 13 days - admittedly, you can go wherever you want to go, but each day contains specific tasks. For instance, on the first day you have to fulfil the following duties (or at least you should try it):

1. Follow Will to the forest glade to practice your archery skills.
2. Free a peasant woman from the clutches of a Sheriff's man.
3. Pay a visit to the cottage of the Widow and her three sons Hal, Hob and Dicken.

Eventually, night falls, Robin Hood and his men reflect on the day’s events (filled with tales and songs) before they hit the sack… well, sweet dreams…


Dreams and Realities…
“You wish to end this? You wish to go home? Then we must stop fighting amongst ourselves, and face that the price for it may be dear. I for one would rather die than spend my life in hiding. The Sheriff calls us outlaws, but I say we are free. And one free man defending his home is more powerful than ten hired soldiers…” - Robin of Locksley (“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”, 1991)

After a strange dream, our green-dressed hero awakes in his hideout the next day. But was it actually a dream… or rather a vision? Whatever it was, while he was in deep slumber, Robin saw a beautiful woman, dancing under a group of willows, swaying to a music in the wind. As soon as he entered the place, the woman disappeared in a green glare – what was left was a glittering green emerald that lay in the grass. As you guessed right, this lovely maiden was no one else than Robin’s future love interest Marian. But what’s even weirder than the dream itself is the fact, that he now holds the stone – which has the form of half a heart – in his hand after awakening from his nap!

For this reason, the next step should be clear: Finding Marian and save her from another enemy, an evil monk. The reward for this generous act isn’t a passionate kiss, but one of her slippers – what the hell…?! Hold up a minute, that makes absolutely sense, because before this event, Will told Robin about a cobbler called Lobb, who wishes to speak to him… well, think about it: A slipper and a cobbler - surely this can’t be coincidence, can it? Problem is that Lobb’s shop is in Nottingham – in a manner of speaking right in enemy territory! So, how to get there without causing a stir? Just wait and see; or like Robin says: “We shall see what the morrow brings.”

By the way, just as in other Sierra adventures, also here the mortality rate is quite high – and I don’t talk about the sudden deaths. The above-mentioned… err, I would call it “Bonnie…”, um, “Marian Situation” is a good example, ‘cause if Robin fails to save her from being killed by the monk, he’ll be slain by the cobbler. As you can see, sooner or later the sins of the past catch up with everyone…


Missing the Forest for the Trees…
“Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.” – Robin Hood (“Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, 1993)

Of course, “Conquests of the Longbow” offers plenty of “ordinary” opportunities to bite the dust in a second, too, such as:

• Don’t shoot an arrow at the Grandfather Oak, unless you want to be turned into a tree.
• Don’t enter a pub crowded with Sheriff’s men.
• Don’t get involved in a drinking contest with a boozing companion who has God on his side.
• Trying to open locked boxes at a dangerous place isn’t recommendable.

But now let’s get to another point, namely a certain occasional cluelessness on the part of the player – or in other words, although the current task is clear, sometimes you have no idea what to do next. Again the “Marian Situation” is a good example: You know you have to find her, but there’s no clue about her whereabouts. So, Robin searches the whole Sherwood Forest for her (because she isn’t at the Willow Grove; that would have been a bit too obvious), and this is quite a large area! To make matters worse, each screen of the forest looks nearly the same, similar to Westwood’s classic “Fables & Fiends – Book One: The Legend of Kyrandia”.

To the game’s credit, there aren’t any annoying blind alleys – at least I haven’t noticed such motivation killers. This is due to the fact, that the adventure is separated in several days (as mentioned above). Just like in Delphine Software’s murder mystery “Cruise for a Corpse”, also here time only moves forward when Robin has finished all (necessary) tasks of the current day. However, if you’ve lost the train of thought on a certain spot in the game, you’re able to restart the respective chapter – so, this time players are spared from the burden of getting lost, as it appears in other programs of the Californian company. Nevertheless, there’s no autosave option (c’mon, such “luxury” didn’t exist back in the early nineties, even console games didn’t offer this kind of comfort), therefore you should save your progress at the beginning of each new day. Obviously, this feature became a certain standard within Sierra On-Line, because Jane Jensen’s thriller masterpiece “Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers” (released in 1993) contains the very same system, too, and is split into 10 days…


“Now, let me get some Action from the Back Section…”
“Rise, and rise again. Until lambs become lions.” – Robin Longstride (“Robin Hood”, 2010)

Just like in the precursor “Conquests of Camelot”, also “The Legend of Robin Hood” includes a couple of action sequences and mini games, respectively – for instance:

• Prove your skills in archery.
• Fighting with the quarterstaff.
• Playing a game of Nine Men’s Morris.
• Unlock a tricky puzzle box.

Whether you like those kinds of “interludes” or not, certainly depends on your personal taste. But unlike to “The Search for the Grail”, not only you can alter the degree of difficulty of the several action sequences; this time you’re able to bypass them completely, so that you’ll automatically “win” such situations (the solitary exception is the Nine Men’s Morris game). On the one hand this is very comfortable - just think of King Arthur’s jousting against the Black Knight! However, using this option results in a lower game’s score. By the way, this time it’s even possible to lose points that you have already earned! Speaking of score: Similar to Christy Marx’s prequel, also in “Robin Hood” there’s more than the usual overall score; because furthermore you catch sight of the amount of the captured gold (“Ransom”) as well as the number of your “Outlaws” who have survived to date. Depending on the decisions you make during the adventure, more or less of your men stay alive at the end of the game. Moreover, it’s possible to raise the amount of your comrades-in-arms by saving people from dire straits…


“You know where you went wrong”
“This isn’t an ordinary fight. It’s not arrows and swords. This is a fight between light and darkness.” – Robin Hood (“Robin of Sherwood”, 1984 – 1986)

A nice feature of the program are the hints given by Robin’s Merry Men after he ended up on the gallows (once again). Depending on the situation he failed, Little John, Alan-a-Dale, Much, Will Scarlett as well as Friar Tuck put in their two cents and give some disguised words of advice how to do it better next time. But sometimes it’s very appealing to try all options in dangerous situations, even the apparent wrong ones! Particularly I think about the many encounters on Watling Street: How Robin should act towards the many strangers, who travel to Nottingham, both righteous ones and wicked people? Should he talk with them, threaten them with violence or kill them with his bow right on the spot? Well, just try it… and if your decision was wrong, all you’ve to do is to restore a saved game. A real pleasure in marked contrast to Sierra games like e.g. “King’s Quest IV” or “Conquests of Camelot”: There, just one false step on a staircase or on thin ice results in an instant “Game Over” – very, very pathetic…


“…and Justice for all”
“I think this is supposed to be Earth; somewhere – round about the twelfth century. And this is England, or to be more precise, Sherwood Forest; at least Q’s recreation of it.” – Robin Hood alias Jean-Luc Picard (“Star Trek: TNG”, “Qpid”, 1991)

So, all the many troubles of past Sierra games are now water under the bridge. But aside from this improvement in game design, “The Legend of Robin Hood” can convince with a wide range of varied and interesting quests, too: For example, you have to infiltrate a well-fortified monastery (in disguise, of course), save the Widow’s three innocent sons from the gallows, meet a secret contact man on the fair in town or lure the Sheriff of Nottingham into the woods with promise of great riches. Furthermore, Robin must find a way to save his beloved Marian from burning at the stake and – most important – rob the Abbot’s treasure train. Unlike to the previous tasks, Robin depends on the assistance of his Merry Men in the last two mentioned missions: After a short briefing, each of your five friends presents his own strategy for the way forward – so, choose wisely!

Finally, Robin stands trial in court for his (dubious?) actions: Each of his “victims” gives a statement of how he/she was treated by our green-hooded hero. Depending on their testimony, he either regains his freedom or ends up on the gallows (again). And who knows, maybe he even gets the girl (namely his beloved Marian) at the end of his struggle for justice? Certainly, this might be the best conclusion, including a big fat wedding at St. Mary’s abbey, starring King Richard and all of Robin’s friends – so, that’s all folks…

…well, not just yet, because not only our main protagonist is put on trial, but the game itself, too. Actually, “Conquests of the Longbow” is a very good program: It offers diversified tasks, includes several action-sequences (although these are a matter of taste; either you like them or you hate them), the puzzles are always logical but nevertheless tricky and, last but not least, it has the typical “Robin Hood-esque” atmosphere – just great! Sadly, this doesn’t apply to the Amiga version, because that conversion suffers from the usual Sierra problems, at which I’ll take a closer look in the summary section. Just to begin with: Even on an upgraded Amiga or a model of the later generation (A3000, A1200/A4000), “The Legend of Robin Hood” will hardly satisfy the masses – absolutely no comparison to the splendid PC original!