Mars Saga
| Industry | Video game development |
|---|---|
| Products | Mars Saga |
Mars Saga is a role-playing video game created by Westwood Associates and released by Electronic Arts for the Commodore 64 platform in 1988.
Following a legal conflict regarding the franchise's intellectual property, Westwood commissioned Infocom to handle the publishing of the Apple II and MS-DOS versions.
Plot
The player assumes the role of Tom Jetland, a marooned space explorer on Mars, who must secure employment to facilitate escape while unraveling a plot involving extraterrestrial contact.
Gameplay features exploration across four Martian urban centers—Primus, Progeny, Parallax, and Proscenium—as well as surface regions and deserted mining tunnels. Combat is presented from a top-down perspective, enabling players to assign real-time commands to their party members in sequence.
Reception
Computer Gaming World commended the title for its user-friendly design aimed at beginners, emphasizing conveniences such as automatic mapping, saving progress without disk swapping, and AI-assisted combat control.
Mines of Titan
In 1989, the game was reissued for PC under the title Mines of Titan, shifting the setting from Mars to Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The mining skill received improvements to reduce the risk of cave-ins during shaft exploration, while five other skills that were previously available were eliminated.
The main distinctions from Mars Saga lie predominantly in narrative elements, featuring additional side missions and expanded primary storyline objectives. The design of cities and adversaries largely remains consistent; however, enemy encounters are more frequent in Mines of Titan.
External links
- Visuals of Mars Saga packaging, manual, and screenshots at C64Sets.com