This post is going to combine a bunch of my loves: DOS-based FMV games, game show adaptations, and Napoleonic history.
To start, a very brief history of the actual Fort Boyard. King Louis XIV had originally come up with the idea of a floating fort located between two other already built forts that combined would protect the town of Rochefort (home of a large arsenal) from Royal Navy vessels. That fort never got built. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte resurrected the idea of the fort, and construction began the next year. Construction on the fort was halted in 1809, but resumed in 1937 as tensions between France and England rose again. The fort was finished in 1857, and had room to house 250 men. However, by the time it was built, cannons had become powerful enough that the fort was no longer needed. It was used briefly as a military prison, but had been largely abandoned until 1989.
In 1989, renovations on Fort Boyard began in order to make it the setting for a new game show. The game show tasked a team of contestants wish completing a series of physical and mental challenges in order to gain keys. Once the required number of keys are collected, clues to a mystery word are won by completing more challenges. If the team is successful in spelling out the word in the final challenge, they win as much gold as the can carry out in a short amount of time. If they are too greedy, they might get locked in to the treasure room. Then tigers are released.
The show was an instant hit, and many copycats sprung up all around the world. UK readers might know The Crystal Maze, which is a very similar show developed by the same person as Fort Boyard. According to the Wikipedia entry, Fort Boyard has been an inspiration to everything from Fear Factor to Survivor.
In 1995, Micronids, in cooperation with the producers of the TV show released a version of the game for DOS computers.
The opening cinematic is (I gather) taken directly from the tv show, and shows the team being taken out to the fort on a boat.
Now, the game assumes you know the gist of what's going on, as it explains the very general overview of what's going on, but you're left to fill in a lot of blanks. Things like "Who are those disembodied voices yelling at me from time to time?" or "Why is there a guy in a Spirit Halloween Leonardo da Vinci costume telling me obscure riddles?"
The whole goal of the computer game (which does deviate somewhat from the tv show) is to get 7 keys by finishing a variety of challenges and then figure out the password within a 75-minute time limit. Once the gong is sounded, your time begins!
To get the 7 keys, you need to complete a variety of challenges. There is always a 15-20 second full-motion video showing your person running around the fort to get to the next chamber. These are interspersed with clips of snakes or rats to boost the creepiness factor.
Before each challenge starts, one of the voices will tell you what "type" of contestant the challenge is looking for. You are then taken to a modest version of daVinci's "Vitruvian Man" where you need to pick up the yellow ball next to one of the qualities and drag it to the "Go" area.
In theory, you are supposed to play this game as a 6-person group, with each person playing one of the types. You do not have to pick the quality that is asked for, but the challenge is supposed to be more challenging (although I haven't noticed this).
Once you click go, you are brought to the screen where your challenge happens. You are briefly told what your goal is, although not how to do it. There actually is a controls screen, but you can't access it during an event (that I've found at least). Also, if you don't know the name of your challenge, it won't help either.
Most of the challenges are straightforward puzzles. There are a couple dozen challenges the game can choose from. There are riddles and math problems on one end to a bizarre curling game and one of those shock mazes on the other end.
We now reach my one MAJOR gripe with this game. The mouse controls are beyond terrible. In the maze game pictured above, there is a level of fine control needed that a mouse can easily handle. However, this game reacts like you are using the mouse with a disembodied leg.
A couple events (archery and one where you roll a ball down a plank) come down to nothing more than dumb luck to finish. I honestly have no idea how I managed to succeed in Archery because every single shot looked exactly the same coming off the bow.
Once you get the 7 keys, you are taken to a small room where you must take on THE GAMEMASTERS. These masked men challenge you to a series of extremely basic games. Win 6 of them, and you move on to the next phase.
You are then summoned back to the watch tower and meet up with bargain basement daVinci again, where he gives you a much more complicated riddle. My big gripe here is that there is no way to get him to repeat the riddle, or no way to put it on the screen as text to read it.
I was unable to solve the riddle, so I was sent back out to get more clues by competing in more events. Once you think you know the password after finishing an event, you tell the game you have it, and you are brought to the Treasure Room.
Here, you have to spell out the password using your teammates and rocks (if you fail events during the race to this point, your teammates are jailed. There are ways to get them out, but if not, you can always use the rocks).
Once you've completed the word, you click near the top of the screen, and find out if you are correct.
Which...I was not. To be fair, I actually didn't actually know the word I was trying to spell, and apparently the word I was trying to spell (CARAMEL) had more letters in it than the game was letting me use.
If you win, you get to collect gold much as you do in the tv show. As for me? I got to meet the tigers just as the screen went to black and the credits rolled.
I had never heard of the Fort Boyard tv show before I saw the cover to the game in eXoDOS. I did watch parts of an episode just to get a feel for it, and I do think the game got a lot right. I was really let down by the controls. I think if those were improved, then this would have been an enjoyable experience that I would come back to. As it is, fun curiosity, but not one I'm going to return to.
There are actually 15 Fort Boyard video games. Not all of them are adaptations of the game show either. Maybe a part two of this article will come someday?
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