Seven Kingdoms/Ancient Adversaries

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MrFlibble
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Seven Kingdoms/Ancient Adversaries

Post by MrFlibble »

We have found quite a lot of stuff related to Enlight Software's Seven Kingdoms and its expansion, Ancient Adversaries, about time all related information was collected in once place for ease of reference.

Development versions
A total of three different demo versions were found, two of which are pre-release, and one beta demo version: Each demo contains a different set of scenarios that are not found in the full game. Frythans and Seats of Power are not available, all other tech and nations are present.

The most noticeable development change that occurred is that the terrain tiles were completely redrawn. Early screenshots and the beta demo show this pre-release terrain. All other demo versions have the tiles similar to the final release. Pre-release demos do not have build-up animations for buildings, and starting kings in each scenario have pre-set names (in the full version, the player's name is used everywhere except the tutorial).

Additionally there appears to have been a snow terrain planned for the game but this was cut and another version later included with Ancient Adversaries.

A useful feature to identify later pre-release versions is that the reputation meter on the top bar shows both the thumbs up and thumbs down icons while the final version only shows either up or down depending on the player's current reputation dynamics.

It is now established that the working title of the game was Ambition.

Official screenshots
Screenshots come from a number of sources, some in lower resolution than the original (800x600):
  • Enlight Software: early shots showing pre-release terrain, downsized
  • Buka.com: Buka is a Russian software publisher, most screenshots show pre-release terrain, some are in original resolution
  • Computer Games Online preview: had a few shots in good quality, only one preserved by the Wayback Machine
  • GamesDomain review: heavily cropped pre-release screenshots
  • Realms of the Kingdoms: the site had official images but only thumbnails are preserved
  • screenshots.net: some official screenshots, but converted to JPEG and with site watermark added; only a few images preserved by the Wayback Machine
  • Secret Service Issue No. 50 cover disk A: a few downsized screenshots (one identical to a shot found at cdmag.com) and with the magazine logo covering like 15-20% of each image
  • Absolute Games.RU: a few pre-release shots (see attachment)
ImageImageImage

Ancient Adversaries has one demo, with two scenarios equally not found in the full game. The same limitations apply as to the original demo versions: Fryhtans and Seats of Power are not available.

Hallfiry
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Re: Seven Kingdoms/Ancient Adversaries

Post by Hallfiry »

Here are permanent download links for the beta demo (from gamestar 12/97) and prerelease images (from gen4 102 cd1):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12SiYA ... cm1xylW8kC
https://drive.google.com/open?id=14VSiQ ... pLALfNkV4h

MrFlibble
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Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:29 pm

Re: Seven Kingdoms/Ancient Adversaries

Post by MrFlibble »

Thanks!

You also dropped me a Interactive Magic preview a while ago, the screenshots there are the same stuff as Secret Service but without their pesky logo.

On another note, Google Images search just found me the same screenshots as AG.RU but without their watermark:
https://kanobu.ru/games/seven-kingdoms/screenshots/

The quality is the same (badly tiled JPEG), but the images don't look as if the AG.RU logo was edited out, so I'm assuming that these are the original stuff:
ImageImageImageImageImageImage

Hallfiry
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Re: Seven Kingdoms/Ancient Adversaries

Post by Hallfiry »

Among my flyers there's some retailer info for 7K:
http://kultcds.com/Upload/Charts/Flyer/ ... GE0533.JPG
http://kultcds.com/Upload/Charts/Flyer/ ... GE0534.JPG

The text mentions 7 post cards that were given out to fans. Thanks to an ebay listing we have a photo of them:
Image

It also lists where ads would be printed in great detail:
4c (that is four color) print ads in the following media:
double page in PC Player 01/98 and GameStar 01/98
one page in PC Power and PC Joker
one page in the first december week of Computer Bild
one page in Der Medienmarkt (a magazine for video rental store owners) and Insider (a retailer magazine by Joker Verlag)

Furthermore it says the game has previews in 11/97 issues of magazines and reviews in 12/97 issues. PC Joker gave it an award and Power Play named it highly recommended.
Demos are slated for 12/97 and 01/98 issues of magazines.
After retail release, the game is also to be presented in Newspapers, TV guides and lifestyle magazine.

It also says that there was a dedicated demo cd (planned?) that could be given to customers in stores.

MrFlibble
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Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:29 pm

Re: Seven Kingdoms/Ancient Adversaries

Post by MrFlibble »

MrFlibble wrote:
I found full-size versions of these screenshots on a Russian gaming diskmag in moderately good quality but they were converted to JPEG while the originals were in GIF as the Wayback Machine attests.
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

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