Conan the Cimmerian PC Video Game

Waaaayyyyyy back in 1991, Virgin Games released Conan the Cimmerian for PC. I didn't discover the game until over a year later when I started getting into computers and trying out various PC games like Ultima Underworld and Might & Magic. I found a copy of the game in the cheap-o bin at a Wal-Mart for $5.00.

I had already been a die-hard Conan fan for years with the comics, novels and movies (well, the first movie, anyway) so naturally I was totally jazzed to find this game. I played the living hell out of it despite its clunky controls and almost laughable graphics (by today's standards). But I didn't care, it was a Conan video game by Crom!

Here's the cover of the box. The painting is by the popular fantasy artist, Boris Vallejo, who likes his chicks to look like they've all come out of 70's porn films. Check out the chick with the afro on the cover. Never saw her in the game, but that ain't gonna stop Boris from painting her.



The game started out with the classic "Know, O Prince" speech from Howard's books right after a badass splashpage showing a pixelated Conan holding a freshly severed head!



Then the bad guys attack and they steal Conan's girlfriend or something (no, she did not have an afro)...



And then some old geezer starts talking about stuff that I probably didn't read because I wanted to start killing enemies...



Then the game starts. You basically play Conan as he walks around various cities like Shadizar and fight dudes in armor and go down in the sewers and fight these giant rat things that were wicked hard to kill...



All in all, the game was a lot of fun for back in the day. I recently found several sites that host downloadable abandonware who had the Conan game, so I freaked out and then downloaded it and played it for about an hour and then remembered how much better today's games are. I strongly suggest you go find it and give it a try, even if for nothing other than some good old nostalgic fun.

I'll be posting more stuff soon, including a look into the Conan the Adventurer cartoon, several fantasy artist spotlights featuring Frazetta, Ken Kelly and other painting dudes and a new ongoing feature that I'm going to call "Why I Hate Conan the Destroyer". See you later!