Neverwinter Nights was released by SSI and America Online in March, 1991 and discontinued on July 19, 1997. This game was an adaptation of SSI's Gold Box engine to support online multiplayer. The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition ruleset were used as a basis for the engine. It is notable as the first graphical massively multiplayer online role playing game. The engine on which it was built was designed for a single player, so how did it work as a multiplayer game? This blog will attempt to answer that question and give all the information about how the game ran over time which is still available.
Known Boxed Versions
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| Box Courtesy of MOCAGH |
Neverwinter Nights v1.0 came on three 5.25" double density disks and also included AOL v1.3 on two 3.5" double density disks with a fair amount of paperwork describing the service and how to use it. A v1.0 box with the game disks on two 3.5" double density floppy disks was also released which lacked the AOL disks and associated paperwork (but included a different AOL-specific Neverwinter Nights instruction sheet.)
Neverwinter Nights v2.0 came on two 3.5" double density disks. Neverwinter Nights v2.2 came on one 3.5" high density disk. Other than the copyright dates on the manuals, the only significant documentation difference between v2.0 and v2.2 is the AOL instructions page identifying a new method for installation and indicating the new features for v2.2. A v2.21 upgrade patch was downloadable from AOL.
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| No Manual Adjustments for You! |
System Requirements
By the time Neverwinter Nights was released in early 1991, it was already bit dated. It did not support sound cards or mice. Graphics support was limited to 16-color 320x200 Tandy/EGA graphics or 4-color CGA graphics. Other than the modest increase in the system requirements required by v2.0, the engine was not significantly upgraded during the game's lifespan. Theoretically it could be played on the oldest IBM PC if it had enough RAM and a graphics card.
Neverwinter Nights supported music (opening fanfare only) and sound effects via the PC Speaker or Tandy 4-voice sound. I imagine very few people played this game on a Tandy 1000 computer, which was the only computer line which had the sound chip. (Theoretically the game was playable on a PCjr. but only supported CGA graphics correctly without performing the Tandy-mod.) It is notable that the first graphical MMORPG was best played on Tandy 1000s.
A user did not need a hard drive to install Neverwinter Nights v1.0, like other Gold Box games he could run off dual floppies. 512KiB of RAM was required to run the program, except when using Tandy 1000 graphics which required 640KiB. v2.0 and above required 640KiB of RAM regardless of system and a hard drive. A Hayes compatible modem was required but the speed was not listed, so a 300 baud modem presumably could have used at the beginning.
The game's reference card indicated that the user must be logged into AOL prior to starting the game. AOL began life as a DOS program, with an interface based on GEOS and using its Windows-like GUI. Then you must navigate within the AOL client to launch the game. AOL had a "Games and Entertainment" department and would allow you to go into "Lord Nasher's Longue" and then launch Neverwinter Nights.
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| PC-Link Demo |
AOL Alternatives
There was an alternative to the AOL client, PC-Link. PC-Link was the predecessor to AOL's online service, using a less sophisticated GUI. The client program was available as a standalone product and also included with Tandy's Deskmate software. The standalone version used a Deskmate Run Time Environment. The last version of Deskmate, v3.05, was released in November, 1990. A program called PCLINKGM.EXE had to be downloaded from PC-Link to allow the game to work with the service.
The Nevewinter Nights v1.0 Reference Data Card also mentions the game being usable with Promenade. Promenade was an online service which was also provided by Quantum Computer Services. This service came bundled with the IBM PS/1 computers, notably the IBM PS1 Model 2121, which had a special slot for an optional built-in modem. Unlike PC-Link, Promenade was not explicitly supported in Neverwinter Nights v2.0. Both PC-Link and Promenade were discontinued in 1994, thereafter AOL was the only online gateway which could access Neverwinter Nights.
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| The Help Screen is all that is left of the Chat Window |
Cost
Nothing about Neverwinter Nights was free. The game was originally purchased through AOL for $19.95 (from the 1992 SSI catalog). Initially AOL cost $5.95 per month as a membership fee. Playing Neverwinter Nights cost between $5-10 an hour, depending on the time of day (things were cheaper outside business hours and it gave you one free hour a month for non-peak hours). Finally, if you were calling a non-toll free number to connect to an AOL server, the player could rack up charges from the telephone company. A review of the game in The Dragon Magazine #179 reported spending $15 for the privilege of playing for a few hours in the evening. That's $15 in 1991 dollars, the sort of charges you might be able to rack up by calling other toll numbers, especially those beginning with 900...
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| Random Encounter |
Upgrades
The game received substantial improvements to its content during its lifespan. In v1.0 there were four main areas advertised, the civilized Neverwinter and the monster-ridden areas of The Wharves, Warehouse District and Southwall. These areas had monsters of increasing levels of difficulty. The monsters were standard AD&D fare but the graphics used for the monsters during battles were not always those used in Pool of Radiance. v2.0 added thirteen new areas, greatly expanding the game. These were Crossergate, Floodblest, The Gallant Prince, Longsaddle, The Lost Hills, Luskan, Luskan Outpost, Neverwinter Woods, Nightsedge, Port Llast, Triboar, Vilnask, Windycliffs. Even more areas were created by the time the game was taken down.
In the beginning the servers could only host 50 players on a game world but the number grew to 500 per server. By the end of the game's existence there were reportedly 115,000 registered users but only 2,000 active players at any given time.
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| Oh such promise! |
AD&D & Gold Box Rules
Characters start at 1st Level and can advance to Level 10-12, depending on race/class combination. The character classes include the Paladin and Ranger, both introduced in Curse of the Azure Bonds (as were the level limits). Clerics can cast spells up to 5th level and Magic-Users 6th. Unlike single-player Gold Box games, here the player only created one character. And that character's die rolls cannot be adjusted manually, the player must take the best random roll or reroll he or she can get. The starting gold is set to 150 gold pieces, regardless of class. Every character is given a starting weapon, dagger, mace or short sword, depending on what weapon the character can equip. Magic-Users are given four starting spells in their spell book. (In AD&D rules, Clerics have access to all first level spells from the start.)
Due to the nature of an online RPG, quests must of necessity be dynamic and ever-changing compared to a single player game. Lord Nasher in the center of Neverwinter was one source of quests but he was not the only source. Interacting with other players took the form of a chat window whereby other players could be hailed. Private conversations were possible.
To join a party one must use the Follow command from the View Menu. This will enable one player to join a party whereby all characters will move as one and fight battles together. A single player can also walk into a fight occupying a square on the map. The original Gold Box combat system was turn based and in the single player games you could take all day to choose an action. Obviously this would not work for multiplayer, if the player did not take an action after about 20 seconds, then a combat action could be taken by the next participant. In v2.0 it appears the ability of players to fight other players was introduced, but not in every area. If enough players are occupying a space then that space will be blocked, which could lead to griefing.
Death was not permanent in Neverwinter Nights. If a player fell in combat, he or she would be resurrected with a few hit points and potentially the loss of items and treasure. The dead player would be teleported near the entrance of a hostile area, generally allowing for escape back to Neverwinter or another town.
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| Lord Nasher would have more to say if the servers were still up |
"Offline Version"
Neverwinter Nights is not completely lost to post-1997 PC gamers. An "offline edition" of the game in v2.2 exists. This version of the program allowed the player to create a new character and explore the world of Neverwinter. You can enter the castle but Lord Nasher has no quests to give. The economy and shops work as do random monster encounters. You can pull down the chat window and chat with yourself. Travel from map to map is possible if you can survive random encounters with one party member. The three main limitations of this version are no quests, no multiplayer and no saving character progress. It is uncertain how much of a character was saved on the user's PC or on the server. You cannot name your character, the character is always named "NW KNIGHT." In the real game the player's name would be the same as his AOL handle. The chat function seems disabled, the reference cards indicate that typing with letters or numbers on the keyboard would put that into the chat window and commands would be activated by holding Alt while pressing the white letter of the command. This software will activate commands just by pressing the letter and the only way the chat window can be displayed is by pressing F1 for the Help menu.
It is not known how this version differs from the game as released on disk or where it came from. No disk dumps of the game are available and the game is very rare and expensive these days. The game's written documentation implied that the game will do nothing if the player is not logged into a supported online service. The offline version has a "GM" mode which allows for debug features like win all combats, memorize any spell and teleport to any map. It is unlikely that out of the box game disks would offer such features even when offline. It has, in my opinion, the qualities of a leaked debug build.
The unofficial Classic Neverwinter Nights Archive was the place for obtaining information about how the game was actually played. Now it is mostly inaccessible, the Wayback Machine does not preserve most of the site. Some of the links here work. The documentation for the three retail versions has been scanned at the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History (MOCAGH). There is also a modern recreation (with 256-color graphics) called Forgotten World which reportedly has a server still up as of last year. A Facebook group also exists.
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