Publisher - Kemco
Developer - Kemco
Platform - N64
Release Date - December 18 1998
Type - Adventure

Who says you can't raise the dead? Kemco, the Japanese publisher behind Top Gear Rally and Twisted Edge, is preparing to bring back an age-old classic that has long been confined to the hall of fame of those long-gone 8-bit days.

Still alive in the minds of those old enough to remember Shadowgate's 1989 NES debut, Shadowgate 64: Trial of the Four Towers picks up hundreds of years after the events that unfolded in the original game.

According to the legend, the vile Warlock Lord was banished to another dimension by the brave Lord Jair. Caught up in a chain of events beyond his understanding or control, the halfling Del must explore the ruins of the dilapidated Castle Shadowgate in order to unravel the mysteries set before him and thwart the dark plans now in motion.

Developed by the original design team of the NES game, Shadowgate chooses a first-person perspective similar to Dungeon Master (or Shadowgate NES, for that matter). Players can freely navigate the polygonal 3D space and explore every corner and room of the mysterious castle. Speaking with characters Del encounters will yield important clues on how to progress in the game and gain access to new areas. Rather than stressing RPG-style battles with monsters and villains, Shadowgate is more about puzzles and strategy, much like the acclaimed PC puzzler Myst.

Because of the title's early stage of development, Kemco only showed video footage of Shadowgate at the recent E3 expo in Atlanta. We don't know much about the events or how different the gameplay will be from the NES predecessor, but judging from the early scenes, Shadowgate could turn out to be a involving and deep as the original.

The game will ship on a 128 megabit (16MB) cartridge with a built-in EEPROM for data saving. Microware will distribute the Kemco title in early '99.