King's Bounty

Released in 1991 by Task Force Games, this game is like its computer game counterpart: the players are rival bounty hunters, each riding through the kingdom, hunting down monsters and miscreants upon whose heads the king has put a prize. The King's Bounty was designed prior to the like-named turn-based fantasy computer and video game designed by Jon Van Caneghem of New World Computing in 1990. The computer game version is notably considered the forerunner of the Heroes of Might and Magic series of computer and video games. A sequel to the original computer game, called King's Bounty: The Legend was released in 2008. The computer game's origin began with fighting mechanics that were meant to have a similar flavor to that of the Avalon Hill board game Titan, but the computer game lacked a story-line or theme. At the same time as this computer development, the author of the King's Bounty board game was wrapping up the development of the board game, which at the time had a working title of "Bounty Hunter." New World Computing decided to adopt a storyline and theme similar to that of the board game being prepared for production by Task Force Games, which New World Computing owned. New World Computing shut down development at Task Force Games and transferred ownership of the company prior to the board game production completing, which delayed its release. The major remaining component that had to be completed prior to release was final production and layout of the rule book, which is why interior artwork changed from that produced for other components. The cover graphic, already completed and originally contracted for the board game and then adopted by the computer game, remained unchanged. This answers the question implied by the earlier writer of this game entry, "Interestingly, the cover of both the computer game version and the boardgame version are the same, implying some connection between the two."