国王：北方传奇 Konung: Legend of the North p.269

国王：

Konung:

北方传奇

Legend of the North

如果想要理解《国王：北方传奇（Konung: Legend of The North）》^[1] 在俄罗斯玩家心目中的重要程度，你必须先了解那个年代的游戏市场情况。当时俄罗斯没有自己的 Apple 或 Microsoft，也没有 Sierra 或 Activison 这样的游戏开发商。我们从来没有过街机游戏厅或者国民主机之类的东西。在日本和美国，游戏文化是一砖一瓦积累而成的——这是一个逐步演化的过程；然而在俄罗斯，游戏文化更像是直接从 15 层开始盖房子——这是一场革命。

萌芽出现在 1990 年代早期：商店里出现了 NES 主机，但是它们顶着一个奇怪的名字——“Dendy”。这种主机是未经授权的盗版主机，但是能运行全部的 NES 游戏。那个年代里，正式的游戏发行商并没有把俄罗斯当成一个能正经做生意的地区，不过一些游戏爱好者看到了机会。他们意识到，苏联解体之后的萧条时期和婴儿潮会让人们寻求娱乐手段——而且必须要便宜。

接下来让我们快进到 90 年代末期。这时一台 PC 机仍然值不少钱，不过盗版游戏却堂而皇之地出现在市场上。1997 年的一天，我买了《地下城守护者（Dungeon Keeper）》和《雷神之锤 2（Quake II）》，加起来只花了 30 卢布（当时大概能换算为 1 美元）。

To understand the importance of Konung: Legend of The North for Russian gamers, you need to understand the game market back then. At the time, Russia did not have its own companies like Apple or Microsoft, or game developers like Sierra or Activision. We never had such things like arcade galleries or mass-market consoles. In Japan and the US gaming culture was built brick by brick – it was an evolutionary process; in Russia, they kinda started building it from the 15th floor – it was a revolution.

It began in the early 1990s: NES consoles appeared in shops, but under a bizarre name – “Dendy”. It was an unauthorised copy, yet it ran all NES games. Official game distributors of that time did not see Russia as a serious region for doing business, but some enthusiasts realized that the depressive period and baby boom which followed the fall of the USSR required something to entertain people – and it must be cheap.

Fast forward to the late 1990s. A PC still costs a fortune, but pirate games are sold on open-air bazaars. In 1997 I bought Dungeon Keeper and Quake II on the same day for 30 rubles (about 1 dollar back then).

《国王》只支持 640x480 和 800x600 两种分辨率，不过有很多 mod 可以让你在宽屏分辨率下游玩。

Konung only supports 640x480 or 800x600 resolutions, but there's several mods to play it in widescreen.

《国王》中有四种职业：猎人（Hunter）、战士（Warrior）、领袖（Leader）和商人（Merchant）。每种职业有不同的属性，但是因为魅力（Charisma）决定了你可拥有的同伴数量，所以具备高魅力数值的领袖是最容易的选项。

Konung has four classes – Hunter, Warrior, Leader and Merchant. Each comes with different stats, but since Charisma defines the number of companions you can have, a high Charisma Leader is by far the most viable option.

正版游戏也能买到，但是非常稀有——只卖大盒版，价格全都很高，而且没有一部是做了俄语本地化的。尽管很多情况下盗版游戏的翻译最高也只能说是平庸水准，但对很多玩家来说，俄文版和价钱同样重要。

1999 年，俄罗斯出版商 Buka Entertainment 想出了一个反盗版的方法：名叫“简装版（jewel case）”的新游戏版本——只有一个游戏光盘盒，没有大盒子，价钱和盗版光盘一样。这也是一场革命。很快，所有的本国出版商都采用了这种方案。《国王：北方传奇》就是以这种形式推出的一款游戏。它价格低廉，保证能顺利运行，而且是俄罗斯制作的讲述俄罗斯文化的游戏——这样美妙的组合让我们大吃一惊。

《国王》的故事讲述了一个失落的神器破碎成了三部分，而我们必须让它重新完整。首先要做的就是找到这些碎片，而它们散落在魔幻的林地大陆（Forest Land）上。玩家扮演三位英雄中的一人，你收到了关于这件事的消息以及三块碎片中的一块。三名英雄之中，一个有拜占庭血统，一个是维京人，最后一个是本地的斯拉夫猎人——他打下了一只带着神器碎片的渡鸦，而这只渡鸦本来是要把神器带个另一个和他完全没关系的人。

《国王》显然是想尝试做出一款斯拉夫版本的《暗黑破坏神（Diablo）》。这款游戏采用了即时制的战斗方式，其中最重要的部分是团队协作——然而队员的 AI 十分被动，除非有明确的指令，否则他们只会站在一边看着你死。你还不能像 RTS 游戏里一样拉一个框来选中所有的随从，而是必须要单独给每个人下指令——或者可以用另外两个指令：“所有人集中到我身边”和“攻击”。这两个指令的功能十分局限，而且你不知道他们具体会走到什么位置，也不知道到底会攻击哪个敌人。所以，和《暗黑破坏神》不一样的是，《国王》里的战斗没什么乐趣，大多数情况下你感到的只有痛苦和挫败的滋味。

Licensed original games were also available but very rare – big box editions only, all very expensive and without any Russian localisation. Though the quality of pirate translations was often mediocre at best, it was just as important for many gamers as the price.

In 1999, Russian publisher Buka Entertainment figured out a way to fight piracy: a new format called “jewel case” – a game CD case without the big box, at the price of a pirate CD. It was another revolution, and quickly all other local publishers followed this scheme. Konung: Legend of the North was one of the games that came out in this format. It was cheap, guaranteed to work and it was a Russian-made game about Russian culture. The beautiful arrangement blew our minds.

Konung tells a story about a lost artefact which was shattered in three pieces and must be put back together. These pieces were scattered across the fictional Forest Land and must be found first. You play as one of three heroes who received a message about this issue and one piece of the artefact: one is of Byzantium origin, the other a Viking, and the last one is a local Slavic hunter who shot down a raven that was carrying the artefact to a completely different person.

It is obvious that Konung was an attempt to make a Slavic Diablo. It has real-time battles where the most important thing is teamwork, but the AI of your party members is really passive, so without specific commands your friends will do nothing except from watching you die. You can't select all your henchmen with a frame as if it was an RTS. Instead, you have to give orders individually – or use one of two commands: “everyone to me” and “attack” which is quite limited and won't let you know exactly where they will go or whom exactly they will attack. So, unlike Diablo, fighting in Konung is just not fun – it's mostly pain and frustration.