Fate: Gates of Dawn
A vast fantasy RPG with a huge world and party system.
Fate: Gates of Dawn is a role-playing game from reLINE Software, hitting the Amiga in 1991 and the Atari ST the following year. Its world is enormous: crossing the overworld takes hours, and finishing the whole game can take months. This overworld includes four towns, smaller villages, a wilderness split by a mountain range, and over 200 islands. Below ground, nine dungeons each have up to seven levels.
The player manages up to four parties, totaling 24 characters (4 parties of 6 characters each). Characters aren't created; they must be recruited. Hundreds of NPCs have their own personalities and AI. There are 32 character classes, 10 races, and over 200 spells and potions. A day-night cycle and weather affect gameplay.
Development started in 1986. A PC version was promised in the manual but never released because reLINE went bankrupt. Very few English copies were sold, but the game spread worldwide. It is now freeware with the creator's permission, downloadable from sites like RuneTek98's and Mightandmagicboard.de.
These copies removed the copy protection but not the password protection. Passwords appear at intervals, not just at startup. Ignoring them or giving a wrong answer doesn't crash the game, but simply prevents progress—locking the game or returning to a previous save—so a manual copy is still needed.
The Amiga version has better sound and 32 colors, versus the Atari ST's 16. A strong compression algorithm fits the game onto two 880 KB floppy disks. The English release censored nudity present in the German version.
The game won awards, including an Amiga Joker, but was not a commercial hit. reLINE failed for the first time just as the English version was about to launch.
- developer
- reLINE Software
- release_year_amiga
- 1991
- release_year_atari_st
- 1992
- genre
- Role-playing video game
- platforms
- Amiga, Atari ST
- notable_for
- Huge game world, first-person perspective, party-based gameplay
Quick Facts
- Title
- Fate: Gates of Dawn
- Developer
- reLINE Software
- Released
- 1991: Amiga / 1992: Atari ST
- Genre
- Role-playing video game
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- Amiga, Atari ST
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The story follows Winwood, a record shop owner from Fifth Street, who is kidnapped by an evil wizard into a parallel medieval fantasy world and must find his way back. The game is viewed from a first-person perspective and features an overworld with four towns, smaller villages, a wilderness split by a mountain range, over 200 islands, and an underworld with nine dungeons of up to seven levels each. Travel across the game world takes hours, and completing the game can take months.
The player can control up to four parties, totaling 24 characters (4 parties of 6 characters each), who must be invited to join rather than created. The game includes hundreds of NPCs with individual personalities and AI, 32 character classes, 10 races, and over 200 magic spells and potions. A realistic day-and-night cycle and weather system affect gameplay. Development began in 1986, and the game used strong compression to fit on two 880-kilobyte floppy discs.
Reader's Guide
Fate: Gates of Dawn is significant for its ambitious scope on the Amiga and Atari ST platforms, offering a massive game world and complex party mechanics that required teamwork to solve certain quests. Its first-person perspective and detailed environment, including day/night cycles and weather, were advanced for its time. The game received awards such as an Amiga Joker but failed commercially due to reLINE's bankruptcy just as the English version was about to be published. Only a few original English copies were sold, yet the game spread worldwide through copies. Today it is freeware with the creator's permission, available for legal download. The copy protection was removed from these copies, but password protection remains, requiring a manual for correct codes. The Amiga version offered better sound and 32 colors versus the Atari ST's 16 colors. The English release self-censored nudity present in the German version. Its legacy lies in its cult status among retro RPG enthusiasts and its availability as freeware.
Did You Know?
- The game world is so large that traveling from one end to the other takes hours, and completing the game can take months.
- The Amiga version has 32 colors and better sound quality, while the Atari ST version has 16 colors.
- Password requests occur at intervals during gameplay, and ignoring them or giving a wrong answer simply prevents progress—locking the game or returning to a previous save—rather than gradually degrading gameplay.
- The English version self-censored nudity that was present in the German version.
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