约翰・罗纳德・瑞尔・托尔金的《指环王》・卷一 J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I p.130

我小的时候就对这些书很着迷，甚至有日历和一切相关的东西。在《护戒使者》的封内，写着我 7 年级时我亲手写的一个电脑程序，我把它带给他们（托尔金基金会），给他们看：‘这是我第一个电脑程序，写在这本书的封面内。’我不知道这是否是他们同意的原因，但他们同意了。我认为他们那时候知道他们正在与对原著充满热情的人打交道。

I had obsessed over the books when I was little, had the calendar and everything. And inside the front cover of The Fellowship of the Ring was a computer program I'd written down by hand when I was in seventh grade. I brought it to them [the Tolkien Estate] and showed them: ‘This was my first computer program, written inside the cover of this book.’ I don't know if that's what got them to agree, but they did. I think they knew they were dealing with people that were passionate about the licence.”

Brian Fargo,
Interplay 公司的创始人

Brian Fargo,
Interplay's founder

《指环王・卷一》还有另一个有争议的特点。任何读过原书的人都会很困惑，因为在游戏中很早就提到了夏奇，在这种情况下遇到了巫师瑞达加斯特（Radagast）就会比较困惑，甚至在故事的早期就能够招募到另一个非常特殊的角色。

这是因为《指环王・卷一》并没有完全遵循小说的情节。它在游戏手册中直接写道：“我们这样做的原因不是为了‘改进’托尔金的作品，而是为了挑战熟悉托尔金作品的电脑游戏玩家。期待着惊喜吧。”

因此，有许多情节元素、任务，甚至主要故事事件都没有出现在书中。对一些人来说是巨大的背叛和亵渎，对另一些人来说是则有新鲜感，尤其是因为它允许游戏中的事件和任务有多种解决方案。

游戏对其角色阵容也很宽容，因为即使像佛罗多・巴金斯（Frodo），金雳（Gimli），莱戈拉斯・绿叶（Legolas）和阿拉贡（Aragorn）等主角人物如果死亡或未被招募，你依旧可以赢得游戏。

Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1 had another controversial feature. Anyone who read the book will be confused at seeing references to Sharkey quite early in the game, at meeting the wizard Radagast in such circumstances, and even being able to recruit another very special character so early in the story.

This is because LOTR Vol. 1 doesn't follow the plot of the novel entirely. It says this straight away in the manual: “The reason we did this was not to ‘improve' Tolkien's work, but to challenge the computer gamer who is familiar with Tolkien's work. Expect to be surprised.”

As such, there are many plot elements, quests, and even main story events that didn't appear in the books. A huge betrayal and blasphemy to some, a fair bit of fresh air to others – especially as it allowed for events and quests to have multiple solutions.

The game also played loose with its cast, as you can “win” even if characters like Frodo, Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn are dead or were never recruited.

这款游戏在 1992 年重新发布了 CD-ROM 版本，增加了自动地图、扩展的背景音乐、拉尔夫・巴克希的《指环王》电影中的场景，不再需要在手册中查找段落。

The game was re-released for CD-ROM in 1992, adding an automap, an extended soundtrack, scenes from Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings movie and removing the need to look up paragraphs in the manual.

尽管如此，如果玩家不熟悉原著中的内容，游戏中的某些时刻会让人感到非常困惑。例如，对于如何处理摩瑞亚中的炎魔没有任何提示。玩家也很容易错过重要的事件和角色，因为只有当你走过触发它们的确切坐标时，才会触发相应事件。

1992 年，根据《双塔奇兵（The Two Towers）》，游戏发布了卷二。游戏引擎和玩法基本上和之前是相似的，但是我们可以看出开发者们正在努力寻找素材来打造一个更广阔的空间、开阔的领域和拥有更少的线性故事的游戏特征。续作把你从一个阵营转移到另一个阵营，而且环境显得相当单调。不过，凭借着 90 年代的技术这又怎么能展示得出“圣盔谷之战”（魔戒中的故事）呢？

卷三并未出版，前作的销售不佳决定了它的命运。也可能是《王者归来（Return of the King）》的故事并不适合这个游戏。于是，第一次把《魔戒》变成 CRPG 的尝试就这样结束了。虽然这个游戏不是什么大作，但却依然可以满足玩家的好奇心。

Despite this, some moments in the game can be very confusing if players aren't familiar with the books. There are no hints on how to deal with the Balrog in Moria, for example. It's also easy to miss important events and characters, as some of them will only appear if you walk over the exact tile that triggers them.

The game was followed by a Volume 2 in 1992, based on The Two Towers. The engine and gameplay were mostly similar, but one could tell the developers were struggling with a source material featuring vast, open fields and a less linear story. The sequel erraticaly moved you from one party to the other and featured rather dull environments. And how to show the massive Helm's Deep battle with 1990 technology?

Volume 3 was never made; poor sales sealed its fate. It could be just as well, as Return of the King's story is hardly fit for this kind of game. Thus ends this first attempt at a Lord of the Rings CRPG; not a major title, but a small curiosity that can be easily enjoyed.