Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb

Copy protection

In the original floppy disk version of the game, a rat in the ornate Sundial Room would ask questions of Rif (the main character), and the answers had to be found in the manual. In later versions without copy protection, the room is just empty.

Cut content

The original storyboard for this game included a wrecked airplane outside of the Human Ruins. The wrecked airplane was probably removed from the game when the decision was made to make the Ruins an isometric tile map instead of a stage.

References

• During the game, the main character (Rif) looks at a pair of huge doors leading to the Sanctuary of the Orb, and comments on their "huge knockers" (large door-knockers). According to the official guidebook, this is a reference to the movie Young Frankenstein.
• The logo of the original game developer, The Dreamers Guild, appears as a stained-glass piece hanging in the ferret glassmaster's home. That piece of artwork really exists.
• One of the tales that Rif tries to tell to Prince is a story about "three brothers". This actually refers to another computer game named The Faery Tale Adventure: Book I, developed by David "Talin" Joiner, who also happens to be the director of Inherit the Earth.
• The Dog Castle includes a parody of the well-known "poker-playing dogs" painting. Such paintings have become a cottage industry, with people offering to draw versions of the painting featuring your pets.
• In the game, Tycho Northpaw claims to have a very bad sense of smell. This is appropriate, because the character's namesake (16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe) lost his nose in a duel with a fellow Danish nobleman. It's said that Tycho Brahe walked around with a prosthetic nose made of silver.

Version differences

The Amiga CD-version contains a version for the CD32, one for A1200/A4000 computers (which is identical to the CD32 version, concerning game features) and an ECS version with lower color depth and no voiceovers. The later version can be played on CDTV machines!

Awards

• Amiga Joker
  • Issue 02/1996 – #3 Best Adventure in 1995 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by NGC 5194