The part on German I mentioned (same as Morna afterwards, I assume) was just an answer to the question you had posed in your second paragraph above ("Is the German version memorable that way, or does it use words that are relatively common?" etc.). Or maybe it's another example of me sometimes not properly understanding the mood/meaning of written (English) language without emoticons. Deleteīusca Augat Not sure why you got hung up on this. My impression is that is otherwise mostly used to describe interactions with paintings and mirror images, as well as in some more abstract idioms such as " nüchtern betrachten", literally "to view soberly", probably best translated as "keep in perspective".Ĭoming back to the main point, a game titled "Auge des Betrachters" in German would evoke the idiom so strongly that the interpretation as the organ of the fantasy creature would not even occur to me.
To me, the prototypical situation would be a 19th century scientist inspecting a plant specimen with a magnifying glass. The word "betrachten" could be translated as "to view", but it is much more narrow in meaning, because it connotes a very careful and pensive, but at the same time disinterested way of looking at an object. I think I have only ever seen it as a noun in the fantasy context, and in the (extremely common) idiom. The D&D monster is called "Betrachter" in German as well, and the word is much more limited in use than "viewer" (which would be "Zuschauer" in most contexts). And I'm still happy to give Hungerford the credit if she's the first known English usage of a phrase that had it been translated differently would be a lot less memorable. In the end, though, I think the reason the title of the game resonates is because of the "beauty" adage that almost every English-speaker hears at one point or another. Apparently, it's more common than I thought to use "eye of the beholder" as meaning "a matter of opinion." I see the phrase attached to freedom, victory, bravery, leadership, and other qualities, and now I"m not sure what is first. Is the German version memorable that way, or does it use words that are relatively common? If the German phrase literally translates as "beauty lies in the eye of the viewer," I'm not sure I'd consider them precisely the same thing.Īnother thing that came up as I looked into these origins: It's possible that I was incorrect in my assumption that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is the origin of the "eye of the beholder" part. I can't think of a single time I've heard the word beholder used in English that wasn't quoting that adage or referring to the D&D monster. "Eye of the Beholder" is a somewhat peculiar way of saying it in English.
I'm trying to decide whether the English part matters. It may be that Hungerford's use is the first known English appearance of a saying that was common in other languages. I agree that the phrase has a classic feeling that makes the Hungerford origin suspect, but I just went with what I got from Wikipedia and the first few Google results. The work by ScummVM conclusively shows that the AESOP engine is not a modification of the Westwood engine, but rather a different engine written from scratch, likely because SSI didn't have access to the source code. EOB3 shares its engine with Dungeon Hack and with none of the above. From their work, it turns out that EOB1 and 2 share their engine with Lands of Lore, and (surprisingly) the Kyrandia adventure games. Here's a fun thing I found: there's a group of fans called ScummVM that reverse engineers old game engines to make them run on newer platforms. The internal workings, data structures, and opcodes are completely different. EOB1/2 interrupts the action for spellcasting, EOB3 does it concurrently. EOB1/2 saves and switches levels almost instantly, 3 takes a rather long time to do so. 1 and 2 use ADL music, CPS graphics, and one-file saved games 3 uses XMI music, packed BMP graphics, and a folder of level files as saves. EOB1/2 runs in EGA or on an Amiga, EOB3 does not. To stick with the car metaphor: the EOB3 car has the same body (exterior) as the earlier games, but it requires different parts and tires, runs on different fuel, and handles/accelerates differently all because it's a completely different engine inside.įor instance, EOB1/2 is 16-bit, EOB3 is 32-bit. All of the characters will start out alive, so you won't have to worry about raising them (or carrying their bones around).An engine refers to the internal workings of a game, not to how it looks on the outside. Listed below are the six NPCs who can join your party during the course of the game.
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