Dragonriders of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern is a 1983 video game release by Epyx that is based on Anne McCaffrey's book series of the same name. The game was released for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64. The player acts as the ruler of a "weyr", a mountaintop redoubt where the people of the planet Pern raise dragons in order to protect against periodic invasions of deadly "thread" that falls from a nearby planet. The game is primarily a strategic one, in which the user attempts to form alliances, but it also includes an action portion where the player controls a dragon in an attempt to destroy falling thread. The game was one of several adaptations of the Pern story made in the 1983 time frame, which also included a board game and arcade game. This version, for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64, was considered a forerunner of similar games based on novels, although similar adaptations did not become common at the time. A sequel for the C64, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, was cancelled and not completed.