The Black Cauldron (video game)

The Black Cauldron is a graphic adventure game released by Sierra On-Line in 1986. It is based on the Disney animated film of the same name, which itself is derived from The Chronicles of Prydain book series by Lloyd Alexander. The game follows the adventures of Taran, an assistant pig-keeper, as he attempts to prevent the evil Horned King from acquiring the Black Cauldron and using its power to raise an undead army.

Unlike many of Sierra's other adventure games of the era which used their AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) engine and relied heavily on text parsers, The Black Cauldron utilizes a point-and-click interface. Players control Taran with a mouse and select actions from a menu of icons, simplifying gameplay compared to typing commands.

The game is notable for its faithfulness to the film's visual style and story, though some plot elements are condensed or altered. It's also recognized for being one of Sierra's earlier attempts to target a younger audience, resulting in a less punishing difficulty level compared to some of their other titles. The game featured digitized sound effects and music, which was advanced for the time.