Adaptations of The Hobbit
Encyclopedia
March 1953 saw the first authorized adaptation of the book The Hobbit
, a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh
. The Hobbit has since been adapted for other media many times including adaptations for stage, screen, radio, and gaming, both board and video games.
Several of these adaptations have received critical recognition of their own, including a video game that won the Golden Joystick Award, a scenario of a war game that won an Origins Award, and an animated picture nominated for a Hugo Award
.
A three-part comic-book
adaptation with script by Chuck Dixon
and Sean Deming and illustrated by David Wenzel
was published by Eclipse Comics
in 1989. In 1990 a one-volume edition was released by Unwin Paperbacks. The cover was artwork by the original illustrator David Wenzel. A reprint collected in one volume was released by Del Rey Books
in 2001. Its cover, illustrated by Donato Giancola
, was awarded the Association of Science Fiction Artists Award for Best Cover Illustration in 2002.
A commemorative postage stamp
, illustrated by Peter Malone, was issued in 1998 by the Royal Mail
of Great Britain in a series entitled Magical Worlds: Fantasy Books for Children.
Leonard Nimoy
sang a jaunty ditty about The Hobbit titled The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
. The recording originally appeared on the album The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, released in 1968. A music video to accompany it, featuring sand-dunes and dancing girls, was also produced.
In 2001, Marjo Kuusela produced a ballet Hobitti (The Hobbit in Finnish
) with music by Aulis Sallinen
for the Finnish National Opera
.
Dean Burry was commissioned by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
to write an operatic version of the story for piano and choir to be performed in 2004. The performance rights were subsequently locked up by Tolkien Enterprises before being released in 2006. The Sarasota Youth Opera
of the Sarasota Opera
then requested full orchestration. With that and some revisions by the composer, the second version premiered on 9 and 10 May 2008 in the United States
and was conducted by Lance Inouye.
German power metal band Blind Guardian
have recorded many songs which contain either tributes or references to the works of Tolkien. On their 1992 album, Somewhere Far Beyond
, the song "The Bard's Song - The Hobbit" tells part of the story of The Hobbit.
TSR, Inc.
has released two editions of a war game based on The Battle of Five Armies, designed by Larry Smith in the 1970s using cardboard tokens and a map of the area around the Lonely Mountain as the setting. The game was criticized for a lack of clearness in the rules, and praised for evoking the onslaught of the Warg and goblin army.
The Lonely Mountain, produced in 1985 by Iron Crown Enterprises
, was designed by Coleman Charlton and features groups of adventurers entering Smaug's Lair to capture his treasure before he awakens. The same year, the same publisher also released its version of The Battle of Five Armies, developed by Richard H. Britton, Coleman Charlton, and John Crowell, again taking the theme of a war game and using card counters and a paper map.
The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame [sic] was the last game from Iron Crown based directly on The Hobbit. They continued to publish the Middle-earth Role Playing Game
, a game licensed on both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings properties, combining elements from both works.
Middle-earth Strategic Gaming (formerly Middle-earth Play-by-Mail), which has won several Origin Award
s, uses the Battle of Five Armies as an introductory scenario to the full game and includes characters and armies from the book.
In 2005, Games Workshop
released a Battle of Five Armies tabletop wargame, designed by Rick Priestley
using highly detailed 10-millimetre figures sculpted by Mark Harrison, based on Games Workshop's Warmaster
rules and designed to be played in a small space suitable for the home gamer.
with compatibility for most computers available at the time. A copy of the novel was included in each game package in order to encourage players to engage the text, since ideas for gameplay could be found therein. Likewise, it can be seen that the game is not attempting to re-tell the story, but rather sits along-side it, using the narrative to both structure and motivate gameplay. The game won the Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year in 1983 and was responsible for popularizing the phrase, "Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold."
Sierra Entertainment
published a platform game
with action-RPG elements titled The Hobbit
in 2003 for Windows
PCs
, PlayStation 2
, Xbox
, and Nintendo GameCube. A version, based on the same character design and story, but using a 2D
isometric platform and using 3D characters which were pre-rendered using models from the console version, was also published for the Game Boy Advance
.
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
, a stage production by St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh
St. Margaret's School, Edinburgh
St. Margaret's School was an independent school in the Newington area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The curriculum was based on the Scottish education system. The school closed its doors for the last time once the summer term ended in June 2010....
. The Hobbit has since been adapted for other media many times including adaptations for stage, screen, radio, and gaming, both board and video games.
Several of these adaptations have received critical recognition of their own, including a video game that won the Golden Joystick Award, a scenario of a war game that won an Origins Award, and an animated picture nominated for a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
.
Dramatizations
The following is a list of dramatizations of The Hobbit.- The BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
series The HobbitThe Hobbit (1968 radio series)The Hobbit is a 1968 BBC Radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel of the same name.The series was adapted by Michael Kilgarriff and produced by John Powell in eight half-hour mono episodes for BBC Radio 4.-Story:...
radio dramaRadio dramaRadio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
was an adaptation by Michael KilgarriffMichael KilgarriffMichael Kilgarriff is a British actor, born 16 June 1937 in Brighton. As an actor he is well known for two things: his rich voice, leading to much radio and voice over work; and his height. At six feet seven inches tall, he is sought for certain roles, the most notable of which has been The Cyber...
, broadcast in eight parts (four total hours) from September to November 1968. It starred Anthony JacksonAnthony Jackson (actor)Anthony Thomas Jackson was an English actor, who reached his widest audiences as founder of the eponymous ghost hiring agency in the long-running BBC children's comedy series Rentaghost. Jackson began his career with the Birmingham Repertory. He studied at Rose Bruford College and won the BBC...
as narrator, Paul DanemanPaul DanemanPaul Daneman was an English film, television, theatre and voice actor.Paul Frederick Daneman was born in Islington, London. He attended the Haberdashers' Aske's School and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow and studied stage design at Reading University where he joined the dramatic...
as Bilbo and Heron CarvicHeron CarvicHeron Carvic was a British actor and writer who provided the voice for Gandalf in the BBC Radio version of The Hobbit, and played Caiphas the High Priest every time the play cycle The Man Born To Be King was broadcast....
as Gandalf. The series was released on audio cassetteCompact CassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
in 1988 and on CD in 1997. - In 1968, J. R. R. Tolkien authorized Patricia Gray's adaptation for the stage. This dramatization makes changes to the original plot, removing sections and giving Thorin the role of dragon-slayer, amongst other deviations. Many productions of this version have been performed up to the present day.
- In 1972, The Hobbit: A Musical was published by Dramatic Publishing. The book is by Ruth Perry, the music is by Allan Jay Friedman, and the lyrics are by David Rogers.
- Nicol WilliamsonNicol WilliamsonNicol Williamson is a Scottish-born English actor who was described by English playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando".-Early life:...
played over twenty different characters, each with a unique voice, in an adaptation directed by Harely Usill. This performance was released on four LP recordLP recordThe LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
s in 1974 by Argo RecordsArgo Records (UK)Argo Records was a record label founded in 1951 by Harley Usill , and musicologist Cyril Clarke with £500 capital, initially as a company specialising in "British music played by British artists" , but it quickly became a company primarily specialising in spoken-word recordings and other esoteric ...
. - The Hobbit, an animated version of the story produced by Rankin/BassRankin/BassRankin/Bass Productions, Inc. , also known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop-motion animation. The pre-1974 library is currently owned by Classic Media,while the post-1974 library is...
, debuted as a television movieTelevision movieA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1977. In 1978, Romeo Muller won a Peabody AwardPeabody AwardThe George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
for his teleplay for The Hobbit. The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic PresentationHugo Award for Best Dramatic PresentationThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
, but lost to Star WarsStar Wars Episode IV: A New HopeStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
. - A Soviet 1985 television play "The adventure of the Hobbit" (Приключение Хоббита).
- The American radio theatre company The Mind's Eye produced an audio adaptation of The Hobbit which was released on six one-hour audio cassettes in 1979.
- The BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
children's television series JackanoryJackanoryJackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 24 March 1996,...
presented an adaptation of The Hobbit in 1979. Unusually for the programme, the adaptation was narrated by several people. According to David WoodDavid Wood (actor)David Wood OBE is an English-born actor and writer, called "the National Children's Dramatist" by The Times.He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and Worcester College, Oxford....
, one of the narrators, the release of the production on video has been repeatedly stopped by the Tolkien EstateTolkien EstateThe Tolkien Estate is the legal body which manages the property of the late J. R. R. Tolkien, including the copyright in his works. The individual copyrights have for the most part been assigned by the Estate to subsidiary entities such as the J.R.R. Tolkien Discretionary Settlement and the...
. - Robert Inglis adapted and performed a one-man theatreTheatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
play of The Hobbit. This performance led to him being asked to record the unabridged audiobook for The Lord of the Rings in 1990 and, a year later, he read the unabridged version of The Hobbit. - A Finnish live action television miniseries HobititHobititHobitit is a Finnish live action fantasy television miniseries originally broadcast in 1993. It is based on the events of the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings....
was broadcast in 1993 based on the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. - The Manitoba Theatre for Young PeopleManitoba Theatre for Young PeopleManitoba Theatre for Young People is a theatre for children and young adults in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was originally founded in 1965 as Actors' Showcase and incorporated in 1977. In 1982, it became a professional theatre devoted to young people...
commissioned Kim Selody to adapt The Hobbit; his version premiered there in 1999. The play is only licensed to be performed in Canada. Various productions have been reviewed as being "whimsical, wild and not too scary" and "not really that exciting". - A live-action film version was announced on 18 December 2007, to be co-produced by MGMMetro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
and New Line CinemaNew Line CinemaNew Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
, and producedFilm producerA film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
by Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings film trilogyThe Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
directorFilm directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Peter JacksonPeter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
. Guillermo Del ToroGuillermo del ToroGuillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones...
was originally signed on to direct both parts but withdrew from the project in May 2010, leaving Jackson as director. The narrative of the film is to be expanded and split over two parts. It was announced on 22nd October 2010, after months of speculation, that Martin FreemanMartin FreemanMartin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
will be playing Bilbo Baggins. The casting had been uncertain due to the unexpected success of the summer BBC adaptation of Sherlock and Freeman's subsequent filming commitments for the second series. Filming began on 21 March 2011. - A fifteen-part adaptation of The HobbitThe HobbitThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
was published as a "visual serial" in Fleetway Publications' Princess and Girl magazine in the United Kingdom. The story was published on a weekly basis between 10 October 1964 and 16 January 1965, accompanied by five or six illustrations by Ferguson Dewar.
Graphic media
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
adaptation with script by Chuck Dixon
Chuck Dixon
Charles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, best known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.-Biography:Dixon grew up in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, reading comics of all genres...
and Sean Deming and illustrated by David Wenzel
David Wenzel
David T. Wenzel is an illustrator and children's book artist. He is best known for his graphic novel adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.-Biography:...
was published by Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
in 1989. In 1990 a one-volume edition was released by Unwin Paperbacks. The cover was artwork by the original illustrator David Wenzel. A reprint collected in one volume was released by Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...
in 2001. Its cover, illustrated by Donato Giancola
Donato Giancola
Donato Giancola is an American artist specializing in science fiction and fantasy illustration.-Biography:Donato Giancola was born in 1967 and raised in Colchester, Vermont, near Burlington, Vermont...
, was awarded the Association of Science Fiction Artists Award for Best Cover Illustration in 2002.
A commemorative postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
, illustrated by Peter Malone, was issued in 1998 by the Royal Mail
Royal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
of Great Britain in a series entitled Magical Worlds: Fantasy Books for Children.
Music
Paul Corfield Godfrey, who has written a large amount of music based on Tolkien with the permission of the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins Publishers, wrote a full-length opera on The Hobbit during the years 1971-76. The work divides into two parts entitled 'Over Hill and Under Hill' and 'Fire and Water' but the score of the second part only survives in fragments. Two orchestral suites were extracted from the work and the first of these was performed in London in 1971.Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
sang a jaunty ditty about The Hobbit titled The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
"The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" is a song composed by Charles Randolph Grean and performed by Leonard Nimoy, telling the story of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. The recording originally appeared on Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, the second of Nimoy's albums on...
. The recording originally appeared on the album The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, released in 1968. A music video to accompany it, featuring sand-dunes and dancing girls, was also produced.
In 2001, Marjo Kuusela produced a ballet Hobitti (The Hobbit in Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
) with music by Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. He writes in a modern, though tonal and not experimental music style. He studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen...
for the Finnish National Opera
Finnish National Opera
The Finnish National Opera in Helsinki is the leading opera company in Finland. Its home base is the Opera House on Töölönlahti bay in Töölö which opened in 1993, and is state-owned through Senate Properties...
.
Dean Burry was commissioned by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
Canadian Children's Opera Chorus
The Canadian Children's Opera Company was founded in 1968 by Ruby Mercer and Lloyd Bradshaw. The Chorus consists of five divisions of approximately 240 boys and girls aged 6 to 19. The Principal Chorus has over 80 choristers, and they participate as the children's chorus in productions by the...
to write an operatic version of the story for piano and choir to be performed in 2004. The performance rights were subsequently locked up by Tolkien Enterprises before being released in 2006. The Sarasota Youth Opera
Sarasota Opera
Sarasota Opera is a professional opera company in Sarasota, Florida, USA, which owns and performs in the now-renovated 1,119-seat Sarasota Opera House. The 2011-2012 season is currently featuring Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in the fall...
of the Sarasota Opera
Sarasota Opera
Sarasota Opera is a professional opera company in Sarasota, Florida, USA, which owns and performs in the now-renovated 1,119-seat Sarasota Opera House. The 2011-2012 season is currently featuring Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in the fall...
then requested full orchestration. With that and some revisions by the composer, the second version premiered on 9 and 10 May 2008 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and was conducted by Lance Inouye.
German power metal band Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres...
have recorded many songs which contain either tributes or references to the works of Tolkien. On their 1992 album, Somewhere Far Beyond
Somewhere Far Beyond
Somewhere Far Beyond is the fourth studio album by German power metal act Blind Guardian.It was released in 1992 and produced by Kalle Trapp...
, the song "The Bard's Song - The Hobbit" tells part of the story of The Hobbit.
Board, war and role-playing games
The Hobbit has been the subject of several board games.TSR, Inc.
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
has released two editions of a war game based on The Battle of Five Armies, designed by Larry Smith in the 1970s using cardboard tokens and a map of the area around the Lonely Mountain as the setting. The game was criticized for a lack of clearness in the rules, and praised for evoking the onslaught of the Warg and goblin army.
The Lonely Mountain, produced in 1985 by Iron Crown Enterprises
Iron Crown Enterprises
Iron Crown Enterprises was a publisher of role playing, board, miniature battle, and collectible card games.ICE was incorporated in 1980 shortly after the principal founders graduated from the University of Virginia...
, was designed by Coleman Charlton and features groups of adventurers entering Smaug's Lair to capture his treasure before he awakens. The same year, the same publisher also released its version of The Battle of Five Armies, developed by Richard H. Britton, Coleman Charlton, and John Crowell, again taking the theme of a war game and using card counters and a paper map.
The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame [sic] was the last game from Iron Crown based directly on The Hobbit. They continued to publish the Middle-earth Role Playing Game
Middle-earth Role Playing
Middle-earth Role Playing is a 1984 role-playing game based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien under license from Tolkien Enterprises. Iron Crown Enterprises published the game until they lost the license on 22 Sep 1999.-Setting:The setting for MERP is an expanded version of J. R. R...
, a game licensed on both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings properties, combining elements from both works.
Middle-earth Strategic Gaming (formerly Middle-earth Play-by-Mail), which has won several Origin Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
s, uses the Battle of Five Armies as an introductory scenario to the full game and includes characters and armies from the book.
In 2005, Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
released a Battle of Five Armies tabletop wargame, designed by Rick Priestley
Rick Priestley
Rick Priestley is a miniature wargaming designer and author who lives near Nottingham, England.Priestley worked extensively for Games Workshop...
using highly detailed 10-millimetre figures sculpted by Mark Harrison, based on Games Workshop's Warmaster
Warmaster
Warmaster is a ruleset for tabletop wargames written by Rick Priestley, published by Specialist Games , and set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It is different from Warhammer Fantasy Battles in both appearance and gameplay. It is intended for 10 –12 mm miniatures. Basic troops are based on...
rules and designed to be played in a small space suitable for the home gamer.
Video games
Several computer and video games, both licensed and unlicensed, have been based on the story. One of the most successful was The Hobbit, an award-winning computer game developed in 1982 by Beam Software and published by Melbourne HouseMelbourne House
Krome Studios Melbourne, originally Beam Software, was a video game development studio founded in 1980 and based in Melbourne, Australia. The studio operated independently from 1987 until 1999, when it was acquired by Infogrames, who changed the name to Melbourne House...
with compatibility for most computers available at the time. A copy of the novel was included in each game package in order to encourage players to engage the text, since ideas for gameplay could be found therein. Likewise, it can be seen that the game is not attempting to re-tell the story, but rather sits along-side it, using the narrative to both structure and motivate gameplay. The game won the Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year in 1983 and was responsible for popularizing the phrase, "Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold."
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
published a platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
with action-RPG elements titled The Hobbit
The Hobbit (2003 video game)
The Hobbit is a video game published in 2003 by Vivendi Universal. It is a platform game that features puzzles and fighting enemies.-Plot:...
in 2003 for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
PCs
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, and Nintendo GameCube. A version, based on the same character design and story, but using a 2D
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
isometric platform and using 3D characters which were pre-rendered using models from the console version, was also published for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
.