Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax - Development

Development

Barbarian II's predecessor, Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, was a critical and commercial success on its release in 1987. Reviewers enjoyed the game's exciting sword fights, and its profile was greatly enhanced by marketing strategies employed by its developer, Palace Software, a subsidiary of media company Palace Group. The developer had engaged Maria Whittaker, a model known for topless shoots, to pose on the box covers and posters of the game. The image of bikini-clad Whittaker created a hype that pushed the game beyond the attention of the video game industry, producing a controversy in which members of the public criticised the industry for promoting Barbarian in a sexist manner.

Palace Software repeated the strategy for the sequel, publishing a poster of Whittaker as Princess Mariana, this time in metal bikini armour, and Michael Van Wijk as the barbarian. Steve Brown, creator of the Barbarian games, recalled that the bikini's chain "snapped a number of times" in comical Carry On fashion during the shoot. Brown was behind the concept of the poster, which was brought to fruition by Lee Gibbons, a commercial artist, over the course of four weeks. The image of the barbarian and princess poised over the fallen body of a large, scaly monster was a photomontage, created by superimposing three photographs—one of each subject—on one another. The creature was a small scale model made of Plasticine. After cutting out the subjects from their photos and composing the cut-outs to form a new scene, Gibbons painted the background and added effects such as smoke to form the final image.

Brown had filmed swordfights and used the tracings of the combatants' movements to produce the animations in Barbarian. For the animations in the sequel, he turned to the works of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who made a name for himself through his series of photographs of animals and humans captured in motion. The movements of Barbarian II's characters were based on the pictures in Muybridge's book Human in Motion, which was published in 1901. The resulting animation was judged very realistic and detailed by several reviewers.

First released in August 1988 for the Commodore 64, Barbarian II was ported to various personal computers. The various versions differed in features, depending on specifications of the platforms. The Amiga version of the game was given several improvements. It has digitized speech and better graphics in the form of greater details and number of colours. The introductory and disc loading sequences were revamped, featuring animated skeletons with maniacal voices. In contrast, the ZX Spectrum version has monochromatic graphics; the first level comprises black-outlined sprites against pink backgrounds.

As with its predecessor, Barbarian II was licensed to Epyx for release in North America. The game was published there under the title Axe of Rage and included a tattoo in its packaging. The North American version featured a different cover art, showing the close-up visage of "a screaming berserker with homicidal tendencies". Dragon magazine's reviewers found the cover ugly, and according to Computer Gaming World, a Canadian wholesaler refused to sell Axe of Rage because it considered the game's box cover art crass enough to offend customers. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, pharmacy chain Boots banned displays of Barbarian II, featuring Whittaker, from their stores.