It was developed by Sir-Tech Software, Inc. and was released on the Amiga and DOS platforms in 1990 by the same company, and for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1995 by ASCII.

The player controls a party of between two and six people from numerous fantasy backgrounds, identical to those found in Wizardry VII: the Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Hobbit, Faerie, Lizardman, Dracon (a half-Human, half-Dragon), Rawulf (anthropomorphic dogs), Felpurr (anthropomorphic cats) and Mook (aliens that resemble Sasquatch, or the Wookiees from Star Wars).

They have come upon a castle that has been abandoned for over a hundred years, and which is rumored to contain the Cosmic Forge, a pen said to control the destiny of time and space.

The ruins of the castle and its turrets have become overrun by creatures such as giant rats, vampire bats and carnivorous vines, and its basement has become a den of thieves, pirates and other ne'er-do-wells.

Once the party finds a path through the castle and into the mountains beyond it, they meet the hostile giants and dwarves who mine the rock there, and a tribe of warrior women called the Amazulu in the jungles nearby.

By doing so, his essence was split into two separate beings: the ghostly vision that the party meets, who seems reflective and benevolent, and his insane and violent physical self who appears much later.

Using a pair of red rubies gained from their dealings and combat with the giants and dwarves of the mountains and the Amazulu of the jungle, the party gains entrance to the River Styx which runs beneath the basement of the castle, and is overrun by eerie spirits and the undead - and guarded by the three-headed dog Cerberus, in-game known as Spot.

The King, having used the cursed Cosmic Forge to wish himself immortal, suffers the Bane of living forever as a vampire, unable to feel any human emotion.

Jealous at having been tossed aside for the young girl as the King's lover, the Queen used the Cosmic Forge and wrote of the death of the "witch," which the Bane interpreted as meaning herself, and she slipped and fell on her own knife.

If they did not believe the Queen and threw the cross away, the King drinks his fill of blood, then throws the party into prison anyway.

Rebecca appears afterward, and asks the party to take care of both the Cosmic Forge and her half-brother, the dragon Bela, who was born of an affair between the Queen and the Vicar.

Returning to the branching story line, a party allied with the Queen is forced to fight the King, and on the more difficult game settings, his lover Rebecca.

He apparently made it through instruction gained from an interstellar communication device from the Umpani, a race prominently featured in Wizardry VII and 8.

The huge investment in programming time assures the gamer of numerous surprises from beer drinking contests to fascinating exchanges with non-playing characters.

The graphics and adventure flow are both definite pluses, while the dungeon crawl nature and the annoying door quirk [...] prevent my review from being totally glowing.

For those of you who have long been jaded by poor Macintosh adventure games, a jaunt through Bane of the Cosmic Forge is just what the doctor ordered.