The once peaceful Kingdom of Starbury is in peril, as the black-hearted Voar has stolen the Wizard Munjistan's Coveted Mirror. After accidentally shattering the Coveted Mirror into five separate pieces, Voar uses his remaining four pieces to make take power as the king of Starbury. He rules over the population with the near omnipotence granted by the remaining pieces, spying on all who might oppose him. Powerless to directly oppose Voar, Munjistan casts a spell that secrets the remaining fifth piece away from Voar's grasp. The time awaits for one who is pure of heart to gather the hidden fifth shard of the Coveted Mirror, and make the mirror whole once again. By doing this, the evil power of Voar shall be put to an end forever.
The Coveted Mirror is an early PC adventure with optional graphics, and a text interface. The player must solve numerous exploration puzzles by typing in text commands. The player travels about the land of Starbury in search of the fifth piece of the Coveted Mirror. Unusual for text adventures, the game also includes arcade sequences, and several puzzle sequences.
There were two releases of The Coveted Mirror. The original 1983 release contained a more primitive parser system that only understood VERB NOUN entries. The game was re-released in 1986 using Polarware's Comprehend engine, which allowed the player to use full sentences to communicate.
Penguin Software changed their name to Polarware in 1986 and then basically ceased to operate in 1989. The trademark was abandoned in 1993 but the IP is stilled owned by Merit Software. This site exists for the preservation of abandonware.