fawny
Still Fresh
Back in the 1980s the ZX Spectrum brought computing to the masses. There were rival machines that were superior in many respects but the Spectrum, due to its price, made the greatest market impact and spawned thousands of 'bedroom coders'. Professional game developers sprung up almost overnight and some truly amazing and a lot of truly abysmal games flooded onto high street shelves.
One company, Ashby Computer Graphics, quickly became a star of the games scene, arguably 'the star', under the label 'ULTIMATE play the game'.
With JetPac, PSSST and Atic Atac on their resume, they then embarked on a series based around an explorer known as Sabreman.
The third game in this series turned out to be the pinnacle of their acheivements. It was called Knight Lore. You control Sabreman, who has contracted a nasty case of lycanthropy (he has become a werewolf). Every night you change into a wolf and by day resume your human form. The game takes place in the castle of Melkhior, a great wizard who can cure you.
In many peoples' minds this was the first isometric 3D game. Of course it was not, there had been Q-bert, Zaxxon and Ant Attack for example. But there was something special about Knight Lore. Being able to push items around and the fact that it is non-linear (i.e. You are not forced to follow a set sequence of screens but can wander around the castle as you wish) are a part of its magic.
It was also the first ULTIMATE game to use the new technique of masking. Up until then graphics had been put on the screen using 'exclusive or' logic. This meant that any over-lapping objects resulted in an unsightly 'negative' effect where the objects overlay each other. They also did away with the 'Spectrum colour clash' by only using one colour per screen. This seems to have worked remarkably well as, even though some of the screens were in bright yellow, old timers will swear to the dark, moody atmosphere of the castle.
To rid yourself of the curse you must collect items from around the castle and place them, in the right order, in the wizard's cauldren.
Near the centre of the castle Melkhior walks ceaselessly around and around his cauldron. If you enter the room in your human form a magic mist rises from the cauldron and reveals, in its sparkling form, the next object required in the list of spell ingredients. If you have that object you must drop it into the cauldren and it will then show the next object needed. Fourteen items are needed to break the evil curse that holds you in its grasp.
If you enter the room as a werewolf the magic mist will attack and kill you.
The wizard is totally barmy and has created many strange tests to ensure only the worthy will benefit from his powers. There are magic gates that open and close, hindering your progress and which will kill you if they come crashing down on your head. Hideous gargoyles adorn some rooms - these are deadly if you touch them. Killer spikes and mines block the way. Some mines are suspended and will fall when you enter the room, while others only fall once you collect an object.
There are guards who patrol some rooms, touching them loses you a life. In other rooms magic mists chase you and hinder you, sometimes pushing you onto something deadly. Also there are ghosts that move rapidly and erratically that you have to avoid - or die.
Perhaps the strangest obstacle is a ball reminiscent of the 'Rovers' from Patrick McGoohan's cult TV show 'The Prisoner'. These come in two forms. One variety bounces up and down on the spot, always in a most inconvenient position. The second roams freely - limited only by spikes. They behave differently depending on whether you are a wolf or a man. As a man they appear to be afraid of you - but enter their domain as a werewolf and they will go for the jugular.
Beware the vanishing and sinking blocks that will, more often than not, result in you suffering a spiky death.
There are tables and chests that you can manoeuvre and stand on to help you reach high objects but on the whole everything else is out to kill you.
This game will appeal to map-makers, if such gamers still exist. If that is not your thing, the web is littered with maps already done for you. Here is one.
The game received unprecedented ratings in its day from the computer magazines. I think it it is a must for any retro-gamer and stands up well today all these years later. A classic.
Due to the fact each game randomly starts from one of four locations, the order in which the objects have to be collected changes and the same objects are not always in the same places the game has plenty of replay value.
Unfortunately the rom is denied distribution - so unless you own the original and can rip your own it is a no-no for emulation.
Sadly there is only one remake for the PC that I can find, but they omitted some of the features and it is much too fast on a modern machine. You can find it here.
You can play the original on-line here.
Or, of course, you can also play the GP2X remake. You can get that from ED's archive here.
One company, Ashby Computer Graphics, quickly became a star of the games scene, arguably 'the star', under the label 'ULTIMATE play the game'.
With JetPac, PSSST and Atic Atac on their resume, they then embarked on a series based around an explorer known as Sabreman.
The third game in this series turned out to be the pinnacle of their acheivements. It was called Knight Lore. You control Sabreman, who has contracted a nasty case of lycanthropy (he has become a werewolf). Every night you change into a wolf and by day resume your human form. The game takes place in the castle of Melkhior, a great wizard who can cure you.
In many peoples' minds this was the first isometric 3D game. Of course it was not, there had been Q-bert, Zaxxon and Ant Attack for example. But there was something special about Knight Lore. Being able to push items around and the fact that it is non-linear (i.e. You are not forced to follow a set sequence of screens but can wander around the castle as you wish) are a part of its magic.
It was also the first ULTIMATE game to use the new technique of masking. Up until then graphics had been put on the screen using 'exclusive or' logic. This meant that any over-lapping objects resulted in an unsightly 'negative' effect where the objects overlay each other. They also did away with the 'Spectrum colour clash' by only using one colour per screen. This seems to have worked remarkably well as, even though some of the screens were in bright yellow, old timers will swear to the dark, moody atmosphere of the castle.
To rid yourself of the curse you must collect items from around the castle and place them, in the right order, in the wizard's cauldren.
Near the centre of the castle Melkhior walks ceaselessly around and around his cauldron. If you enter the room in your human form a magic mist rises from the cauldron and reveals, in its sparkling form, the next object required in the list of spell ingredients. If you have that object you must drop it into the cauldren and it will then show the next object needed. Fourteen items are needed to break the evil curse that holds you in its grasp.
If you enter the room as a werewolf the magic mist will attack and kill you.
The wizard is totally barmy and has created many strange tests to ensure only the worthy will benefit from his powers. There are magic gates that open and close, hindering your progress and which will kill you if they come crashing down on your head. Hideous gargoyles adorn some rooms - these are deadly if you touch them. Killer spikes and mines block the way. Some mines are suspended and will fall when you enter the room, while others only fall once you collect an object.
There are guards who patrol some rooms, touching them loses you a life. In other rooms magic mists chase you and hinder you, sometimes pushing you onto something deadly. Also there are ghosts that move rapidly and erratically that you have to avoid - or die.
Perhaps the strangest obstacle is a ball reminiscent of the 'Rovers' from Patrick McGoohan's cult TV show 'The Prisoner'. These come in two forms. One variety bounces up and down on the spot, always in a most inconvenient position. The second roams freely - limited only by spikes. They behave differently depending on whether you are a wolf or a man. As a man they appear to be afraid of you - but enter their domain as a werewolf and they will go for the jugular.
Beware the vanishing and sinking blocks that will, more often than not, result in you suffering a spiky death.
There are tables and chests that you can manoeuvre and stand on to help you reach high objects but on the whole everything else is out to kill you.
This game will appeal to map-makers, if such gamers still exist. If that is not your thing, the web is littered with maps already done for you. Here is one.
The game received unprecedented ratings in its day from the computer magazines. I think it it is a must for any retro-gamer and stands up well today all these years later. A classic.
Due to the fact each game randomly starts from one of four locations, the order in which the objects have to be collected changes and the same objects are not always in the same places the game has plenty of replay value.
Unfortunately the rom is denied distribution - so unless you own the original and can rip your own it is a no-no for emulation.
Sadly there is only one remake for the PC that I can find, but they omitted some of the features and it is much too fast on a modern machine. You can find it here.
You can play the original on-line here.
Or, of course, you can also play the GP2X remake. You can get that from ED's archive here.
