31 октября 1995

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*  PART 6  - THE MAGIC KNIGHT STORY  *
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Time   for   another  look  at  a  classic
Spectrum  Character.  This month it is the
turn  of  the  star of four classic arcade
adventures,  Magic  Knight. He appeared in
four  games  between  1985  and  1987. The
first,  Finders  Keepers, was an original,
if  somewhat confusing platform type game.
The  last  three however set new standards
in arcade adventures, calling on a process
called    "Windimation"   which   utilized
windows  and  character  interaction.  All
games  were  released  in 48k format, with
the  last  three  also  appearing  in 128k
format,   although   I   have   only  seen
Stormbringer  in 128k. The main difference
is  the addition of some extra screens and
objects,  adding  to the gameplay, as well
as some great 128k music.
You  can  find  a  small  guide to Finders
Keepers   in   this  months  playing  tips
section.
You  can  also take a look at the original
inlay  designs  to two of the Magic Knight
games  , Finders Keepers and Stormbringer,
which   are   included   in   this  months
snapshots pack!

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FINDERS KEEPERS
Mastertronic 1985

The King of Isbisima is, to say the least,
a  little upset. Tomorrow is his daughters
birthday  and  he  has no idea what to get
her.
As  Magic Knight, you have been ordered to
find   the  Princess  Germintrude  a  very
special  present.  This may be your chance
to  prove  that  you are worthy of joining
the   famed  Polygon  Table,  the  highest
honour any knight could wish for! The King
transports you to the Castle of Spriteland
which  is  teeming  with  many  weird  and
wonderful  creatures.  Also  there are two
mazes  which  contain  many  of the Queens
relatives!
Apart  from  the  grisly ghouls and energy
sapping   creatures   there   are  ghostly
traders  who  are  often  quite willing to
exchange  the  treasures  that you find in
the  castle  for money which they stole in
their  former  lives.  Some  objects  will
react  with each other to form either more
or   less  valuable  objects  to  sell  or
collect.
You now have two choices:
1.   You  may  try  and  collect  as  many
treasures  as possible and escape from the
castle of Spriteland.
2. Collect the treasure in order to please
the  king and the Princess Germintrude and
join the Polygon Table.
Will  the  temptation  of  keeping all the
treasures  be  too much for you or are you
loyal to the King and the Polygon Table of
Isbisima.

CONTROLS
A = UP          Z = DOWN
N = LEFT        M = RIGHT
G = GET         D = DROP/LIST
T = TRADE       E = EXAMINE

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SPELLBOUND
Mastertronic 1985

MAD GAMES PRESENT "SPELLBOUND"
The  first  in  a new generation of arcade
adventure   style  games  using  a  unique
window menu system.
All  command choices can be made by moving
a  pointing  finger to the required choice
on  a  menu, then selecting it by pressing
space  or  fire. In this way quite complex
commands can be built up easily using only
three  keys. When this program loads it is
set up for keyboard use. To use a joystick
change  this  using  A  and  Z to move the
finger  and  press space when it points to
the  joystick  that  you  wish to use. The
fire  button  can  then  be used to select
your menu choice.

KEYS
A - Finger Up/Jump
Z - Finger Down
N - Player Left
M - Player Right
Space - Command menu/Choose option
Fire  -  Same  as space when a joystick is
used
Break - Return to main menu
You  are Magic Knight, the hero of Finders
Keepers.  Your tutor Gimbal the Wizard has
been  trying  out  some very old spells to
make   his   rice   pudding  taste  nicer,
unfortunately  the  scribes who translated
the  spells  from  very ancient English to
slightly   ancient   English   made   some
mistakes with the wording and Gimbal is in
trouble.
The  spell  sent  Gimbal  to  the mythical
Castle  of  Karn  and  dragged seven other
people with him. As Gimbal becomes trapped
he  projects  a last faint message back to
you  across  the  time stream. I've taught
you enough to rescue us all. Magic Knight,
you  are our only hope!! Clue:Red herrings
may be useful.

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KNIGHT TYME
Mastertronic 1986

After  releasing  Gimbal the Wizard from a
self   inflicted   White   Out   Spell  in
Spellbound,    Magic   Knight   has   been
catapulted  through  time  to  the future.
This  is  the  story, so here it is in his
own words:
'I  landed  heavily on the transporter pad
of  the USS Pisces and while I was bending
out  some  of the dents in my armour I was
approached by a strange metal creature. It
spoke  'Hi,  Magic  Knight,  I am Klink. I
have  been  expecting  you. Take this'. He
then  gave me a cubic object which I later
learned  was  a  Datacube.  As I held it I
became aware of a strange power inside me.
Klink  spoke again 'The Datacube will give
you  the  relevant  date  for 2Sth Century
life and reduce your culture shock to nil.
It  will  fade  away  as  you  absorb  its
knowledge'.
As the Datacube transferred its data to my
brain  cells  I  started  to  formulate my
survival  plan.  I will have to locate the
Tyme  Guardians,  if  they still exist and
obtain  a  Tyme  machine from them. But my
first  priority  has to be to make contact
with  the  starship's  Transputer since it
programmed Klink to give me the Datacube.'

FEATURES
The  game  uses  an  enhanced  version  of
Windimation  which  players  of Spellbound
will  be familiar with. This system allows
the  player to access windows in which the
command choices are given.

CONTROLS
UP    -  A      DOWN  -  Z
LEFT  -  N      RIGHT -  M
FIRE  -  SPACE
Plus define your own keys or use Joysticks

HINTS
Derby  IV, the Transputer, can help you to
start  with.  The advert to Spellbound may
actually  prove to be useful. A Clown will
help  to  avoid dying of exhaustion. Sarab
will  tell  you  how  to move the starship
once  you are wearing a valid ID Card. Use
Gadget  X  for  the  save  and  load  game
facilities.

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STORMBRINGER
Mastertronic 1987

Welcome  to  Stormbringer,  the concluding
episode  in  the  acclaimed  Magic  Knight
saga.
The  story  so far....In previous episodes
(Spellbound  and Knight Tyme) Magic Knight
rescues  his  friend  and tutor Gimbal the
Wizard  from  a  self  inflicted White Out
spell,  and  then finds himself catapulted
into  the  2Sth  century,  aboard  the USS
pieces.  Having acquired a secondhand time
machine  from  the  Tyme  Guardians, Magic
Knight  finally  reaches  his own time and
planet  -  but  with  a  slight problem...
Whilst    traveling    back,   a   serious
malfunction  occurred  with the secondhand
time  machine, and now, horror of horrors,
there are two Magic Knights!
The  other  Magic  Knight  is a real nasty
piece  of  work. He calls himself the "Off
White  Knight", but locally he is known as
the "Stormbringer" because of his powerful
and  dangerous  storm  cloud,  which he is
planning to use to destroy magic knight.
In  your role as Magic Knight, you realize
that you cannot kill Stormbringer, because
if you do you will destroy yourself in the
process,  the  only  way for you to become
your old self again is to merge with him.
Good luck Magic Knight!

FEATURES
This  game  uses  and  enhanced version of
windimation  which  players  of Spellbound
and  Knight  Tyme  will  be familiar with.
This  system  allows  the player to access
windows  in  which the command choices are
given.

CONTROLS
A - Up/Jump     Z - Down
N - Left        M - Right
Space - Fire
Use  the  Up  (A) and Down (Z) keys in the
menu  to operate the finger or define your
own keys.

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MAGAZINE RUN-DOWN

To  rate  each classic Spectrum Character,
we  will  look  at  the average of all the
scores their games received in the popular
Spectrum Magazines.:

Name            Date            YS      CR
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FINDERS KEEPERS FEB 85          8       85
SPELLBOUND      JAN 86          8       95
KNIGHT TYME     JUN 86          9       94
STROMBRINGER    JUL 87          9       86

AVERAGE SCORES  FEB 85-JUL 87   85      90

TOTAL SCORE     88%

So  Magic  Knight  beats  the score set by
Dizzy  in  Issue  1  (81%)  Look  out  for
another classic Spectrum Character soon!

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ALCHEMIST RESEARCH

Some  of  you may have read a news article
in   Issue   2  about  Alchemist  News,  a
periodical magazine which is now available
on   Nvg   Unit.   For   those   who  were
interested, Matthew Deeprose has sent some
details  supplied to him by the company in
question, Alchemist Research. If you would
like to write to the them about any of the
items   mentioned   in  the  article,  the
address is:

Alchemist Research
62  Tithe Barn Lane, Woodhouse, SHEFFIELD.
S13  7LN Telephone: 0114 269 7644. Mobile:
0378 835 449

WHO ARE WE?

Alchemist  Research  is  the  UK's leading
Spectrum  and  emulator user group. It was
established  in  1986  and is the people's
choice  for  anything  Spectrum, winner of
the   Crashed   magazine  award  for  Best
Spectrum  Service  for  1995-96.  We  work
closely   with   only  the  best  Spectrum
services,  who  will confirm our unrivaled
service.

OUR MAGAZINE

AlchNews   is   now  the  world's  largest
Spectrum  tape  and  disk magazine. Latest
issues  have  been  the  equivalent of 384
pages  of  solid  A4  text!  The  magazine
covers   all   aspects  of  the  Spectrum,
including   regular   sections  on:  Basic
programming,  news,  software  reviews, PD
reviews  and tutorials, adventure writing,
machine code, languages, +3 computing, +D,
Opus, Microdrive, communications, fiction,
humour,    the    unexplained,    hardware
projects,  CP/M,  music,  adverts and much
more. AlchNews has dozens of writers, many
of   which  are  leading  figures  in  the
Spectrum    scene.   The   magazine   also
incorporates folded magazines of the past,
including  SARUG,  Sinclair News, 1982 and
Marshall Cavendish's INPUT series.

AlchNews  is  available  on  any  Spectrum
format   (except  3"  disk)  for  just  1.
Subscription fee is 4 per year. For a free
sample  of  the latest or any back issues,
just  send  media  and  SAE, stating which
issues  you'd  like. As a guide, the first
10 issues will fit on one 800k disk or C90
cassette  and  subsequent issues on a disk
or tape each.

SOFTWARE SUPPORT

Alchemist  Software is the world's biggest
Spectrum   software   service,   including
Spectrum  CP/M  and, shortly, Amiga and PC
titles. The library has an archive of over
ten thousand titles and has just about any
kind of program you'd require. The service
has  just  been transferred to the address
below  where  the  new  staff can offer an
even greater service.

Trevor Mossman & Lloyd Garland
Alchemist Software
126 Redfield Road
Bristol
BSS 9QA

Alchemist  Research also supports the only
other  reputable  and  respected  software
services: Fountain PD, Minds Demo Library,
MGPD,  and Impact PD. For more details and
their   addresses,   write   to  Alchemist
Research.  Neither Alchemist Research, the
groups   above,   or  any  other  Spectrum
service  recommends  any  other - you have
been warned!

We  have  also  been granted permission to
re-release   the   GREMLIN  GRAPHICS  back
catalogue of Spectrum games.

COMPLETE SPECTRUM SUPPORT

Alchemist  Research  is  the  only service
which   operates   a   Spectrum  helpline,
totally  devoid  of  any  subscription  or
other charges. We aim to solve any problem
you may be experiencing, be it hardware or
software.   Other  than  INDUG,  Alchemist
Research  is  the  only group who receives
official
and  regular  support on +D bugs and fixer
programs.  We  are  also  in close contact
with  some  of  the  world's best software
programmers.  We have masterminded several
hardware  projects,  including 128k keypad
devices,
+3  external  drives, RS232 communications
and  a  multi-group  project of 'essential
manuals',  beginning  with a Spectrum 128k
definitive technical manual. We can master
disk  conversions  of your programs should
you not have the facilities and aid in any
aspect of your programming. We can help in
tracking   down   hardware,  software  and
books,  thanks  to  our  register of users
with  equipment  for sale. We are the only
group  to cover Spectrum CP/M in depth and
offer  assistance,  tips  and programs for
users with Star printers.

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