The magic knight story

PART 6 - THE MAGIC KNIGHT STORY

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 25th 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 25th century, aboard the USS Pisces. 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 an 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
==========================================
FINDERS KEEPERS FEB 85          8       85
SPELLBOUND      JAN 86          8       95
KNIGHT TYME     JUN 86          9       94
STORMBRINGER    JUL 87          9       86

AVERAGE SCORES  FEB 85-JUL 87   8.5     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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