Knight Lore
Knight Lore | |
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Single-player |
Knight Lore is a 1984
Ultimate released Knight Lore third in the Sabreman series but later claimed to have completed it first and withheld its release for a year to position the company advantageously in anticipation of the game's effect on the market. Knight Lore's novel
Knight Lore is regarded as a seminal work in British video game history and has been included in multiple lists of top Spectrum games. Critics considered its technical solutions and
The game was later included in compilations including Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, Rare Replay.
Gameplay
The player, as Sabreman, has been bitten by the Sabre Wulf and now transforms into a werewolf at nightfall.[2] He has 40 days to collect items throughout Melkhior the Wizard's castle[3] and brew a cure for his curse. An onscreen timer shows the progression of day into night, when Sabreman metamorphoses into a werewolf, returning to human form at sunrise.[4] Some of the castle's monsters only attack Sabreman when he is a werewolf.[5] The game ends if the player completes the potion or does not finish the task in forty days.[4] The game's only directions are given through a poem included with the game's cassette tape.[6]
The castle consists of a series of 128 rooms,
Development
Filmation and Knight Lore's graphical novelty lay in how images could render without overlapping.[14] Filmation introduced "masked sprites" whereas earlier games used "planar sprites",[15] which overlapped without regard for depth order. Chris Stamper's solution was to use image masking. A mask is a version of an image that defines a background from the subject matter in different colours. When combining the mask and the on-screen composite image, the mask's "background" data was ignored and a hole in the shape of the desired image sprite was added to the background. This was filled in with the sprite's details. Thus, rooms in Knight Lore were drawn one sprite at a time through this masking method. In more recent times, contemporary images render with layer priority set at the individual pixel level.[14] Knight Lore is depicted in monochrome that changes between rooms so as to avoid attribute clash, a computing limitation wherein an object's colour interfered with those of others in close proximity.[1]
Ultimate released Knight Lore for the ZX Spectrum in November 1984. In a press release, they announced the game as the beginning of a new class of adventure games and "the very pinnacle of software development on the 48K Spectrum".[16] As standard for the cryptic company, Ultimate did not circulate screenshots of the game in its press materials or cover art.[16] Knight Lore was subsequently released for the BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, and MSX later in 1985.[17] The Amstrad version upgraded the monochromatic colouring to a two-colour foreground setup.[7] Jaleco released versions of Knight Lore for MSX[18] and, later, the Famicom Disk System.[19] The latter 1986 release barely resembled its namesake.[20] Ultimate asked Shahid Ahmad, who developed the Knight Lore-inspired Chimera (1985), to develop a Knight Lore port for the Commodore 64, but this did not come to fruition.[17] Knight Lore later appeared in the Spectrum version of the 1986 compilation They Sold a Million II[21] and the 2015 Xbox One compilation of 30 Ultimate and Rare titles Rare Replay.[22]
Reception
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Your Spectrum | Spectrum: 14/15[24] |
Knight Lore entered the UK video game charts in the week up to 8 November 1984 while Underwurlde was still number 1,[25] and went on to replace its predecessor at the top of the charts the following week.[26] By the start of 1985 it had been succeeded by Ghostbusters.[27]
Computer game magazines lauded Knight Lore,
Knight Lore's atmosphere, which Sinclair User described as a "crepuscular world of claustrophobic menace", inspired many curious questions on the part of the adventurer in contemporaneous 1985 reviews.[23] Crash appreciated the imaginative mystery of the game as they attempted to answer why Sabreman turns into a werewolf, who they preferred to play as, and what the collectible objects throughout the castle do.[1] Sabreman's werewolf transformation sequence, in particular, annoyed CVG[6] and traumatised players, according to Well Played, a book of academic close readings of video games, as players empathised with the suffering Sabreman.[30] The game design gave the impression that the castle was far grander in scale than it was in reality,[31] and Crash wrote that the game's novel eight-way direction scheme suited the 3D space.[1] Crash compared Knight Lore stylistically to the 1984 Avalon, but suggested that the former had bolder visuals. The magazine preferred Knight Lore to its predecessor (Underwurlde) and one critic even considered the former to be Ultimate's best game.[1]
Crash noted how Knight Lore's masking technique addressed issues of flicker and attribute clash,[1] and Sinclair User appreciated how Sabreman disappeared from view when passing behind blocks.[23] In criticism, reviewers considered Knight Lore's sound to be its weakest component,[6][8] though Your Spectrum and Crash also identified the sometimes cruel difficulty of its gameplay.[24][1] Later rooms of the castle require pixel-perfect precision, compounded by the anxiety of the running timer,[3] and the game's animations would slow down proportional to the degree of onscreen action.[32]
In reviews of the Amstrad release, Amtix noted the colour additions over the monochromatic original and wrote that Knight Lore was among the Amstrad's best adventures. Their one complaint was the graphical slowdown when too many elements were moving onscreen.[7] Amstrad Action shared this complaint but nevertheless named Knight Lore among the Amstrad's best three games—an improvement on the Spectrum release and on par with the quality of Commodore 64 titles.[8]
Legacy
Knight Lore is widely regarded as a seminal work in British gaming history.
Several
Ultimate itself released four more Filmation games. Alien 8 (1985) was rushed for release before developers had an opportunity to react to Knight Lore, though Retro Gamer said that its rush was not noticeable, as Alien 8 had a larger game world than Knight Lore, with even more puzzles.
The isometric, flip-screen trend continued in Britain for several years. Apart from Fairlight, Sweevo's World and Get Dexter, other isometric flip-screen games included
Knight Lore was included in multiple lists of top Spectrum games
Though isometric games had existed previously, in a retrospective review, Gillen (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) recalled that Knight Lore was the first game to offer a "world" with physical depth for exploration as opposed to the simple mechanics of arcade games.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Crash 1985.
- ^ a b c d Hunt 2010, p. 28.
- ^ a b c Retro Gamer 2006b, p. 76.
- ^ a b c d e f g Gillen 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Parrish 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f Computer and Video Games 1985a.
- ^ a b c d e Amtix 1985.
- ^ a b c d Amstrad Action 1985.
- ^ Hunt 2010, p. 24.
- ^ Kean 1988.
- ^ a b Hunt 2010, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Carroll 2012.
- ^ Hunt 2010, pp. 28–30.
- ^ a b c d e Carroll 2014, p. 22.
- ^ Stafford 1986.
- ^ a b c d Carroll 2014, p. 21.
- ^ a b c d e Carroll 2014, p. 24.
- ^ a b Carroll 2014, p. 26.
- ^ Famitsu n.d.
- ^ a b c Carroll 2014, p. 25.
- ^ Rignall 1986.
- ^ McWhertor 2015.
- ^ a b c d Bourne 1985.
- ^ a b c Your Spectrum 1985. Component scores were 5/5, 5/5, and 4/5.
- ^ RAM/C 1984a.
- ^ RAM/C 1984b.
- ^ RAM/C 1985.
- ^ Popular Computing Weekly 1985.
- ^ Computer and Video Games 1985b.
- ^ Garcia-Panella 2010.
- ^ Retro Gamer 2006b, p. 75.
- ^ Retro Gamer 2006b, p. 77.
- ^ Carroll 2014, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Davison 2013.
- ^ Retro Gamer 2006a, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d Signor 2014.
- ^ Retro Gamer 2006b, p. 74.
- ^ Carroll 2014, p. 22; Signor 2014; Kumar 2010.
- ^ Carroll 2014, pp. 22–23.
- ^ a b c Carroll 2014, p. 23.
- ^ Hunt 2010, p. 29.
- ^ a b Carroll 2014, p. 27.
- ^ Carroll 2014, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Cundy 2009.
- ^ Scullion 2015.
- ^ Your Sinclair 1991.
- ^ Your Sinclair 1993. #22 and #33, respectively.
- ^ Whitehead n.d.
- ^ Next Generation 1996. #88.
- ^ PC Zone 1999.
- ^ Retro Gamer 2010.
- ^ Caoili 2010.
- ^ Whitehead 2015.
References
- "Amsyclopedia – Knight Lore". ISSN 0954-8068.
- Bourne, Chris (February 1985). "Spectrum Software Scene – Knight Lore". ISSN 0262-5458.
- Caoili, Eric (12 May 2010). "Knight Lore Remake Released". GameSetWatch. Archivedfrom the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- Carroll, Martyn (July 2012). "On the trail of Mire Mare". Retro Gamer (105). Imagine Publishing: 34–39.
- Carroll, Martyn (March 2014). "Knight Lore: A 30-Year Legacy". OCLC 489477015.
- "C&VG's Golden Joystick Awards". ISSN 0261-3697.
- "The Classic Game: Knight Lore". OCLC 489477015.
- Cundy, Matt (26 June 2009). "Gaming words and phrases you never hear any more". GamesRadar. Archivedfrom the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- Davison, Pete (20 September 2013). "Terry Cavanagh's Latest Will Make Your Brain Explode". USgamer. Archivedfrom the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
- "Games Index – Knight Lore". ISSN 0952-3022.
- Garcia-Panella, Oscar (2010). "Knight Lore and the Third Dimension". In Davidson, Drew (ed.). Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning. ISBN 9780557844517. Archivedfrom the original on 6 November 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- Gillen, Kieron (14 May 2010). "Wolf Like Me: Knight Lore". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archivedfrom the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- "Homebrew". OCLC 489477015.
- Hunt, Stuart (February 2010). "The Ultimate Hero: A Complete History of Sabreman". OCLC 489477015.
- "Let the people decide the results!". ISSN 0269-6983.
- "Joystick Jury – Knightlore". ISSN 0269-6983.
- "Knight Lore". ISSN 0261-3697.
- "Knight Lore". ISSN 0954-8661.
- ナイト・ロアー -魔城の狼男- [Knight Lore – Magic of the Wolf Man]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- Kean, Roger (April 1988). "The Best of British – Ultimate Play the Game". Newsfield Publications: 35–38. Archived from the originalon 1 January 1999.
- Kumar, Mathew (2010). "Knight Lore". In Mott, Tony (ed.). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. New York: OCLC 754142901.
- McWhertor, Michael (15 June 2015). "Rare Replay for Xbox One includes 30 Rare games for $30 (update)". Polygon. Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- "Top 100 Games of All Time". Imagine Media. September 1996. p. 39.
- Parrish, Peter (20 August 2007). "Knight Lore". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- "Popular Poll Results". ISSN 0265-0509.
- RAM/C (24 November 1984). "Charts". Personal Computer News. No. 88. VNU. p. 5. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- RAM/C (1 December 1984). "Charts". Personal Computer News. No. 89. VNU. p. 5. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- RAM/C (12 January 1985). "Charts". Personal Computer News. VNU. p. 6. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- "A Rare Breed". OCLC 489477015.
- ISSN 0344-8843.
- Signor, Jeremy (19 December 2014). "Retronauts: The Continued Relevance of Isometric Games". USgamer. Archivedfrom the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- "Spectrum: The Remake". ISSN 0967-8220.
- Scullion, Chris (11 August 2015). "How the Games of 'Rare Replay' Laid the Groundwork For Some of Today's Biggest Titles". Vice. Archived from the original on 15 August 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- Stafford, Graham (June 1986). "Design Design Game Design". ISSN 0954-8661.
- "The YS Top 100 Speccy Games". ISSN 0269-6983.
- Whitehead, Dan (4 August 2015). "Rare Replay Review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
- Whitehead, Dan. "The 50 Best Speccy Games Ever!". Your Sinclair. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
External links
- Knight Lore can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
- Knight Lore at SpectrumComputing.co.uk