King Arthur's Quest
- AlWo73
- Jun 1
- 6 min read
A magical mission from ye olde days... of 1984
KING ARTHUR'S QUEST
(Hill MacGibbon, 1984)
"We're knights of the round table, we sing whene'er we're able." Ah, classic comedy from yesteryear, and in '84 came the game of the film of the book of the legend. But would it involve shouting "ni", unplugging one's nose in your general direction or pushing the pram a lot? There was a Monty Python game of course later in the Spectrum's life, which might warrant a play some time, even if the machine is now no more... has ceased to be... is an ex-micro. Just kidding, we all know really that it was merely resting.
Hill MacGibbon may have gone and bought the rights to this mythical tale, which makes the legalities a tad complicated, or more likely they winged it and hoped they wouldn't get sued by King Arthur's estate. You can bet someone turned up claiming to be related to him somehow anyway, there's always one. Even if it was all real, I suppose it was in the public domain by then, so probably fair game. Seems legit.
Some very nice cover art here
And a very nice wordsearch here
They mostly dealt in educational titles, did Mac Hill and his Gibbons. Like Car Journey and Special Agent, but they also dipped their toes in the arcade water with Run For Gold and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And adventuring they did go with this game, and the similar looking Aztec - Hunt For The Sun God. King Arthur's Quest was written by Linda and Roger Garland, presumably a husband and wife team, which is rather sweet and very rare.
This game and Aztec HFTSG both boast the tagline "Games with a little bit more". They certainly weren't cheap, costing £7.95 which was by no means small beans for the time. But it came in a big box with some impressive artwork, plenty of swish documentation and even a keyboard overlay, which is largely unnecessary but a nice touch all the same. It didn't come with flags like World Cup Carnival, but U.S. Gold did have an awful lot of ground to make up for in the way of hastily packaged extras on that one. And history well remembers just how short they fell even so.
Anyway, enough about football and on with the story. You play the part of King Arthur of Spamalot, who must rescue his kingdom as the wicked witch Morgana Le Fey has magicked up an ice dragon to plunge the land into slightly chilly temps. Just because Art wouldn't let her son become a Knight Of The Round Table. (*resists urge to start singing again*). He would have got Sir Lancelot to do the mission, but he's disappeared, probably trapped forever on level 2 of that pesky Melbourne House game of his.
So he tries his mate Merlin's Magic Shack but he's not in either! Seems like everyone is avoiding the poor old King, so he has little choice but to undertake the onerous quest himself. What a stoic, that's how royalty should behave if you ask me, none of this delegating to their many minions. The question now is - is he any good at questing or just a proper King Klutz?
Art must first load his game, then wait patiently while admiring quite a pretty, idyllic little picture of part of his kingdom. Then he must gnash his teeth for a few seconds while enduring a beepy rendition of, yes you've guessed it, Greensleeves, the I Will Always Love You of the medieval pop charts, number one for 15 years straight until the Blackadder II theme knocked it off the top spot.
He begins his quest at Merlin's place but finds only Merlin's mog Grymalkin to aid him in his quest and help him "throughout his adventure" allegedly. Like cats would be helpful companions in such matters! Quite how he helps isn't clear, I think he might describe the locations for the King, who seemingly can't work anything out for himself. As far as I've gone, the cat says nothing remotely feline like "gimme a fish" or "scratch behind my ear, puny human". I don't think he comes with you at all...
Anyway, cat or no cat, Arty has to make his way through various parts of the land, all of which handily fit into a 10 x 10 grid pattern, so if he makes a map as he goes, he might not get too lost. As lost he surely will end up if he doesn't. That was like a veiled threat - please make a map if you play this. I was mostly too lazy at first and bumbled back and forth something rotten until I got some bearings eventually.
It wouldn't be quite so bad except for one aspect of the game's landscape. Namely that you can't see any objects in any grid square other than the one you occupy. So if there's a handy sword in the square just one to your left, you don't see it over to your left, you see bugger all. Buildings, trees and scenery generally are exceptions to this, but objects and characters in the game remain top secret until you're right on top of them. So it's amazing what you can miss without mapping.
Once you've got over this annoyance, it's really rather fun to explore the various areas of Kingy's kingdom. There are plenty of objects and people around if you can find them, many of which I suspect to be red herrings, and usually there's one particular problem to solve to access the next area. It's fairly leisurely going, it's true, but then the game was only made in '84, so such was the average speed of adventures back then in the main, i.e. make your move, then go to get a snack, move again, go to the loo, that kind of thing. Oh and if you die, which happens a fair amount, you have to reload. Ouch. Don't know how we coped in the olden times...
You can carry 8 objects, use and drop them accordingly and, most excitingly, cast the odd spell. In the inlay comes Merlin's Spell Breaker, a wizardy wordsearch which you can use if you find his book o' spells in the game. I used it once and it really took me places, so I recommend, 5*. It's a shame you can't use it whenever you like, but no-one said magic had to be flexible I suppose.
Let's be shallow and talk aesthetics. Hill MacGibbon games nearly all seemed to use this rather lovely typeface they have. Nice and clear, yet decorative and ornate. Probably every adventure game should have it, it's that good. And platformers and race games too, why not? So that's nice, and the graphics overall are very neat, tidy and appealing. Sometimes a description scrolls off too hastily, but the text is usually succinct and relevant. Colour is great and sound is... really random. Sometimes a loud blurpy noise happens and you don't know why, where or how. Occasionally a colourful portal appears too and likewise I'm not sure for why. Never mind, "it's a kind of magic..."
Difficulty-wise this one seems quite nicely pitched. With H.M. being educational types, one might imagine this to be for a younger audience, but it's tougher than all that. Persistence normally pays off in the end though, as long as you've got your trusty graph paper to hand (or Excel spreadsheet for the advanced and nerdy). I conclude that it's a fun, cute quest which could keep you occupied for quite a while, so probably justifies it's relatively high price tag. Oh, before I go, best see if the big mags of the day agreed with me...
Well that's a big no! The big noises didn't dig it at all. Crash said 5/10, "a huge disappointment" and "thrown together with glossy incompetence". Brewster The Be-Parka'ed one was not impressed then. S.U. hated it more, concluding 4/10 for "Arthur's unoriginal adventure". Even the clueless Sinclair Programs dissed it with half marks. Thankfully Your Computer enjoyed it, reviewed by one Hugo North (I like it). The lesser spotted Micro Adventurer liked it too, as well they should. So a bit Marmite overall then.
Being a bit of a contrary sort, I do like it when I can disagree with a lot of people's opinions, so I am glad to proclaim that King Arthur's Quest is really not bad at all. Hussah, good sir knight! Sally forth, men! Rally to the banner! Muster the Rohirrim! Other medieval soundbites! That's joust about enough from me I think...
KINGLY KONCLUSION
78%
Decent game