Loadstar 128 12/q12.d81/t.knight's quest

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 26KB | 443 lines

                         K N I G H T ' S    Q U E S T

                                by Jon Mattson

     Welcome to Camelot!

     Actually, welcome to an infinite number of fantasy universes, with more
than enough dragons to slay, distressed damsels to save, and brother knights
to battle or avenge for even the most jaded armchair adventurer.  In short,
you will find herein all of the trappings of Arthurian legend -- from
wizards plotting cryptic destinies to enchanted knights driven to mad
rebellion -- if not Arthur, himself.

     KNIGHT'S QUEST is a one- or two-player split-screen game which makes
full use of the 128's 80-column screen, musical capabilities, extra memory
and increased speed.  Beyond that, defining KQ is difficult.  It is a
role-playing game (RPG), in so much as each player creates a knight
character and uses this persona to explore a brave new world, but it is
geared towards a shorter playing time than your average fantasy epic (3 to 5
hours or thereabouts).  On the other hand, especially with two players, it
is a sort of 'computer boardgame', with a loose competition arising to see
who can complete his final Quest first and most bravely -- a sort of
Arthurian Monopoly, with the stakes being honour and valour instead of
money.  KQ rises over either type of game, however, in that it uses
artificial intelligence to build an infinite number of worlds to use for
your 'game boards'.

     A quick history should also make the thrust of the game more evident.
KQ began as a double experiment.  First of all, I wanted to create a fantasy
RPG which made full and colorful use of the 80-column screen, since none yet
existed (to the best of my knowledge).  What better way to take advantage of
the extra screen space than to allow two people to play at the same time?
This quest ultimately resulted in the RPG/arcader, LABYRINTH, which appeared
on LS128 #11, but I felt that I had still only scratched the surface of
something bigger.

     The second experiment began when my wife and I were pondering the
drawbacks of commercial RPGs.  Non-computer RPG fans ourselves, we fell in
love with the computer equivalent at first... but soon found that it was a
short-lived infatuation.  Oh, there are still a few that excite the old
interest (ULTIMA 4 and 5, by Origin, come to mind), but, for the most part,
we got tired of the 'hack-n-slash' nature of the computer versions.  Then,
too, each adventure seemed to take an disproportionate amount of time, and,
once it was finished (or had been surrendered), the game gathered dust.

     We decided that there had to be a way to design a game in which the
computer would act somewhat like a human gamemaster.  This 'model RPG' would
be played in just a few hours and have indefinite replay value.  Combat,
although an integral part of the game, would have to be cut back a bit in
favour of real 'sub-quests' with attainable (and occasionally non-violent)
goals.  To this list, I added the practical criteria that the game had to
fit into the 128's relatively limited memory and require minimal disk access
once the session was underway (KNIGHTS OF LEGEND, also by Origin, almost
lost me on this point).

     A pretty tall order, but my old love of Arthurian legend pointed me in
the right direction.  Those who have read the various tales of Camelot will
know that they are composed, to a large degree, of a multitude of quests
undertaken by the Knights of the Round Table.  Adapting this idea to the
computer was a bit tricky but not impossible, and the result is, I believe,
relatively unique.  The genre also allowed me to make KQ two games in one:
in addition to an RPG, it also has a very thorough joust simulator, allowing
for individual duels and full tournaments.  But more on that later...

     The rest of this article will concentrate on the game-oriented points
of KQ -- how to interact with the system.  Although you will find many hints
and tips, you will not see any hard, fast information concerning the world
itself.  I might have trouble with that, even if I tried: some aspects of
world building are in the 'hands' of YOUR computer.  If you are a fan of
Arthurian legend, you will recognize many familiar themes, although you will
never meet Arthur or Lancelot herein (this is your unique world, after all).
 If not, don't worry about it.  This is a game of exploration -- so start
exploring!


THE GOAL
--------
     You can have many entertaining sessions of KQ just exploring the worlds
your computer builds.  Ultimately, however, you may want to pursue the 'end
game' Quest.  In the capital city (which you will have to find yourself)
resides the High King of the continent, who oversees the four lesser Kings.
He is growing old and seeks a champion -- the epitome of knightly conduct
and valour.  He who proves himself worthy of this honour will also claim the
throne when the High King dies, for he has left no heir.  To this end, the
wizard, Morgan, has begun searching for likely candidates, and it is up to
you to prove that YOU are the one he is looking for by gaining fame and
prowess during your adventuring career.

SETTING UP
----------
     When you first run the program, the title screen will give you three
options (other than quitting): world building, game setup and game play.
For your first session, this is also the logical order for you to make your
choices: you cannot play the game until you have created at least one world
and designed your character(s).  So, your first session should go something
like this:

     1) Build a world:  All you have to do here is pick the option and name
the resulting world -- the computer does everything else.  This procedure
takes a few minutes, but the computer will keep you appraised of its
progress.  It will also allow you to take a quick tour to familiarize
yourself with the land.  Make sure that you have a disk with some empty
space on it to save the creation.

     2) Game Setup:  This allows you to pick which world to explore, decide
whether 1 or 2 people will be involved and make your character(s), using the
procedure explained in the program.  The computer also generates all
non-player characters at this point and does a few other game-related tasks.
Make sure that you have a disk with some empty space to save the results --
preferably the same disk which contains the world in question.  You will
have to give the saved game a name for reference purposes.

     3) Game Play:  Now that you have a world and one or more saved
characters, you can actually play the game.  In the future, when you want to
continue a saved game, just pick this option.

Some things to keep in mind during setup:

     1)  More than one saved game can use the same world, even
simultaneously: data subject to change is retained with the 'saved game'
file, not the 'world' files.  Thus, if you get particularly fond of one
world, you can keep using it indefinitely.

     2) Three files will be created using the above procedure, two world
files and the saved game: KQM.'world', KQC.'world' and KQS.'saved game'.
When referring to each file, only use the actual 'world' or 'saved game'
name, not the prefix.  The computer will add the prefix as required.

     3)  It is a good idea to keep all three related files on the same disk.
 They will use up no more than 30 blocks, total, so many games can be saved
on one disk, perhaps even with a copy of the program itself.  Do NOT use
your LS128 disk for this purposea

     4)  For simplicity's sake, I usually use the same name for the 'world'
and the 'saved game' files, as long as the world isn't being used for more
than one game.  In any event, you will have to remember the 'save name' to
re-access the game, but you will not have to remember the 'world' name,
since it is retained in the 'saved game' file.


PLAYING THE GAME
----------------
     KQ is played using the joysticks.  Keyboard access is limited to only
two generic commands (see below), since keyboard control does not allow
simultaneous two-player action.  The Port 1 joystick tends to scramble
keyboard input, in any event.  Player 1 uses the Port 2 joystick, since this
is the easiest (= fastest) o