56 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
56 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
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LANCELOT
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LANCELOT is an illustrated adventure game from Mandarin Software and Level 9,
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Datasoft, and Electronic Arts, and was released with TIME AND MAGIK (also
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reviewed in THE ELECTRONIC GAMER). The game offers a three-part story, fine
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graphics, a good command processor, a RAM SAVE option, an UNDO function, and a
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hypertext clue book. The Commodore 64/128 version is the basis of this review.
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LANCELOT is a three-part adventure based on the classic "Le Morte D'Arthur," by
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Thomas Malory. It is the wonderful story of King Arthur, the Knights of the
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Round Table, Lancelot, Guinevere, Merlin, and the Holy Grail. Although Datasoft
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took some liberties with the story in order to translate it into an adventure
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game, the results are excellent.
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The three parts of LANCELOT are titled "Camelot," "Logris," and "The Quest for
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the Holy Grail." Unlike TIME AND MAGIK, which allowed you to play the three
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games in any order, LANCELOT will let you start at the first part or the last
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part. The three stories tell: 1) of Lancelot's arrival in Camelot and hi rise to
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become the best knight in the land; 2) the formation of the Round Table; and 3)
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the search for the Holy Grail. Playing the games out of sequence would ruin the
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story, but you can go for the Grail immediately and not waste any time messing
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with knighthood or Guinevere.
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The C64 screen consists of graphic displays, below which are several lines of
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text. Pictures load quickly and can be adjusted to reveal more text. Once the
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program is loaded and you've selected a game to play, you can bypass the
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graphics by not turning the disk over.
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The command parser understands complicated sentences, and works fairly well.
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Occasionally, though, you'll get a goofy response. UNDO will cancel previous
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commands, taking you back one step, and it can be used repetitively. RAM SAVE
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will save your current position in memory. The "Up" cursor key removes a
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horizontal line of the picture. Pressing this key repeatedly will eventually
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remove the entire picture. Pressing the "Down" cursor key brings the picture
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back onscreen, one line at a time.
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The clue book includes maps for "Camelot." Numbered clues refer to other
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numbered clues that, in turn, refer to still others. The game package contains a
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double-sided disk, the clue book, an instruction manual, and a parchment map.
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The manual also offers a condensed version of the story of King Arthur.
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Like TIME AND MAGIK, LANCELOT is reasonably well-written. The pictures are more
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or less unnecessary, but they do make a good game look a lot better. The decent
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command parser upchucks a weird response every now and then, but when commands
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are kept simple, the game moves right along.
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Good story material is always a boon to an adventure game and goes a long way
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toward circumventing the limitations of the interface. In the case of LANCELOT,
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there's more than a good story: There's a good game here, too.
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LANCELOT is published by Datasoft and distributed by Electronic Arts.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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