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Willy in armour

IF YOU OWN a 16K Spectrum and have felt left out since Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy were produced for the 48K machine then Sir Lancelot, from Melbourne House, may take away some of the heartache.

Although the author does not equate the game with the best-selling Willy series there are some obvious parallels. As the fabled knight in shining armour you must investigate 24 rooms through which have been strewn treasures, including keys, crowns and gold, and seven different types of monster. They move mechanically up and down or across the screen and your task is to develop a strategy to defeat them and retrieve the treasure.

The solutions to the treasure quests on each screen are made harder when the objects seem to be out of reach. However, each screen contains an answer and it just takes practice to get to the next one.

Sir Lancelot is a 48K game crammed into a 16K machine and as such the author should be congratulated.



John Gilbert


SIR LANCELOT Memory: 16/48K Price: £5.95 Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor Gilbert Factor: 7

SIR LANCELOT
Melbourne House / £5.95

Ross: This is a simplified Manic Miner-type game that packs an incredible 24 screens into a 16K Spectrum. The idea behind the game is fairly unoriginal - collect the flashing objects on each screen to make an exit appear that's used to get on to the next level - but the actual implementation is quite cute. Your little Lancelot figure runs around at a fairly hectic pace, and all the spare Lancelots march in unison to and fro across the bottom of the screen. (Ring any bells yet?)
The aim of the game is to progress through all the rooms of the castle in search of the Holy Grail. A menagerie of animals patrol the various key points, although memory does rather restrict their number. Lancelot jumps gaps, moves left or right (even when falling) and has no problem surviving even the longest of falls.
The graphics appear to move in four- pixel stages, which means that it's slightly less precise than I would have liked - but the obstacles and objects have been carefully placed to pose maximum problems. 3/5

Dave: Lancelot is one of the best platform games I've seen for Miner Willy starved 16K owners. Melbourne House has done well to fit it all in, but the sprites leave a lot to be desired. 3/5

Roger: Hunting the Holy Grail is good, if simplistic, sport. But it's difficult to cope with a fevered imagination like mine in just 16K! 3/5

Dave 3/5
Ross 3/5
Roger 3/5

Dave Nicholls, Ross Holman, Roger Willis

Producer: Melbourne House
Memory required: 16K
Retail price: £5.95
Language: machine code
Author: Stephen Cargill

Here’s the first game from Melbourne House’s new ‘Studio B’ based in England. Your task in this manic platform-ish game is to investigate 24 rooms in the castle and to collect all the things of use to you as you go. This is obviously the kind of useless existence that King Arthur’s knights of the Round Table enjoyed, seeking, collecting and getting killed off.

Although principally a platform style game, Sir Lancelot has many variations on the different screens, ladders, stairs, towers, hidey-holes and all sorts of things. Because of the combination and placing of collectible objects and hazards, strategy becomes an important element in the game. Even when all the objects have been collected, you cannot clear a screen until you reach the flashing exit which appears when the last object is taken. There is a large playing area, with score lines and animated ‘lives’ remaining running along beneath.
CRITICISM

‘After watching someone else play this game I was determined to do better than that person — that just goes to show the competitiveness of this game. Sir Lancelot is a well animated knight that has some amazing powers of jumping and running around the screen. Collecting the jewels can be an easy task or a difficult task depending on the screen layout and on the moving hazards, but as a general rule it gets progressively more difficult and more thought needs to be put in to each screen and reactions need to get sharper. Colours have been used very well to give various shades, all very pleasing to the eye and very clear. Graphics are of a nice size and are also very detailed. One thing I especially like are your spare lives hanging about at the bottom of the screen waiting to be used, pacing impatiently from side to side in boredom. I found Sir Lancelot incredibly addictive, and just the sheer fact of wanting to see the next screen made me play the game even more. I can well recommend this game to anyone.’

‘This is the best 16K game I have seen in a long time. It has all the graphics and playability of Manic Miner and four more screens as well! The knight you play moves around well and very fast, as do the other characters. You have to time jumps and work out a routine through each screen. I have one main criticism, and that is that you are given a very short time to finish the screen, but apart from that I enjoyed playing Sir Lancelot very much.’

‘Sir Lancelot is rather a surprise from Melbourne House who seem to have been more interested in ‘state of the art’ games in a way, for this isn’t really that at all. What it is is a very fast, cleverly tortuous Manic Miner style game with neat, smooth, detailed graphics and some interesting variations on the theme of avoiding nasties. There’s plenty here to play with 24 screens, each more a test than the last, and like MM, once you get good with the rhythm of a screen, you can show off to your friends. Very addictive very playable, very good.’

Screenshot

Another screen which looks deceptively simple
COMMENTS

Control keys: alternate keys on second row for left and right and SHIFT to SPACE for jump
Joystick: cursor type, but hardly needs one
Keyboard play: very responsive, nice simple keys
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: excellent
Sound: very good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4
Screens: 24
Special features:
General rating: an addictive playable game, good to excellent value.
Use of computer 90%
Graphics 89%
Playability 88%
Getting started 93%
Addictive qualities 89%
Value for money 90%
Overall 90%