Wikipedia

Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur

Arthur: The Quest for Excaliburis an illustratedinteractive fictionvideo gamewritten byBob Batesand published byInfocomin 1989. It was released for theApple II,Amiga,Mac,andIBM PC compatibles.Atypically for an Infocom product, it shows illustrations of locations, characters and objects within the game. It is Infocom's thirty-fourth game and is the second of two Infocom games developed by Challenge using Infocom's development tools.[1]

Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur
Developer(s)Challenge[1]
Publisher(s)Infocom
Designer(s)Bob Bates
Artist(s)Darrell Myers
Tanya Isaacson
Sophie Green
EngineZ-machine
Platform(s)Amiga,Apple II,MS-DOS,Mac
ReleaseAmiga, Mac: June 6, 1989
Apple II: June 22, 1989
MS-DOS: July 14, 1989
Genre(s)Interactive fiction
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

edit
An example of gameplay in the Amiga version. The player has inputted the letter "s" for "south", indicating that they intend to move into the southward tavern described in the text.

The player assumes the role of a youngArthur,before the legendary days ofCamelot.The "sword in the stone" (which in the legends was notExcalibur,but is often confused with Excalibur by people unfamiliar with the legends) that would signify Arthur's destiny to rule, has been stolen by the evilKing Lot.In the quest to regain the sword, the player must prove toMerlinthat he has the qualities needed to be a great king:chivalry,experience, andwisdom.Merlin assists Arthur by giving him periodic advice as well as the power to transform into animals, but also tells Arthur that unless Excalibur is recovered within three days, Lot will usurp his destiny as a king of legendary stature.

Feelies

edit

AlthoughArthurwas one of the last interactive fiction games Infocom released before closing, the packaging still included a modest attempt at the extra objects, orfeelies,that had been a long-standing tradition for the company. The package forArthurcontained a copy of aBook of Hours,which explains theCanonical hourssuch asMatins,LaudsandVespers.The book also contains a poem, lines of which are used as passwords in the game as a form ofcopy protection.

Production

edit

Arthur: The Quest for Excaliburwas the second Infocom game to be developed by another company, Challenge Inc, published by Infocom in their "Immortal Legends" genre.[1]The only other game published in this line was the 1987 releaseSherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels,also written by Bates. By the time ofArthur's release, Infocom had stopped rating their games in terms of difficulty. Arthur roughly corresponds to the level of their previous "Standard" games.

Reception

edit

The Amiga version ofArthurwas met with critical acclaim.Zzap!praised the game's puzzles, graphics, vocabulary and parser, and noted the "odd touch of humour".[2]Paul Rigby ofThe Games Machinealso commended the parser and text, and stated that the ability to transform into animals aided the inventiveness of the puzzles.[3]Keith Campbell ofComputer & Video Gamespersonally ranked the game as among the best from Infocom, and cited the added intrigue lent to the game's puzzles by the transformation feature.[4]Nick Walkland ofAmiga Formatwas impressed by the game's graphics and felt that they made the game "atmospherically supreme". He also noted that some of the game's puzzles were "brain-tickling", yet not "especially devilish".[5]Advanced Computer Entertainmentcommended the game's detailed graphics and high-quality parser and text.[6]Lucinda Orr ofAmiga Computinglauded the help menu as the "best help system in the world", the parser as "very good" and the graphics as "pleasing throughout".[7]Commodore Userstated that the game's transformation mechanic led to "nicely constructed" logic puzzles and humor.[8]Andy Mitchell ofAmiga Actionwas pleased by the game's mapping facility and colorful graphics, and cited the transformation feature as "great fun".[9]

ScorpiaofComputer Gaming Worlddeemed the Apple II version "Infocom's most poorly produced game ever", criticizing the high number of disk swaps (sometimes to print a single sentence or to redraw theautomap) and the "mediocre" Apple II graphics.[10]

References

edit
  1. ^abcExtending Experiences: Structure, Analysis and Design of Computer Game by Olli Leino, Hanna Wirman, Amyris Fernandez
  2. ^"Arthur".Zzap!. October 1989.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  3. ^Paul Rigby (October 1989)."Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur".The Games Machine. p. 72.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  4. ^Keith Campbell (October 1989)."Arthur".Computer & Video Games. p. 97.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  5. ^Nick Walkland (October 1989)."Arthur".Amiga Format. p. 87.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  6. ^"Arthur".Advanced Computer Entertainment. September 1989. p. 52.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  7. ^Lucinda Orr (November 1989)."Arthur - The Quest".Amiga Computing. p. 22.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  8. ^"Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur".Commodore User. September 1989. p. 60.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  9. ^Andy Mitchell (October 1989)."King Arthur".Amiga Action. pp. 64–65.RetrievedMarch 13,2019.
  10. ^Scorpia (September 1989)."Scorpion's Tale"(PDF).Computer Gaming World.No. 63. p. 40.Retrieved17 April2016.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur:_The_Quest_for_Excalibur&oldid=1250890177"