Level 9
£14.95 tape, £19.95 triple format disk

Everyone must have heard of the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and especially of the gallant Sir Lancelot, bravest Knight of all, who lost his heart to the fair Queen Guenever. But Level 9's Lancelot is based not on Hollywood films, which misinterpret some of the original tales, but on La Morte D'Arthur, a book by Sir Thomas Malory, published in 1485. And the booklet accompanying the game contains a short version of the Arthurian legends to help set the scene.

Sir Lancelot du Lake is a fitting hero for the game - he was never fairly beaten in any fight. The story of how he became the best knight in the world starts when he is riding along a forest road and comes to a ford - and this is also where the adventure begins.

A Black Knight challenges him, telling him that he must prove his worth in order to cross the ford. Accepting the challenge results in an easy victory for Lancelot, who then has the choice of either killing or sparing his opponent. Not to give too much away it's a good idea to accept the Knight's surrender for he is none other than King Arthur. Thus Lancelot is subsequently knighted and sent off to the mythical realm of Logris where valorous deeds must be done to earn the accolade of best knight.

As well as freeing imprisoned knights, there are many unknown quests for Lancelot to complete in Logris, before returning to Camelot. The final part of this epic adventure is the Quest for The Holy Grail, where Lancelot goes in search of the elusive golden chalice. You are also given a choice, on loading, of going straight to this final segment of the adventure.

Commands are issued using a typically-sophisticated Level 9 parser, with provision for interaction with the many other knights and characters encountered by Lancelot. And he certainly gets around a bit (in both senses of the phrase!), gadding about Britain and even into Northern France, while losing his head over his beloved Guenever and the stunningly beautiful Elaine, who he rescues from a bath of boiling water!

One unusual feature of Lancelot is the ability togo to a known place by simply typing GO TO place (as in Knight Orc). Objects can also be discovered in a similar manner by entering FIND object. Lancelot then goes on 'automatic pilot', selecting the shortest route to stipulated place/object. This feature makes laborious mapping largely unnecessary, although at times it can be a little confusing.
Character interaction plays an important part in the adventure, and Lancelot may talk to the colourful characters he meets and order loyal knights to follow him, as well as issuing more complex commands such as SIR ECTOR, GO SOUTH, TAKE EVERYTHING, THEN GO NORTH.

Of course, an essential part of the game is the combat. This is handled automatically, with the text giving a blow-by-blow account of what's happening - usually the swashbuckling Lancelot manages to smash his opponents into submission with scarcely a scratch (never mind a wound) to show for it. Usually Lancelot has the opportunity to spare the beaten opponent's life, and should do so because if he is unchivalrous he loses honour and his score (which represents how good a knight he is) is reduced.

Due to its refined parser, and the freedom to travel all over the land without much restriction, Lancelot is very easy to get in to, but accomplishing any valorous deeds requires more thought. One problem is that with the lack of the usual adventuring restrictions and the GO TO option, it sometimes appears to play by itself. Despite this, there is real character interaction and virtually every object found can be examined, helping to create a good adventuring atmosphere.

The +3 version comes on an unusual triple format disk (the other two formats being Amstrad CPC and Amstrad PCW). Once the main program has been loaded you flip the disk so that pictures can be loaded from it as necessary. Graphics are monochromatic and about average, but can be made smaller by scrolling them up/down the screen Amiga fashion - which is nice. The disk also allows the conversion of previous Level 9 dual format disks (Amstrad CPC/PCW), including Knight Orc and Time & Magick, to the +3.

In conclusion, Lancelot is truly an epic adventure which successfully captures the mood of Arthurian Britain with some lengthy, accurate descriptions. Technically superb with fluent play, this is a very fine adventure which is well worth the rather high asking price. A further incentive for purchase is the included competition, in which the winner will receive a silver 'replica' of the mythical Holy Grail (I thought it was gold)!

FAX BOX
Game: Lancelot
Publisher: Mandarin Software, Europa House, Adlington Park, Adlington, Macclesfield SK10 4NP.
Price: £19.95 +3 disk/£14.95 tape
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard

WHAT A KNIGHT!

The Arthurian legends, like the Greek myths, have been the basis for many an adventure before, but never one as comprehensive as Lancelot. The story's split into three parts. The first two deal with Lancelot's arrival at King Arthur's court in Camelot, and his gradual elevation (you hope) into becoming the best knight in the world. The third part is the quest for the legendary Holy Grail, and you can go straight into this if you wish but you probably won't get too far if you haven't managed to turn Lancelot into the ultimate knight as it'll take all his wits, skill and experience if he's to cope with the quest.

So what does it take to become a worthy knight? Chivalry, for one thing, and this is put to the test right at the start of the game when you encounter a Black Knight who challenges you. Cowardice is no part of the knight's character, so you must accept the challenge, but how you react if you win will have a great bearing on whether you progress or not. All your actions must be those which make you worthy to be a knight.

After your encounter with the Black Knight you head east towards Camelot and straightaway you realise that the research has been thorough and you're going to learn something about the reality of those days. No nonsense in the location descriptions like "You are in a field outside Camelot." "You are inside Camelot." As you approach you must ride first through the castle village, the community that grew up around the castle walls, and see the beggars and the way in which many of the really poor people lived.

It's good to see Level 9 branching out a bit and working with teams of people rather than trying to do everything themselves. Even a family like the Austin's must have their limits! I'll draw a veil over the quality of the graphics, as only the +3 owners will see them and they'll wish they hadn't, but the text is mostly very well-written by Peter McBride and Christina Erskine. How about this, when Lancelot approaches the castle towards the end of the first day: "Dusk began to suck the colours from the greying world, leaving only the pools of light from the torches of Camelot." There's just the occasional word which jars, like 'tons' and 'micro'. Don't tell me either of those was around in Arthurian times!

First task is to find somewhere to sleep for the night, and there are a few suggestions as to where you might try. You can use the GO TO command to go straight to any location, even though you've only just arrived in Camelot and should have no idea where it is. There are one or two hiccups in the responses as well. I wandered into the cathedral and thought it might be a good place to hole up for the night, so I typed SLEEP and duly laid me down to rest, only to be told almost at once that I was tired and had better find somewhere to sleep soon. You mean you woke me up just to tell me that?!

The game has all the latest sophisticated commands, like GO TO/RUN TO/FIND a location or character, FOLLOW someone, get someone to follow you, RAM SAVE, WORDS/PICTURES. BRIEF/VERBOSE text, EXITS ON/OFF, WAIT and UNDO). This last can be used several times in succession, although it's missing on the 48K versions. The complexities that these commands create haven't always been dealt with properly. If you use the RUN TO command you are taken straight to a place without the intervening location text being printed on the screen, but any random messages that you might have encountered on the way, do get printed up. So at one point I typed RUN TO MERLIN, and the first response I had was "Sir Kay made pretence to smell garlic." Erm, yes, quite.

You need to see King Arthur himself on your first morning in Camelot, and he knights you and introduces you to his Queen, Guinever. She seems to be fluttering her eyelashes at you quite a bit, but be careful not to have too many unknightly thoughts. Chivalry at all times! You ask to be her champion but she says you're still a novice and must prove yourself first. She suggests you go to Logris and honour her with noble deeds and battles, and Arthur has a job for you too: free some captive knights that are held prisoner by rebel lords.

Playing Lancelot is, for a lot of the time, more like being involved in a book than a conventional adventure - which is one of the ways that I see adventures developing. Good to see Level 9 experimenting in that direction. There aren't so many problems at first, and it's more a case of finding the main plot and sticking to it, although there are lots of diversions off to the sides if you wish. In one area you find a sick Sir Meliot, and he asks you to try to find a special cloth to help heal his wounds. Okay then, type FIND CLOTH and away you go. It's not quite as straightforward as that might sound though, as you have to work out how to get the cloth once you've been taken to it. But the early stages of the game do tend to progress in a fairly logical manner. Then it gets tougher, believe me!

The area of the game is enormous, too. We all had a moan at the first part of Knight Ore, with its 100 or so locations all with virtually identical text, but here there seem to be even more places to visit, all well described, and with plenty of characters wandering in and out to add a realistic atmosphere to the game.

If you wish, you can try to make a start on the third part, the quest for the Holy Grail, but it's best if you play your way through logically and try to build up the character of Lancelot first. You need your knightly virtues about you on this final quest, as after about five minutes of playing I'd already become a liar, a thief and a fornicator and had scored minus 200 out of a thousand!

This is definitely a value for money game, to go back to again and again. Level 9's adventure system's been developing in leaps and bounds over the last year or so, but they haven't always had the stories to go with it. Knight Orc was a slight disappointment, Gnome Ranger was much better and had the bonus of humour, and now with Lancelot it's shown it can come up with a serious theme that makes full use of its skills - and which will test your skills to the full, as well. This good knight's definitely a good buy!

Label: Mandarin
Author: Level 9
Price: £19.95
Memory: 48K/128K Tape/128K Disc
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Sandra Sharkey

Prithee journey with me to a time in our past when men were chivalrous and women were simpering wimps - sorry, I mean damsels in distress!

Lancelot is a three part adventure following the exploits of Squire Lancelot through his knighthood and eventual quest for the Holy Grail.

It is based on Sir Thomas Malory's book Le Morte D'Arthur which was originally published by William Caxton in 1485.

The book that is enclosed with the game shows you how to play a Level 9 game and contains a short version of the Arthurian Legends which should help you become familiar with the game. There are also a few hints to help you play the various parts. The tent it vaguely olde worlde but Level 9 have avoided going over the top with this and on the whole the words used are easily understood.

Lancelot is available for all Spectrum formats with some added features on the Plus 3 version. One of the files on the disc is a README file which gives you a little more information. To use it, turn on the machine, select Plus 3 Basic and enter LOAD "READ ME". You can recall and edit previous commands. RAM SAVE/RESTORE and UNDO several times in succession - very handy when you do something wrong.

Whilst playing the adventure you will notice that some words come on screen in capital letters. Make a note of them as they are vital to the competition that is being run in conjunction with the game. Full details of the competition will be found in the packaging and the prize is well worth winning. It's a solid silver Grail worth £5,000. so this really is a Quest for the Holy Grail.

You begin the adventure as a humble squire. Upon journeying to the east you are challenged by a Black knight. Accept his challenge and you will defeat him, you will be given the choice of sparing his life or ending it. If you know what's good for you then you'll do the chivalrous thing and spare him.

Good job you did that, for the anonymous knight is none other than King Arthur himself who just happens to have a few of his men hiding in the bushes to protect him should anything untoward happen.

Arthur is impressed with your valour and chivalry and promises to knight you if you attend his court the following day But first you will have to journey to the city and find a bed for the (k)night (groan!!!).

When you enter the city you will meet the odious Sir Kay, half brother to Arthur, and a really slimy toad. He tells you to go to the mews to sleep, but if you've any sense you'll pop along and visit Merlin. Merlin will give you a comfortable clean bed and some sound advice.

Whilst you are in Merlin's abode it would pay to visit his library and read a few of his books, you'll pick up some valuable hints. Persist with the reading until the same messages begin to come up again. Now it's time to visit Arthur and receive your knighthood.

You can converse with the characters by typing something like ARTHUR, GREETINGS. You can also ask the characters to do something for you by typing LAVAINE, WAIT THEN PUSH THE GATE or whatever it is you want them to do.

Arthur's court is where you catch your first sight of Queen Guinever and feel the first glimmerings of your hopeless love for her. Just bide your time and Arthur will eventually give you your knighthood.

Arise Sir Lancelot, your adventure is about to begin.

The first place to go is Logris, and you don't need to travel location by location, a simple GOTO LOGRIS will take you there and also give you your first meeting with DAMSEL MALEDISONI. She's a real honey (I don't think), as you will no doubt find out as you progress through the adventure. She will give you your first quest.

So, it's off to LYONESSE and your first damsel in distress. Her hawk has escaped and its lunes are caught in the branches of a nearby tree. Well, no good knight would ignore a lady's tears would he? But, before removing your armour and dropping your sword, pick up a nearby dead piece of wood. After releasing the bird and descending from the elm tree you will discover that you have been duped. Throw the wood at your opponent to defeat him and you will avoid certain death.

There are lots of 'kill you offs', but Merlin is always around to resurrect you.

Of course, any adventurer worth his/her salt knows that you should always save the game regularly, and certainly before trying anything hazardous.

I found Lancelot very easy to get into. Mapping the game is easy enough and the landscape is well worth exploring to fully absorb the atmosphere of Arthurian times, and there's plenty to explore Lancelot is up to the usual high standard we have come to expect from Level 9. It's a thoroughly enjoyable journey into the past, and with the added bonus of a prize worth £5,000 to compete for, can you afford not to buy it? Methinks not!.

Level 9/Mandarin's Holy Grail?

This game has been expected for some months now. Following Level 9's lift with Mandarin, it seems likely that Lancelot will be the last Austin adventure produced under that label. What sort of epitaph does it offer?

A pretty dodgy one, I'm afraid. Last month we saw Ingrid's Back, developed after Lancelot, and although I wouldn't normally put gnomes before knights, I would in this case. This is a disastrous disappointment because the Arthurian scenario is surely one of the great opportunities in adventuring. Even that awful old game Quest for the Holy Grail, with its exploding rabbits and Nic-ing knights, managed to borrow a little lustre from the days of Lancelot and the Round Table.

Level 9 have made some pretty tough claims for this game. They are on record as saying it is their "best yet", and furthermore we have been informed that Pete Austin is an expert on Arthuriana. To a certain extent these claims do have some substantiation in the game. To start with, the locations have an undeniable air of authenticity about them, as do the characters of the various knights and the occasional flourishes of early Englishe prose.

So what's the problem? Simply that the game, while superlative for certain brief moments, keeps getting spoilt by apparent carelessness and poor design. For example, the characters are great and - as in Ingrid's Back - lead interesting lives that greatly enhance the atmosphere of the game. However, they also have sloppy speech tendencies that do not do much credit to anyone, least of all themselves.

For example, it's quite amusing when the Damosel Maledisant says to Lancelot, who is carrying a hot cauldron, "Bet you drop it!". It is not amusing, however, when she says it again after he's put it down. At other times, the characters' responses and outbursts appear even more illogical. Even an innocent suggestion to Arthur can get you the reply "Don't bother me with that! I am the king!" (or words to that effect), which may amuse once, but never again. Once suspects that the character is simply saying "I don't understand", in which case why not be more direct?

However, all this can be forgiven when you find characters engaged in interesting activity or, for once, replying with convincing relevance. You can also forgive the poor graphics on some versions (see screenshots for some idea of the variety here) because the locations do convey authority and atmosphere. But you can't forgive some of the atrocious puzzles, which is unusual in a Level 9 game where the challenges are as a rule inventive and satisfying.

The real problem on the puzzle front seems to be the scale of the action that Level 9 have undertaken to include in the game. For example, at one point Lancelot has to save Tintagel from an invading army. That's a tall order for a sub-plot, but solving it with a puzzle of astonishing, one-minute simplicity both disappoints the player and devalues the scenario.

That's not to say that there are several excellent puzzles in Lancelot. It's just to lament the fact that there are also several appalling ones as well.

The selling points of this game are the scenario, the high level commands (which include GO TO, FIND, FOLLOW, OOPS etc), and the interaction. The first sales point is sadly undermined by sloppiness, the second pulls its weight and makes the game very easy to play, and the third again succumbs to occasional glitches. That's a record of one success out of three - not enough for a decent epitaph and certainly not enough for a game that must be one of the great "might have beens" of 1988.

Reviewer: The Pilgrim

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £9.99cs, £1x.99dk, Imminent
Spec, £8.99cs, Out Now
Amstrad, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent

SUPPLIER: Mandarin Software/Level 9
MACHINES: Disks with graphics - £19.95, Atari ST; Amiga, Amstrad CPC/PCW; Macintosh; Spectrum +3, Disks with graphics - £14.95, BBC 128/Master; Commodore 64, Disks, text only - £14.95; Apple II; Atari XL/XE, cassettes, text only - £14.95, Amstrad CPC; Atari XL/XE; Commodore 64; MSX; Spectrum

Squire Lancelot rode his steed towards Camelot, slowing down as he approached a ford. The Black Knight challenged him: 'Show you are worthy, before I will allow you to cross!' he exclaimed. So Lancelot did attack him, and before long, being a capable swordsman, he had the knight at his mercy. Behaving in the most chivalrous way, he was rewarded with an invitation to the King's presence the next day, to be made a Knight of the Round Table, for the Black Knight was none other than King Arthur himself.

The next day, after the ceremony, Arthur related thar many of his knights were held imprisoned in Logris, a land outside his territory. "Go there at once, and free my men who are under siege, that they may return to me," he commanded, the glances exchanged between Lancelot and Guenevere passing unnoticed.

So Lancelot rode to Logris, where treacherous knights roamed. Before long, despite the trickery of Sir Phelot, he had rescued the hawk belonging to the Dame Lyonesse, and driven away the army that held her manor under siege. By now, in company with the lovely Damsel Maledisant, and the stalwart Red Knight, whose life he had spared, he started searching in earnest for Arthur's missing knights.

His quest was not easy, involving challenges all along the way. Sir Turquin, for example, soon surrendered to the sword of Lancelot, but quickly ran off to the safety of his manor house, wherein he had imprisoned many of Arthur's brave knights. However, it was protected by secret devices which concealed the pit in which the knights were held. Sir Lancelot soon decided that rescuing Sir Meliot would be a far easier quest...

The adventure is in three parts, with the first two parts consisting of different areas, Camelot and Logris. On the larger memory machines, moving from one to another simply causes a pause while a new set of data is read in. The third part is a progression from parts 1 and 2, and involves Lancelot in the quest for the Holy Grail. It can be started without the need to complete the first parts.

'Lancelot' is based on the fifteenth century book "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Mallory. Researched by Pete Austin, it has the authentic flavour of the legend of the knights of the round table.

According to Mandarin Software, Pete Austin of Level 9 describes it as their best adventure yet.

It is a fine adventure, but whilst the atmosphere is excellent, it tends to lack humour somewhat, taking itself just a little too seriously. The graphics, although artist drawn, are nowhere near the standard found in Ingrid's Back. And the game is not above replying in the vein: "You must be mad to say a thing like that."

Adventure authors should be extremely careful when writing in a reply like that - their parser and vocab has got to be 100% watertight if the player is not to be offended. I was offended a number of times, and also a little irritated to be told. "There is no verb in that sentence' after a perfectly legitimate command had been entered. This, it seems, is a peculiarity of the parser when dealing with complex GO TO's (eg GO TO MERLIN), although it also crops up when much simpler commands are entered.

In short, the game does not have the same robust feel about it that was characteristic of Ingrid. The OOPS and RAM SAVE commands are more useful than ever with this plot, and GO TO, FIND, and RUN TO, take the drudgery out of trudging around from place to place, speeding up the pace of the game immeasurably. But in using these, somewhere along the way I must have tried something just a bit too complicated, and came unexpectedly across a hay-making scene. I can only assume that a bumper harvest was in progress, for I got the reply: "A voice in the distance shouted 'Wod! A stack overflow," From then on, everything went crazy, the Red Knight started attacking me, and eventually, failing to deter him, I was forced to restart.

So whilst it is very good, I wouldn't describe it as Level 9's best ever, any more than I would agree with Mandarin's Press Release claim that Level 9 is the acknowledged world leader in adventure software. Whilst Level 9 are certainly one of the top companies in the field, without a doubt the honour of world leader must go to nfocom, hotly pursued by Magnetic Scrolls.

In conjunction with Lancelot, there is a treasure hunt competition, with a £5,000 replica of the legendary Holy Grail itself, as the prize. This has already been hidden at a secret location in the UK, and competitors for it will have to take part in a two-stage contest based on clues within the game.

Lancelot comes in a sturdy cardboard box, complete with a map of Arthurian England, and a 20 page glossy instruction book, and background story.