Sir Lancelot is a video game published in 1984 by Melbourne House

Melbourne House

Krome Studios Melbourne, originally Beam Software, was a video game development studio founded in 1980 and based in Melbourne, Australia. The studio operated independently from 1987 until 1999, when it was acquired by Infogrames, who changed the name to Melbourne House...

 for the Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

 and ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

 home computers.

Overview

Sir Lancelot, controlled by the player, must explore the 24 rooms of the castle and collect all the objects (which come in many forms but glow to make them identifiable) in each room before making his way to the exit to the next. His task is made more difficult by the presence of various guardians (including animals and soldiers) who he must avoid in each room. He also has a time limit in which to complete each room. Control is very simple, with only three keys needed: left, right and jump. A joystick

Joystick

A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...

 can also be used.

Version differences

The ZX Spectrum version has the rooms visited progressively whilst the Amstrad CPC version allows the rooms to be completed in any order. The Amstrad version also has a high-score table which the Spectrum version lacks.

16K game

The ZX Spectrum version of Sir Lancelot was unusual, as it was written to run on the 16K version of the ZX Spectrum - at a time when 48K games were the norm. In order to run on the 16K machine several short cuts were made - Sir Lancelot moved two pixels at a time giving a slightly choppy appearance to his movement, and the screens were more simplistic than other platformers released at the same time.
The ZX Spectrum version also used a custom loader which stopped apparently half way through the tape - at first this seemed like a loading error, but after a brief pause the game would begin.

External links

• Review of the game from CRASH magazine.