''Castle Quest'' is action-adventure game for the BBC Micro noted at the time of release as being the best game on the platform in its genre for its

problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

, colourful graphics and smooth scrolling.

Gameplay

The game is set in a wizard's castle, the player's task being to find the treasure. It employs "very smooth" side-scrolling (termed 'Scrollerama') and imperfect vertical scrolling. Play includes climbing ladders, which are sufficiently wide to simplify this aspect of gameplay. Various objects can be found and used to solve problems. These include everyday items, furniture, specialist equipment and valuables. Other characters include guards, animals, a witch and the wizard. Control is via the keyboard, with 13 keys having various uses, for example accessing the inventory of objects carried in the backpack, viewing off-screen to left/right. Play requires both dexterity and lateral thinking. A saved game facility is not provided. Scores are awarded based on progression through the game. Upon completion, additional rewards are given for remaining lives and a bonus is awarded according to elapsed time. An expert player may complete the game in "around seven minutes".

Development

The game was reported as being programmer Tony Sothcott's first machine code game. Its colours are achieved using , requiring more than half of total available RAM. The map is made up from screens comprising blocks, there being 13 different types of such block. Two adjacent blocks are stored as a single

byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

within the map data, which occupies in total. This technique was noted for its ingenuity.

Marketing

The game was marketed as "Probably the most challenging game ever devised for the BBC Micro." The publishers offered small cash prizes to those completing the game within three months of purchase. They also announced a future competition between the four highest scorers, with a prize of computer equipment worth £500. The game's retail price (cassette £12.95, disk £14.95) was noted as being "not cheap" but nevertheless worthy. Self-styled "marketing expert" Chris Payne (at that time a recent graduate employed by Micro Power as a marketing assistant) recalls his memory of Sothcott's game being "terrific". Micro Power did not commission the marketing from any of their usual agents, instead appointing new agency Kidd's of Leeds. This agency devised a "nicely done logo" on a simple black background.

Reception

The game was listed as a 'star game' in a 1985 review in ''

Personal Computer News ''Personal Computer News'' (''PCN'') was a magazine publication which reviewed software and hardware for computers. It was published initially fortnightly, and during the boom period of home computing within the United Kingdom. It was published ...

'' (''PCN'') and was featured in an illustrated double-page spread in the issue of ''

Acorn User ''Acorn User'' magazine was founded by Acorn Computers in 1982, contract-published by Addison-Wesley, to coincide with the launch of the BBC Micro. It covered the range of Acorn home computers, the BBC Micro and Atom at first and later the Elect ...

'' (''AU''). ''PCN'' Reviewer Bryan Skinner noted that the programmer had developed "something really special", with both publications noting the "clever" use of colourful

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

, but little use of sound, possibly due to lack of available RAM. ''AU'' reviewer Bruce Smith noted the hardware scrolling as being the "best ... yet" on the platform. Skinner was of the opinion that ''Castle Quest'' was "the best arcade game" on the BBC Micro and would qualify as "the best game" were it not for the existence of ''

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

''. He called for readers to join him in demanding that

Micro Power Micro Power was a British company established in the early 1980s by former accountant Bob Simpson. The company was best known as a video game publisher, originally under the name Program Power. It also sold many types of computer hardware and so ...

convert the game for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

. The ''AU'' feature was justified (while acknowledging the earlier March review) by the opinion that the game represented a landmark in game development, both on the BBC Micro and other platforms. Micro Power's software development manager Alan Butcher tested and completed the game before release. Marketing assistant Chris Payne recalled that staff predicted the game to be a bestseller.

References

{{Micro Power 1985 video games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron-only games Metroidvania games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in castles Micro Power games