''Galahad and the Holy Grail'' is an

action-adventure game The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

designed and programmed by

Douglas Crockford Douglas Crockford is an American computer programmer who is involved in the development of the JavaScript language. He specified the data format JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), and has developed various JavaScript related tools such as the ...

and published by the

Atari Program Exchange Atari Program Exchange (APX) was a division of Atari, Inc. that sold software via mail-order for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. Quarterly APX catalogs were sent to all registered Atari 8-bit owners. APX encouraged any programmer, not j ...

in 1982. Influenced by ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'' for the

Atari VCS The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...

and

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

, it contains almost 100 rooms–according to the manual–which are switched between with a

flip screen This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

technique.

Gameplay

The player explores the world, which is divided into single-screen areas representing indoor and indoor locations, finding objects and overcoming obstacles. There are no enforced goals in the game, and the manual suggests choosing one or more goals and swearing to complete them, such as "to find the three keys" or "to find the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracul ...

." The game contains references to Atari's ''Adventure'' as well as other popular games of the day. With a nod to the film ''

Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) an ...

'', one of the objects found in the game is a

holy hand grenade The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog is a fictional character in the Monty Python film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail.'' The scene in ''Holy Grail'' was written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese. The rabbit is the antagonist in a major set piece ...

Development and release

wrote the game over a period of four months on an

Atari 800 The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...

using the

Atari Assembler Editor Atari Assembler Editor (sometimes written as Atari Assembler/Editor) is a ROM cartridge-based development system released by Atari, Inc. in 1981. It is used to edit, assemble, and debug 6502 programs for the Atari 8-bit family of home computer ...

cartridge. The game was titled ''Knightsoil'' when submitted, but after Atari learned that

night soil Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers employ ...

was a euphemism for excrement, it proposed changing the title. Because Launcelot never found the Holy Grail, Crockford proposed ''Galahad and the Holy Grail''. According to

director Fred Thorlin, the game "contained some rather risque scenes when it was initially submitted." The game caused Chris Crawford to hire Crockford at

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

After the Atari Program Exchange shut down,

Antic Software Antic Software was a software company associated with ''Antic'', a magazine for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Bound into issues of the magazine, the Antic Software catalog initially sold Atari 8-bit games, applications, and utilities from t ...

re-released ''Galahad and the Holy Grail'' in 1985 with the formerly printed manual on the second side of the disk. The game was sold under the same name, but the title screen was changed to read "Sir Galahad and the Holy Grail." According to an

AtariAge AtariAge is a website focusing on classic Atari video games. The site features gaming news, historical archives, discussion forums, and an online store. It was founded in 1998. Taking its name from the 1982–84 '' Atari Age'' magazine, the site ...

forum member who disassembled the room structure of the game, the Antic Software version fixed a number of traversal glitches and other bugs.

Reception

''Galahad and the Holy Grail'' was included in ''

Antic Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...

'' magazine's December 1983 holiday buyer's guide. ''The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984'' rated the game a C. The reviewer wrote, "I hate to criticize a creative game, but Galahad has features that seem illogical to the player, features not explained in the very sparse documentation." ''Galahad and the Holy Grail'' was one of four finalists for the 1982 Atari Star Award. The winner was ''

Typo Attack ''Typo Attack'' is an educational game for the Atari 8-bit family designed to improve the user's typing skill. It was written by David Buehler and published by the Atari Program Exchange in 1982. Buehler was seventeen when the game won the A ...

''.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web, title=The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers, url=https://dadgum.com/giantlist/ , last1=Hague, first1=James {{cite magazine , title=Designer Profile: Doug Crockford , magazine=

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

, issue=35 , date=March 1987 , url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_35.pdf , accessdate=23 April 2016, last=Boosman , first=Frank , pages=40–42, 44 , type=interview {{cite book, last1=Crockford, first1=Douglas, title=Galahad and the Holy Grail Manual, date=1982, publisher=The ATARI Program Exchange, url=http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/files/APX_Galahad_and_the_Holy_Grail.pdf {{cite journal, title=Inside Atari: Star Award Winner, journal=Antic, date=April 1983, volume=2, issue=1, url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n1/insideatari.html {{cite web, last1=Savetz, first1=Kevin, title=Fred Thorlin: The Big Boss at Atari Program Exchange, url=http://www.atariarchives.org/APX/thorlininterview.php, website=atariarchives.org, date=April 2000 {{cite journal, title=Buyer's Guide, journal=Antic, date=December 1983, volume=2, issue=9, url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n9/Buyersguide.html {{cite web, title=Galahad and the Holy Grail, url=http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-galahad-and-the-holy-grail_6499.html, website=Atari Mania {{cite web, title=Galahad and the Holy Grail?, url=https://atariage.com/forums/topic/155796-galahad-and-the-holy-grail/, website=AtariAge Forums {{cite book, last1=Stanton, first1=Jeffrey, title=The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984, date=1984, url=https://archive.org/stream/Book_of_Atari_Software_1984/Book_of_Atari_Software_1984_djvu.txt

External links

''Galahad and the Holy Grail''
at Atari Mania 1982 video games Action-adventure games Atari 8-bit family games Atari 8-bit family-only games Atari Program Exchange software Video games based on Arthurian legend Video games developed in the United States