The ''Sabreman'' series of games was released by

Ultimate Play the Game Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for t ...

for the ZX Spectrum in the 1980s. Some of the instalments were also released on other popular home

microcomputers A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

, namely the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') 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 Sin ...

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

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 MSX. The series stars Sabreman, who is depicted wearing

khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...

s and a

pith helmet The pith helmet, also known as the safari helmet, salacot, sola topee, sun helmet, topee, and topi) is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of sholapith. The pith helmet originates from the Spanish Empire, Spanish military adaptation of the na ...

Games

The story of Sabreman's adventures is not developed within the games themselves, but each game would come with an explanation of the story so far on the cassette inlay cards. *''

Sabre Wulf ''Sabre Wulf'' is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting ...

'' (1984),Rusel DeMaria and Johnny L. Wilson, ''High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games'' (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003)
355
in which Sabreman must escape a large jungle maze by collecting four pieces of an amulet, while avoiding the titular

wulf ''Wulf'' (Common Germanic "wolf") was one of the most prolific elements in early Germanic names. It could figure as the first element in dithematic names, as in '' Wulfstan'', but especially as second element, in the form ''-ulf, -olf'' as in ...

. Finding all four would grant access to: *''

Underwurlde ''Underwurlde'' is a 1984 Action-adventure game, action-adventure platform video game in the ''Sabreman'' series by Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The player controls the adventurer Sabreman as he jumps between pla ...

'' (1984), in which Sabreman must find three weapons to defeat three guardians in an extensive system of caverns. This done, three exits are available, each leading to one of the following three games. *''

Knight Lore ''Knight Lore'' is a 1984 action-adventure game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, and written by company founders Chris and Tim Stamper. The game is known for its use of isometric graphics, which it further popularized in vid ...

'' (1984), in which Sabreman arrives at Knight Lore Castle to seek a cure for his newfound lycanthropy. Collecting a number of items for the resident wizard Melkhior achieves both the cure and progress to: *''

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

'' (1986), in which Sabreman, as a newly qualified wizard himself, embarks on a quest to find the Pentagram, a powerful magic artifact. Once this is achieved Sabreman is directed to the final game in the series: *''

Mire Mare ''Mire Mare'' is an unreleased video game by Ultimate Play the Game. ''Underwurlde'', the second game in the Sabreman series of titles from Ultimate (between ''Sabre Wulf'' and ''Knight Lore''), has three separate exits, each naming another game i ...

'' (cancelled), which was never released and about which little is known. Sabreman's appearance in ''Knight Lore'' inspired the character Sabrewulf in the ''

Killer Instinct ''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting video games originally created by Rare and published by Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios. The original ''Killer Instinct'' was released for arcades in 1994; the game was then released for t ...

'' series, while Sabreman himself made a cameo in ''

Banjo-Tooie ''Banjo-Tooie'' is a platform video game developed by Rare and originally released for the Nintendo 64 console in 2000. It is the second game in the '' Banjo-Kazooie'' series and the sequel to '' Banjo-Kazooie''. The game follows the returnin ...

'', both by Ultimate's successor company Rare. No other games in the series were released until ''

'' on the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

in 2004, which builds on the story from the original ''Sabre Wulf'', the object being to collect amulet pieces to defeat the Wulf once again. An

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

title, ''Sabreman Stampede'', was in development as a rework of Rare's cancelled title '' Donkey Kong Racing'', but was also cancelled during development. In 2015, ''Sabre Wulf'', ''Underwurlde'', and ''Knight Lore'' were re-released as part of the '' Rare Replay'' compilation for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

References

External links

* {{Xbox Game Studios Microsoft franchises Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 1984