Game Review: Spellbound (Commodore 64, MAD)

Spellbound is the second of the Magic Knight series of games, created by David Jones.  The Commodore 64 conversion work was handled by Richard Darling, and tries to be as faithful to the original Spectrum version as possible. The plot is that the wizard Gimbal has been messing about with spells in attempt to make his rice pudding taste nicer, but unfortunately whoever translated the spells made errors in the wording, thus Gimbal is in trouble.  The spell transported Gimbal to the Castle of Karn and dragged seven other people with him.  The message comes back that Magic Knight is their only hope, and so will need to find a way to send them back home.

Windows 86

Once the game loads, you can select whether you would like to see the instructions or jump right into the game.  The instructions give you a run down of the plot, and the keys to use for movement, but also introduces you to who the seven other characters are in the game, and Magic Knight must interact with these to complete the game.  They are Thor, Florin the Dwarf, Orik the Cleric, Samsun the Strong, Elrand Halfelven, Lady Rosmar and The Banshee.  You must locate the characters and make sure they are kept fed and happy, as if one of them passes away, it is game over for Magic Knight.

The instructions give you a little preview of how the main game system, called Windimation, (notably spelled as Windomation on this version for some reason) works.  In the game itself, pressing fire brings up the menu, with various commands you can select, and then if that needs a second part of the command, another window is superimposed for the next menu of commands, until you get to the point of either executing or rejecting the command accordingly.   Although quite innovative, and you can use the keys to also speed up the commands instead of using the joystick, it can get a little tiresome for some the further you get into the game.

Magic in the Bottle

One of the first things Magic Knight will encounter is that if you go left from the start screen, there is a screen that goes black and it is game over.  You clearly need something to be able to see in the dark, and so moving right from the start and up on to the top-level platforms reveals a glowing bottle.  Get this and you are in business, and can get past the screen that is dark without any effect.  This sets the tone for the game in that at certain times, you may need to have certain objects with you to progress, and it is learning this which can take some time to master.

Man in the Mirror

On the screen The Odd-Ball, a bouncing ball moves around which loses Magic Knight energy on collision, but there is also the mirror.  When picked up this is effectively a mirror image of Magic Knight, meaning that you can see yourself.  The bottom of the display changes to show the strength meter along with the objects held, up to a maximum of five objects.  The key of course is that some of the objects you may wish to have with you at any time, such as, when you find it, the wand of command.  If you want to command characters to help you, you need the wand to allow them to respond to your commands.  You can tell them to wake up, sleep, eat or be happy, and keeping them fed and alive is one of the things Magic Knight needs to do.

At the left side of the castle, there is a lift door, and you can call the lift to your floor, and enter the lift. You can take the lift to some of the floors, but not all of them at the start of the game, and so fixing the lift is one of the puzzles you need to solve.  The basement also contains a useful object for one of the spells too, so you will want to try and fix the lift somehow.  Moving between the floors of the castle opens up the game more too, and with more objects to locate and characters to interactive with as you go.

Florin and the Bottle

Magic Knight’s strength runs out constantly when moving from room to room, and even jumping (which is faster than walking) still does not help massively.  The key here is to locate a bottle of liquid (taking the lift to the roof level) and hand this to one of the characters, namely Florin the dwarf, then take it from Florin, and that restores the strength.  The sensible option is to keep it handed to Florin and give it / take it back as needed, but that does mean you need to find him.  You will soon discover one of the characters has a horn, which you can take from them use to summon the character to your location, which works nicely.  One strategy is to summon them, and make sure they eat, drink, and then sleep.  If a character is asleep, they tend to stay in the same place, but you cannot summon them if they are not nearby.

I Put a Spell on You

Magic Knight can also cast several spells to ensure that the right parts of the game can be accessed, although amusingly, there is also quitticus gamus, which obviously quits the game.  Other spells need you to be in possession of objects or in the right place.  One of those spells can be used to get past a room full of gas that would otherwise kill Magic Knight, and you know how the instructions said that a red herring could be useful?  Well, it turns out it is partially for this one.  Some of the other spells mean you can glow without the need for the glowing bottle, and there is also the summon spell, used late on in the game for Gimbal the Wizard.  All in all, there is quite a large sized amounts of puzzles in the game and certainly the spell casting adds another element here.

Knights of the Square Table

There is plenty for Magic Knight to do once you open the game.  However, opening up initially may prove to be a little frustrating to work out how to top up the strength, how to interact with the characters and what objects to use where and so on.  This can put people off, especially if you are not a fan of arcade adventures, so patience is the key and learning what objects are needed when and where will help you get further in.  Some of the puzzles can also be obscure too, but it makes sense – and the objects generally can be used for certain purposes, so once you have worked out what that is, you can discount that from solving a future puzzle.  Even if you are working to a full solution, the game can take a fair amount of time to complete, and a save game would be handy here.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Spellbound are reminiscent of its Spectrum original, with screens that are generally quite colourful, even with the more muted palette.  Sensibly, Magic Knight here is a hardware sprite, so interacts well with the background, objects, and characters, and feels smoother to control because of it.  The text used for the Windimation system is clear and functional and would be used in its sequels too, with the command building at the bottom of the screen.

What does make this game stand apart at the time is the superb Rob Hubbard in-game piece which drives you along wonderfully well, with its medieval sounding clangs and certainly creating an atmosphere of its time.  The sound effects for jumping, collecting objects, and moving the lift are functional, but can get in the way of the music sometimes.  As for the music, do not just take my word for it – Barry Leitch, a fellow Commodore 64 musician who would become a legendary game composer in his own right, had this to say recently about why he adores the music so much:

“Quite simply it is the definitive piece of C64 music. Technologically brilliant, musically fantastic, and absolutely superb. Even now some 40 years later, it still makes the hairs on my arms stand up. It took me 30 days to recreate it with modern tools and instrumentation for Project Hubbard, featuring live instruments etc and Patrick Nevian on piano. Even then, with the entire modern arsenal at my fingertips, there were sounds that simply required to be their authentic C64 sounds, there were no modern equivalents that could be used for things like the ring modulation on the off beats for example. It is a unique piece of music created by the maestro at the absolute top of his game. People may laud their Lightforce, or Sanxion pieces as Hubbard’s best, but those that know music, know Spellbound. It is simply the best god damned piece of C64 music created.”

Final Thoughts

Spellbound certainly has its admirers, myself amongst them, for being a pioneer in the way that the Windimation system works for executing commands, a precursor to many point and click adventures that would follow.  While some do find that clunky and cumbersome now, it was innovative back then and certainly deserves praise for the fact you can interact with objects and characters, and execute spells too, with simple to understand screens that overlay and really give it a feeling of opening pages of a book.  The game plays well with its puzzles that give you satisfaction when you master them, and having some superb music along the way really does draw you in for long evenings ahead, attempting to find the next spell to be able to cast or getting to a different screen you have not seen before.  You may not like this if you are not a fan of the arcade adventure genre, and mileage will vary, but for those that persevere, an excellent conversion that deserves its MAD status.

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