Game Review: Finders Keepers (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

The Commodore 64 version of Finders Keepers does do its best to follow the plot of the Spectrum original at least.  As Magic Knight, you can either help out King Isbisima and please Princess Germintrude with a special birthday present to be one of the knights of the Polygon Table, with as much treasure as you can.  Alternatively, you may just choose to get as much treasure as possible and escape the castle of Spriteland.  Having these two different ways of completing the game really did make it intriguing to play, but also not documented there is a third way the game ends – if you blow up the castle of Spriteland (and blow yourself up at the same time – so this effectively means death for Magic Knight too.)

Presentation Polish

Finders Keepers has a nice loading screen with Magic Knight seemingly skipping past a large mouse.  The game’s title screen has the first time you will hear the excellent music by David Dunn (now Julie Dunn) along with some nice instruction pages, which gives you all the keys you need to press as well as joystick controls, and options for turning the music on or off, and indeed the border on or off.  There is a nice effect with the screen border where the outside cycles round in a circle, but that can put some people off, so having the option to turn that off does prove useful to allow you to concentrate on the game.  Despite what the instructions claim, you cannot redefine the keys, so the in-game instructions are useful if you are playing this on keyboard only.

Castle Capers

You start in the King’s Palace, and there is a little platform to position Magic Knight on which teleports to another part of the castle.  Straight away you will spot the ghouls and creatures around – spiders that spin their webs up and down where timing is needed, and those that move across the screen in patterns, and so you can time your run well to avoid them and not lose strength.  Like in the other versions, the small triangle denotes an object, which you use the G, E and D keys to get, examine or drop respectively.  When selecting drop you move the joystick to the one you wish to drop, or to exit.  It is sensible though to ensure you drop an object not next to another one to ensure you can collect it back afterwards should you need to do so.  Fire jumps which seems better, but like the other versions, your jump needs to clear the platform ahead of you or you will hit it.  That can lead to frustration at times but this does replicate the other versions.

Trading Time

To get some of the objects you need, Magic Knight needs to do some nifty trading with the likes of Gort, Gordon or Anna. You can press T next to a trader and either sell objects or buy.  The traders do have handy keys for the castle dungeons to get past gates for example.  You are also good to note what objects are worth a fair amount of money and locating them for a good trade.  This is denoted easily by the cash and objects’ value you have to the right of the screen, with the lives left and strength too.  In this version, when one of your our lives is gone, what was a Magic Knight gets replaced with a tombstone to indicate that the life has gone.

Into the Dungeon and Gardens

The castle’s mazes here are a pseudo-3D effect, and different from the Spectrum version’s cold and smily mazes. Here you are looking down on the mazes but with a slight angle to reflect the raised walls, grass, and gates.  Once you get used to it, it is very effective.  Some of the gates here need specific keys (such as the yellow and red gates for the dungeons, and the garden gate key for the gardens) and you need to have these gates in your possession to get past.  Bear in mind that Magic Knight can only carry a maximum of five objects, and you can see that this adds a sensible quandary: which keys to carry, and when.

The Big Puss Without Boots

To escape the castle, you need to get past the Big Puss Without Boots.  Unlike the Spectrum and Commodore 16 and Plus/4 versions, this does not involve Magic Knight combining objects such as the saltpetre and magic flame to make an explosion – instead you need to find a dog.  That dog can only be collected if you have another object to hand – which is itself a combination of two objects you must get.  Once you have the dog, that scares away the cat, and you are free to leave the castle.  It certainly means you need to think on your feet a bit more and work out a sensible path to get those objects.

Birthday Bonanza

What if you wanted to find the ultimate birthday present for Germintrude instead and not just accumulate treasure and money?  Well, the key here is Magic Knight performing some magic.  In one of the rooms, there is a cauldron, and dropping certain items into that cauldron produces something which would be a rather lovely present.  The only thing to be wary of is that if you drop the wrong objects in error, once they have got into the cauldron, they cannot be retrieved, so you need to ensure you only drop.  It is far more sensible to trade in items where possible if you need to travel light around the castle, or drop them somewhere else.   Nonetheless because you can get a birthday present and complete the game that way, it somehow feels a better version.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Finders Keepers are drawn well enough, and the pseudo 3D effects on the castle gardens and dungeons work reasonably well.  Although mostly single colour enemies, there is at least some variety and the outside-coloured border adds some nice touches, even if the effect is disabled.  The music is excellent and really shows just what a good in-game tune can do to enhance the gameplay, with some reasonable sound effects such as when you transport from one section to another, a simple loss of strength indicator as well as a little noise when you lose a life.  It works well but to be honest you will play this game always with that excellent music on.

Final Thoughts

Finders Keepers may look like the Spectrum version, but some serious thought and consideration has gone into the fact that the puzzles are different, such as how to get past the Big Puss Without Boots and escape the castle, or indeed locating the way to get the right birthday present for Princess Germintrude.  The fact you also have the option to utilise one of the Spectrum’s solutions to blow up the castle is also intriguing too.  Whilst it can play differently and mean new ways of solving the main puzzles, the playability is there and the arcade adventure element more than intact, and this does mean that under the main surface, there is a real sense of having to work a little harder to complete the game.  It works well and is well worth trying out even if you love the Spectrum original to see how the different puzzles work out.  Give it a go.

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