Game Review: Finders Keepers (MSX, Mastertronic)

Finders Keepers, the first of the series of games involving the Magic Knight character, was first released on the ZX Spectrum to critical acclaim.  What you may not realise is that the MSX conversion, programmed by Ed Hickman, is the second format that the game appeared on, preceding the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC versions by a few months.   The plot remains the same, both on the inlay and on the introductory screens.  The King of Isbisima has no idea what to get his daughter, Princess Germintrude, as a birthday present, and transports you, as Magic Knight, to the castle of Spriteland in order to find a suitable present, or instead, you could choose to escape from the castle instead.

The introductory screens here also explain the creatures you may encounter and provides you with the extra keys, G for get (or you can use space or the joystick fire button), E for examine, D for drop, and, once you get to a trader, T for trade.  It all looks very nice indeed with splashes of colour, and once you start the game, there is a little tune in the background that plays constantly, but at the expense of some sound effects being present.  You start in the King’s Palace, and can then use the little teleport to be transported to another part of the castle.

Diagonal Dilemma

As with the other versions, the diagonals are used to jump up to other platforms around the castle.  This can prove a little tricky when using the MSX’s cursor keys on the keyboard, but once you get used to it, it works well.  The key here is to face or walk in the direction you wish to jump, then hold that direction and press up. Some of the jumping to platforms can be a little finicky, but it behaves the same way as the other versions do, so in that respect it is faithful.  You will need to practice shorter jumps too, as letting go of up means the jump stops.  This does can do bigger or smaller jumps once you have mastered the timing.  Avoiding the castle’s creatures is key: they all drain your strength and once drained, you lose one of the five lives that you have at the start.

The mazes are present and correct, so the slimey maze and the cold upper maze appear in their respective forms.  When moving around, the push scrolling used can often push a little too slowly, so you may need to stop to allow the drawing of the maze to catch up.  The enemies can home in on you too and drain your strength easily, so it is good to find a hiding place and then get past.  The slimey maze does house two very useful objects which combine into one, so you will need to explore there, whilst the cold upper maze leads to plenty of other parts of the castle.

Let’s Make a Trade

Dotted around the castle are the three traders: Anna, Gordon and Gort.  They each have different items which you can purchase, several of which you will need if you wish to escape the castle.  You can also sell objects on and make as much money if you can, as the likes of the silver goblet are well worth the money.  This will allow you to buy the objects you need, so some sensible carrying and trading will be required.  The trading is straightforward, with the first screen showing what is available to buy, and the second one allowing you to select an object to sell, should you wish to do so.

You can only carry a maximum of five objects at any one time, so the key is to try and carry as minimal as possible and place the other objects either in a safe place you can collect them later, or trade them in as you need.  The red herrings are that some objects when picked up cannot be dropped or traded, unless they are combined – and if that happens you will be able to tell that has happened.  One giveaway is that some of the objects are sticky in some way, so once you know what they are and where, you can avoid collecting them next time around.

The Big Puss Without Boots

To escape from the castle, you will need to find a way to get past the big puss without boots.  In essence, the way you do so is faithful to the Spectrum version.  You will need the right objects to be dropped in the right order, and this will ensure once successful that the puss disappears. Move left, and you escape, and the game is won.  Although the later Commodore 64 version appears to be able to create the present for the princess, it does not seem to be the case on the MSX, despite the plot and instructions stating so.  You can of course try to trade to get as much cash as possible and then escape the castle as a high score challenge.

The status display on screen, on the right-hand side, shows you the room percentage, as to how many rooms you have explored out of the total number of rooms, the value of your cash and the objects you are carrying, the strength meter, and how many lives you have left.  What is also noticeable is that Magic Knight and the creatures are all hardware sprites, which means that the collision detection is good, but also avoids any colour clash those creatures move up and down past the platforms.  It is a welcome bit of extra polish that shows some good sense into ensuring the gameplay and look and feel was right for the machine.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Finders Keepers are well drawn and are very colourful, making good use of the colour palette on the system.  The king and the Puss in Boots are nicely drawn as are the ghouls and the maze, and using the hardware sprites is of course welcome.  The platforms and scoring display is very similar to the Spectrum original, but that is no bad thing, as the colours are bright here too.  The push scrolling in the maze sections could however have been smoother.  As for the sound, the tune that plays throughout is harmless enough, but it can get a little too repetitive over time and you may wish to play the game silently after a while, so you can concentrate on making your escape.

Final Thoughts

Finders Keepers shows what the MSX can do in capable hands. The sensible use of the cursor keys for keyboard users to move Magic Knight helps, as does the playability, which matches the original ZX Spectrum version. Everything is here – all the objects, the mazes, the traders and the castle’s creatures, all with extra polish too.  The faithfulness of the conversion is also shown by the same location of the objects and puzzles to resolve, and the placement of the creatures is sometimes difficult but fair.  It is still a very enjoyable game to play, and well worth checking out if you want to start at the beginning of the series.

It is worth noting that although the third and fourth games in the Magic Knight series, Knight Tyme and Stormbringer, did make it to the MSX, Spellbound did not.  That seemed a very odd reason not to produce at the time, especially given how good this game is. It took many years before Tracy Lewis produced a version that was given official authorisation by both David Jones for the game and Rob Hubbard for the music.  You can find out more and get the game here.

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