Arthur: The Quest For Excalibur Website Links For
Arthur
 

Information About

Arthur: The Quest For Excalibur




  developer Infocom
  publisher Infocom
  designer Bob Bates
  engine ZIL
  released 1989
  genre Interactive Fiction
  modes Single Player
  ratings n/a
  platforms Amiga , Apple II , MS-DOS , Macintosh
  media 3½" or 5¼" Disk
  requirements 128K for Apple II systems
  input Keyboard


''Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur'' is an Interactive Fiction Computer Game written by Bob Bates and published by Infocom in 1989 . Typically for an Infocom title, it was released for many popular computer platforms of the time, such as the Macintosh , PC , and the Apple II series. Quite atypically for an Infocom product, it featured illustrations of locations, characters and objects within the game.


PLOT

The player assumes the role of a young , experience, and Wisdom . Merlin assists Arthur by giving him periodic advice as well as the power to transform into animals, but also tells Arthur that unless Excalibur is recovered within three days, Lot will usurp his destiny as a king of legendary stature.


FEELIES

Although ''Arthur'' was one of the last interactive fiction games Infocom released before closing, the package still contained a modest attempt at the extra objects, or Feelies , that had been a long-standing tradition for the company. The package for ''Arthur'' contained a copy of a ''Book of Hours'', which explains the Canonical Hours such as Matins , Lauds and Vespers .


NOTES

''Arthur'' was one of only two games Infocom published under the "Immortal Legends" banner; the other was the ''.

By the time of ''Arthur'''s release, Infocom had stopped rating their games in terms of difficulty. Arthur roughly corresponds to the level of their previous "Standard" games..

This was the first game to incorporate the once-heretical notion of graphics into an Infocom work of interactive fiction (it is debatable whether the use of simple line drawings in '' Beyond Zork '' to render maps can be regarded as "using graphics" in a non-trivial sense). Many fans see this reversal as a change demanded by Infocom's corporate owner Activision in an effort to boost sales. The few games Infocom released after ''Arthur'', such as '' James Clavell's Shogun '' and '' Journey '', also used graphics.


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