LANCELOT

 LANCELOT is an illustrated adventure game from Mandarin Software and Level 9,
Datasoft, and Electronic Arts, and was released with TIME AND MAGIK (also
reviewed in THE ELECTRONIC GAMER). The game offers a three-part story, fine
graphics, a good command processor, a RAM SAVE option, an UNDO function, and a
hypertext clue book. The Commodore 64/128 version is the basis of this review.

 LANCELOT is a three-part adventure based on the classic "Le Morte D'Arthur," by
Thomas Malory. It is the wonderful story of King Arthur, the Knights of the
Round Table, Lancelot, Guinevere, Merlin, and the Holy Grail. Although Datasoft
took some liberties with the story in order to translate it into an adventure
game, the results are excellent.

 The three parts of LANCELOT are titled "Camelot," "Logris," and "The Quest for
the Holy Grail." Unlike TIME AND MAGIK, which allowed you to play the three
games in any order, LANCELOT will let you start at the first part or the last
part. The three stories tell: 1) of Lancelot's arrival in Camelot and hi rise to
become the best knight in the land; 2) the formation of the Round Table; and 3)
the search for the Holy Grail. Playing the games out of sequence would ruin the
story, but you can go for the Grail immediately and not waste any time messing
with knighthood or Guinevere.

 The C64 screen consists of graphic displays, below which are several lines of
text. Pictures load quickly and can be adjusted to reveal more text. Once the
program is loaded and you've selected a game to play, you can bypass the
graphics by not turning the disk over.

 The command parser understands complicated sentences, and works fairly well.
Occasionally, though, you'll get a goofy response. UNDO will cancel previous
commands, taking you back one step, and it can be used repetitively. RAM SAVE
will save your current position in memory. The "Up" cursor key removes a
horizontal line of the picture. Pressing this key repeatedly will eventually
remove the entire picture. Pressing the "Down" cursor key brings the picture
back onscreen, one line at a time.

 The clue book includes maps for "Camelot." Numbered clues refer to other
numbered clues that, in turn, refer to still others. The game package contains a
double-sided disk, the clue book, an instruction manual, and a parchment map.
The manual also offers a condensed version of the story of King Arthur.

 Like TIME AND MAGIK, LANCELOT is reasonably well-written. The pictures are more
or less unnecessary, but they do make a good game look a lot better. The decent
command parser upchucks a weird response every now and then, but when commands
are kept simple, the game moves right along.

 Good story material is always a boon to an adventure game and goes a long way
toward circumventing the limitations of the interface. In the case of LANCELOT,
there's more than a good story: There's a good game here, too.

 LANCELOT is published by Datasoft and distributed by Electronic Arts.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253