Knightmare is a computer game on the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

and

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

computer systems. It was released in 1991 by Mindscape International Ltd. The game was written by

Tony Crowther Antony Crowther (born 10 May 1965) is a former designer, programmer, and musician of Commodore 64 games. During the 1980s he worked for Alligata, Gremlin Graphics and later his own company, Wizard Development. Career The first computer game he ...

. It is based on the

Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

TV show

Knightmare Knightmare may refer to: * ''Knightmare'' (TV series), a British television series ** ''Knightmare'' (1987 video game), a video game based on the television series ** ''Knightmare'' (1991 video game), a video game based on the television series * ' ...

. This was the second of two games based on the show, following an earlier game - also known as ''Knightmare'' - released four years previously by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

Development

Knightmare is based on the

CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...

TV show of the same name, where a group of 4 children attempt to complete a quest. The format of the game differs from the TV show in that the view is in first person, in the TV show the main player had to wear a

helmet A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protecti ...

to blind them to their surroundings. Knightmare was written by

, who also created the game

Captive Captive or Captives may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Captive'' (1980 film), a sci-fi film, starring Cameron Mitchell and David Ladd * ''Captive'' (1986 film), a British-French film starring Oliver Reed * ''Captive'' (1991 ...

. Knightmare uses the same

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

as Captive and has some similarities. But unlike Captive where parts of the level were computer generated, all the dungeons in the game were designed by hand. Knightmare was published by Mindscape International Ltd. The player is required to complete four quests in order to gain the knowledge and ability to beat Lord Fear, the

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

studios to make use of the audio equipment when producing the sound for the game.

Reception

Generally ''Knightmare'' was received well.

Amiga Action ''Amiga Action'' was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Europress (later IDG Media) and ran for 89 full issues, from October 1989 to December 1996. After its closure, it was merged into sister ...

and

CU Amiga ''Commodore User'', (also referred to as ''CU'') later renamed to ''CU Amiga'', is a British magazine initially published by Paradox Group before being acquired by EMAP. Timeline ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983 with an initial pr ...

gave the game scores of 91% and 90%, but the game did not escape lower reviews, with

Amiga Power ''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. History The first issue of ''Amiga Power'' was publi ...

rating the game at 75%. Critics drew attention to how similar ''Knightmare'' is to ''Captive''. Amiga Action indicates that the quality of the game makes this less of an issue, while

said the Captive game engine does not look as good as the Beholder game engine that's used in '' Eye of the Beholder 2''. The general gameplay was praised, with the

saying it is a game difficult to put down. Also praised was the quality of the sound in the game. The high quality sound requires 1MB of memory to work at its full settings, and the review said it is worth the upgrade. Amiga Action called the game absorbing.

Amiga Format ''Amiga Format'' was a British monthly computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future Publishing. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when Future split '' ST/Amiga Format'' into two separate pub ...

said the game starts out tough and only gets tougher. Amiga Power indicated that the game doesn't take any risks in the field of

RPGs RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

and feels like "role-playing by numbers".

References

{{reflist 1991 video games Amiga games Atari ST games Dungeon crawler video games First-person party-based dungeon crawler video games Fantasy video games Role-playing video games Video games scored by Richard Joseph Video games developed in the United Kingdom Mindscape games Single-player video games