Knight’s Quest is a role-playing game released for the TRS-80.
The game came packaged with two other games: Robot Chase and Horse Race.
There was no written documentation which came with the game. All of the instructions for the game as well as the plot hook can be found just after the title screen shown above.
The plot hook is interesting enough. You are a new knight for the King of Norsax who is sending you out on your first quest. Nothing too terribly difficult for a first quest; merely obtain a gold chalice from a mountain demon or a gold anchor from a sea demon. Your king doesn’t want to tax your abilities too badly your first day out after all.
The main screen of the game shows you a grid which is supposed to represent an outdoor map. There simply isn’t much in the way of graphics. The gameplay ran very smooth. Your move codes are displayed for you and you use these to move about the map. You may find when you move that the area is safe or you may have an encounter. If there is an encounter it is possible your opponent will challenge your or you may challenge the opponent. I encountered evil knights, sorcerers, smugglers, and a man eating giant. Once combat begins the outcome seems randomly determined. I could not tell you the math or numbers involved if I wanted to. If you win the combat your reputation score goes up and you receive silver pieces. If you lose the combat you are most likely dead or seriously wounded.
I also encountered health springs and monasteries in certain squares. One monastery gave me a magic dagger. If you are in combat you can use the magic dagger to automatically win that particular combat and then it vanishes. It can only be used once.
In my first game I eventually made my way to the sea demon, beat him, and obtained the golden anchor. I made my way back to the castle in five moves and won the entire game in under 15 minutes. I thought perhaps that fate was allowing me to roll a natural 20 so to be sure I started a new game. Again I found the sea demon, beat him, and obtained the golden anchor; making my way back to the castle in five moves. This time it took me only 9 minutes to beat the game. Now; I like to think that I’m good at times; but not THAT good. The game seems rather quick and easy to beat however I found portions of the game to be original and slightly entertaining. The evil knights, the health springs, monasteries that grant a magical dagger, movement on the outdoor map, all of this seemed a bit refreshing or original from what had come before.
The ease with which you can win and the speed of the game are sure to turn many hard core gamers off. It took me longer to emulate this game on my PC than it did to beat it. I don’t regret for a moment though all of the different stops and discoveries I am making on this journey with these different games.
Next up for me is Journey to the Center of the Earth; a text adventure from 1978.