THE MAKING OF KNIGHT TIME
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: MASTERTRONIC
DEVELOPER: DAVID JONES
RELEASED: 1986
PLATFORM: ZX SPECTRUM, VARIOUS
GENRE: ADVENTURE
DEVELOPER HIGHLIGHTS
FINDERS KEEPERS SYSTEM: ZX SPECTRUM, VARIOUS YEAR: 1985
SPELLBOUND SYSTEM: ZX SPECTRUM, VARIOUS YEAR: 1987
STORMBRINGER (PICTURED) SYSTEM: ZX SPECTRUM, VARIOUS YEAR: 1987
The Spectrum 128K didn’t become available in Britain until early 1986, but the new computer was made available to some UK publishers a few months earlier. Most commissioned enhanced versions of existing titles for the unproven system, but budget specialist Mastertronic asked David Jones to design a game that would showcase the new machine’s capabilities, as the former developer remembers. “I’d already started on Knight Tyme as a 48K game,” David
Given the Spectrum 128K’s advantages, David could have put Knight Tyme on the back burner and designed a fresh concept for Sinclair’s new system, but he opted to continue the Magic Knight’s menu-driven adventures on the more capable computer. “There was no point in inventing a brand-new character for a machine that didn’t have any sales yet,” David reasons, “and from the reviews I was getting, I was very confident that Knight Tyme would sell. Largely, I was writing the sort of game I wanted to play. I always liked adventure games, but having to work out which words
