Spellbound for MSX

Introduction

Spellbound is a video game that was designed and programmed by David Jones with music by Rob Hubbard and released in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC (also with Ed Hickman) home computers.  It is the second game in the Magic Knight series.

Unlike the other Magic Knight games, Spellbound was never released for the MSX system back in 1985. This MSX port has been developed in 2023 with the sole intention of completing the series for our beloved MSX standard.

The copyright of Spellbound still belongs to David Jones who has kindly approved this release on Itch.io.  Rob Hubbard's publisher has also granted permission to use the original music. If you find a copy of this game somewhere else, it might not be legal.  Please, ask David Jones (the original author and copyright owner) for explicit consent if you are willing to publish or make this game available outside this page.

Please, check the recent works made by David Jones. He is an excellent writer and also a lecturer at the Breda University of Applied Sciences.

Magic Knight Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MagicKnightGames/

Magic Knight Games Discussion group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/691924374243249 

David Jones Author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidxjonesauthor

David Jones author page: https://davidxjonesauthor.com/

You can also buy Rob Hubbard's music here: https://c64audio.com/collections/rob-hubbard

Notes

• CBIOS-based emulators have been reported not to be 100% compatible with a real MSX machine. Because of this, Spellbound might not work in conjunction with non-genuine BIOS dumps. Please, use a real MSX machine or an emulator using a genuine BIOS image.
• The recommended setup to enjoy Spellbound is any MSX2 machine with a Carnivore 2 cartridge. Any MSX1 machine with at least 48KB of RAM should work as well.

How to play

The first in a new generation of arcade adventure style game using a unique window menu system. All command choices can be made by moving a pointing finger to the required choice on a menu, then selecting it by pressing space, shift, or fire.

In this way quite complex commands can be built up easily using only three keys.

When this program loads it is set up for keyboard use. To use a joystick (port A), change this using cursor keys UP/DOWN to move the finger and press space when it points to the joystick that you wish to use. The fire button can then be used to select your menu choice.

You are a Magic Knight, the hero of Finders Keepers. Your tutor Gimbal the Wizard  has been trying out some very old spells to make his rice pudding taste nicer, unfortunately the scribes who translated the spells from very ancient English to slightly ancient English made some mistakes with the wording and Gimbal is in trouble.

The spell sent Gimbal to the mythical castle of Karn and dragged seven other people with him. As gimbal becomes trapped he projects a last faint message back to you across the time stream. I've taught you enough to rescue us all.

Magic Knight, you are our only hope!!

Clue: Red Herrings may be useful.

Play Spellbound online

The game is now available for playing on The File Hunter thanks to his admin, Arnaud de Klerk. 

This is the only site external to this Itch.io page that is allowed to host the game.

Acknowledgements

This game has been tested with the invaluable help of Physical Dreams Games, Fernando Jimenez, Duncan Edwards, Fabio Albergaria, Juan Sánchez, Recaredo Sempere and Greg.

Thanks also to former Kralizec's members Armando Perez and Sutchan for their spiritual support and graphical improvement.

Special thanks to Duncan Edwards for the updated cassette inlay art and his enthusiastic support during the development.

And VERY SPECIAL THANKS to David Jones and Rob Hubbard for creating this beautiful game and authorizing this version for the MSX system.

© 1985, David Jones

MSX version by Tracy Lewis/msxwiki.org