Blackwyche
Sir Arthur Pendragon frees a captain's soul on a haunted galleon.
Blackwyche is an action-adventure video game published by Ultimate Play the Game for the Commodore 64 in 1985. It is the third instalment of the Pendragon series and the sequel to Entombed, featuring aristocrat adventurer Sir Arthur Pendragon trapped on a haunted galleon. The game is presented in a 3D isometric format and was created by brothers Dave and Bob Thomas rather than Ultimate founders Tim and Chris Stamper.
Quick Facts
- Publisher
- Ultimate Play the Game
- Designer
- Dave and Bob Thomas
- Released
- 1985 (EU)
- Genre
- Action-adventure
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- Commodore 64
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The game is set aboard a haunted galleon named the Blackwyche, presented in an isometric format. Sir Arthur Pendragon's main objective is to free the soul of former captain Richard Cavendish. Pendragon can defend himself with knives, daggers, and a magic sword against enemy skeletons. Energy depletes with each enemy hit; running out causes a large skeletal hand to drag him off-screen, killing him. Scattered map segments form a complete overworld view. Other items include keys, gunpowder for cannons, and jewellery that adds to the score.
Development
The Pendragon series was the work of brothers Dave and Bob Thomas, not the Ultimate founders. Dave Thomas got his start in 1983 making games for the Atari 400, one of which, Warlok, won a Calisto Software competition. He left Calisto because his daily 68-mile commute became too much, and soon after began developing The Staff of Karnath, the first Pendragon game. Bob Thomas had worked as a technical illustrator for the Ministry of Defence, designing interiors for the Royal Navy. According to Dave, Blackwyche’s setting drew heavily from HMS Victory and the city of Portsmouth. The name Sir Arthur Pendragon came from the character Black Prince Pendragon in Jack the Giant Killer. Bob handled the graphics while Dave wrote the code. The brothers showed their work to Tim and Chris Stamper, who were impressed and commissioned a full series for the Commodore 64. Dave recalled that Ultimate rarely interfered; once a game was finished, it went straight to quality assessment and then to release.
Reception
Blackwyche received mixed reviews. A CVG reviewer thought the graphics identical to Entombed and criticised the low detail of Sir Arthur Pendragon. Eugene Lacey of Commodore User praised the graphics as smoother and slightly more detailed despite similarities. Stuart Cooke of Your Commodore found the graphics repetitive and had trouble distinguishing sections due to colour similarities. Zzap!64 reviewers criticised the sprites as awful and the animation as crummy with little colour range; one expressed frustration at Ultimate's reuse of sprites, and another condemned the 3D animation as out of proportion and frustrating. Tony Hetherington of Computer Gamer criticised duplicated landscapes and identical colours, calling the game disappointing. Lacey heralded the gameplay as purely addicting and considered Blackwyche the best of the series. Harding found it miles better than its predecessor, while Cooke thought the gameplay repetitive due to location count. Zzap!64 reviewers criticised puzzles as poor, unchallenging, and giving deja-vu; one considered it a poor arcade-adventure with poorly implemented ideas. Hetherington concluded it was a disappointment for an Ultimate game given previous titles like Atic Atac and Knight Lore.
Legacy
Sir Arthur Pendragon and the Blackwyche appear in Rare's Sea of Thieves. The Blackwyche is wrecked on Shipwreck Bay, containing a portrait of Arthur. A nearby book starts a Tall Tale called The Seabound Soul that leads to summoning Arthur's ghost, accidentally releasing Captain Flameheart. Arthur appears again in The Heart of Fire, needing help releasing his crew from Flameheart's curse; one crew member, Cavendish, is the daughter of Richard Cavendish. Arthur met his fate upon completion of the Sea of Thieves Adventure: Return of the Damned, in which the community resurrected Captain Flameheart, banishing Arthur to the Sea of the Damned.
More in Adventure Games of the 1980s
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