Firelord
| Firelord | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Game No. | 551 | |
| Voting | 5.33 points, 3 votes | |
| Developer | Stephen Crow, John Cumming | |
| Company | Hewson Consultants | |
| Publisher | Hewson Consultants | |
| Musician | Ben Daglish | |
| HVSC-File | /MUSICIANS/D/Daglish_Ben/Firelord.sid | |
| Release | 1986 | |
| Platform | ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, C64 | |
| Genre | Adventure | |
| Gamemode | Single player | |
| Operation |  
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| Media |  
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| Language | 
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| Information | also published in Commodore Format, Issue 18 (03/1992) | |
Description[edit | edit source]
Firelord is an action-adventure game that spans 512 screens. There is no scrolling; the screens are displayed using a flip-screen technique. As the knight Sir Galaheart, the player traverses the enchanted kingdom of Torot, collects four magical amulets, and eventually exchanges them for the sacred firestone. Once he returns it to its rightful owner, the kingdom is redeemed.
Backstory[edit | edit source]
The evil queen of the kingdom of Torot stole the sacred firestone from its rightful owner, a good dragon, and used it to curse the kingdom. Now the land is ravaged by deadly fires, while ghostly apparitions of its inhabitants roam the paths. The difficult task of persuading the queen to hand over the stone, returning it to the dragon, and thus redeeming the kingdom falls to our noble knight, Sir Galaheart.
At the beginning of the game, Sir Galaheart is unarmed. To defend himself against the ghosts that pursue him and drain his energy, he must first search for a magical crystal. With its help, he can now fire projectiles in the form of small stars at his opponents.
Equipped in this way, Sir Galaheart can now begin fulfilling his task: collecting the four amulets of eternal youth. For this challenge, he needs the support of the inhabitants, who, out of fear, hide in their homes but are willing to assist him there — usually for a price. Items suitable for bartering in such trades can be found in many places throughout the kingdom. Our knight can carry a total of four items with him. While attempting to pick up a fifth item, he drops the first one he picked up. The resulting rotation of carried items can continue until Sir Galaheart has decided which item he will reluctantly leave behind (see the animation below).
Design[edit | edit source]
The kingdom that Sir Galaheart traverses is lovingly and intricately designed throughout. A variety of plants in evocative colors, diverse half-timbered houses, as well as small castles and caves transport the player to a fantastical fairytale world. This atmosphere is enhanced by a theme song with delicate and enchanting sounds that prepare the player for the magical things that await. During gameplay, however, only Sir Galaheart's footsteps are usually heard. Only when picking up bonus items or fighting enemies are short, usually unimaginative, sound effects heard.
Graphics[edit | edit source]
The graphics are rendered in monochrome bitmap mode, using only a 256x152 pixel section for the scenes from the Kingdom. Since only one screen page is reserved for this in the Commodore 64's RAM (at address $4000, with the corresponding color information in the screen memory starting at address $6000), the screen goes black for about half a second when transitioning from one screen to the next. Sir Galaheart is rendered using a multicolor sprite overlaid with a black monochrome sprite. This makes the character appear multicolored yet high-resolution.
Hints[edit | edit source]
Screen Layout[edit | edit source]
In each scene, Sir Galaheart is attacked by a finite number of ghosts that move randomly around the area and drain his life energy upon contact. He can defend himself with a magical crystal, but this consumes ammunition. Sir Galaheart can collect life energy, ammunition, and trade vouchers by touching one of the numerous bonus items.
The different colors of the bonus items — like the colors of the tradeable items in the following sections — are purely for visual appeal. They have no bearing on gameplay. In some places, you'll find bonus items (see left image) that change shape approximately every 0.5 seconds, transforming in random order into the types shown above. With a bit of skill and quick reflexes, you can touch these items at the right moment and collect a valuable or urgently needed resource.
Determine the Whereabouts of the Amulets[edit | edit source]
First, our knight must seek out the four inhabitants of the kingdom who can tell him who possesses the Amulets of Eternal Youth and what the current owners would trade them for.
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The people who possess these amulets and the payment required for their return are — apart from the random placement of bonus items within the game board — the only variations that occur between successive games.
Obtain the Desired Items for Exchange.[edit | edit source]
Knowing the whereabouts of the amulets, Sir Galaheart can procure the desired items one by one and thus acquire the corresponding amulets. Laden with these items, he finally appears before the queen and receives from her the sacred flint he stole at the beginning. Once he has then taken it to the good dragon's lair and returned it to its rightful owner, he has completed his task and the game ends. Alternatively, the game can, of course, also end prematurely if our knight loses all his lives before he has completed his task.
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If successful, Sir Galaheart's heroic deed is first duly acknowledged with words of praise. After each game, he is then awarded a title depending on his performance. If he offers all four amulets of eternal youth to the queen but then steals the sacred flint, he receives the highest title of nobility, "Firelord" (left and right images in the gallery above). After an honest exchange, he still becomes an "Overlord", because although he has freed the kingdom from the curse, the evil queen now possesses the four amulets and will rule forever (middle image). If Sir Galaheart does not complete his mission, the possible titles of nobility (in descending order of success) are "Duke", "Baron", "Baronet", "Knight", "Squire", "Thane", "Churl", "Serf", and "Peasant."
In addition to the score achieved, a percentage "Adventure Score" is also displayed. This is calculated from the proportion of rooms that Sir Galaheart has entered at least once during the game (rounded down to the nearest whole percent). The number of screens explored during the game also contributes to the score, as Sir Galaheart receives 250 points for each screen he enters for the first time.
Trading and Stealing[edit | edit source]
Even for simple tips about the location of the amulets, the informers demand a reward, such as a magic crystal carried by Sir Galaheart. However, since this crystal is needed to protect oneself from the ghosts, it might be advantageous to feign trading intentions and steal the information instead.
Trading with the kingdom's inhabitants requires Sir Galaheart to have sufficient trade vouchers. His current supply is displayed as a white bar at the top of the screen (see section "Screen Layout") and decreases continuously as Sir Galaheart enters a house. If Sir Galaheart runs out of trade vouchers (or enters a house without any), he will be quickly ejected and find himself back outside. If he has enough vouchers, however, the available trade options will be displayed inside the house, as shown in the adjacent image: The left column shows the items Sir Galaheart is carrying that he can offer in exchange, and to the right are the resident's abilities. The player can then move the cross-shaped cursor to one of the abilities and confirm with the fire button, for example, by selecting the scales as the symbol for trade. The next step is to select one or more items in the left column to offer them to the resident as payment. The resident will then respond by offering something in return in the third column. In our example, the witch is willing to exchange the seal for one of her brooms (see the left animation in the gallery below). Since the items found along the way through the kingdom are insufficient to acquire all the amulets, Sir Galaheart is forced to steal wherever possible. However, this requires that he can offer the consideration necessary for an honest trade — he can only steal what he could afford to pay for. To do this, he waits until the inhabitant briefly turns away and then quickly marks the grasping hand in the fourth (right) column below. If he then manages to complete all the necessary steps for the trade (here, marking the scales and the brown crystal) before the inhabitant turns around again, the theft is successful (see the middle image for the process). However, if Sir Galaheart steals something while already fully loaded with four items, one of the items offered as a trade will be replaced by the stolen goods.
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If the inhabitant looks back to the left prematurely while Sir Galaheart is still attempting to steal, he is caught red-handed and must face a trial. As shown in the right-hand image, he must stop an arrow, which jumps increasingly quickly between "innocent" and "guilty", three times by pressing the fire button at the moment it points to "innocent." Each time he fails, he loses a life.
The scales symbolize a resident's ability to trade items that can potentially be exchanged for one of the amulets later. A resident always has two similar items, usually in different colors, available for trade. If they also possess an amulet and offer Sir Galaheart the required payment in exchange, this amulet will also appear in the list of possible trade items.
With the star, a resident offers to cast a spell for a fee, transporting Sir Galaheart to a magical location within the kingdom. A spell consists of two characters, each of which must first be selected from a pool of 30 possible characters by moving the joystick left or right. The gallery in the "Getting Around in the Kingdom" section shows Sir Galaheart using a spell in the animation on the right. The list of valid spells can be found in the "Solution" section.
A signpost symbolizes the most frequent and simultaneously most useless service: For a fee, the inhabitant will reveal in which part of the kingdom Sir Galaheart is currently located. The information takes the form "The East/West Wick of Upper/Lower …", where "…" represents one of the place names "Axmonden", "Bedgeden", "Brenchly", "Hawkwood", "Hoghurst", "Saxonden", "Sorowood" and "Toroford".
A total of four residents offer to share their knowledge of the location of an amulet belonging to Sir Galaheart, using the symbol shown on the left. Only with this information can our knight then begin fulfilling his task — and the residents seem to suspect this, as they are sometimes handsomely rewarded for their clues (with up to 3 items to trade).
With this symbol, a resident offers new life energy, trade vouchers, or ammunition. However, since these resources are also plentiful in the kingdom in the form of bonus items, it's rarely worth accepting this offer. The only interesting option is the possibility for two stewards to sell Sir Galaheart up to four extra lives (see "Other Important Residents" in the "Solution" section). However, these stewards seem to be connected to each other—for example, if our knight has already purchased three extra lives from one of them, the others will only offer one more.
A tollbooth attendant uses such a gate to offer passage. In some cases, this is the only way to reach certain parts of the kingdom. Sometimes, however, a tollbooth can simply be bypassed.
With this, Sir Galaheart can ask the evil queen to hand over the sacred flint. However, the queen will only agree to such an exchange if Sir Galaheart offers the four amulets of eternal youth in return.
Getting Around in the Kingdom[edit | edit source]
Sir Galaheart travels through the kingdom — not entirely befitting his station — mostly on foot. If he knows the way and there are no obstacles in his path, he can proceed quite quickly — crossing a screen horizontally takes about 3.2 seconds, and vertically only 1.4 seconds.
To quickly traverse greater distances, Sir Galaheart can also cast a spell with the help of a villager, transporting him to one of 15 magical locations in the kingdom. However, he will only know the necessary spells if he has previously reached the corresponding location on foot — for example, in a previous game. Given the sheer number of possible combinations when assembling a spell (900 possible combinations of two symbols from 30), guessing valid spells is nearly impossible. The magical location pictured on the left is an exception: it lies in an area of the kingdom accessible only by spell. A clue to the existence of this magical location can be found outside this area (similar to the "Z.A.P." teleporter station in the game Starquake).
Such a semicircular cluster of stars is a passage into the horizontally adjacent screen. The passage is used by moving Sir Galaheart into the open side of the semicircle. The passage shown above leads to the right-hand neighboring screen, where a corresponding passage exists for the return journey. The lower image shows a passage leading to the left. The right-hand animation in the following gallery shows, among other things, the crossing of such a passage.
There are toll stations in three rooms of the kingdom. A fee is charged for passing through them, but, similar to trading, passage can also be obtained by sneaking through them while the guard looks away. After selecting the gate symbol and marking the desired payment, four arrows appear in the third column. By selecting one of the arrows, Sir Galaheart can leave the toll station in the corresponding direction. Some areas of the kingdom are only accessible via the toll stations, including one of the houses where a clue to the amulets' whereabouts can be found. In other cases, however, the toll station can be bypassed on foot, saving time and trade items. The adjacent sign indicates that such a toll station is located in the neighboring screen to the right. The left animation in the following gallery shows Sir Galaheart passing through a toll station, cheating the guard out of the toll fee while he briefly looks away.
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Obstacles[edit | edit source]
These flying stars, usually in groups of two or three, block the path at numerous points. If Sir Galaheart carries magic crystals, any contact with these obstacles will steal one of them, potentially leaving him unarmed. These flying stars are impervious to shots — but with a bit of skill, one can usually weave between them. If our knight doesn't have a magic crystal, the flying stars can't harm him.
Similarly, flying bubbles will obstruct Sir Galaheart's path in some locations. Contact with them will drain almost a third of his total health. Four well-aimed shots with a magic crystal will destroy them, or the knight can simply evade their movements.
Among the most difficult obstacles are fires, some of which block the path permanently, others that flare up periodically. Contact with them is instantly fatal. Sir Galaheart must therefore avoid them or—where this is not possible—wait until they temporarily go out. In the case of fires that do not extinguish even after a long wait, it often helps to briefly visit an inhabitant of the kingdom and then return to the fire.
Numerous entrances to caves or dwellings are blocked by white, frozen fires and white gates. Behind them lie fires that erupt as soon as Sir Galaheart charges into these obstacles (see the left animation in the section "One-Way Streets"). In some places, several attempts may be necessary. If more than one entrance in a screen is blocked in this way, it can also be worthwhile to change your target from time to time.
Once Sir Galaheart has charged into such an obstacle a sufficient number of times, he must retreat immediately upon contact, otherwise the fire that appears behind it will instantly incinerate him — and all his efforts will have been in vain, as the original obstacle will then reappear. The corresponding sequence of movements requires considerable skill and some practice. If the attack is successful, the newly appearing fire will extinguish itself from time to time, allowing the spot to be passed after a short wait.
The sign next to it warns of fires burning directly at the entrance to an adjacent screen, into which a hurried traveler could therefore accidentally run.
One-way Streets[edit | edit source]
Caution is advised when encountering gates and frozen fires that block passage to the room above: Such obstacles cannot be breached from the opposite direction and thus constitute one-way streets (left image in the gallery below).
Fires that ignite permanently some time after entering a screen can also create a one-way street if the time frame is such that it is only sufficient to pass the fire in one direction (see middle image below). Image).
Some houses in the kingdom have multiple entrances through which they can be entered, but when leaving, Sir Galaheart always returns to the path through the same exit. If the two entrances to such houses are separated by an insurmountable obstacle, this arrangement also forms a one-way street (right image).
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Solution[edit | edit source]
Map[edit | edit source]
For better orientation, the map is provided with a grid and a coordinate system, to which all subsequent location references refer. Screen R3 is shown in the upper right corner only for ease of display; when walking through it, it is located to the left of Screen A4.
Determine the Owners and Prices of the Amulets[edit | edit source]
As a first step in fulfilling his task, Sir Galaheart must find out which people currently possess the four Amulets of Eternal Youth and what items they demand in exchange for their return. It is irrelevant whether one first learns about all the owners and then acquires the items to be traded, or whether one begins trading items even though one does not yet have all the information. The following table lists, for each amulet, the inhabitant who knows the current owner and the price for surrendering the item. Furthermore, for each of these informants, the nearest magical location to their dwelling is listed, along with the spell necessary to reach it. From the magical location to the actual informant, several screens must be traversed — and to prevent Sir Galaheart from getting lost in the final stretch, the table also uses a sequence of arrows to indicate the directions in which the neighboring rooms must be entered. Since the informants are sometimes quite greedy and sometimes demand more than one item to trade for their knowledge, the last column of the table also lists the price of the information.
| Amulet | Informer | Wohnort | Nearest magical place | Spell | Way from magical place () = Toll station |
Price for information (Number of items to be traded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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G24 | J26 |  |
↑←↑↑←←↓→ | 3 |
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F14 | F13 |  |
←↑→→→↓↓←← | 1 |
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G32 | H30 |  |
←←←↑←←↓(↓)↓→↑↓→↑↓→→ | 2 |
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B6 | A8 |  |
→→→→→→→↑↑←↓←↑←↓←↑←← | 1 |
Obtain Payments for Amulets[edit | edit source]
Sir Galaheart now knows which items he must acquire in order to gradually exchange them for the amulets of eternal youth. These goods are offered by the same inhabitants in the same locations. To acquire an amulet, it is sufficient to offer a single item in exchange. And anyone who steals roses from the princess need not fear a trial: for the young lady alone has understood that Sir Galaheart wishes to redeem her and the entire land.
| Goods offered | Provider | Place of residence | Nearest magical place | Spell | Way from magical place |
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H16 | A15 |  |
↓→→→→→→→ |
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F14 | F13 |  |
←↑→→→↓↓←← |
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R28 | Q28 |  |
↓→↑ |
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N28 | M28 |  |
→ |
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R3 | B3 |  |
↓←↓↑← |
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N6 | P8 |  |
↑↑← |
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Q6 | P8 |  |
↑↑→ |
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Q7 | P8 |  |
↑→ |
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L29 | M28 |  |
↓← |
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B15 | A15 |  |
→ |
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E9 | A8 |  |
→→↓→→ |
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C11 | F13 |  |
←←↑↑↑←←←↓→→ |
Other Important Residents[edit | edit source]
The following table lists all the other inhabitants of the kingdom who are important or helpful for solving the game.
First in line is the evil queen, for she possesses the sacred flint and is willing to trade it for the four amulets of eternal youth collected throughout the game. If Sir Galaheart then delivers this flint to the good dragon's lair, the kingdom of Torot will finally be redeemed.
Since Sir Galaheart can only carry a maximum of four items at a time, he should store the amulets he acquires gradually in a safe place so that he always has enough items to trade with him as the game progresses. Because the inhabitants do not accept the amulets as payment, even a toll station will otherwise present an insurmountable obstacle once Sir Galaheart is carrying all four Amulets of Eternal Youth towards the end of the game. Up to four items can be deposited free of charge with a tithe collector at three locations in the kingdom. The tithe collector in Screen E16 is particularly convenient, as he lives not far from the queen — and thus the recipient of the amulets. The stewards, who offer up to four extra lives for a fee, and a merchant who sells magical crystals may also be useful.
| Resident | Role | Place of residence | Nearest magical place | Spell | Way from magical place |
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Queen | B16 | A15 | |
↓→ |
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Dragon | R28 | Q28 | |
↓→↑ |
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Tithe collector | D9 | A8 | |
→→↓→ |
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Tithe collector | E16 | A15 | |
↓→→→→ |
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Tithe collector | J11 | F13 | |
←↑→→→↑→ |
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Bailiff | D13 | F13 | |
←← |
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Bailiff | G13 | F13 | |
→ |
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Dealer | A23 | C24 |  |
↓←↑↑←←↑← |
Other magical places[edit | edit source]
The magical locations listed in the following table are not required to complete the game. They are listed here only for the sake of completeness, as the final evaluation of Sir Galaheart's performance also takes into account the number of rooms entered.
| Magical place | Spell |
|---|---|
| Q9 |  |
| J19 |  |
| C23 |  |
| N23 |  |
Cheats[edit | edit source]
A number of cracks of Firelord exist with a trainer function. For example, Gamebase64 contains a crack of Remember with six different trainer options:
"health", "shots", and "cross" represent health, ammunition, and trade vouchers, respectively. If Sir Galaheart does not carry a magic crystal, he is defenseless despite an active trainer and "infinite shots".
Internal Data Structures[edit | edit source]
Knowledge of memory allocation and internal workings is helpful for developing custom trainer functions and for analyzing or manipulating the data used by the game. The following table therefore compiles a range of information about Firelord. Unfortunately, the cracks available on the World Wide Web are usually compressed, so the information listed here cannot be directly exploited by a single poke.
| Adresse | Inhalt | Bemerkungen |
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| $0C60-$0C9F | Visited Screens | Bitmap consisting of 512 bits, each representing a screen (0: not visited, 1: visited). A value of $80 at address $0C60 means that screen A1 was visited and screens A2…A8 were not. Address $0C61 similarly represents screens A9…A16. Sir Galaheart receives 250 points for each first-time visit to a screen; furthermore, the percentage "Adventure Score" is calculated at the end of the game based on this bitmap as "INT(100 * number of set bits / 512)". |
| $21D2 | Number of Lives | Counted down in the program code at addresses $1659 (no more lives) and $F35E (verdict during trial). If, for example, the opcodes $CE (for DEC) at address $1659 are replaced by $AD (for LDA) and at address $F35E by $2C (for BIT), Sir Galaheart will then have infinite lives. |
| $21D3 | Current Life Energy | Maximum 124 |
| $21D4 | Current Ammunition | Maximum 124 |
| $21D4 | Current Trade Vouchers | Maximum 124 |
| $FE76 | Dweller Head Turn Counter | Counts down with the frame rate; when it reaches 0, the dweller turns their head in the opposite direction. |
| $FE77 | Dweller's Viewing Direction | Bit 7 indicates the direction in which the currently visited dweller is looking (0: left towards Sir Galaheart, 1: right, stealing is possible). The change in viewing direction is made in the program code at address $F1F9. If the opcode $49 (for EOR #$80) is replaced by $09 (for ORA #$80) at this point, no dweller will ever turn their head to the left again. |
| $0BED-$0BF2, $0BF3-$0BF8, $0BF9-$0BFE, $0BFF-$0C04 | Fire Parameters | Each of a maximum of 4 fires is assigned a 6-byte data structure. The first two bytes are of particular interest: Byte 0 counts down with the frame rate; upon reaching 0, the fire changes its state (burning or extinguished). The values 255 (gate or frozen fire) and 254 (permanently burning) have special meanings; they are not counted down. Byte 1 contains the value to which byte 0 is reset after counting down to zero. If both bytes are 0, no associated fire exists. |
| $0062-$0063 | Current Screen | Number of the screen (0..511) where Sir Galaheart is currently located, as a 16-bit little endian integer. Overwriting this value will catapult the knight to the new location after the next loss of a life — very useful when creating a map of the kingdom. |
Also of interest is the fact that a single subroutine is responsible for Sir Galaheart losing a magic crystal upon contact with flying stars. This routine is called at address $311D. If the opcode $20 (for JSR) there is replaced by $2C (for BIT), the flying stars can no longer cause any harm.
Votes[edit | edit source]
| Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote): | ||
| 5.33 points at 3 votes. You need to be logged in to cast a vote. | ||
| ZZAP64 | 68% (Presentation 84%, Graphics 61%, Sound 83%, Hookability 73%, Lastability 66%, Value 67%) | Ausgabe 22 (February 1987) |
| Lemon64 | 7 | 62 votes |
| Happy Computer | 68% | Sonderheft 17 |
| ASM | 9/10 | 1/87 |
| Amtix! | 88% | Ausgabe 15 (January 1987) |
| Sinclair User | 5/5 | Ausgabe 56 (November 1986) |
| Crash | 91% | Ausgabe 35 (December 1986) |
| Computer & Video Games | 61% | Ausgabe 112 (March 1991) |
| Commodore User | 8/10 (Graphics 7/10, Sound 8/10, Toughness 9/10, Endurance 9/10, Value 9/10) | Ausgabe 41 (February 1987) |
| Your Sinclair | 7/10 | Ausgabe 12 (December 1986) |
| Tilt | Interêt 4/5, Graphisme 4/4, Animation 3/5, Bruitage 3/5 13/20 14/20 |
N° 38 (Janvier 1987) N° 39 (Février 1987) N° 40 (Mars 1987) |
| Universal Videogame List | 3.6/5 | 17. Februar 2023 |
Critics[edit | edit source]
Stephan64: "Firelord fascinated me from the very first moment because it is clearly recognizable as the successor to my favorite game Starquake — yet it remained enigmatic for a long time because the player's task is not immediately obvious. The disappointment after the resolution was all the greater: no curious exploration of the picturesque landscape, but rather the targeted contacting of a few key people, difficult-to-remember spells and a lengthy search for their providers, plus constant joystick acrobatics to break through gates, steal objects, and weave between obstacles. At least the enchanting visuals from the kingdom of Torot are a feast for the eyes."
Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]
Cover[edit | edit source]
Inlay[edit | edit source]
Cassette[edit | edit source]
Theme[edit | edit source]
The left image in the following gallery shows the first page of the title theme in standard musical notation. Numerous special effects, some of which are not visible in this representation, give the melody a delicate and enchanting sound. For example, the melody is played back with changing waveforms and — as can be seen in the right image of the gallery based on the exact frequency response — with a strong vibrato. In the first two lines, the first and second voices play the same melody, but offset by a sixteenth note. Interestingly, these two lines also have a third voice, which, however, is inaudible thanks to a waveform register set to $00 at address $D404.
For creative reuse of the melody, the complete sheet music is also available as a PDF document (File:Firelord Theme PDF.pdf) and in ABC musical notation (File:Firelord Theme.abc.txt).
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Fastloader[edit | edit source]
The cassette version of Firelord uses an integrated software fast loader that is automatically activated during loading and speeds up the loading process by approximately a factor of 5.5.
The fast loader is capable of successively loading any number of program segments to any location in memory. Each such program segment is preceded by an 8-byte data structure containing the start and end addresses of the subsequent data block, the entry address, and two flags. The first flag identifies the last block of a program, while the second distinguishes between machine language programs (which can be accessed directly) and BASIC programs (which must be re-bound and then started with RUN). Thanks to optimized encoding (shorter intervals for 0 and 1 bits, no duplicate storage of program data), loading Firelord takes only about three and a half minutes, whereas the KERNAL's datasette routines could only load a file of this size in two consecutive steps, requiring approximately 20 minutes.
The fast loader is identical to that of The Sacred Armour of Antiriad, but uses pulses that are approximately 40% longer for recording, resulting in a lower data rate. Furthermore, it does not copy any program portion below the I/O area during loading.
Bugs[edit | edit source]
After a fierce battle against the ghosts, fragments of Sir Galaheart's ammunition occasionally remain at various points along the path (left image in the gallery below). However, they have no effect on the game, and they disappear on their own after temporarily leaving the screen or losing a life.
The "Adventure Score", displayed at the end of each game, is calculated as a percentage of the screens that Sir Galaheart has visited at least once. Unfortunately, the author didn't anticipate that our knight would be so adventurous as to actually traverse the entire kingdom, and only provided two digits for the output — so in this case, instead of 100%, only an Adventure Score of 10% is displayed (right image).
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Trivia[edit | edit source]
In designing the artwork for "Firelord", author Steve Crow drew inspiration from his home region of Sussex and Kent, and its villages with wooden houses and thatched roofs, which he explored by bicycle. This model, in particular, explains the large number of pubs in the villages of the Kingdom of Torot.[1]. Since the houses look like they were built 300 years ago, "Firelord" is set in the Middle Ages, and the player character starts as an unarmed serf and slowly works his way up the hierarchy.[2]. Sir Galaheart is therefore initially defenseless, and "Firelord" is consequently difficult to play at first — Steve Crow would equip the player character with a weapon right from the start.[3]
Highscore[edit | edit source]
The following gallery invites you to immortalize yourself with your personal high score. The entries are sorted in descending order by percentage "Adventure Score." In case of a tie, the score determines the ranking.
- Stephan64 - 26% (12.09.2023)
- Ivanpaduano - 15% (21.07.2021)
- Keule - 6% (11.03.2024)
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| #2 Ivanpaduano | #3 Keule |
Links[edit | edit source]
- C64Games.de - Game No. 1424
- Lemon64 - Game No. 923
- Gamebase64.com - Game No. 2763
- C64.com - Game No. 176
- ready64 - Game No. 2214
- CSDb - Release No. 58839
- CSDb
- The SixtyFour Originals DataBase - Game No. 1535
- Crash Online test report
- Firelord auf MobyGames.com
- Universal Videogame List
- Magazine
- ZZap64 test report
- Amtix test report (p. 15)
- Sinclair User test report (p. 32)
- Crash preview (p. 128), advertisement (p. 15)
- ASM test report (p. 8)
- ASM short overview (p. 60)
- Crash test report (p. 22), advertisement (p. 9)
- Your Sinclair test report (p. 53)
- Commodore User test report (p. 25)
- Computer & Video Games test report (p. 70)
- Tilt test report (p. 41)
- Tilt test report (p. 29)
- Tilt test report (p. 26)
Videos[edit | edit source]
Sources[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Crash No. 34 (November 1986), p. 128
- ↑ retro GAMER 1/2020, p. 78
- ↑ retro GAMER 1/2020, p. 79
