GALAHAD & THE HOLY GRAIL




You are a knight, a stranger in a mystical lan, on a quest to find the 
Holy Grail.  You will face many dangers, including a fire-breathing 
dragon and giant spiders.

This game is loosely based on the King Arthur legend.  This game 
involves no typing or reading.  It makes extensive use of graphics and 
sound effects.  this is a complex game.  You should read this manual 
first.


REQUIRED ACCESSORIES

32K RAM
Atari 810 Disk Drive
Atari Joystick Controller


LEGENDARY BACKGROUND

The story of the quest for the Holy Grail is steeped in early Christian 
mysticism.  It was the custom of Arthur and the Knights of the Round 
Table to not sit down to dinner on the Pentecost until a miracle 
occurred.  One year, the miracles began with the appointment of Sir 
Galahad, son of Lancelot and the last descendant of Joseph of Arimathea, 
to the Round Table at the seat called Seige Perelous.

That night, after evensong, there was a great sound of thunder and a 
blinding light.  The Holy Grail was carried through the hall by a 
maiden.  It was covered with white samite so no one could see it.  It 
had the fragrant odor of spices.  Food and drink of each’s desire 
appeared.  And then the Grail was gone.

Sir Gawain and many other knights swore that they would depart the next 
day on a quest to find the Grail.  This made Arthur very sad, for he 
knew that many good knights would not return, and that perhaps the 
Fellowship of the Round Table would be broken.

After many miraculous adventures, Sir Galahad, Sir Percival, and Sir 
Bours, by authority of their great virtue, succeeded in the mysterious 
quest.  Galahad’s soul was taken by angels, and a hand appeared also 
taking the Grail and the Spear to heaven.  Sir Percival died about a 
year later.  Sir Bors returned to Camelot and reported Sir Galahad’s 
last words: “Remember how ephemeral is this earth!”

For the Spear was the one that had pierced Jesus Christ.  The Grail was 
the cup in which drops of His blood had been collected.  Both had been 
taken to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea.  Or so the story goes. 


GETTING STARTED

Remove any cartridges from the cartridge slot of your computer.  A 
joystick should be plugged into the number 1 controller jack (leftmost).  
Turn on your disk drive, wait for the busy light to go out, and insert 
the game diskette.

After a few seconds, Sir Gawain’s speech will be displayed.  When the 
White Chapel appears, then the game has begun.  To start a new game at 
any time, press the SYSTEM RESET key.

There is a simplified form of the game.  To select it, press the SELECT 
key at any time.  This will unlock the three doors.  The path to the 
Grail will begin at the White Castle.  The White Chapel will turn black 
to indicate that you selected the simplified form.


MOVEMENT

Move your knight by pushing the Joystick up, down, left, and right.  
You’ll discover that you can move more easily on roads and meadows than 
through forests and up stairs.  Some surfaces are deadly (like deep 
water).  Some, like walls and mountains, cannot normally be passed 
through.  Beware of walls, for they are enchanted and may pull you in.

There are portals in various places.  If you move through one, you will 
be transported to another place.  the four most important portals are in 
the mountains, in the forest, in the Black Castle, and in the White 
Castle.

In some places there are secret passages.  You can’t see them, but you 
can move through them.  The problem of course is finding them.


HELPFUL OBJECTS

There are several objects scattered around that may help you in your 
quest.  To pick one up, simply bump into it.  To drop it, press the 
joystick button and move away from it.  You can carry only one object at 
a time.

SWORD.  The sword will allow you to fight monsters, battle knights, and 
frighten insects.  It works best when you keep your foes to your left or 
right.

ACTION WEDGE:  This wedge will help you run your fastest and jump your 
highest.

MAGIC RING:  This magic ring will protect you from monsters and hand 
gernades.

HOLY HAND GERNADE OF ANTIOCH:  Three seconds after you drop the hand 
grenade it will explode.  It will break down walls and kill anything in 
the room.  It will not open locked doors.  It should not be used near 
portals because it might close them forever.

KEYS:  Three keys unlock the three doors.  The keys are color coded to 
the doors they open.


DANGERS

Your quest is fraught with peril.  Should you die, you will be returned 
to the White Chapel and anyone or thing you may have killed is also 
resurrected.

There are occasional traps around the place which should be avoided.  
These will remain in the same place from game to game.  The knights and 
monsters are more mobile.

KNIGHTS ERRANT:  There are knights traveling about looking for 
challenges.  They know nothing of your quest, but they know of your 
great skill as a knight and want to test themselves by fighting you to 
the death.  They are fair knights, and won’t fight you unarmed.

DRAGON:  The dragon flies, breathes fire, and has sharp teeth and claws.

RABBIT:  A creature so foul and cruel that no man has fought with it and 
lived.

SPIDERS:  They lurk in close spaces and in sticky webs.

MONSTER MOTH:  It was a graveyard smoth.

START:  You will die if you press the START key.


WINNING

Set your goals before you start.  Swear to do one or more of the 
following (or make up a goal of your own):
> To find the three keys
> To find the Holy Grail
> To return the Grail to the White Chapel
> To not press SELECT
> To attain the goal in one life
> To attain the goal in ? (some fixed amount of time)
> To slay all the monsters

Whether or not you meet your goal is a matter of your own honor as a 
knight.  The program will neither judge nor reward you with points.


TOURNAMENT PLAY

When playing with two or more players, first agree on goals.  One player 
plays a complete game, and then passes the joystick on to the next 
contestant.  The winner is the one to meet the goals in the smallest 
number of lives (with ties being settled by the smallest amount of 
time), or in the smallest amount of time (with close times being settled 
by the smallest number of lives).

Another way to play is to take turns during the same game.  After each 
life ends (or after an agreed upon period of time), hand the joystick to 
the next player.  The winner is the player holding the joystick at the 
attainment of the goal.



DESIGNER’S NOTES

I developed the game as a reactin to the many verbose Adventure and 
Dungeon games.  I wanted to present a sense of exploring a strange land.  
There may be no undiscovered places in this world, but we can invent 
them, and computers can make them real.  In order to encourage 
experimentation and discovery, I’ve limited the helpfulness of these 
instructions.

I hope that you find the game educational in at least three aspects.  
First, it gives drill in using a joystick, which is rapidly becoming an 
essential skill.   Second, I hope to encourage an interest in reading 
and comparative history.  Third, the game gives practical experience in 
pointer manipulation and list processing, which are two names for one of 
the most important concepts in computer science (Each screen is actually 
a node in a network, each linked to one to five other nodes.  Moving 
through the game can be viewed as a tree-traversal.)  (TYPERS NOTE:  
While the programmer may have gained practical experience in pointer 
manipulation and list processing while creating this game, the 
individual playing the game will not!)

My concept of the game changed as I developed it, largely on the advise 
of the Atari 800 computer.  There are some things it does poorly, but it 
does other things so incredibly well that no one notices its 
limitations.  The key to developing programs on this machine is to 
understand all the things that it really does well, and build your game 
around them.  Often, an interesting “rule” will exist only to hide 
something the machine can’t do, but you don’t mind because the rule 
makes the game more interesting.  I believe this is also true for arcade 
games like Centipede and Missile Command.

I made the backgrounds using what Atari BASIC calls GR. 3 for a couple 
of reasons.  First, of all the graphics modes, it uses the smallest 
amount of memory, allowing me to stuff 96 different rooms and a program 
into 32K.  Also, the amount of memory for a screen in GR. 3 is slightly 
less than a page.  The 6502 loves dealing with page-sized objects.

You’ll notice that I “flip” from one room to another instead of scroll.  
Scrolling is easy to do on the Atari 800 computer and looks great.  I 
resisted the temptation to use it because I wanted to have the flavor of 
a haunted house game we used to play called “Spook-in-the-dark.”  
Flipping into a room is more like having walls and doors;  you can’t 
really see what’s in the room until you get there.  With scrolling, you 
might get warning.

All of the objects that move around are done with player/missile 
graphics.  The program is built around a simple multi-tasking operating 
system.  Each object is directed by its own independent program.  I used 
two display list interrupts to create a 120 Hz clock for scheduling.   
The explosion effect is done simply by using the missiles as a fifth 
player, and then moving the missiles apart.

The program took about four months to develop.  I did it on an Atari 800 
computer with 48K and two disk drives using the Assembler/Editor 
cartridge.


