Conquests of Camelot (full official title Conquests of Camelot: King Arthur, Quest for the Grail) is a Sierra adventure game released in 1989, and it is considered the first part of the Conquests series designed by Christy Marx (the only other was Conquests of the Longbow). The graphics as well as the package illustrations were made by her husband Peter Ledger .
Plot
The game concerns the age of decline of Camelot because of the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, and the revelation that the only cure would be the Grail. Gawain, Lancelot and Galahad never returned from the Quest, so the player controls King Arthur himself who was sent to fulfill it, and on his way rescue the 3 knights.
The adventure itself concerns Camelot only in brief. Then it leads the player in various places of England, including Glastonbury Tor, and then Gaza and Jerusalem where King Arthur will learn about the cult of the Six Goddesses. It was famed for the immense amount of historic knowledge and folklore that is woven between the dialogues and the descriptions as the plot unfolds. The message boxes (narrations) are supposedly given by the Wizard Merlin speaking and counseling the player.
Technical details
the game was accompanied by a medieval-like soundtrack. The scoring was based on 3 kinds of points: Skill (when the player makes deeds that help him in his quest, or defeat enemies), Wisdom (when examining things, or talking to others, gaining hints) and Soul (performing good deeds).
The package offered a map of Europe in Arthurian times, illustrated by Peter Ledger, and an illustrated manual called Liber Ex Doctrina ("book of doctrine/knowledge/teaching" - that is, the game documentation) with some texts about the evolution of the Arthurian myths, as well as those of the Grail, Greek and Roman myths, knowledge that is obligatory in order to answer some of the riddles in the game.
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