Knight Driver © Clive Brooker 1983
Game Links		Games
Publisher:- Hewson Consultants Ltd Year of publication:- 1984 Original Computer:- 48K Sinclair Spectrum Sales:- 6000+ Design & programming:- Clive Brooker Other formats:- None Background Having completed the game Buggy, I decided to redo it from scratch, but tried to make it look a lot more professional for its time. As a novice, self taught programmer, it was a major undertaking that took over 6 months, but as a hobby, time was unimportant. When close to completion, it was time to send it to the publishers of the day and await a response. The publisher Ocean (big in its day and became even bigger) sent me a Royal Mail Special Delivery letter asking me to contact them urgently! Sounded promising, but they told me that they just needed to see a new car game from a new publisher before making a decision. The new software house was Ultimate and the game was, TransAM. Needless to say, Ocean declined the option and I eventually agreed a contract with Hewson Consultants. I must admit that this game has not passed the test of time very well. The graphics are weak, as is the gameplay, but I did learn a great deal whilst creating it, that hopefully led to better things to come. However, back in 1983, the game was par for the course - just about. Scenario Take the controls of your car and drive it skillfully around the circuit. Accelerate, decelerate, turn accurately left and right. Gameplay Knight Driver can be played in two different modes. Press P for Professional. Lose one of 5 lives each time you steer off the road. Press L for Learner and you have limited time to complete the course. Each time that you steer off the course, your speed drops back to slow. The faster you go, the higher the score. Keyboard Controls After pressing either P or L for professional of Learner (hold your finger on these keys until the game starts), pressing the Enter Key starts the car moving forward. Shift Z Space CTRL Rotate anticlockwise Rotate clockwise Accelerate Decelerate   Hints Tips & Cheats The pressing of a rotation key is only tested once each time the frame is printed to the screen. The frame rate is dependant on the speed of the car, hence the apparent sensitivity of the keys, becomes greater as the car moves faster. This does make the car awkward to control. When driving in Learner mode, keep your finger on the space bar to accelerate as quickly as possible, after you lose speed when colliding with an edge. Always follow the correct route. There are invisible markers on the road which are checked as you progress, which stop adding to your score if you take a short cut!  References kindly reproduced from The World of Spectrum Magazine Issue Type Crash 5.84 page 36 Review Crash 7.84 page 38 Letters Your Spectrum 7.84 page 52 Review Sinclair User 8.91 page 6 Cover Game No elements of this web site may be reproduced without the prior consent of the author. © Clive Brooker 2001-2012, 2020