DEVELOPER Q&A

RETRO GAMER TALKS TO TRACY LEWIS, THE CODER BEHIND SPELLBOUND’S RECENT MSX PORT

PRESUMABLY, YOU’RE A FAN OF THE MSX?

I got my first MSX computer in 1985 and I’ve been hooked ever since then. It’s not a ‘retro’ thing for me since I have never stopped using MSX machines.

WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE OF THE ORIGINAL MAGIC KNIGHT GAMES, PARTICULARLY SPELLBOUND?

Believe it or not, I only discovered Spellbound a few years ago. I bought Knight Tyme back in the day and found it hypnotic and fascinating. Later, I got a pirated copy of the other Magic Knight titles that were available for the MSX. However, Knight Tyme was the only Magic Knight game I ever managed to finish.

WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES SPELLBOUND SO SPECIAL?

Spellbound established a new genre that we’d never seen before – a mix between an arcade game, a text adventure and a graphic adventure. David [Jones] was a bit of a whiz when it came to the ‘Windimation’ system.

WHAT WAS DAVID’S REACTION WHEN YOU ASKED HIM ABOUT DOING AN MSX PORT OF SPELLBOUND?

I contacted David on Facebook and showed him an early version of the game on MSX. He liked it and agreed to let me make the port as long as he was credited as the original author. I also had to remove Mastertronic’s name from it.

DID HE GIVE YOU ANY OF THE GAME’S ORIGINAL CODE TO WORK FROM?

David pointed me to a disassembled code someone else had made. But I had already done my own disassembling using NSA’S Ghidra.

HOW LONG DID THE WORK TAKE YOU TO COMPLETE?

It took about a month to have a playable version and several more months to add Msxspecific enhancements and fix issues. I found some bugs in the original game – for instance, characters would reappear randomly across the map after being sent to their time.

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THE PORT?

It was definitely adding the music. I originally borrowed it from the Spectrum 128K game, but I wasn’t satisfied with the AY version. So, I ended up writing a new arrangement based on Rob Hubbard’s original composition for the Commodore 64.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANTED TO IMPLEMENT BUT COULDN’T?

I started from the 48K version, and later – too late – I found out that the 128K version had a more extensive map and some other new features. I might release an extended version someday, including the 128K map and even more enhancements.

WERE YOU SURPRISED MASTERTRONIC DIDN’T RELEASE AN MSX VERSION BACK IN THE DAY?

Absolutely! That’s why I decided to make this game.

To find out more about Tracy’s work, head over to mastropiero.itch.io/spellbound-msx