Spirit of Excalibur

Spirit of Excalibur is a 1990 role-playing game developed by Synergistic Software and published by Virgin Mastertronic for MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore CDTV, Apple IIGS and Macintosh.

The geographical setting for Spirit of Excalibur is a depiction of actual southern England with its cities, castles, villages, churches and other locations scattered throughout the land.

Both fictional and historical sources are used to recreate the atmosphere of the age of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and to draw out characters' names, history and relationships.

The game's sources include medieval works such as Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, modern ones such as Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and a number of historical treatises on Arthur of the late 1980s.

As the game progresses, enchanted beings threaten Constantine's kingdom and the player must find the magical means to stop these menaces as well, up to the final confrontation with Arthur's half-sister Morgan le Fay who is dabbling in dark arts.

[1] Jim Trunzo reviewed Spirit of Excalibur in White Wolf #24 (Dec./Jan., 1990), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "Fans of the Arthurian legends will thrill to the authenticity and feel of the game.

It begins after Morgan has been slain and all her evil magic was undone, which also means the demon lord Shadowmaster was set free and becomes the powerful new main antagonist.

DOS screenshot showing a portion of Britain on the map screen
Screenshot of a "scene level": a group of knights of the Round Table (left) meets some evil knights (right)