Citadel

About Citadel

Citadel (1985) is Michael Jakobsen's seminal BBC Micro platform-puzzle game set around a castle, in which the player hunts five hidden crystals, introduced by synthesised speech.

Citadel in Depth

Centred on a castle, with outdoor areas including a wasteland, a pyramid, a sea and an island, the game asks players to find five hidden crystals and return them to their rightful place, then teleport to a separate set of locations to finish. Afterwards they can roam the castle freely to reach the maximum score, and only 99 points reveals the final congratulatory message. Unlike many platformers, touching fireballs, snakes and other hazards does not kill outright but drains a numbered energy supply, refilled by bottle-shaped objects; lose too much energy in one room and the screen turns red and returns the player to the room's entrance, stopping anyone simply walking through enemies.

Most enemies can only be avoided, except the monks, which can be destroyed. Players choose their character's sex, with a different sprite for each, unusual when memory was scarce. Rather than drawing the player over objects, the game combines the sprite's colours with what is behind it using an XOR operation, so the male hero's pink hair and yellow skin turn yellow and pink in front of the cyan stones of the Stonehenge screen, a distinctive effect reused in its two sequels. It was unusual for playing synthesised speech before loading, partly to advertise Superior's "Speech!" package, and for advanced effects such as splashing water.

Making Citadel

Michael Jakobsen developed it for the BBC Micro and Superior Software released it in 1985. It was widely acclaimed on release and remains one of the classic BBC Micro games; its author later made the Acorn Electron source and development versions of the BBC source available.