The amount of knights you can move out into the world, saving damsels and slaying dragons, is limited at first but as you conquer territory and solve quests, more and more knights and parts of Britain join you, giving you more manpower and leading to your ultimate goal of reuniting the land.

Some knights have old rivalries and should be kept apart, others are of questionable moral fibre and may join the enemy, but mostly you'll come to rely on only a few key knights, sorcerers and monks. Some will have an army under their command, which you'll need to counter Saxon armies and robbers on the campaign map, but most knights you'll employ in RPG fashion, facing opponents in single combat, supported by magic, potions and other helpful items.

Spirit of Excalibur is divided into five parts, each containing a challenge to the realm that must be dealt with – in many cases swiftly and under severe opposition. Navigating through this in the most effective manner requires a lot of experimentation and a lot of restarts for each chapter. This is both part of the charm and the frustration of the game – it will make you work for its perfect ending and you will feel quite some accomplishment if you ever get it.

Battles are relatively few in number, and many can be avoided. A nice touch is that you can mix and match multiple parties, directing each of them around the map as you please, completing multiple objectives such as countering enemy armies in several places at once or having quicker knights scout ahead, buying things from peddlers and gathering information, while your best party focuses on the storyline.

I remember originally filing the game under “adventure”, because while it has progressing stats and several ways to solve (some) situations, at its heart, the game is about exploration, puzzle-solving and above all, even for its time, trial and error. In its hardest parts you be under time constraints and need to do everything just right.