Overall I really liked it. I'm glad you managed to pull it off, and I look forward to watching a series (and maybe offering to take part: my housemates are all knightmare fans so we might make a good team.)

My main objection: the backgrounds were too dark. I was watching on my laptop, and granted it was a very sunny day at the time, but I had the brightness right up and still had to move from my desk to somewhere more away from the window. I could see the characters fine though, it was just the rooms themselves.

Regarding Ward, I think it might just be that he's so different form Treguard. Probably over a series I'd get used to him, and the actor would get used to the role. Perhaps you could give him some kind of pool (like Lord Fear's) to look into to see what was going on?

Regarding third person view, you said the advisors wouldn't get that view: is that because it's not technically possible, or is that a conscious decision? Letting the advisors see a third person overview might be quite nice.

Good things: I agree about the music being awesome, and the tech working really well. The premise was great too, and the acting was mostly very good (as I say, I'm sure the actors will get into the roles more and more as the series goes on: real Knightmare took a while to get going in that way too.) Above all, it's great that there's a new Knightmare-style game happening, and I can't wait to see more of it!

By the way, where are you guys based? Or is this a distributed internet effort? One of my housemates recognised one of your actors from Warwick LARPS.

Amorya

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've come up with!

(Seems my login is not working)

I only check this site every so often these days, which is why I didn't post sooner. I would definitely buy Knightmare DVDs

There is no page_header.tpl

At least, none that I can see. Although I suppose it's possible that there is some other included file for the header of each page.

It's actually called overall_header.html. (There's also overall_footer).

Some friends and I have planned out what we'd do if we were in charge of the next series of Knightmare. (At some point, we might try something like this out as a fan project.)

First and foremost, we'd go live. Film it in a theatre. Picture it as an audience member: you take your seats, and the orchestra strike up the Knightmare theme music. During this, the curtain opens to reveal the ante-chamber, where the advisors sit. (They sit facing the audience, watching a screen in front of them.) Behind the advisors is a big screen showing the view of the dungeon.

The blue room is next door. (I'm at Warwick university, and the Arts Centre there has a main theatre and a studio theatre next to each other: the latter would form the blue room.) When the dungeoneer is told to step boldly forwards, they are guided backstage and into the first room. As soon as the stagehand has positioned them correctly, the video feed is switched on.

We worked out that, with 40 or so technical staff (doubling up of roles for each of video, sound, graphics, stagehands, plus some overall coordinators), we could get scene changes down to under a minute. While one room is being played, the next is being prepared (i.e. the techies are loading the computer graphics they need, checking over all the props, etc). When the dungeoneer leaves a room, they spring into action, with the stagehands doing a rapid scene change, the graphics and video guys transferring control to the other team, and someone positioning the dungeoneer in the right place. With a very carefully scripted and rehearsed show and today's technology, there's no reason this should take any longer.

Doing all this, of course, means firstly that a live audience is feasible. (Also filming it for a TV show, of course, but who wouldn't want to see this live?) It also means that the teams are not waiting around for ages between rooms, so the quest has a more natural flow. Of course, it means that actors changing character couldn't happen very frequently (only in the interval, really).

So essentially we'd still be pushing the boundaries of modern tech, since we'd be doing all the same stuff but a lot faster.

Yey -- it runs on the Mac

I'd like to film a Knightmare version someday. I have access to all the tech needed, except a blue room.

Maybe one day I'll actually get round to it!

I've just got NTL cable installed. Their website seemed to suggest that Challenge was part of the base pack, and I was eagerly looking forward to watching Knightmare again...

Alas, it sits there taunting me. The button is greyed out. I cannot watch Challenge; it merely sits there in the guide listings reminding me of what I'm missing.

I can't afford an extra £10/month for the next set of channels... so alas I'll have to live without it

(If only there was somewhere to download a divx version or something... or if Challenge offered online streaming...)

Amorya

Well, I don't think it takes much cash to get the tech required for Knightmare these days...

Computer(s) to drive the graphics output.

One analogue video mixer.

One DV camcorder to record dungeoneer.

Monitor to show advisors what's going on.

A computer with a FireWire card and editing software, to put it all together.

A couple of radio mikes.

A blue room.

AFAICS that should give you enough tech to get something working - maybe not at broadcast quality but enough to mess around with and get something fairly presentable. And most of that tech should be available to borrow... the only things I don't have to hand easily are the video mixer and a blue room.

Amorya

OK, while the sequence is not nearly as bad as I feared, I think it needs a fair bit of tweaking. Basically, it's in an "almost there" state, but a few things make it not as coherent as it could be.

The music has been mentioned.

One of the points of Knightmare for me has always been team dynamics. The one advisor sort of lost that - especially as that girl never sounded unsure of anything! My advice would be to fit the dungeon out in VR, but have the antechamber exactly as it was from the original show, with Treguard and the team and an annoying assistant.

Lord Fear and Lissard were great - no complaints there. Although I miss the whole "put it down!!!" bit of the spyglasses.

One thing I didn't like was the fact that the dungeoneer seemed to have very little freedom to move. I think they should be able to use their hands - pick up and explore the items on the table. I didn't like the whole "just name the items and you'll have them" bit - it's like a jarring reminder that you're inside a giant computer game. If you have to do things like that for technical limitation (and original KM knew all about that!), explain them within the story somehow - use magic if you must

On the movement front, I'm wondering how much control the player gets of the character. It seemed very "we-face-90-degrees-at-all-times", like an old computer game. I don't know if that was the fault of the controlling kid, or if that's another technical hitch. Also, in the slice-me-dice-me room (which was excellent otherwise btw), the jumping seemed too precise - like he hit a jump key and had no chance of missing the target.

Ideally for me, the dungeoneer would wear a VR helmet and motion sensors - so their avatar could be mapped to their actual movement, and they'd actually have to make the physical jump, albeit in an empty room. That'd be very true to the spirit of KM, and would make the character feel much more organic and less stilted. Jumping would be nailbiting - would they make it? - instead of just a "do-we-know-the-right-word?".

Sorry to seem to criticise. What I'm trying to get across is, any technical limitation can be explained around - KM certainly has a legacy of that! But it needs tension. Suspense and the like. If this is just level one then fine, but I want a room where the challenge is either very hard and must be debated on what to do, or one where it's actually hard to physically complete the task. A variety of both on higher levels would be ace.

Overall, if this was the actual show as it stands then 6.5 out of 10. For a beta I won't rate it, but it shows a lot of promise. The tech is nearly there... now you need to recreate the whole KM atmosphere. And after seeing what you've done to the Opposition, I reckon you're up to the task!

Amorya

I'm currently developing a fanfiction website. (Similar in functionality to my last site, SciFi Minds, but encompassing all genres.)

For each show that we include, we'll have episode guides, pictures, character lists and a message board, as well as the opportunity for people to post their own fan-fiction.

Now, knightmare.com seems to have the episode guide and pictures covered, but I reckon a good home for fan-fiction could be of benefit to the community. (The site will let people post their own fan-fiction, which will appear immediately.)

But, the question is, how big is the knightmare fanfic community? Would this be something any of you are interested in seeing? I have a bit of a soft spot for knightmare, so will probably not require the fandom to be as big as I do for other shows... but all the same, it's worth checking if there's any interest at all.

Amorya

If you want to make a DVD out of it, you have to capture at 720x576 (or 720x480 if you're in America). You can't use a lower resolution.

Amorya

Well the hosting provider reckons they can get things back up by the end of the month, and I'm prepared to wait and see. If it doesn't materialise I will shell out a bit for some new hosting elsewhere.

Thanks to people who offered webspace etc, but the main issue and cost is bandwidth. This site seems to take up a lot of it as it gets bigger and more people visit. This forum itself is over 120MB and has eaten 2GB of bandwidth in the last 2 weeks. The main site is nearly 200MB.

The offer still stands... I have bandwidth to spare

(My host offers 50GB, and we hardly use a tenth of that)

Amorya

Guys, if you need some temporary hosting (until yours is back), let me know.

amorya -at- amorya.freeserve.co.uk

Amorya

(Welcome aboard, btw.)  You can find links a JPEG of the map on Illusion's site somewhere.

Blimey, that was a quick reply! I didn't know there was such an active community of Knightmare fans still out there!

Thanks for the tip. I shall go a-hunting

Amorya

i never worked out the amioga game it was too hard!!! anyone i only got into the 2nd rrom fould a ball and a truck and a troll that was it gave up!!! too hard!!!

Back when I had an Atari ST (many years ago - I was about 11) I managed to get right up to the fourth quest. (There were four quests in the game). Alas, I never completed it - the reason being that I didn't have enough food with me in the last quest, and it was hard to find in the dungeon.

I've got a copy on an Atari emulator somewhere, but alas I don't have my original copy any more (my dad gave our Atari away). That means I don't have the printed map that went with the game - which was a lot of help.

Amorya