Heroes Of Karn (credits, magazine scores, compilations and the sequel, Empire Of Karn).

Heroes Of Karn was written for the Commodore 64 first, and the Spectrum version is a conversion. Reviewers noted that the Commodore original used LIST to show the inventory where the Spectrum version uses I, that the parser was tidied up on the way across, and that the Spectrum has fewer pictures than the Commodore 64 but better ones, drawn by Terry Greer. See the contemporary reviews.

The game was designed by Ian Gray and coded by David M. Banner, with graphics, inlay and loading screen by Terry Greer. It sold for £5.50. Source: Spectrum Computing.

The heroes you have to rescue are Beren, Istar the Wise, Haldir the Elf-minstrel and the dwarf Khadim, and Anton the Gypsy King also turns up. Sinclair User pointed out that the first hero has been turned into a frog, and is changed back "in the time-honoured way". See the reviews.

The game reappeared on Beau-Jolly's 6 Computer Hits compilation in 1985, and was given away on the Your Sinclair issue 48 Smash Tape in December 1989. Source: Spectrum Computing.

Heroes Of Karn shares most of its engine with the other Interceptor adventures by David M. Banner. Its routines are cross-referenced to the matching code in Message From Andromeda, Forest At World's End, The Jewels Of Babylon, Warlord and After Shock throughout this disassembly.

The game has a few bits it never uses: a spare NOP at B3A5, probably where an instruction was patched out; the pointers at Pointer_Spare and Pointer_Spare2 are never set and the scenic-event count at Count_ScenicEvents stays at 00, so the code that reads them at B3A6 and B71C does nothing; and the engine's own copy of "I don't see the point." at Messaging_IDontSeeThePoint is never printed, because the game uses a second copy at Messaging_IDontSeeThePoint_Duplicate instead.