The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
Obstacles include pits which must be swung over on a long rope, ramparts which must be jumped (some of which contain knights with spears) and flying fireballs and arrows (to be ducked or jumped). To impose a time limit on each screen a knight climbs the wall, costing the player a life should he reach the top. After completing all of the screens, the player must rescue Esmeralda. If successful, the game begins again at a faster speed.
Development
The main character was originally Robin Hood with the game set in Sherwood Forest but the setting was changed to Nottingham Castle as the theme was deemed too similar to the games main inspiration, Pitfall!. The addition of the bell as a reward at the end of each screen led to the main character becoming the Hunchback of Notre Dame instead. A deadline to present the game at an industry show meant there was no time to rework the graphics, so the main character remained in a Lincoln green costume.
Legacy
The home ports inspired two sequels: Hunchback II: Quasimodo's Revenge and Hunchback: The Adventure, which were released by Ocean for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
Clones released for 8-bit computers are Quasimodo (1983) from Synapse Software for the Atari 8-bit computers and The Great Wall (1986) from Artic Computing for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro.
