Any ZX Spectrum Fans out there will be very well aware of the work of David Jones. Back in 1985, Finders Keepers was as exciting as loading up Elden Ring is today, bringing cutting-edge storylines and RPG elements led by Magic Knight right into the palms of eager gamers' hands. Now, on the 40th Anniversary of the first game in the series, Pixel Jockey are releasing a special boxset of all four Magic Knight game cassettes together in one box for the very first time on Kickstarter!
Of course, games well known for their innovation need packaging that does them justice, so it's lucky that Pixel Jockey's founder Paul Mac has had 30 years in the graphic design industry working with some of the biggest players in the media world. The collectors box itself is called 'The Codex' and is based on an ancient tome that you might have seen King Arthur slapping down on the round table when figuring out how to deal with life's many problems. It's a custom-made case that houses each of the four cases and their cassettes inside, all of which have been lovingly designed using scans of the original games for reference and then redrawn from scratch in full colour as opposed to the black and white labels of decades past.
The Magic Knight Boxset campaign has surpassed 75% of its goal already, raising £9,226 with 22 days still to go, and it's not hard to see why. Pixel Jockey live and breathe everything to do with the Spectrum, with Paul explaining on the company's website that the ZX Spectrum was 'instrumental' in his computer development, and that it 'paved the way for my future career as a designer.'
The main boxset of four cassettes is priced at £40; that's £10 per game complete with redrawn artwork, which is incredibly reasonable in my book. And if you want to pledge more, there's a £70 option that comes with a T-shirt, mug, and Magic Knight pin. Head to the official Kickstarter campaign to back the collection and find out more!
