LGR - King Arthur's KORT - DOS PC Game Review

King Arthur has fallen and it's up to his Knights of the Round Table to unite Britain! A shareware classic from MVP Software, with turn-based medieval combat and kingdom-building.
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[@MegaTNT32]

We're knights of the round table, we dance whene're we're able. We do routines, and chorus scenes with footwork imp-e-cable; We dine well here in Camelot, we eat ham and jam and spam alot. We're knights of the round table, our shows are for-mid-able But many times, we're given rhymes, that are quite un-sing-able We're opera mad in Camelot, we sing from the diaphragm a-lot! In war we're tough and able, Quite in-de-fa-ti-gable, Between our quests, we sequin vests and impersonate Clark Gable, It's a busy life in Camelot.

[@CelticSaint]

'It's only a model'!

[@Ropetupa]

@109104168961262825373 Ni!

[@kennyearthling7965]

It's a silly place.

[@MattMcIrvin]

I... have... to... push... the... pram a lot...

[@or10nsharkfin]

On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. 'Tis a silly place.

[@captshamm9272]

Holy crap, I have such great memories of playing this game! My uncle used to let me play a bunch of his DOS games back when I was a kid, and this was one of my absolute favorites. Good times.

[@caolila123]

Remember when Oblivion came out and they were sooooo proud of their horse riding animations? Money well spent, if you see how realistic the horses in this game look during the jousting sequences. nice review of a game I think I remember seeing pictures of years ago ; )

[@arthas640]

It's funny how game developers will put tons of effort into some random detail and trumpet it's importance at conventions. I remember people talking aobut how cool it was being able to ride around on a horse in the game, and people loved it, but all the goodwill they earned for the in game horses went away when they tried selling horse armor. Sadly, i did buy the horse armor in the game because I had a few extra Xbox Live points and I assumed there would be some extra missions, extra abilities, or something instead of it just being a couple changes of horse clothes and a small boost to the horses health. The two armors didn't even seem that different int terms of performance and i barely noticed my horse surviving for any longer.

[@clemstevenson]

And where is that killer rabbit? In the cave of Caer Bannog...But not to worry, the software ensures that you have the holy hand grenade of Antioch.

[@AmayirotAkago]

That wall of games behind you is REALLY damn distracting every time you show it xD I just wanna stare at it forever.

[@dodoubledragon]

Oh me too, Pc big boxes are so bad-ass!

[@Moonbeam143]

It's like looking at a pile of gold. All shiny and stuff.

[@DeadHandtheSurvivor]

BOB THE BOB But it's sure damn pretty to look at, just like LGR's collection of games.

[@Skippy1411]

Probably the greatest honor so far for this game to be featured on this channel

[@itaybron]

released as freeware? they're the real mvps

[@kennyearthling7965]

"what a decidedly okay game" lol

[@Otherspersons]

Another great video, LGR. I recently got into Crusader Kings II, so it is neat to see how the genre began.

[@killerfgs]

Is that Sims Medieval music at the end there? loved that game.. and im still loving it.

[@HogartTheRogue]

Thank you! I was able to identify that a game I played back in the 90s on a 8086 clone with a monochrome CGA monitor was actually "Defender of a Crown". Ah, the memories...

[@littleNorwegians]

Awesome review that gets my own strategy game nostalgia and hunger going. If I had something fantasy kingdom orriented to recommend, it'd be Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance. It has a lot going for it, being based on a D&D system. But the twist and focus of this game is the strategy. Going into dungeons are side quests to diplomacy, taxation and even realm magic. All to get the throne. The Iron Throne. . . (D&D books came out before the first Song of Ice & Fire book)

[@tsm688]

'click here to begin conquest' looks like a modern banner ad

[@MonsterJail]

Am I the only one who thought this was going to be a medieval kart racer?

[@LGR]

King Arthur's KART would be fantastic.

[@mrnevermind]

Nope

[@ausfyausfy2455]

Lazy Game Reviews KART stands for Kinghts around round table right ? And the objective of the game would be racing toward the round table... and be the first one to sit on chairs !

[@OsirisLord]

Well that's King Arthur's Kart.

[@Ratciclefan]

Super Mario Kort

[@PandoraASMR]

"Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap" Great video, thank you :D

[@trumad]

Weird - I played this as a kid too and installed it again earlier today. Seeing no videos on youtube I was just about to make one, and then you posted this! My memories of it are similar to yours - I thought it was a great game as a youngster. Great review, much better than I could've done. You even have the real CD!

[@Hussam_B]

On Medieval Kingdom Building Games; I have fond memories of Castles 2: Siege and Conquest. Involving the unification of Bretagne. What truly made that game awesome was the "plots" which were multiple choice events that punish or reward you depending on what you choose.

[@DrewberTravels]

Thank you for bringing back the memories!!! I played this game! I found it on one of those Random Number + 1 shareware games. It had other such gems as duke nukem 1 and 2, some fun robot fighting game, and others.

[@Scrofrogoly]

The entire intro I was just shouting "Age of Mythology!" at the screen. Please play :3

[@TheTuttle99]

And Age of Empires 2!!!!

[@Davtwan]

I've been trying to remember this game for ages. Thanks for reminding me a part of my childhood.

[@farcry223]

Love seeing the Pandora directive box in the background

[@Rynewulf]

Dang I'm just loving that music you've got going on in the background :3

[@TomJacobW]

I'm trying to remember from whom that is! Really reminds me of a certain Bach or Händel organ piece... Edit: Bachs passacaglia in c; rest seems to be some sims medieval music.

[@Rakiarmas]

I love games based on ancient historical times or D&D style fantasy world. I agreed with you that there's just something fascinating in these themes. What I also love is to watch these games played in LPs. For example it's so much fun to watch someone playing as a king/queen & see how well he or she manage to be the ruler & stay in the power. I also love these games, because I'm a huge nerd on history: Feudal Japan, Medieval Europe, Rome & Greece, Ancient China. I love studying these.

[@rodericktech5643]

Bach Passacaglia in C Minor. Digitally. Unexpected, but loved anytime I hear it :)

[@MetalMeek]

I'd love to see a review of Castles II sometime. I saw it on one of your shelves another time and it was probably my very, very young first experience to strategy gaming. Also, the original Stronghold game. Or not. Y'know, whatever floats your tabogan. Either way, love the channel -- cheers!

[@nicosouza5]

I love this channel man, keep it up!

[@ChadNeal71]

Loved this game when I was in college! This, Cannon Fodder, and of course, Quake.

[@PCGamer77]

I had never even heard of this game. Great review!

[@MalaksMessage]

Really love the electronic Bach in the background

[@gtd6288]

Dude, those soft drum hat sounds had me checking my phone, the door, the PC tower, till I realized it was the video ha ha. Weirded me out. Good video.

[@mdavis7298]

Could you do a video on one of the Might and Magic games? I own a few of them, but I haven't played them much. Think you could get us interested in this series? I sure could use a boost like that.

[@renae2954]

M&M are AWESOME games lol used to play them like 24 7

[@Malus1531]

mdavis7298 Those games are still awesome. Started playing M&M 6 again just last week.

[@dannywilson7949]

Love your channel. Good work

[@amshermansen]

I was introduced to games like these through Castles II: Siege and Conquest. My friends had received one of those "bundle" pirate CDs (back when you could store a hundred games on a CD) with the game on it. But as far as my passion for anything "builder" like, that has to go to Simcity 2000. I still remember the money password for Mac by heart and I can recite all of the ingame music too. ^^

[@poobens]

Love the couch texture. Took me back to my childhood.

[@PaganSituations]

I LOVE THIS GAME!!! When I was a kid we got a CD from a bin called "Top 10 Strategy PC Games". It has SO MANY great games, many of which were shareware versions, but amazing none the less. This, Gazillionaire, WinWar 2, Orion, so many names I've forgotten, but many more fantastic titles.

[@JayBlackthorne]

That digitized scream at 8:17 was either Sam Kinison or Daffy Duck!

[@FireFoxBancroft]

Sam Kennison

[@DerKork]

Holy shoot, "King Arthur's KORT".... I had almost forgotten that game! I spent hours with the Shareware version (which I somehow in my mind attributed to Apogee - and I don't know why).

[@davidherbst9214]

I love the way u make ur videos. You are good at reviews. You are expert and people in this world are glad u started a channel keep it up I ur number one fan lazygame review ur videos are lazy! :)

[@TwoBitWriter]

I had *completely* forgotten the existence of this game until I saw this video. I played the hell out of this game when I was a pre-teen!

[@DeinonychusCowboy]

It's fascinating to see the similarities between this and modern games like Crusader Kings. Basically the same game, just developed a tiny bit more so the playtime can be (much) longer.

[@dougsisk619]

Watching this in 2020 and totally loving it.

[@FrozenKing142]

Give us the old 2010 intro i miss it allot! :D

[@hingeslevers]

You assumed right! This was also the first shareware game in this genre I played. I've been on a MVP software nostalgia trip lately, so the timing of this and the Corncob video is just right. Another MVP title I have on CD-ROM is Crusade In Space. That CD also has the ESX label. Is there a connection between these publishers? MVP folded not long ago I think.

[@michelenderich6141]

Thx for this review! I like more of them.

[@Atzzazz]

Hey, it's Sims Medieval background music!

[@devjock]

"Your banner"! Thank god those clipart dvdroms finally came in handy! Have you got a video on Warlords 3 yet?

[@PeaceLoveAndGuns]

When I was a kid, we wound up with an old Tandy that had a shareware copy of Castles on it. Can you do a quick LGR on that?

[@SpiffingNZ]

Damn, I haven't heard voice work that good since "BEEEEEE SEVENTEEN BOOOOM-BER!"

[@Napalm30308]

By chance, is the music in the background The Sims Medival's main loading screen music?

[@BrandonDKirkwood]

Knights of the realm 2 was the first game like this I ever played and I need to get a hold of a copy all these years later. please review it

[@monsterfurby]

First Thought: So... I take it you play CK2? After the Video: I would totally watch video AARs of you playing CK2 :D

[@rolfklevgaard6346]

oh my God! This is just gold!

[@urdnal]

I like that they used the skull-capped Merlin from the movie Excalibur

[@GenericInternetter]

Mr. LGR Reviewer. You would absolutely LOVE a very old game called "Betrayal" (note: NOTHING to do with "Betrayal at Krondor"). It was on the C64 and/or MS-DOS. It was amazing, and exactly the type of game you would love. FIND IT PLEASE!

[@predcon1]

Greenville! I saw Cinematic Titanic Live! there a few years ago at the Pearce Center for the Performing Arts. I wonder how far away that was from wherever this "Shareware Source" office was.

[@sinephase]

hah now I want you to do a review of the first Warlords game :P I played the shit out of that game back in the day :)

[@jasonz7788]

Awesome thanks 👍

[@mootbooxle]

You're the coolest, LGR!

[@abedekok5660]

8:36 nice AC/DC reference

[@MRJTD99]

Hey sims medieval music! Nice touch.

[@elektrosoundwave]

Holy crap, I haven't seen anything with the 803 area code for Greenville since they changed it for us in 96 or so.

[@Archring637]

Oh! I see Severance: Blade of Darkness in the back there. Any chance you'll speak of that game?

[@Holdington]

I see Pandora Directive and Star Trek Judgment Rites there in the background. Will you get around to reviewing them? Both are great games and I'm replaying Judgment Rites right now!

[@oOweedwalkerOo]

that scream at 4:16 or 5:10 ......hilarious :)

[@Gr8Dane78]

Holy crap, that was awesome. Now you _have_ to do Defender of the Crown. I played the crap of that on the Commodore Amiga as well as the C64 back in the better old days.

[@brilz3011]

reminds me of "the great war of prefectures" flash game nearly identical gameplay.

[@doomboots]

Oooh, Lords of The Realm II, gonna have to listen to that funny peasant disco song again that I found in the install folder again.

[@Don-ds3dy]

I played something like this on the PS2, you played as robin hood, raided caravans, stormed castles in mortal combat sort of way, jousting, and stuff like that.

[@ElZorroHonesto]

Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown

[@SobiesawChabaz]

I played Defender of the Crown when I was a kid and holy crap did I suck balls at it lol

[@vykx88]

Defenders of the Crown has me singing the Defenders of the Earth theme song.

[@plemgrubern]

LGR, do you like paradox's grand strategy games?

[@rocketdoggo]

Crusader Kings 2

[@Arakiven]

Europa Universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2!

[@arthas640]

I think EU4 was my favorite Paradox game, but i never got far. I'd log 50-100 hours into a game, stop playing for a little bit, then try to go back to it only to find out a patch made all my saves worthless so i'd start all over again. I logged 50+ hours each into 2 play throughs as the Spanish and nearly 100 hours into the Portuguese, plus a few smaller games that were under 50 hours.

[@SableRain]

Is that music at the end of the video from The Sims Medieval? It sounds exactly like one of the songs in that game.

[@smokedragon5858]

Have you ever played/reviewed: Lords of Magic SE?? Seems like a game you would like.. Love the vids, thnx for the nostalgia..

[@EatingCtrlV]

God DAMN IT! I love that shirt!

[@TheDevilBurning]

I'll try harder.

[@EatingCtrlV]

TheDevilBurning No you wont.

[@TheDevilBurning]

[@milczyciel]

Which one? *TANDY* or _I Hate Peasants_?

[@EatingCtrlV]

TANDY♥ Love dem cards!

[@PhoenixNL72-DEGA-]

For me the first type of these turn based strategy games was Falklands on the C64. It had awefull graphics, but it was a lot of fun to play. Later I also found a copy of empire for the c64 and I played that alot. It wasn't until I got Civilization on the amiga years later that I played that kinda games again. (Though I also played Defender of the Crown on C64 but thats more of a mixture of different games styles as it also has more action based mini games.

[@ChineseBrit]

I love the music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor". Does any know the names of all the other background music used in the game?

[@ezcozply5883]

5:54 lol love it :)

[@drcoonass]

have you ever played Lords of the Realm II? My dad had one hand so it was pretty much turn-based strategy when i was very young, either way that's the only game he ever taught me to play. Mideval strategy game from interactive & sierra in 1996. I still play it.

[@ABlackFalcon]

I played this game a lot back in the mid '90s, it was a very simple little game that didn't take long, unlike deeper strategy games like Castles, Civilization, or Lord of the Realms 2... but did the shareware version not have the jousting? I don't remember that at all, only the strategy map stuff. I never got the registered version of KORT.

[@GeorgeQGreg]

Duck Hunt for Windows! I honestly wonder just what the heck that is.

[@january8th1982]

That's one sweet Bach Passacaglia midi

[@konnthegreat]

On the subject of medieval strategy like games, what are your thoughts on Mount and Blade?

[@FreebyrdFayelanx]

OMG I forgot the name of this game I played tonnes of back in the day. Thanks!

[@dave4shmups]

Great review! LGR, if you haven't played Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown on the PS2 or XBOX, I can't recommend it highly enough! It's a great remake of the original, and Cinemaware were involved. It's fantastic!

[@dontdriveat88]

Is that the Sims medieval music in the background?

[@DynoBytes]

Saw the disk, Mind Blow

[@mrnevermind]

God damn it LGR bless me with your reply!

[@desther7975]

Have you tried Warsong on the Sega Genesis? (Der Langrisser in Japan) That is a medieval fantasy / role playing game that will absolutely kick your ass, but it's fun and addictive. I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment for having beaten it, too.

[@SirChunky]

all I was thinking of when watching this was Lords of the Realm II which was my first taste of these kinds of games.

[@clawhammr666]

I just wanna point out that in Icelandic kort = map, name of the game is king arthur's KORT and thumbnail was a map, coincidence i think not! :P

[@desired397]

this makes me want to start up Crusader Kings II again, already conquered Brittania but I can always do it again xD then maybe take over the HRE

[@thetruescrat5559]

Huh. Really reminds of the more modern Europa Universalis series! It's cool to see how far back the genre goes.

[@cellotuba]

Where can I find the intro song? I know its Passacaglia in C minor, but I want that midi copy because that song is awesome!

[@victoriansword]

I never played this, but I was addicted to Lords of the Realm.

[@pordzio]

If anybody is at all interested. Intro music is bach passacaglia in c minor BWV 582

[@MagikGimp]

Clint says "screw shareware!" :O The sky is falling!

[@JamesRDavenport]

That was the first thing I thought of too...bootleg DOTK. Still, this does kinda look adorable (that one guy you keep playing in the vid looks like Frenchie in Monty Python and The Holy Grail) not to mention who doesn't love a digitized Wilhelm Scream in battles? ;) I might have to check this out!

[@Zuon94]

The Defender of the Crown footage confuses me. There was never a VGA version released for MS DOS, was there?

[@LGR]

That was the original Amiga version.

[@Zuon94]

Lazy Game Reviews My, you sure go out of your way to answer your fan's questions. You've definitely more than earned my respect over your years here on KZbin. Keep being awesome. c:

[@thadbaxter]

LGR, have you played Mount & Blade: Warband, and if so, what is your opinion of it?

[@KairuHakubi]

huh, I never realized before that you could make an acronym that sounds like court out of the other thing that goes after 'king arthur' as long as you leave 'the' out of the acronym but leave in 'of' neat