Knights of the Old Code is a sprite comic made by Owen Kuhn a.k.a. King Author since February 26, 2002 to the date of this writeup. The name of the comic might indicate the use of old game sprites and backgrounds to tell the story (the ones used by the author are usually from the NES/SNES era, including diverse console games.
The story comprehends a team of heroes of 8 bit videogames in a quest to rescue lady Guinivere from the clutches of evil. Of course, there's always adventure, turmoil and cameos in this stories.
As it is now common in this type of comics, the references to movies, games, books, events, TV shows and such is a must. The author in this case alludes to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings, Magic the Gathering, Harry Potter, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Dungeons and Dragons and many more. The use of this type of resources does not get tiresome in this case, since it is well executed both concept and timing wise.
<size=25>POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD</size>
The story begins like the game Ghosts'n Goblins, when King Arthur takes her beloved Lady Guinivere to a stroll in the cemetery, where an evil demon kidnaps her, flying into oblivion. King Arthur decides to assemble a party of honorable and strong warriors in order to rescue his beloved. The fearless knight Kuros from Wizards and Warriors 2 is chosen to lead the team.
Kuros decides to call the people of the realm, seeking those who will go with him in the journey. Many answer, but few are the chosen. The team ends up with Kuros, CG (the main character) from Crystalis and Link from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. As the story develops, more characters are included in the team. So far, Simon Belmont from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Francesca from The Krion Conquest and Ryu Hayabusa from (any) Ninja Gaiden have joined the party.
Before their adventure starts, Kuros decides to take the wizard responsible of kidnapping Lady Guinivere by surprise, by getting to his castle through an underground way, filled with monsters and treasure instead of taking a more direct road.
As the team unravels the mystery and easily defeats the evil and pathetic monsters, the source of all trouble appears: An even more evil (and pathetic) council of shadowy figures, tries to get rid of the knights, so they can take over the realm. They revealed their identities after a while and decide to finish their rivals once and for all.
The story starts developing as if it were a videogame. Going through stages, taking turns in defeating bosses and rescuing kidnapped maids (faimiliar?). As it goes further, it loosens up and the levels are no more, meaning the main characters get to interact with "NPC's"
Each character possesses the abilities they have in their respective games (and maybe some more), although not the same can be said for their attitude.
Kuros, King Arthur's loyal knight, is bound by honor, truth and commitment, whenever possible. CG's goals are mainly to acquire more swords (and orbs for them), destroying any "life-threatening" technology and maybe prove he's better than Link. The elf, on the other hand, seems he misses princess Zelda and looks for any magical artifact that may seem useful. Oh, and he might be a bit pyrophobic. Not much is known about Simon Belmont other than he's been cursed by Dracula and got lost when trying to answer Kuro's call. Francesca was found by the knights after dealing with the supposed responsible for Guinivere's disappearence. She is a Verbena witch, and seems she found a soul mate in CG, but nothing else is known about her. Ryu Hayabusa has just left Ninja School, and was taught many awesome ninja tricks, but it seems he has still need to perfect them.
A brief list of cameos (in no particular order) who already have appeared in the comic:
The first comic can be found at
http://kotoc.keenspace.com/d/20020226.html