The Pawn

The Pawn is a text-based interactive fiction game by Magnetic Scrolls, first published for the Sinclair QL by Sinclair Research in 1985. It was then released for other platforms in 1986 by Rainbird. It is remembered for its excellent graphics (on some versions) and the opening music available in some game versions. Also the game itself—story and parser—got mostly positive reviews. The story takes place in the fairy land of Kerovnia, from which the player must escape.

The game is written in 68000 assembler. Later versions use a cut-down 68000 virtual machine even on less powerful machines like the Z80-based Sinclair Spectrum. The Amiga version uses digitized instrument samples in its title music early in that computer's lifecycle. The peaceful title music was composed by John Molloy and it features guitar and flute sounds .