The Lords of Midnight
An epic fantasy hybrid of strategy and role-playing.
Mike Singleton's 1984 ZX Spectrum title The Lords of Midnight merges wargame mechanics with graphic adventure gameplay. Its landscaping technique produced a 3-D effect that deeply immersed players. The goal is to defeat Doomdark, the Witchking whose eternal winter grips the Land of Midnight, with several paths to victory. Ports to the Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 followed, as did sequels Doomdark's Revenge and Lords of Midnight: The Citadel.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Mike Singleton; Chris Wild (remake)
- Publisher
- Beyond Software (SPEC)
- Amsoft (CPC)
- Mindscape (C64)
- Genre
- Role-playing, wargame
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- ZX Spectrum
- Amstrad CPC
- Commodore 64
- iOS
- Android
- OS X
- Windows
- BlackBerry OS
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The Lords of Midnight is a strategy/role-playing game hybrid. The player begins with four characters: Luxor the Moonprince, Rorthron the Wise, Corleth the Fey, and Morkin, Luxor's son. Up to twenty-eight further characters can be recruited, including Lords Blood, Ithrorn, Xajorkith, Shadows, the Utarg of Utarg, Farflame the Dragon Lord, and Fawkrin the Skulkrin, to join the quest against Doomdark. The game offers three play styles: a straight adventure where Morkin destroys the Ice Crown, a wargame where the player recruits lords and armies to storm Doomdark's citadel, and an 'Epic' mode requiring both objectives simultaneously. Only one of the two objectives is needed to defeat Doomdark: destroying the Ice Crown or capturing the citadel of Ushgarak. For Doomdark to win, he must kill Morkin and either kill Luxor or conquer Xajorkith. The game uses a groundbreaking technique called landscaping to depict the lands from a first-person perspective. After completion, the game can be replayed as Doomdark's armies attack from different routes each time. At release, Singleton believed Doomdark could not be defeated before Xajorkith fell, but gamers proved him wrong. Internet groups continue to refine strategies. Crash published a four-page map in 1984, and Hungarian magazine CoV published a detailed map and walkthrough in its 19th issue.
Development
Singleton built the game's 3D look using a technique he called "landscaping." This involved placing pre-scaled images of mountains, forests, and buildings like billboards to form a perspective-correct scene from any of eight compass directions. The graphics earned high praise, and the method reappeared in the sequel Doomdark's Revenge, but was rarely used elsewhere. Singleton handled all design, wrote the novella and manual, and developed the landscaping technique in late 1983. He coded the game in early 1984, and the version he turned in during April was entirely his own work.
Reception
The Lords of Midnight earned a perfect 10 out of 10 from CRASH in its adventure column, with praise for its panoramic views, detailed units, and a storyline described as "wonderfully coherent." CRASH readers also voted it the year's best adventure game. In White Dwarf #60, Lyndsey Paton noted it offers a sustained challenge for experienced adventure gamers while providing a complex and absorbing entry point for complete novices. Zzap!64 gave it a 91% rating, calling it "truly an epic game" and essential for both adventurers and strategists, though one reviewer felt the Commodore 64 version's graphics didn't surpass the Spectrum original. It also took home Best Strategy Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
Legacy
A sequel, Doomdark's Revenge, took place in the Icemark north of Midnight, tasking the player with defeating Doomdark's daughter seeking revenge for her father's death. The planned third installment, The Eye of the Moon, was never released. Lords of Midnight: The Citadel appeared for PC much later but did not repeat the original's success due to more advanced graphics. The original games have been adapted for PC by Chris Wild and are available online with source code from disassembly. Work began on a modernized version for iPhones and iPads, a collaboration between Singleton and Chris Wild. For the ZX Spectrum Next in 2020, Matt Davies and Simon Butler created a port based on Singleton's original code. Upon release, Beyond Software offered to turn the campaign of the first person to prove completion into a published novel. Many players sent reams of thermal printer paper as proof; the first claim came within two weeks. No publisher was interested in what they deemed a fringe publication, and the prize was forfeit. Singleton offered to write the novel himself, but time constraints and publisher reluctance made all plans impossible.
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