Mike Singleton wrote Lords of Midnight for the ZX Spectrum in 1984 and allowed Beyond Software to publish it on a gentleman’s handshake. Singleton took a turn as a theoretical physicist, taught English for a decade, and then turned his attention to the home computer market. To say that Singleton was a smart guy is an understatement.
It is obvious that Singleton was heavily influenced by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Before he started coding the game, Singleton spent three months developing the world, story, and characters. He began by first working on a large map using felt tip markers. Once the map was complete, Singleton then worked on the story. The story that Singleton wrote wound up included with the game as a novella. Then he began the process of coding. He finished the game in only three months! He started in January and finished in April, working 12-hour days.
The Lords of Midnight sold 10,000 copies in the first two weeks and was a smashing success. In Crash magazine’s 1984 year-end poll it was voted Best Text/Graphical Adventure by 51% of the voters. In 1991 the same magazine called Lords of Midnight and its sequel “the two best computer games ever written”. Lords of Midnight still carries the distinction of quite possibly being the greatest game to ever be created for the ZX Spectrum. I think what I’ve enjoyed most during my investigation of this game are all of the former ZX Spectrum owners waxing nostalgic over their many long hours spent with the game. I really enjoyed reading the many love letters by fans to the game and to Mike Singleton.
Beyond Software really pushed the word “epic” when marketing the game. I must admit, when you’re playing the game, it certainly has an epic quality to it that other games in this era have been lacking. Perhaps it was Singleton’s background as an English teacher, but his process of creating world, characters, and story before coding certainly seemed to work.
In the past, I’ve talked about reciprocity when playing these older games. I discovered that a novel had been written based upon the game.
It is obvious that Drew Wagar, himself an English teacher as well, is a fan of the game. This shows itself in his adherence to the game material and the world that Singleton created. The book weighs in at a whopping 552 pages and I took it with me on our vacation to St. Thomas. I didn’t do much reading on the island itself but devoured the book on our travel days. I found the book to be entertaining and it was probably responsible for helping me to defeat the game in a timely manner.
There are two ways in which you can play The Lords of Midnight. You can choose to play the game as a strategy/war simulation in which you try to enlist allies and then maneuver them about the map, trying to defeat Doomdark’s forces of darkness. The second way is more of a story and adventure format. You focus on Morkin, the son of Luxor, and his quest to find the Ice Crown. If Morkin can find and destroy the Ice Crown, the source of Doomdark’s power, then the forces of good instantly win.
I have never been a big fan of tactical simulations. I like the “idea” of an epic fantasy battle, but I don’t enjoy the application of it. I’m more a fan of (obviously) role-playing games, text-adventures, and even graphic adventures. So, I chose to concentrate on Morkin and his quest to find the Ice Crown.
The joy of exploring dungeons in a CRPG is in finding hidden items and locations, uncovering the secrets that the labyrinth jealously guards. The overland map of Midnight pays homage to this very experience. There are many hidden locations and objects to be found which are not on the map. So, a player can spend hours going over the grid of the overland map and mapping everything out by hand. Fortunately, because I chose to read the novel just before playing the game, I knew that I had to enlist the aid of a fire-breathing dragon to destroy the Ice Crown. I also knew where the dragon had been encountered. Assuming that the author was staying true to the source material, I concentrated my explorations to the northwest portion of the map and was quickly rewarded.
Once I allied myself with the red dragon known as Farflame, we began to make our way towards the Tower of Doom. It was there that I found the Ice Crown and we were able to destroy it.
The innovative landscape views and the popularity of the game turned Mike Singleton into a rockstar. Magazines were frequently fighting to interview him. He created a sequel shortly after entitled Doomdark’s Revenge and then hinted for years at a third game to be entitled; The Eye of the Moon but it never saw the light of day.
I can see how ZX Spectrum owners could have spent countless hours with this game. If you wanted to map out the lands of Midnight and uncover its secrets, you would have to painstakingly do so by hand. No easy feat.
I am not going to attempt to win in campaign mode, however after having read the novel, if I were to attempt to do so, I would enlist as much aid as I can and send them all to Xajorkith to make a final stand there against Doomdark’s forces. I am going to remain content having beat the game in story mode with Morkin.
I spent roughly four hours with the game, probably quadruple that number had I not read the book beforehand. The epic feel to the game is not exaggerated. It’s two different types of play, the game’s AI, the large scope of the map with all of it’s hidden secrets, makes it seem astounding that all of this was crammed into a 48k ZX Spectrum. Quite an accomplishment. I believe that if you want to consider yourself a historian of these games, that playing The Lords of Midnight is an absolute necessity.
Next up on the docket is Doomdark’s Revenge which was also released in 1984. I may as well dive right into the sequel.
Until next time….