From one classic to another, we leave Elite and turn to the towards the next game in the Your Sinclair Top 100 and No.#15 is delivered with both a map and patience, for you’re going to need both with Beyond Software’s timeless The Lords of Midnight.
Arriving on the ZX Spectrum back in 1984, programmed by the late Mike Singleton, The Lords of Midnight was an instant success winning Crash Magazine’s best adventure game in the 1984 Crash reader awards. It wasn’t a real surprise as this deeply engrossing, extremely well plotted adventure game also boasted around 32,000 pieces of artwork within the game too!
Your quest is to destroy Doomdark, the evil Witchking, who has sealed the land of Midnight into perpetual winter. This can be achieved in three ways and it’s down to you to choose your path. Starting with four characters – Luxor the Moonprince, Rorthron the Wise, Corleth the Fey, and Morkin, you have the chance to bring together twenty-eight residents of this land into your group. You can either play the game as a straight adventure where you destroy the source of Doomdarks power, the Ice Crown; or you can play the The Lords of Midnight as an wargrame, bringing together the numerous Lords scattered across the lands – along with their armies – until eventually your force is strong enough to defeat Doomdark; finally the third option which is a combination of them both.
The Lords of Midnight still to this day on the ZX Spectrum is a hugely impressive game, though newcomers to this adventure may be a bit lost without the use of the accompanying maps. That and without first reading a bit of the backstory, but with this information – which can be found over at the World of Spectrum – you will have a few pieces to help you appreciate this true classic.
Sadly Mike Singleton passed away back in 2012, however Chris Wild who delivered The Lords of Midnight onto the PC and numerous other platforms including iOS and Android [click here to download for the TLoM homepage], is currently in the process of delivering the long awaited book which Mike had wanted to see on the shelves; according to Wikipedia we should be seeing it on the 21st December 2017.
The Lords of Midnight is a game that needs to be played by everyone that has ever owned a computer, just remember forewarned is forearmed.
Originally published August 13, 2016. Updated October 26, 2022.
