Editor’s Note:
Thanks to Imperialis on the Discord for suggesting this series. And welcome back long term contributor Vivisector9999.
The intent of this ongoing article series is for the community to highlight those forgotten, overlooked, weird, zany games that hold a place in their heart. We’re talking games like Eador Genesis, Rise of Legends and Remnants of the Precursors.
If you have a 4X, grand strategy, rts (yes, even rts!) or tactics game that you absolutely adore, that few people know about, email explorminate@gmail.com.
Enjoy Number 4 in our series, by Vivisector9999.
Hello, eXplorminators. My name is Vivisector9999, and I have returned to offer a contribution to the 4X Iceberg series. If this goes over well, maybe we’ll see more of each other here in the future!
The 80’s were, in their way, a golden age for computer gaming, or at least an age of a type that we’ll never see again.
Hardware was much more limited then, so the best games had to win on gameplay rather than flashy graphics, fanservice, or bloated AAA budgets. With so little prior history, the game genres as we know them today were also far from codified. Combine those two things with how even the biggest titles of the era had small, freewheeling teams, and bold experimentation was more a rule than an exception.
That’s how we got games like The Lords of Midnight.
A beloved ZX Spectrum title from 1984, The Lords of Midnight combined elements of a text adventure, a RPG, and a wargame without fully being any of those things. Honestly, there’s little I can write about this one that hasn’t been covered by generations of grognards before me, but it might still be a novelty to you modern eXplorminators.
The Lords of Midnight offered the player a Tolkien-esque experience, where your plucky band of heroes championed the Free people in a desperate war against the evil Doomdark and his hordes. You could win either by gathering enough allies and warriors to conquer Doomdark’s citadel, or by successfully deploying Morkin (a chosen one of sorts) to steal and destroy the Ice Crown that is the source of Doomdark’s power.
(A popup in the rerelease lays out where the two sides stand. Literally.)
This epic struggle took place across a 61 x 64 grid overworld presented in lavish first-person graphics – at least lavish compared to series like Wizardry and Ultima, which in 1984 were still using wireframe graphics. Between the manual’s background lore, this world that actually made an effort to look like a world, and the Tolkien-esque war/quest, The Lords of Midnight was among the first games to really go for a sense of epic grandeur.
(The original map that came in the game box. You start in the Tower of the Moon to the lower west. But each of those names was a place you could visit on that 61×64 grid.)
Of course, in that early era of gaming, the fantasy wasn’t quite perfect. Your starting four heroes (and the other lords you recruit) had different roles, but no stats other than health and fear, and no way to improve other than recruiting armies and/or finding one of the comparatively few magic weapons. The battles offered little feedback about exactly what contributed to victory – or, equally importantly, defeat. Perhaps worst of all, there was no in-game map or even guidance on what to do, demanding that new players not only RTFM, but break out the graph paper and counters.
If any game ever struggled against the limits of its era’s hardware, it was this one.
(A unit of Doomdark’s Doomguard, begging for a throwdown with the Free. So we’ll just have Lord Blood, a Free lord, march his army over here, and…)
(…we get one of these screens the next day. No tactical map – or actual tactics other than “Bring as many warriors and riders to the fight as you can”. At least we can see Lord Blood living up to his name!)
The game’s RNG could be a harsh mistress, too. Ever wondered what Lord Of The Rings would have been like if Frodo, upon assuming the mantle of the Ring-bearer, got eaten by wolves a few steps outside of Rivendell?
(Slightly north of the starting Tower of the Moon. Wolves spotted!)
(Morkin may not have a badass name like “Lord Blood”, but he IS the one man who is immune to the Ice Crown’s fear which is spreading over the world. He’s not about to back down from a few mangy wolves!)
(An epic fail in three short acts.)
Now, I know what you might be thinking: “A strategy game with no in-game map? Armies with hero units who don’t even level up? A chosen one who can get owned by a few wolves? You should have left this nonsense in the ancient past where it belongs!”
All right, smartass, three points here.
One, it is hard to overstate how groundbreaking The Lords of Midnight really was back in 1984. Without this game, there would have been no Warlords – and, by extension, no Puzzle Quest. No Puzzle Quest means that all of human civilization was in vain!
Two – and this is a big one – The Lords of Midnight actually got a quality re-release! You can play it today on your PC or phone, and with a generous helping of QOL features. No messing with ZX Spectrum emulation? Ultrawidescreen support? An automap that records everything (and every army) you’ve seen? Tutorial popups at every turn that explain what you’re actually expected to do in this game? Say no more!
(Okay, NOW this is starting to look and feel like a proper wargame!)
Three – and best of all – this kick-ass re-release is free.
That’s right, you can hop over to GOG, the Google Play store, or the IOS App store and download The Lords of Midnight this very instant.
In the end, will The Lords of Midnight replace your favorite entry in the Age of Wonders series? Probably not. Nonetheless, it’s a fascinating strategy relic from the past, and that’s what the 4X Iceberg is all about!
