THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE
LORDS OF MIDNIGHT
PUBLISHER
Beyond
AUTHOR
Mike Singleton
YEAR
1984
DESCRIPTION
Graphical Adventure Game, with single key stroke controls
CONTROLS
1-8 Look in direction (N-NE-E-SE-S-SW-W-NW)
Q Move in current direction
E Look in current direction
R Think
T Choose
U Night
S Save
D Load
G Yes
J No
Z Print (crashes most emulators)
C Select Luxor
V Select Morkin
B Select Corleth
N Select Rorthron
M Select
In Select
1 The Lord of Gard
2 The Lord of Marakith
3 The Lord of Xajorkith
4 The Lord of Gloom
5 The Lord of Shimeril
6 The Lord of Kumar
7 The Lord of Ithrorn
8 The Lord of Dawn
9 The Lord of Dreams
0 The Lord of Dregrim
Q Thrimrath the Fey
W The Lord of Whispers
E The Lord of Shadows
R The Lord of Lothoril
T Korinel the Fey
Y The Lord of Thrall
U Lord Brith
I Lord Rorath
O Lord Trorn
P The Lord of Morning
A Lord Athoril
S Lord Blood
D Lord Herath
F Lord Mitharg
G The Utarg of Utarg
H Fawkrin the Skulkrin
J Lorgrim the Wise
K Farflame the Dragonlord
C Luxor the Moonprince
V Morkin
N Corleth the Fey
M Rorthron the Wise
INSTRUCTIONS
The object of the game is to otherthrow the evil Witchking
Doomdark, who controls the north half of the land of Midnight.
Thus freeing the land of Doomdarks evil spell of cold that
aflicts it.
The game can be completed by completing one of two different
tasks:
1: Take control of Doomdarks Home Citadel of Ushgarak in the
North
2: Destroy the Icecrown the source of Doomdarks Power. This is
located in the Tower of Doom northwest of the Citadel of Ushgarak
In order to do this you must assume the role of Luxor the
Moonprince, who has the power of vision and command over those
loyal to him by virtue of the moonring which he wears. This
allows you to control many different allies even though they may
be spread across the land of midnight. Also the moonring acts
against the Ice fear of Doomdark which saps armies strenth and
morale. At the start of the game you control 4 characters, Luxor
the Moonprince, Morkin (Luxor's Son), Corleth the Fey and
Rorthron the Wise. Using these Characters you must attempt to
defeat Doomdark. Morkin will be central in ant attempt to destoy
the Ice Crown as only he is immune to the ice fear and can get
close enough to steal it without detection. In order to conquer
Ushgarak a large army must be ammassed by recuiting the Lord of
the free in the South of Midnight. The Fey will also help but
must be persuaded by Corleth to join the cause.
The hopes of the free will only be destoyed if Doomdark can
suceed in either killing both Morkin and Luxor, or by killing
Morkin and taking Xajorkith deep in the south of the lands of the
free. Should Luxor be killed and Morkin still live, you will
loose control of all you other allies save Morkin. Morkin must
then retreive the Moon Ring from the site were Luxor fell and put
on the moonring in order to gain its powers. Unfortunatly as the
Moonring radiates warth in order to ease the Icefear Doomdark can
sense its wears location, thus making Morkin's quest for the
icecrown almost impossible.
Features of the Landscape
Army
A friendly army will offer no hindrance to the traveller but a
hostile army should be avoided or engaged in battle.
Cavern
Can provide shelter from the weather or enemy, but it may have
already done so for fouler creatures.
Citadel
A strongly fortified city which may harbour friendly or enemy
forces. Storming a citadel is a hard task.
Down
Slow down travellers slighly and may hide unseen dangers ahead.
Forest
Home of the magical Fey. Movement through a forest slows down
all but the Fey.
Frozen Wastes
These surround the land of Midnight. They cannot be crossed
by anybody.
Henge
Possess strange powers which may help or hinder an army.
Keep
The fortress of a minor Lord. They cannot resist a determined
assault from an enemy for very long.
Lake
Often magical, these can have powers to revive and heal those
who oppose Doomdark.
Lith
Ancient standing stones, often with strange magical powers.
Mountains
Moving across a range of mountains takes many hours and leaves
you exhausted.
Ruin
Abandoned fortresses of long-forgotten wars. May harbour dark
creatures or lost treasures.
Snowhall
Large structures which offer shelter to hundreds if need be.
Tower
The refuges of the wise. Although impregnable, help may be
sought at these - it may not always be granted though.
Village
Can offer warmth and shelter if the people prove friendly.
CHEATS
This is more a bug than a cheat. If Luxor is killed you loose
control of everyone other than Morkin. However, Morkin can begin
to re-recruit Lords without retrieving the Moonring from the site
of Luxor's demise.
As for tips:-
The simplest way always seemed to be to send Morkin north to find
Farflame and send to two of them straight to Ushgarak. Farflame
could usually manage to wipe out the few armies they would meet
en-route and them could destroy the ice crown when they got
there.
Alternatively, the longer (and far more entertaining way) is to
split your four main characters up at the start, each going in
a different direction and recruiting as many people as possible
then sending them all south to Xajorkith to wait for the enemy
to arrive. You may want to leave the northern Fey (sorry, can't
remember their names now) at home rather than send them south,
so that you have a large, spare army left for later use. Don't
bother trying to defend individual citidels, as you'll usually
lose (take as many troops as you can and run before the enemy
arrives).
Try to recruit Lord Blood within the first few moves and leave
him at his keep. He will delay the oncoming armies giving the
rest of the characters time to get going (you may want to pull
him out before his armies get completely wiped out, as he's a
very useful commander to have around - ie. he doesn't get scared
easily, unlike some).
You'll have to pick the route they each take fairly carefully,
as the main characters have limits on who they can recruit. Once
Doomdark's troops arrive at Xajorkith you will have a number of
rather large battles, but should win them all (Doomdark's armies
are usually outnumbered). After the onslaught stops, send your
armies north (reclaiming keeps, etc. as you go) and fight your
way into Ushgarak (meeting up with the northern Fey when you get
there).
SEQUELS/PREQUELS
Followed by Doomdark's Revenge which uses similar control
methods. Was suposed to be the first part of a trilogy but part
3 (The Eye of the Moon) was never completed (although some work
had reportedly been done on it). Recently Lords of Midnight: The
Citadel has been released for the PC, this does not have the same
scenario as Eye of the Moon was suposed to have, and uses a
further advanced form of Landscaping (more like that found in
Midwinter). The story does continue on from Doomdark's Revenge.
SCORES RECEIVED
10/10 (CRASH #7, August 1984)
BOOKLET TEXT
URLS
ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/l/lordsmid.zip
GENERAL FACTS
The original game came with a keyboard overlay, designed to fit
on a rubber-key Spectrum, which had all the keyboard commands
written on it.
You may also like to try the Lords of Midnight Web Page, at
http://www.gatewest.net/~cpb/lom.html.
NOTABLE FEATURES
This was the first game to use 'Landscaping' to generate the view
of the world of Midnight from the perspective each of the
characters under your control.
