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. 

