Doomdark's Revenge
Encyclopedia
Doomdark's Revenge is the sequel to the seminal ZX Spectrum
, Commodore 64
and Amstrad CPC
game The Lords of Midnight
by Mike Singleton
. It has similar game mechanics to Lords, but adds more detail and complexity with the number of characters and locations increased.
of her own), she decides to take revenge on the chief architect of his downfall, Luxor the Moonprince, by kidnapping his son Morkin. The game revolves around Luxor and his companions Rorthron the Wise and Tarithel the Fey (Morkin's beloved), and their attempts to rescue Morkin and defeat Shareth.
This makes the relationship between lords very important, as some lords can only be recruited by certain others. Certain lords are vassals of certain others, and some may only be recruited by their lieges. Recruiting a liege does not, however, automatically recruit all his vassals, nor their respective vassals. Lords may also cooperate, recruit and fight each other independently, making the world much more dynamic than the previous game.
There are many magic items to be found, most belonging to a single lord and having 'power in battle', as well as magic crowns, and the landscape and its features hold many surprises for the player.
Doomsdark's Revenge reverses the first game's victory conditions by giving the computer only a single goal, the death of Luxor, Shareth wins outright if Luxor is slain. The player has many possible levels of victory, ranging from the mere rescue of Morkin and retreat to Midnight to the destruction of Shareth and the safe return home of Luxor, Morkin, Rorthron and Tarithel.
, in November, 1984. Harris, however, had to wait for the models for 14 months—until January 1986—because the publisher had not expected anyone to "finish the game so quickly".
al crystal
, or jewel
, that allowed its owner to look into the future. According to Singleton "Luxor is dying, it's some years on and he's reached the end of his tether, and he wants to see what is going to happen to Midnight in the future. So Morkin goes off in search of the magical jewel called the Eye of the Moon which enables people to see into the future, so that Luxor can then rest in peace." Some of Singleton's plans included a game canvas four times bigger than the original Lords of Midnight, divided into twelve kingdoms set south-west of the original game, dynamic full-color graphics with black masking to hide any color clashes, unique graphics for all castles, unique, generated, full-scale facial graphics for all characters, a more convincing name generator, interior scenes of keeps and citadels, et cetera. There were even tentative plans to implement a multi-player mode, using the already existing mic/ear sockets to exchange data. Despite having already created a substantial amount of new game code—essentially all the above engines --, Singleton was involved in numerous other game projects at the time and thus put the game on hiatus.
In an article published in July, 1985 in Computer Gamer, Singleton disclosed quite a lot of details of the game. The game was to have 16,000 locations and 131,000 unique views, created with a new technique called Randscaping. The Randscaping engine made every view unique. In multiplayer mode, the two players would each control either Morkin or Tarithel on their quest to find the fabled jewel. His new Midnight Identikit could create personalized faces for all the 256 NPC's roaming the canvas. Some of the NPC's were to have unique capabilities; for instance, one character would have the magic ability to flatten mountains, and was to be a critical reqruitment for one of the mini-quests, allowing the player access beyond an insurpassable mountain range to retrieve an item. Another NPC could control the weather, and so on. At the start of the game, the player(s) would only be able to control Morkin and Tarithel, recruiting more characters to their cause as the game progresses. The recruited characters could be made part of teams headed by a character chosen by the player, making moving the characters around the playing field a lot easier. The last attempt by Singleton to get the game released was in April, 1989.
Today there exists no authentic material for the Eye of the Moon. Some presentation mock-ups were created by programmer Singleton; all still available screenshots—if any—are from these faked mock-ups. While the most serious intention of both Singleton and publisher Domark indeed was to create this third part, the sequel was later indefinitely shelved, partly due to Mike Singleton's other commitments and partly due to the original publisher being bought out by Telecomsoft. Because of this, the new management wanted to change the terms of agreement, demanding two distinct versions of the game--8-bit and 16-bit versions--instead of one. Singleton refused the new agreement and the Eye of the Moon entered the realm of myth.
Doomdark's Revenge would, however, be followed many years later by another sequel, Lords of Midnight : The Citadel
.
Eye of the Moon has since been mentioned for a possible upcoming release, with Mike Singleton again involved, a significant amount of work has already taken place.
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
game The Lords of Midnight
The Lords of Midnight
The Lords of Midnight is a video game, written by Mike Singleton, and released in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum. Conversions for the Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 soon followed.-Gameplay:The Lords of Midnight is a wargame/adventure game...
by Mike Singleton
Mike Singleton
Mike Singleton is a British author and video game developer who wrote various well-regarded titles for the ZX Spectrum during the 1980s. His titles include The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark's Revenge, Throne of Fire, Dark Sceptre and War In Middle Earth. He also wrote a novel, The Eternal Empire,...
. It has similar game mechanics to Lords, but adds more detail and complexity with the number of characters and locations increased.
Background
After Doomdark's defeat in the first game, word reaches his daughter, Shareth the Heartstealer, that he has been overthrown. Enraged by this (not out of filial devotion, but because she had been planning a particularly gruesome parricideParricide
Parricide is defined as:*the act of murdering one's father , mother or other close relative, but usually not children ....
of her own), she decides to take revenge on the chief architect of his downfall, Luxor the Moonprince, by kidnapping his son Morkin. The game revolves around Luxor and his companions Rorthron the Wise and Tarithel the Fey (Morkin's beloved), and their attempts to rescue Morkin and defeat Shareth.
Gameplay
The game has five factions to be recruited or fought: the Fey, the Barbarians, the Dwarfs, the Giants, and the Icelords. The main difference between this game and Lords is that the lords now all move and react independently, no longer content to sit in their castles and wait to be recruited. Shareth also moves around, attempting to recruit armies and lords to her cause, so a major part of the game involves recruiting sufficient forces to counter hers.This makes the relationship between lords very important, as some lords can only be recruited by certain others. Certain lords are vassals of certain others, and some may only be recruited by their lieges. Recruiting a liege does not, however, automatically recruit all his vassals, nor their respective vassals. Lords may also cooperate, recruit and fight each other independently, making the world much more dynamic than the previous game.
There are many magic items to be found, most belonging to a single lord and having 'power in battle', as well as magic crowns, and the landscape and its features hold many surprises for the player.
Doomsdark's Revenge reverses the first game's victory conditions by giving the computer only a single goal, the death of Luxor, Shareth wins outright if Luxor is slain. The player has many possible levels of victory, ranging from the mere rescue of Morkin and retreat to Midnight to the destruction of Shareth and the safe return home of Luxor, Morkin, Rorthron and Tarithel.
Official competition
The game's publisher offered a prize—models of the major characters in an Icemark setting—to the first player who revealed the "Watchwords of Midnight", an inscription on Luxor's Moon Ring that would be shown upon ultimate victory. The conditions for this to happen was if the player could bring all the major characters, including Morkin, to the Gate of Varenorn and eliminate the main antagonist, Shareth the Heartstealer. The first to do so was then-15-year-old Richard Harris from LowestoftLowestoft
Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...
, in November, 1984. Harris, however, had to wait for the models for 14 months—until January 1986—because the publisher had not expected anyone to "finish the game so quickly".
Shelved Sequel
Originally the series was conceived as a trilogy, with the third part already named; Eye of the Moon. The sequel is even mentioned in the game's manual; "The third part of the trilogy, possibly the most exciting yet, is still to come, when Mike will send Morkin down to the warmer lands which lie below Midnight itself, to find the Eye of the Moon." The Eye of the Moon was to be a magicMagic (gaming)
Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
al crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
, or jewel
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
, that allowed its owner to look into the future. According to Singleton "Luxor is dying, it's some years on and he's reached the end of his tether, and he wants to see what is going to happen to Midnight in the future. So Morkin goes off in search of the magical jewel called the Eye of the Moon which enables people to see into the future, so that Luxor can then rest in peace." Some of Singleton's plans included a game canvas four times bigger than the original Lords of Midnight, divided into twelve kingdoms set south-west of the original game, dynamic full-color graphics with black masking to hide any color clashes, unique graphics for all castles, unique, generated, full-scale facial graphics for all characters, a more convincing name generator, interior scenes of keeps and citadels, et cetera. There were even tentative plans to implement a multi-player mode, using the already existing mic/ear sockets to exchange data. Despite having already created a substantial amount of new game code—essentially all the above engines --, Singleton was involved in numerous other game projects at the time and thus put the game on hiatus.
Today there exists no authentic material for the Eye of the Moon. Some presentation mock-ups were created by programmer Singleton; all still available screenshots—if any—are from these faked mock-ups. While the most serious intention of both Singleton and publisher Domark indeed was to create this third part, the sequel was later indefinitely shelved, partly due to Mike Singleton's other commitments and partly due to the original publisher being bought out by Telecomsoft. Because of this, the new management wanted to change the terms of agreement, demanding two distinct versions of the game--8-bit and 16-bit versions--instead of one. Singleton refused the new agreement and the Eye of the Moon entered the realm of myth.
Doomdark's Revenge would, however, be followed many years later by another sequel, Lords of Midnight : The Citadel
Lords of Midnight : The Citadel
Lords of Midnight: The Citadel is the second and final sequel to the classic ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC game The Lords of Midnight by Mike Singleton....
.
Eye of the Moon has since been mentioned for a possible upcoming release, with Mike Singleton again involved, a significant amount of work has already taken place.
External links
- The Gate of Varenorn, a comprehensive resource on the game by the author of the DOS ports
- Remembering Doomdark's Revenge