Lords of Midnight

Just picked up on a Lords of Midnight Article that indirectly talks a little about the atmosphere of Midnight.

However, despite its strong sense of location, there was little impetus to idly explore the countryside. While the land of Midnight has a stark beauty, the limited range of elements leaves little room for any surprises. If you’ve seen one mountain you’ve literally seen them all, so the few times the game does surprise, the impact is all the more for it. One of the more spellbinding moments came late into the game, when I felt like I was further north than any other man had ever been, and I saw ahead of me distant tower. Except that it nestled safely behind the frozen wastes. Having become accustomed to the frozen waste’s role as the implacable edge of the game, this seems like a mirage. Or a bug. Any thought about the campaign at hand was put to one side as I explored this anomaly. And so it was: in one corner of the world it was possible pick a path through the wastes into a little oasis of land. It’s a small, unremarkable thing, but when I was there, surrounded by the claw-like peaks of the frozen wastes, it felt like a real discovery.

I gave it a little thought and wondered what it is about the game that has drawn me to it for 20 years. I think that the beauty of Midnight is in the atmosphere of the imagination. For some reason that game landscape just allowed the imagination to run free. Once I started playing the game I would just get lost in the story of it. I still do. Which is one of the reasons whyI set up the wiki to try an realise all the information that we know about, and create so much more that we don’t. I want the place to be real, I want the place to live. Yes, the story is full of typical fantasy cliches but there are so many oppurtunities to iron them out and create a very interesting place that more people could inhabit. I am closer to the characters of Midnight, than probably any book that I have ever read. Would I rather have Midnight or Lord of the Rings? Midnight every time!

Wayne Britcliffe caught the mood just about right in my Retro Gamer Article..

Even when actually playing the games your imagination takes you beyond, especially in the case of the original’s 8-bit limitations, what you are actually presented with. Swords clash, men scream, the plains fill with marauding enemy armies and smoke rises in the distance as snow begins to fall. Lord Blood dies surrounded by those he has slain in the gatehouse of his overrun Keep – a valiant defence against impossible odds. Shimeril escapes by the skin of his teeth only to have to turn and fight before his Citadels walls.

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Lords of Midnight

Dehumanizer has written a small write up of Lords of Midnight over on his site; Games of My Life.

He discusses the merits of the game when you consider it as a inspired epic.

See Also: Similarties to other Fantasy Stoires…

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Wikipedia Lord of the Rings

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Doomdark’s Revenge

Are you thinking what we're thinking...?

I’ve been having a hard time with my work on The Midnight Engine I get so little done nowdays and I’ve started to get disheartened by it. Anyway after a plea for help from the rest of the midnight commuity I think I may be ready to get on it again… watch this space…

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The Midnight Engine

The midnight engine DDR port is about 75% done.

The base engine has been changed to handle most of the differences in a global fashion, however, I have created multiple versions of a mechanic where needed. eg. A scenario writer chooses which type of battle system, recruitment system, etc…

Lately I have got caught up the the frontend – this has been rewritten to allow easy change, the idea being that scenario writers can affect the frontend as well. However this has been much more of a pain than I anticipated and has, to be honest, bogged me down!

I got over a major hurdle today, and thus I hope to get back on track.

The graphics system has completely changed from the LOM version, and anyone who has seen the screenshots will admit it looks lovely. The whole engine works with a patch system allowing for the terrain to change depending on which location it is, this means that the panormics look differently all the time. This process is also used in the tunnles which allows the tunnels to have distinct appearnces depending on where you are.

Ther resolution is 1024x768x32 – which is causing some speed issues at the moment, due to the amount of graphic work being implemented. For example, there is a haze layer that is applied over the seven sizes(distance) of graphics. In some way almost every pixel is adjusted a number of times before being written to the screen. This will all get sped up at the end.

Jure has produced lots of new graphics, and has worked with Bill to use the DDR shield templates and produce TME versions – thus keep consistency across the midnight games.

The last work that I know Jure was working on was the fog system, and we also discussued and inverse landscaping for the sky.

I recently implemented all of Andrews TME mods that he used for WOTS into the new codebase, and will be handing a version of TME over to him real soon so that he can hopefully get moving around the DDR map in the WOTS engine.

Hopefully, once I had it over, requests from Andrew combined with my own needs will move the project along.

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2005

Well 2004 was an interesting and trying year, and I hope 2005 fairs better.

My resolution for this year is to get back to be organised. Over the last few years my self organisation has slipped muchly and every part of my life now requires that my organisation skills get back on track.

Things to do:

Personal
Finish TME ( Doomdark’s Revenge Scenario )
Start TME tools for Scenario writing – or preferably Igor will work on UniMapGen and his suit of tools.
Finish Wizards Lair Dataformat for John Dow
Finish Firelord Dataformat for…
Finish Spectrum Dataformat DISZ80 Tools
Revamp website
Add all Doomdark’s revenge section to website
Work on Midnight/MU Campaign Manager
Work on Midnight/MU Forum Website
Work on ‘Personal Jesus’ – My Novel #1
Work on ‘The Harry Anderson Journals’ – My Novel #2
Work on ‘unamed’ – My novel #3
Finish Retro Articles
Write new articles
College
Get fit
Lose weight

Home
Decorate New study, Rebekah’s Bedroom, Jacob’s Bedroom, Victoria’s and my Bedroom
Work on the Garden
Fix Garage Door
Convert Loft
Decorate Stairs and Landing
Spend more time with Victoria and the Kids

So, as you can see, my life is a little busy and I have a lot to do… aim high as they say!

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