Remember Lords of Midnight? It was one of the Games of my Life, and deservedly so. It has several remakes in active development, and you can always play the original 8-bit versions using emulators.
But one particular port is quite… useful. It’s a Java port, and can be played using just your browser.
There’s nothing like working, but having a small LoM window to look at, and make a couple of moves, from time to time. 
In 1984, there was a little game for a little 48 KB machine which amazed everyone – nobody had done something like that with a computer (even a “bigger” one) before. You may have heard about it. I’ve even mentioned it here, some time ago: Mike Singleton’s Lords of Midnight.
In the same year (!!!), Mike surpassed himself, with a game that was even bigger, better, more complex and detailed, more varied… and still used only 49152 bytes of RAM. It wasn’t very well named, though. The game was Doomdark’s Revenge.
Why wasn’t that a good name? Because Doomdark, the villain from the first game, was, indeed, dead, after his defeat in LoM. Really dead, not “undead”. The “revenge” was from his daughter, Shareth the Heartstealer, who was even more powerful and evil (aren’t they always?), and who wanted Luxor the Moonprince to pay… because she had wanted the pleasure of killing her father for herself. Nice daughter, isn’t she?
(Note: This review concerns the ZX Spectrum version. The C64 one was, IMO, terrible – great graphics and music, but none of the playability, and Robocop could jump!)
Ocean’s Robocop, released during the company’s greatest years, when it specialized itself in arcade and movie conversions, is one of their best ever. A multi-level action game, with a couple of mini-games between levels, and including great graphics, sound (including actually understandable digitized speech – something almost unseen at the time) and music (the title tune was one of those “load up the game just to listen to it” ones).
But the best thing about the game was how great it was to play. It really felt like the movie – unlike other games of its kind, your character was slow moving, didn’t jump (except on the C64 ), and most enemies, indeed (the ones that moved, that is) were faster than you (unlike most games where you’re quicker than everything else). However, you were tough. And had a great gun. And were able to shoot it in several directions.
The idea was not to dodge bullets, but to kill every enemy before they shot at you. If they did… well, you’re Robocop, you can handle a few bullets.
And who can forget the level where (SPOILER!) you try to arrest Dick Jones, but Directive 4 comes into action, you drop your gun, and then have to fight ED-209 with just your fists?
The 3-way gun was a bit weird, though. If it existed in real life, it would kill enemies… by making them laugh to death. 
Spectrum action games didn’t come much better than this.
As usual, the game is available at World of Spectrum. And Speccy emulators are perfect, these days – even on Series 60 phones, or Palms, or Pocket PCs, or almost anything.
From Julian Gollop, the author of Chaos, came this masterpiece, in 1988: Laser Squad. Quite probably, the best and most popular turn-based tactical game in the 80s.
What made LS so popular, even with action game fans? Among other things, it was polished, easy to learn, and had arcade-style graphics, instead of the common symbolic representations in strategy games. In other words, the player was able to see things as if he was actually there (only, of course, looking from above). This may seem normal these days (e.g. Jagged Alliance, Pathway to Glory, Gollop’s own later X-Com), but Laser Squad was the first game which showed everything so well. And all was controllable with a mere one-button joystick, or with 5 keys (4 directions plus fire). The graphics were good and realistic, and the explosions were a pleasure to watch – especially if it was an enemy caught in them.
No, I haven’t forgotten the C64 – although I only had one quite late in its life, there were some unforgettable masterpieces for that little 1 MHz (!) beast. This, System 3’s The Last Ninja 2 is certainly one of them.
Oddly enough, I played the Spectrum version first, and one tends to get attached to the version he plays first. But the C64 version blew me away. One screen of this game has more atmosphere than many entire games. The music is hauntingly beautiful (all 13 tunes). There’s a sense of almost tangible despair, of being in a world where everyone tries to kill you, yet, everything is familiar – a park, city streets, sewers, an office building, and so on. And the environment is at least as dangerous an enemy as your human enemies. The whole game is hard and unforgiving – no “tutorials where you can’t do wrong”, or any kind of hand-holding here. But the feeling of finally passing a level (after hours or even days), and getting a beautifully drawn loading screen for the next one, complete with a new tune, and the suspense of not knowing what’s next…
Oh, and there’s an alligator in the sewers. I knew it all along.
If you’re not a graphics junkie (or even if you are, but can see games in the context of when they were released), get an emulator and the game, and try it for yourself. You’ll truly appreciate how sad it is that these days there are only first person shooters, sports games and MMORPGs.
Hint: even if you, at the time, finished the Spectrum version (or even another one, such as the Amiga or the PC ports), try the original C64 version. It’s the only one that really “got” it.
It could be called a Double Dragon clone. It could also be called a River City Ransom clone. But one thing is certain: there’s no better game of this kind on an 8-bit computer than Imagine’s Target: Renegade. Well, the Spectrum version, at least.
T:R isn’t a very complex game – in fact, it’s a sequel to Imagine’s previous “Renegade”, which was a port of the Taito arcade game (but the Spectrum version was much better than the original, which had one of the worst control schemes in history. Don’t believe me? Try the arcade version in MAME, and weep.) The sequel, however, is a completely original game for 8-bit computers, although, as I said, derivative of Double Dragon and others.
Do you like “Lord of the Rings”? Tolkien’s epic, the best known fantasy book in the world? Do you like Peter Jackson’s fantastic movie adaptations? If so, isn’t the idea of living the epic, even if “just” in a video game, tempting?
If you want to re-live the movies, the best choice is Electronic Arts’ two games, “The Two Towers”, and, especially, “Return of the King”. They’re fantastic, whether on a console or on the PC. But they’re movie adaptations – basically, you “play” the movies’ main battles. Those two are great action games, I’m not trying to diminish them in any way.
But if you want to re-live the books…
… there’s not a better choice than Mike Singleton’s 1984 classic, Lords of Midnight.
Nope, it’s not “Tolkien-licensed”. It’s not an official LotR adaptation in any way. And Mike actually wrote a short novella, which was included with the game, and was a joy to read.
But the game, a mix of adventure and strategy, was, 21 years ago, and is, right now, the best way to re-live Lord of the Rings – not an exploration of Middle Earth, not a meeting with Tolkien’s characters, but, instead, what Gandalf – who orchestrated the entire strategy – must have felt, and the challenges he had to meet.
Lords of Midnight is the perfect, still unequaled blend of grand strategy – defeating, or stopping, or at least delaying the Dark Lord’s might by force of arms – with high adventure – a heroic quest of a brave hero who attempts, without an army behind him, using only stealth and courage, to destroy the Dark Lord’s main source of power – which, obviously, can only be done deep inside the Dark Lord’s territory. Sound familiar?
Really, play this game. There’s a reason it still has an active community, with enhancements, remakes, multi-player versions and so on… after 21 years.
Back in time, to a 1982 game I played on 1983, on my first computer, a 48K ZX Spectrum: The Hobbit.
This game… well, it has a story. A personal one. I guess I could say that this game changed my life – as much as anything can change one’s life.
So you’ll have to bear with me – or, of course, skip this post. Because this one is as much about “why I’m the way I am” as it is about the game – perhaps more. And it’s a long one.
Back to the ol’ Speccy for a 1985 game I and my friends played well into the 90s: Chaos.
By looking at screenshots, it appears stupidly basic; by watching someone play without explaining to you what he or she is doing, it seems insanely complex. The reality?
The premise is simple: 2-8 wizards trying to kill each other, using a variety of spells, including summoned creatures independently controllable, in a relatively small map (one screen) (sounds almost like Magic: the Gathering, only without the cards…).
The options, however, are many. Should I cast this Giant when the spell has a 20% chance of working? Should I cast it as an illusion, which works 100% of the time, but can easily be dispelled? Should I try to create easier, weaker Law creatures so that the Giant (a Law spell) is easier to cast later? Or should I go towards Chaos instead so I can eventually cast a Red Dragon? Is that guy going to attack me, or can I stay concentrated on killing that other guy? Can a Magic Bolt kill him, or should I save it for when I’m threatened? He’s attacking with undead creatures, and I have none… should I cast a Magic Sword and fight them physically? Trap them with Fire or a Gooey Blob? Create a Horse or a Pegasus, mount it, and get out of here? Create Magic Trees so I can get new spells? Is that Ogre he just cast an illusion?
And all of that in 48 K. Yes, 49152 bytes.
Oh, and the snake on the loading screen looked great.
Incidentally, Jullian Gollop, the author, would later create Laser Squad, UFO – Enemy Unknown (a.k.a. X-Com), Laser Squad Nemesis, and the new Rebelstar: Tactical Command for the GBA.
By the way, you can get Chaos here.
While the Sinclair ZX Spectrum wasn’t my first “games playing system”, it was surely my first computer. While it was released in 1982, I got mine (well, my father’s) in 1983 – I was 9 then. Man, I feel old…
And this – Penetrator, from Melbourne House, was the first game I played on the Speccy. At the time, the name didn’t sound “suspicious”, like it would today.
It’s basically a Scramble (an even older arcade game) clone – you fly a ship, which can shoot forwards, and drop bombs beneath you, in an apparently physics-reallistic sort of way. The first level is on open air, with just mountains to dodge, and missiles which try to hit you, but from the second level onwards, the game is inside increasingly complex caverns, so the ceiling is also a danger. And new enemies, of course.
Of course, the graphics seem laughable now, but reviews at the time said great things about them – they were impressive, for the time.
It would take years before I was able to beat the game without cheating, but I did so. My first Spectrum game…
If you want to try the game yourself, it’s perfectly emulated.
Of course, soon I would have a much harder challenge ahead of me: The Hobbit. My first text adventure game, at a time when I didn’t know any English. But that’s for another post…
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