Mike Singleton, the designer behind The Lords of Midnight for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, passed away at the age of 61.
Singleton worked as an English teacher in the UK before moving into the games industry in the early 1980s as a freelance designer where he created Lords of Midnight, a groundbreaking RPG that was one of the first to utilize a "landscaping" technique in its gameplay. Beyond Software's RPG became a massive critical hit.
He went on to create a popular sequel called Doomdark's Revenge and a real-time strategy game based on the "Lord of the Rings" novels called War In Middle-Earth. He also worked with LucasArts on titles such as Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb and Codemasters for Race Driver: GRID.
Singleton and fellow designer and friend Jon Wild had been working on an iOS port for The Lord of Midnight at the time of Singleton's passing. Wild wrote on his blog that he hasn't decided if he should finish the game and will wait on making such a decision until after he speaks with Singleton's family. He also recalled the effect Singleton's groundbreaking game and Singleton himself had on his life.
"I ended up working for SCi in Southampton, and my first job was reverse engineering a Japanese NEC PC machine, in order to port Cyberwar to it. I was lucky enough to meet Mike in London a number of years later, and we discussed the labour of love that the development must have been for me. He was truly impressed with the work and effort of what I had done, and that in turn, filled me with much joy."
Metro.co.uk: Lords of Midnight legend Mike Singleton dies
Mike Singleton, the designer behind The Lords of Midnight for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, passed away at the age of 61.
Singleton worked as an English teacher in the UK before moving into the games industry in the early 1980s as a freelance designer where he created Lords of Midnight, a groundbreaking RPG that was one of the first to utilize a "landscaping" technique in its gameplay. Beyond Software's RPG became a massive critical hit.
He went on to create a popular sequel called Doomdark's Revenge and a real-time strategy game based on the "Lord of the Rings" novels called War In Middle-Earth. He also worked with LucasArts on titles such as Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb and Codemasters for Race Driver: GRID.
Singleton and fellow designer and friend Jon Wild had been working on an iOS port for The Lord of Midnight at the time of Singleton's passing. Wild wrote on his blog that he hasn't decided if he should finish the game and will wait on making such a decision until after he speaks with Singleton's family. He also recalled the effect Singleton's groundbreaking game and Singleton himself had on his life.
"I ended up working for SCi in Southampton, and my first job was reverse engineering a Japanese NEC PC machine, in order to port Cyberwar to it. I was lucky enough to meet Mike in London a number of years later, and we discussed the labour of love that the development must have been for me. He was truly impressed with the work and effort of what I had done, and that in turn, filled me with much joy."
Metro.co.uk: Lords of Midnight legend Mike Singleton dies
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