David's Midnight Magic
| David's Midnight Magic | |
|---|---|
|
David's Midnight Magic was an early computer pinball simulation. | |
| Developer(s) | David Snider |
| Publisher(s) |
Brøderbund Software Ariolasoft |
| Distributor(s) | Brøderbund |
| Platform(s) |
Apple II Commodore 64 Atari 8-bit |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Pinball |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player Multiplayer (alternating turns) |
David's Midnight Magic is an Apple II pinball simulation written by David Snider and released by Brøderbund in 1982. The game was published in Europe by Ariolasoft. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64, and in 1987 Atari Corp. published it in cartridge form for the then-new Atari XEGS.
Summary
David's Midnight Magic is closely modeled after the popular real-life pinball table Black Knight, released by Williams in 1980. The computer simulation, unlike Black Knight, contains bright colors such as green, pink, and blue (depending somewhat on the version of the game) in contrast to Black Knight's darker medieval theme.These colors were used to great advantage by illustrator Marc Ericksen as he produced for Broderbund one of his earliest game art efforts showing a pinball player's face reflected on a floating chrome pinball, with the pinball game surface floating over a ghostly desert scene.. The same art was used in the Atari 2600 version, but the reflection of the player was removed.. Atari released a pinball game called Midnight Magic for the Atari 2600 that plays differently from the similarly named David's Midnight Magic.
David Snider's brother Eric later used his first name in the title of Eric's Ultimate Solitaire.
In 2005, a Visual Pinball recreation of David's Midnight Magic was created called David's Midnight Magic 2005 which is rendered with modern 3D graphics.
Reception
Softline stated that David's Midnight Magic "ratifies Bill Budge's extraordinary program as a programming tour de force", as it was only equal to Budge's Raster Blaster despite being released nine months later. The magazine concluded that "the fact that [David is] second should not dull the glitter of this effort".[1] Computer Gaming World stated that Midnight Magic was a better game than Raster Blaster, but lamented the requirement of removing write protection from the floppy, thus voiding the warranty, in order to save high scores.[2] The game would go on to win "Computer Game of the Year" at the 4th annual Arkie Awards, where judges described it as "a program that is both an exciting video game and a fairly faithful evocation of pinball mystique".[3]:32
See also
References
- ↑ Tommervik, Al (January 1982). "David's Midnight Magic". Softline. p. 32. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
- ↑ Greenlaw, Stanley (March–April 1982), "Pinball Mania", Computer Gaming World, pp. 35, 38
- ↑ Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (March 1983). "Arcade Alley: The Best Computer Games". Video. Reese Communications. 6 (12): 32–33. ISSN 0147-8907.