Mike Singleton

Mike Singleton (21 February 1951 – 10 October 2012) was an influential British video game designer who wrote a number of well-regarded titles in the 1980s, as well as being a contributor to games in the 21st century. His titles include The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark's Revenge, Dark Sceptre, War in Middle Earth and Midwinter. Before developing video games, Singleton was an English teacher in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England.

Early work Singleton was originally a teacher and started programming in the late 1970s, and writing Computer Race, a horse racing game he designed for a betting shop on the Commodore PET. Moving on from this, he began writing action games for the PET, working with PetSoft. He wrote Space Acein 6502 machine code; the game broke sales records of the day by selling three hundred copies.

Singleton's association with PetSoft was short-lived, as PetSoft, who had been due to enter into a contract with Sinclair Research in Cambridge to write software for the new ZX80, lost out on the deal to Psion. Singleton contacted British inventor and entrepreneur Clive Sinclair and was asked to send his games along. hooked from an early age on war board games and play-by-mail (PBM) strategy gaming, working for a time on Seventh Empire, a PBM game he put together for Computer and Video Games magazine (C&VG), the Midnight series: Lords of Midnight (released in 1984) and Doomdark's Revenge, which were originally intended to form the first two episodes in a trilogy of which, the final episode, Eye of the Moon, never came about. Each of the two games played out on a scale never seen before back in the mid-eighties: at a time when many games were boasting 50 or even 100 locations, Lords of Midnight'''s groundbreaking gameplay featured over 4,000 locations, and Doomdark's Revenge, 6,000, plus well in excess of 100 player controllable characters. Had Eye of the Moon come to fruition, it was to have had around 24,000 locations, in a map featuring twelve distinct regions, each with a local sub-quest completely separate from the main objective of the game.

Moving on from the Midnight series, Singleton worked on several games of a more arcade-like nature, the first of which, Throne of Fire, At the time of his death after suffering from cancer, Singleton was working on an iPhone port of Lords of Midnight.

Personal life A short biography published in the February 1985 issue of Computer & Video Games magazine highlighted Mike Singleton's passion for playing games, particularly the board game Go. The article also noted that Singleton enjoyed steak and chips and preferred drinking lager. He was a fan of the television program Doctor Who and appreciated music from rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. In the interview, Singleton expressed his ambition to create a timeless classic game, comparable to chess in its enduring appeal.

Games 8-bit home computers TitleDistributor YearPlatform Space Ace PetSoft 1981 PET GamesPack1 Sinclair Research Ltd 1981 ZX81 Shadowfax Postern 1982 BBC, C64/VIC-20, Spectrum Siege Postern 1983 PET/C64/VIC-20, Spectrum Snake Pit Postern 1983 C64/PET/VIC-20, Spectrum 3-Deep Space Postern 1983 C64/VIC-20, Spectrum The Lords of Midnight Beyond Software 1984 Amstrad CPC, C64, Spectrum Doomdark's Revenge Beyond 1985 Amstrad CPC, C64, Spectrum Quake Minus One Beyond Software 1985 C64 Dark Sceptre Beyond Software 1986 Spectrum Throne of Fire Melbourne House 1987 Amstrad CPC, C64, Spectrum War in Middle Earth Melbourne House 1988 Spectrum Star Trek: The Rebel Universe Firebird Software 1988 C64

Later computers TitleDistributor YearPlatform Star Trek: The Rebel Universe Simon & Schuster Interactive 1987 Atari ST, PC Space Cutter Melbourne House 1987 Amiga War in Middle Earth Melbourne House 1988 Atari ST, Amiga, PC Whirligig Firebird Software 1988 Atari ST, Amiga Midwinter Rainbird Software 1989 Atari ST, Amiga, PC Flames of Freedom MicroProse 1990 Atari ST, Amiga, PC Grimblood Virgin Interactive 1990 Atari ST, Amiga Ashes of Empire/Fallen Empire Mirage 1991 Amiga, PC Starlord MicroProse 1993 Amiga, PC Lords of Midnight: The Citadel Domark 1995 PC The Ring Cycle Psygnosis 1995 PC

Consoles TitleDistributor YearPlatform HSX: HyperSonic Xtreme Midas Interactive Entertainment 2002 PlayStation Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb LucasArts 2003 Mac, PC, PS2, Xbox Wrath Unleashed LucasArts 2004 PS2, Xbox Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows Midway Home Entertainment 2005 PS2, Xbox Race Driver: Grid Codemasters 2008 PC, PS3, Xbox 360