Midnight Mutants

Last updated
Midnight Mutants
Atari 7800 Midnight Mutants cover art.jpg
Cover art by Michael Mendheim
Developer(s) Radioactive Software
Publisher(s) Atari Corporation
Designer(s) Peter Adams
Programmer(s) Peter Adams
Artist(s) Les Pardew
Writer(s) Tammy Moore
Composer(s) Paul Webb.
Platform(s) Atari 7800
Release
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Midnight Mutants is an action-adventure game for the Atari 7800 ProSystem, developed by Radioactive Software and published by Atari Corporation in 1990. It features a likeness of Al Lewis, dressed as Grandpa Munster, playing the role of "Grampa". The game, along with Sentinel, was one of the last releases by Atari for the Atari 7800.

Contents

As with similar games of that era, Midnight Mutants features a large in-game environment with many locations, a background musical soundtrack, battles against boss enemies and an animated introduction.

Plot

On Halloween night in 1992 young Jimmy Harkman's grandfather (known as "Grampa") has been imprisoned inside of a pumpkin by a resurrected villain named Dr. Evil, who is taking revenge for being burned at the stake as a witch by their ancestor Johnathon Harkman on Halloween night in 1747.

Jimmy then heads on a Halloween quest to free his grandfather. With Doctor Evil on the loose, Jimmy finds the countryside has become inhabited by scary creatures such as zombies and werewolves that can injure him physically and also make his blood impure. Fortunately, even though Grampa is trapped in pumpkin form, he is available to give Jimmy advice on occasion with the push of a button. Along the way, Jimmy can collect weapons and items that will help him in his quest to defeat evil creatures, giant bosses and ultimately Dr. Evil himself.

Gameplay

Confronting the undead at the graveyard MidnightMutantsintheGraveyard.png
Confronting the undead at the graveyard

Midnight Mutants is a scrolling action-adventure game with a horror theme. It is displayed from a pseudo-isometric viewpoint and features a completely free-roaming world design.

In his quest to save Grampa, Jimmy travels across the country side, exploring an old haunted mansion, a secret laboratory, caverns, a haunted forest, a pumpkin patch, a haunted graveyard, an old shipwreck, among other locations.

Initially, Jimmy is powerless to fight the evil that faces him and must rely on his wits and grandpa's advice in order to stay alive. Contact with the creatures roaming about will either cause him physical injury or make his blood lose its purity, both of which will prove fatal if he's not careful. As the game progresses, he locates various weapons of increasing power, health power-ups and other useful items that make it possible to defeat the minions of evil. Key parts of the game culminate in battles against giant boss creatures that take up most of the screen.

Development

Midnight Mutants was developed by Radioactive Software, a team consisting of programmer and designer Peter Adams; writer Tammy Moore; artist Les Pardew; and composer Paul Webb. Former Atari programmer Chuck Peavey told Retro Gamer that while he worked an unreleased 7800 adaptation of the 1984 film Missing in Action , his boss, Adams, was working on another game titled Grandpa's Attic, centered around Grandpa Munster from the sitcom The Munsters . Peavey alleged it was cancelled due to poor quality. [1] The cover for Midnight Mutants, as well as its in-game graphics, feature actor Al Lewis as this character, whom he portrayed in the show. [2] [3] [4] Neither the actor nor the show are credited or mentioned within the game or within its packaging. [5] According to the Game Developers Research Institute, both this cover and that of the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System game Fester's Quest were done by Michael Mendheim. [6] Hidden in the code for Midnight Mutants is a secret, mispelled message stating, "IT’S A WONDER PETER EVER GOT THIS PROGRAM BEDUGGED!" [7]

Reception

In a retrospective review, Atari 7800 Forever gave the game a 4.5 out of 5, praising the humor, the approachable in-game menus and the excellent boss battles. [8] IGN listed it as the third-best 7800 game, citing "some real longevity" due to its large map "as well as just solid exploration gameplay." [9] Retro Gamer attributed its late release as the reason for being one of the most advanced games for the 7800, allowing it to rival its console contemporaries. It summarized, "This isometric arcade adventure has a spooky Halloween-based plot, which is told by an impressive animated intro, and a huge map that will have you playing right into the midnight hours." [2] [3]

Reviews

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari 7800</span> Home video game console

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it one of the first consoles with backward compatibility. It shipped with a different model of joystick from the 2600-standard CX40 and included Pole Position II as the pack-in game. Most of the announced titles at launch were ports of 1981–1983 arcade video games.

<i>The Munsters</i> American television series (1964–1966)

The Munsters is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monster Herman Munster, Yvonne De Carlo as his vampire wife Lily, Al Lewis as Grandpa the aged vampire Count Dracula, Beverley Owen as their niece Marilyn, and Butch Patrick as their werewolf-like son Eddie. The family pet, named "Spot", was a fire-breathing dragon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Lewis</span> American actor (1923–2006)

Al Lewis was an American actor and activist, best known for his role as Grandpa on the television series The Munsters from 1964 to 1966 and its film versions. He previously also co-starred with The Munsters's Fred Gwynne in the television show Car 54, Where Are You? from 1961–1963. Later in life, he was a restaurant owner, political candidate, and radio broadcaster.

<i>Solaris</i> (video game) 1986 video game

Solaris is a space combat video game for the Atari 2600 published in 1986 by Atari. The game involves a player seeking out the planet Solaris via their starship. To accomplish this, the player must navigate the galactic scanner to explore quadrants of a map. Doing so allows them to explore Federation planets to refuel their ship, and engage in combat with hostile aliens known as the Zylons.

<i>Miner 2049er</i> 1982 video game

Miner 2049er is a platform game game developed by Big Five Software and published in December 1982. It is set in a mine, where the player controls the Mountie Bounty Bob. The player controls Bounty Bob through multiple levels of a mine, with the goal of traversing all of the platforms in each level all while avoiding enemies and within a set amount of time.

<i>Klax</i> (video game) 1990 video game

Klax is a puzzle video game released in arcades in 1990 by Atari Games while Namco distributed the game in Japanese markets. It was designed and animated by Mark Stephen Pierce with the software engineering done by Dave Akers. The object is to catch colored blocks tumbling down a machine and arrange them in colored rows and patterns to make them disappear. Klax was originally published as a coin-op follow-up to Tetris, about which Atari Games was in a legal dispute at the time.

<i>Crystal Castles</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Crystal Castles is an arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. The player controls Bentley Bear who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies, some of whom are after the gems as well.

<i>Phoenix</i> (1980 video game) 1980 video game

Phoenix is a fixed shooter video game developed for arcades in Japan and released in 1980 by Taito. The player controls a space ship shooting at incoming enemies that fly from the top of the screen down towards the player's ship. There are five stages which repeat endlessly. The fifth is a fight against a large enemy spaceship, making Phoenix one of the first shooters with a boss battle, an element that would become common for the genre.

<i>Demon Attack</i> 1982 video game

Demon Attack is a fixed shooter video game created by Rob Fulop for the Atari 2600 and published by Imagic in 1982. The game involves the player controlling a laser cannon from the surface of a planet, shooting winged demons that fly down and attack the player in different sets of patterns.

<i>Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior</i> 1987 video game

Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior is a 1987 video game developed and published by Palace Software for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. The game was ported to many other systems and was licensed to Epyx who published it as Death Sword in the United States.

<i>Atlantis</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Atlantis is a fixed shooter video game released by Imagic in July 1982 for the Atari 2600. It was written by Dennis Koble who also wrote Trick Shot for Imagic. Atlantis was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers, VIC-20, Intellivision, and Magnavox Odyssey 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari Flashback series</span> Line of dedicated video game consoles

The Atari Flashback series is a line of dedicated video game consoles produced since 2004, currently designed, produced, published and marketed by AtGames under license from Atari SA. The Flashback consoles are "plug-and-play" versions of the 1970s Atari 2600 console. They contain built-in games rather than using the ROM cartridges utilized by the 2600. Most of the games are classics that were previously released for the 2600, although some Flashback consoles include previously unreleased prototype games as well.

<i>Save Mary</i> 2005 video game

Save Mary is a prototype video game designed by Tod Frye and made for the Atari 2600. The game involves Mary who is trapped in a valley that is slowly filling with water. The player must operate a crane to move blocks to allow Mary to escape the rising water and eventually be carried to safety by the player.

<i>Ninja Golf</i> 1990 video game

Ninja Golf is a beat 'em up/golf video game developed by BlueSky Software and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari 7800. Gameplay consists of the ninja player character hitting a golf ball at the beginning of each hole (stage) then fighting various enemies in side-scrolling sections to reach it. Each green is guarded by a fire-breathing dragon boss that the player must defeat by throwing shurikens.

Grandpa (<i>The Munsters</i>) Fictional character

Count Sam Dracula, commonly known as Grandpa, is a fictional character from the American sitcom The Munsters, originally played by Al Lewis. He is an undead vampire and the doting, irritable, and sarcastic father of Lily Munster. The role was later played by Howard Morton in the 1980s television series The Munsters Today.

<i>Seaquest</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Seaquest is an Atari 2600 video game designed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1983. The game is an underwater shooter in which the player controls a submarine.

<i>Video Pinball</i> (1980 video game) 1980 video game

Video Pinball is a video game programmed by Bob Smith and released by Atari, Inc. in 1980 for the Atari VCS. The Sears rebranded version for its Tele-Games system is Arcade Pinball.

<i>Kung Food</i> 1992 video game

Kung Food is a video game developed for the Atari Lynx handheld by Christian Urqhart and Steven Mitchell and published by Atari Corporation in 1992. The player controls a protagonist who uses martial arts to overcome mutant vegetables that have invaded his freezer.

Big Five Software was an American video game developer and publisher in the first half of the 1980s founded by Bill Hogue and Jeff Konyu. The company developed games for the Tandy TRS-80 and later Atari 8-bit computers. Most of its TRS-80 games were clones of arcade video games, such as Galaxy Invasion (Galaxian), Super Nova (Asteroids), Defense Command, and Meteor Mission II. Big Five also sold an Atari joystick interface called TRISSTICK which was popular with TRS-80 owners.

Doug Neubauer is an American integrated circuit designer, video game designer, and programmer. Following graduation for Oregon State University and working at National Semiconductor, Neubauer worked at Atari, Inc. where he would develop the logic design on Atari's POKEY chip and designing and programming the video game Star Raiders (1980) both for the Atari 8-bit computer line. Star Raiders would go on to become one of the best-known games for Atari's 8-bit computers.

References

  1. Hawkin, Kieren (September 2014). "Atari 7800 ProSystem". Retro Gamer . No. 132. Imagine Publishing. p. 27. ISSN   1742-3155.
  2. 1 2 Hawkin, Kieren (November 2013). "Minority Report: Atari 7800". Retro Gamer . No. 121. Imagine Publishing. p. 86. ISSN   1742-3155.
  3. 1 2 Hawkin, Kieren (September 2014). "Top 5 Exclusives". Retro Gamer . No. 132. Imagine Publishing. p. 24. ISSN   1742-3155.
  4. EGM staff (June 2001). "7800 Choice Cuts". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 143. Ziff Davis. p. 40. ISSN   1058-918X.
  5. Naytor, Robert E. (August 24, 2017). "Midnight Mutants". Hardcore Gaming 101 . Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
  6. Game Developers Research Institute [@gdri] (November 7, 2017). "The cover art for Fester's Quest and Midnight Mutants were by the same person, Michael Mendheim" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 14, 2024 via Twitter.
  7. "Midnight Mutants". Atari Compendium. Archived from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
  8. Funkmaster V. "REVIEW: Midnight Mutants". Atari 7800 Forever.
  9. Buchanan, Levi (May 9, 2008). "Top 10 Atari 7800 Games". IGN . Archived from the original on February 15, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
  10. "Midnight Mutants - Digital Press Online".
  11. "Atari 7800 Reviews M-R by the Video Game Critic".
  12. "Midnight Mutants Review for Atari 7800 (1990) - Defunct Games".