Midwinter

1989 · Action RPG · Atari ST

Overview

Midwinter (1989) is Mike Singleton's frozen-world strategy RPG, in which the player recruits 32 islanders, each with their own history, to resist an invading general across a vast 3D island.

Deep Dive

In 2099 a meteorite strike has plunged the world into an ice age. On the island of Midwinter, 160,000 square miles of polygon landscape, John Stark, commander of the Free Villages Peace Force, must recruit allies and stop General Masters by destroying his headquarters at Shining Hollow. The game's 32 recruits each have personal histories that decide who else they can win over, and each gets two hours of game time before the clock moves on. They travel by ski, snowmobile, cable car and hang glider.

Developer Story

Mike Singleton designed the game at Maelstrom Games, and MicroProse released it on its Rainbird label for the Atari ST and MS-DOS, followed by the Amiga. Zzap gave the Amiga version 97%, and Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom followed in 1991.