Luxor, the Moonprince, stands at the Gate of Varenorn, looking north to the Plains of Anviniel.
So begins the classic 8 bit fantasy war game written by Mike Singleton. Doomdark's revenge is the sequel to The Lords of Midnight at the end of which Doomdark, the Witchking of the lands of Midnight is killed by Luxor. Doomdark's sorceress daughter Shareth the Heartstealer casts a spell over Luxor's son Morkin and traps him somewhere in the Icemark. It is your mission to lead Luxor and his allies against Shareth and her Icelords and bring Morkin back to Midnight. If Luxor is slain, victory is with the Heartbreaker.
At the beginning of the game, one sees through the eyes of Luxor (and his elite moonriders), Tarithel the Fey and Rorthron the Wise (the mage) a vast panoramic vista. A red gold dawn bequeaths a mystic charm to the pyramids in the distance. The intrepid three must now recruit as many Lords as possible to do battle with the Iceguard. The vast Icemark territory encompasses the kingdom of the Giants, the outlands of the barbarians, the realm of the Fey, the kingdom of the Dwarves and the evil Frozen Empire.
One will encounter watchtowers, pits (leading to underground passageways), palaces, fountains, temples, gates, standing stones, skulkrin, the icy wastes and an all-enveloping mist which drifts across the icemark. There are 128 characters to recruit,fight or avoid and 6144 locations. Doomdark's revenge is an open-ended game with different levels of victory possible and endless permutations making for excellent replayability.
Attempting to load this game from tape to play on the Spectrum 48K caused me tremendous bother, but it was always worth listening to game loading noises for an hour just to see that opening vista and the knowledge that many more hours of enjoyment would follow.