His Dark Majesty

By: Derek Yu

On: May 13th, 2010

What do you do when you’re programming AI for a turn-based strategy game but modern computers aren’t challenging you enough? Put it on the 8-bit Atari! And that’s what Jakub Debski did when he created His Dark Majesty, which is free to download and is playable via a number of 8-bit Atari emulators, like Atari800Win. Links to the emulators are available from the game’s homepage, along with an interesting account of the game’s development (including screenshots). It’s a beautiful piece of work. (TIGForums thread)

Posted in Freeware, Homebrew, Strategy

Wenis

A shitty, tired joke, but a joke nonetheless.
ortoslon

you can't steal news because news don't belong to anyone
Mr. Yapper

I've been playing this and I've really enjoyed it.

Although embarassingly I didn't even know what an “8-bit Atari” was…

before my time?
Sergio

“People gave Alexander MacQueen a ton of shit for writing about art games.”

True… but then again, it seems that in TIGS comment threads, people give anyone a ton of shit for anything…
Hangedman

I think it's even more interesting as a study of developing under limitations, and overcoming them.
Wenis Martin

Don't feel too bad;this is hardly a rare occurrence in the world of TIGS frontpage posts.
dragonmaw

No, troll. Trawling is different.
rinkuhero

i dunno, there were plenty of anti-bush websites, songs, and videogames, but that doesn't mean those people secretly loved bush…
PhasmaFelis

Hey, are we talking about the game now? Awesome. :)
PhasmaFelis

Podunkian is being kind of silly at the moment, and I don't wanna defend that, but “CAVE STORY RIPOFF” is still the stupidest stupid to ever stupid a stupid. Shut up already.
Super Joe

i didn't read any of this. what did you guys have for lunch today.
http://s.hryx.net/ hyrx

This is looking like dope for my brain. So cool. The twisty font, the character portraits, the whole goth steeeez… and the fact that it's actually 8-bit, rather than yet another cheesy Game Maker or Flash game with fake big pixels and insta-retro-sounds pooped out by sfxr.
Lailoken

I second that
anthonyflack

Haha, TIGSource is criticised for posting “old news”, and it turns out we're only talking about one or two WEEKS? Man, whatever.

I'm happy to stop by and read posts from Derek whenever he has the time and inclination to put something up, and from Podunkian ideally never.
http://roachpuppy.com Chris Z

Its too bad this beef exists, Derek and Arthur could probably make some amazing games together. :(
rinkuhero

cashews, dried apricots, green tea, prunes, and blue corn chips
Super Joe

cool. well. my dick itches.
Wenis Martin

It's precisely because of that strained relationship, creaking under all of its pentup tension, that they will make a fabulous game together.
Nothing gets done if partners pussyfoot around each other worrying about hurt feelings and hurt butts.
Yeah.
PhasmaFelis

Truth.
Eagle0600

Yes, it does. For one thing, it's based around “units”, not “heroes”. The distinction is that all RPG elements are stripped away, and your units are only as powerful as theirs. Also, you HAVE to sacrifice your units, there's no way not to loose some (or, more often, most) of your army each battle, and the trick is knowing WHERE to sacrifice them. I've played both Fire Emblem and this, and have found this very deeply satisfying if you're looking for a strategy game.
Eagle0600

The music, in particular, was awesome. It's pretty good in-game, too.
Eagle0600

Make sure you use the choke points and houses to best effect. Hint: I had my crossbow in the lower-left corner the entire time, and it took out the trebuchet and helped with a few other units. Make sure you remember to swap out defending units when they get low on health so that they can heal. Don't waste the cavalry charge by sending him outside to get slaughtered.
TheOneAsian

Well I like this site mainly because I like the game selection. Indiegames posts every game, and most aren't that great. EHHHhhhhhHHHHHhhh
Kidd Gregory

Like many others, I was unfamiliar with this activity. And it’s awesome, dude. I’m going to see if I can find my old 800 and save this on a disk to test it out on the actual redactle unlimited hardware. Causes you to lose sight of the big picture and neglect the basics.