MOONSTONE: A HARD DAYS KNIGHT, THE AMIGA'S BLOODY MASTERPIECE THAT CHALLENGED THE LIMITS OF VIOLENCE

In the 90s, the gaming market RPG was in full swing, with titles like Ultima, Wizardry and Final Fantasy dominating the market. But there was one Amiga game that stood out from the rest: Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight . This game pushed the limits of imagination and violence, creating a unique and inimitable gaming experience.

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight is an action role-playing video game developed by Canadian Rob Anderson and published by Mindscape For Amiga in 1991 and converted for DOS the next year. The title is a play on words with the Beatles song A Hard Day's Night.

The game allows one or four players to play as knights chosen by the druids to recover the mystical moonstone and bring it back to Stonehenge. The game takes place in two modes: turn-based exploration and real-time combat .

In exploration mode, players can move around a world map and visit various locations. Most of these are dolmens guarded by monsters. Visiting these dolmens activates the combat mode, where players control their knights and try to defeat monsters using the sword in a style similar to Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior or Sword of Sodan.

By defeating monsters, players gain treasure and experience points, which they can use to increase their abilities: strength, constitution and endurance. Additionally, they can find or buy more powerful weapons to improve their combat capabilities. However, the difficulty of the game increases accordingly.

The objective of the game is to find the cache that contains one of the four keys . The player who collects all four keys (by finding them or stealing them from rivals) has access to the Valley of the Gods in the center of the map. Here he will have to face the Guardian to obtain a moonstone, which corresponds to a phase of the moon and gives him more power during that phase. The moonstone must be brought to Stonehenge to complete the game.

Moonstone is also known as one of the bloodiest games of its time , with some particularly gory fight and death scenes. Advertisements for the game boasted “nearly” one thousand frames of animation for two megabytes of monsters, and over 60 different painted backgrounds.

Moonstone is an exceptional combination of fast, aggressive combat action and subtle role-playing that, perhaps uniquely, challenges the brain – while covering you in blood.

But what makes Moonstone such a special game and still appreciated by Amiga fans today? What are the elements that distinguish it from other games of the same genre? And what are its origins and influences?

To answer these questions, we need to step back in time and trace the history of Moonstone's creation.

The origins of Moonstone

Rob Anderson was a young Canadian programmer who was passionate about video games and fantasy. In 1988 he moved to England to work at Mindscape, a software house known for publishing titles such as The Bard's Tale, Deja Vu and SimCity.

Anderson had an ambitious project in mind: to create a role-playing game based on Arthurian legends , with a Real-time combat system and detailed graphics . The game was supposed to be inspired by Excalibur, the 1981 film directed by John Boorman, which Anderson considered the best film adaptation of the Brittany subject.

Anderson began working on his game in his spare time, using his Amiga and the assembly language . To create the animations of the characters and monsters, he based himself on photos taken of plasticine models that he had made himself . For the backgrounds, however, he relied on the talent of Dennis Turner , an artist he had met at Mindscape.

Anderson presented his prototype to Mindscape, who was impressed by his work and decided to fund the project. Anderson then hired two more collaborators: Kevin Hoare as programmer and Richard Joseph as composer.

The game took two years to develop , during which Anderson faced several technical and creative challenges. One of these was the conversion of the game for DOS, which required changing the sound system and adapting the graphics to a lower resolution.

Another challenge was censorship, which threatened to limit the game's distribution due to its violent scenes. Anderson managed to avoid cuts and changes thanks to a trick: he entered a hidden password into the game that allowed you to activate or deactivate the blood . In this way, the game could be sold as suitable for all audiences, but players could choose whether to enjoy the game in its full version or not.

The characteristics of Moonstone

Moonstone stands out for several features that make it a unique and original game. Let's see some of them:

• The multiplayer mode : Moonstone allows four players to participate in the same adventure, both cooperating and competing with each other. Players can meet on the map and compete in duels to steal treasures and keys. Furthermore, they can influence the fate of other players with their actions, such as unleashing the dragon or freeing the Guardian.
• There Monster Variety : Moonstone features a wide variety of monsters to face, each with its own characteristics and weaknesses. There are the Trogs with their hammers, the Ratmen with their poisoned swords, the Mudmen of the swamps and the terrible woman known as the Guardian. Each monster requires a different strategy to defeat and can surprise the player with its unpredictable moves.
• There Graphics and Animation : Moonstone boasts detailed and colorful graphics, with over 60 painted backgrounds and nearly a thousand frames of animation for two megabytes of monsters. The game also shows particular attention to special effects, such as explosions, flames and blood. The fight scenes are fluid and realistic, with strikes, blocks and dodges that depend on the position and movement of the characters.
• Black humor : Moonstone doesn't take itself too seriously and knows how to mix violence with black humor. The game is full of comical and ironic situations, such as the druids' jokes, the characters' reactions to excruciating injuries and deaths, and the exaggerated animations of the monsters. The game is inspired by the grotesque and irreverent tone of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a film that Anderson greatly admired.

The Moonstone Legacy

Moonstone was a critical and commercial success , receiving positive reviews from the trade press and selling well 100 thousand copies in Europe. The game soon became a cult among fans of the Amiga and the fantasy genre. But despite its enormous success, Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight remained a niche game, aimed at a dedicated fan base. However, the game significantly influenced the RPG game market, paving the way for new titles that focused on violence and horror, and contributing to the emergence of new game genres.
The game developed a solid fan base, who still revere it today one of the best titles for the Amiga and one of the most fun to play in multiplayer .

Moonstone, however, did not have an official sequel, despite fans' requests and Anderson's intentions. The reason was the closure of Mindscape in 1993, which ended Anderson's contract and his rights to the game. Anderson attempted to recover the rights to Moonstone for years, but was unsuccessful.

In 2018, however, Anderson announced that he had finally obtained the rights to Moonstone and that he had founded his new software house, Goblin King Games. His goal is to create a remake of Moonstone for modern platforms, with improved graphics and new features.

Anderson has also launched a website dedicated to Moonstone, where fans can find information about the original game and the remake in development, as well as purchase related merchandise and products.

In conclusion

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight is a game that has won the hearts of many fantasy and video game enthusiasts thanks to its originality, dark humor and action. The game has stood the test of time and has retained its appeal even after thirty years of its release .

Moonstone is a game that deserves to be discovered or rediscovered by those who love fantastic adventures and duels to the death. A game that made the history of the Amiga and is preparing to return in a new guise.

If you are curious to try Moonstone or find out more about its remake, you can visit the official Goblin King Games website or follow Rob Anderson on his social channels.

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight, the Amiga's bloody masterpiece that challenged the limits of violence. A game not to be missed for those who love fantasy and action and to be replayed again Nemesis Lite 2 .