War In Middle Earth

Bought yet never played. . .

I've had this golden oldie gathering dust for over 4 years and never booted it up. Yup, I've no idea why, but the three floppy disks have never seen the inside of my ST's drive! Heck, I've never even tried it in emulation... I'm now wondering why I'm so lazy and stupidly wasted cash to rescue a game I didn't really want?

I imagine it was going cheap on eBay? Well, I have loved anything by Melbourne House since my Speccy days - so it was bound to happen!! Hang on, did you think that I was going to say "Tolkien"?? Anyhow, this 30-year-old treasure is in nice condition, even though the paper (for the map & manual) smells a little musty.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of Stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

That sounds rather interesting!! But, for those who might not know, Tolkien's War in Middle Earth is a strategy adventure based around little creatures called Hobbits. You can't miss them - annoying fellas with big feet! This adaptation is loosely based on the books but, I believe, there is always the option to veer from the storyline to venture forth your own way separate from the novel. How far that might get me is anyone's guess.

So, I've got little to say about this RPG but I did notice that the screenshots display the Speccy and Amstrad versions - not exactly a positive sign!! Maybe I should stop yapping and boot it up? Has anyone played it? What can I expect? Should I watch the movies first or (gulp) read the books? Surely not!!

I thought this would make a cool feature for our Box Art section and I hope you like the photographs of this golden oldie? Right then, enough talk because I've got a free weekend so let's see what happens.

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Ignoring the side with yellowing, the map is in good condition (click it). I wonder how accurate it is?

The little book inside the box is the manual, I wanted a bigger book but I'm awkward...

Three disks. Yes, three!! I've not checked, but I guess they're single-sided. Doh!

I love that the box is actually a sleeve and that logo always reminds me of The Hobbit.