Middle-earth in video games
There are many video games that have been inspired by
Official games
Early efforts (1982–1994)
In 1982,
The Lord of Rings: Journey to Rivendell was announced in 1983 by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600, but was never released. The prototype ROM can be found at AtariAge.[9][10]
In 1990,
Film trilogy revival (2001–2009)
Thereafter, no official The Lord of the Rings titles were released until the making of
In 2003, Vivendi produced an adaptation of The Hobbit, aimed at a younger audience: The Hobbit,[19] as well as a real-time strategy game The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, both based on Tolkien's literature.[20][21]
Further spin-offs from the film trilogy were produced: A real time strategy game
In 2005, EA secured the rights to both the films and the books, thus The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II incorporated elements of the film adaptions, and the original Tolkienesque lore.[26] EA also began work on an open world role-playing video game called The Lord of the Rings: The White Council, but it was put on indefinite hold in early 2007,[27] with no further information about its developmental or release status.
In May 2005
The Warner Bros. era (2010–present)
After Warner Bros. gained the licence to publish Middle-earth video games, the first game to be published under this new licence holder would be
The 2010s saw the release of three darker and more violent Middle-earth video games that were rated Mature by the
In that same decade, Warner Bros. released Lego The Lord of the Rings and Lego The Hobbit, two family-friendly Lego video game adaptations of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.[43][44] In 2019, The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game was released, a digital adaptation of the physical card game.[45][46]
An action-adventure game, titled The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and focusing on the titular character, was announced by Daedalic Entertainment in March 2019.[47] The game was originally scheduled for release in 2021, which would end up being pushed to 2022,[48][49][50] until publisher Nacon announced a release date of 25 May 2023 for Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, with a Switch version later in the same year.[51] The game was released to generally negative reviews.
Ahead of Gollum's initial release, a new mobile game, titled
Unofficial games
Unofficial games include Shadowfax (1982) by Postern, a simplistic side-scrolling action game for the Spectrum, C64, and VIC-20, in which Gandalf rides the titular steed while smiting endless Nazgûl. Some of the most enduring unlicensed games are
A homebrew text adventure was created for the Atari 2600, based on The Fellowship of the Ring, by Adam Thornton. The game, which is separate and not related to the unreleased Parker Brothers game,[9] was self-published in 2002.[61]
Tolkien-inspired mods and custom maps have been made for many games, such as
See also
References
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- ^ "Warner Bros., Tolkien Estate Settle $80 Million 'Hobbit' Lawsuit". The Hollywood Reporter. 3 July 2017. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
- ^ Simon Sharwood (18 November 2012). "Author of 80's classic The Hobbit didn't know game was a hit". The Register. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
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- ^ Ruminations On "The Hobbit" Fandom Archived 2014-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lombardi, Chris (May 1989), "Mordor, They Rode!", Computer Gaming World, pp. 10–11
- ^ Gingher, Robert (October 1989). "War in Middle Earth". Compute!. p. 134. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ Greenberg, Allen L. (February 1992). "Riders of the Video Mage". Computer Gaming World. p. 66. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
- ^ a b "AtariAge". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "AtariAge". Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
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- EMAP. February 1992. p. 12.
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- ^ Litchfield, Ted (6 May 2023). "A Fallout co-creator has been revealing heater after heater of never-before-seen RPG history on YouTube, including an early Lord of the Rings RPG demo". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
- ^ "Lord of the Games". IGN. 2 December 2002. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
- ^ Brown, Steve (August 2003). "Scoop: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". PC Gamer UK: 8–9.
- ^ Azeltine, Lauren; Moore, Drew (2002). "Player Characters". The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring PlayStation 2 Instruction Manual. Vivendi Universal Games. p. 6. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
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- ^ "The Hobbit". Eurogamer. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
- ^ Ocampo, Jason (7 November 2003). "The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ Adams, Dan (4 November 2003). "Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring Review". IGN. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ Ocampo, Jason (7 December 2004). "The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
- ^ Sulic, Ivan (13 May 2004). "E3 2004: Third Age Hands-On". IGN. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ Massimilla, Bethany (16 September 2004). "The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Hands-On". GameSpot. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
- ^ "Lord of the Rings: Tactics". IGN. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
- ^ Ocampo, Jason (7 December 2004). "The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
- ^ Hatfield, Daemon (2 February 2007). "White Council Adjourns". IGN. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
- ^ Thompson, Kristin. The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. p. 359.
- ^ "PC Review: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar". CVG. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ "Turbine Unveils Launch Date, Pre-order and Early Upgrade Programs for the Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ | the Lord of the Rings Online". Archived from the original on 6 May 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ TURBINE LAUNCHES THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: SIEGE OF MIRKWOOD™
- ^ "THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: RISE OF ISENGARD™ TO LAUNCH ON SEPTEMBER 27TH | the Lord of the Rings Online". Archived from the original on 6 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: RIDERS OF ROHAN™ TO LAUNCH SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 | the Lord of the Rings Online". Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "Updated: Turbine Temporarily Delays LOTRO's Helm's Deep Launch". TenTonHammer. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ^ Metacritic results : "Lord of the Rings: Conquest" (links) metacritic.com
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (12 March 2009). "Lord of the Rings License Leaves EA, Journeys back to WB". kotaku.com. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ^ Miller, Greg (3 June 2009). "E3 2009: The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Hands On". IGN. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
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- ^ "Shadow of War highlights the strengths and weaknesses of PS4 Pro". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ "Feral Interactive: LEGO The Lord of the Rings release announcement". 21 February 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
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- ^ "The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game". GameSpot. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ Bolding, Jonathan (17 October 2020). "Months after studio closure, The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game gets an update". PC Gamer. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "A new Lord of the Rings video game is coming in 2021". Polygon. 26 March 2019. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
- ^ Mercante, Alyssa (26 January 2021). "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum pushed to 2022". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- ^ "Gollum's quest for his precious will begin on September 1, 2022! Coming on PC & consoles and on November 30, 2022 on Nintendo Switch. #GollumGame💍". The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (@GollumGame). 24 May 2022. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- ^ Wales, Matt (25 July 2022). "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum delayed again, this time "by a few months"". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on 31 July 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
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The Switch version will follow later in 2023.
- ^ "EA launches The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth on mobile". Venture Beat. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- ^ "Electronic Arts Partners with Middle-earth Enterprises on the Development of Upcoming Mobile Game The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth™". ea.com. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
- ^ "An Important Update". The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle Earth. Electronic Arts. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
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- ISBN 0-471-13787-1.
Elendor is a very large and successful Mush dedicated to role playing and exploration in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. This is the same universe immortalized in the classic Lord of the Rings trilogy, the books that defined sword-and-sorcery fantasy. If you don't want to encounter a lot of other players, this is the wrong Mush to play in. Elendor is well populated, and it is hard to move around without encountering other characters.
- ^ Davis, Erik (October 2001). "Wired 9.10: The Fellowship of the Ring". Wired. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
Elendor, an old-school Middle-earth multiuser shared hallucination, remains one of the most popular text-based worlds in cyberspace.
- ISBN 0-679-75592-6.
MUME IV Multi-Users in Middle Earth, or MUME, simulates Tolkien's world of Middle Earth. [...] Role-playing is encouraged, but this is primarily an adventure and combat MUD. [...] Server: Diku
- ISBN 0-679-77034-8.
MUME [...] The action takes place in the late Third Age, before The Hobbit and after the loss of the One Ring by Sauron. The key of Erebor was just found by Gandalf and all the epic tales narrated in The Lord of the Rings may take place.
- ISBN 0-7897-0792-6.
Two Towers Multi-User Dungeon http://www.angband.com/towers This page serves as an entrance to the Two Towers Multi-User Dungeon, allowing game players to step into the world of fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien. Intrepid visitors can learn about the game or link to Tolkien sites dotting the net.
- ^ "AtariAge". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ Moore, Ewan (17 July 2019). "Minecraft Players Recreate Whole of Middle Earth After Nine Year Effort". UNILAD. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ Keating, Lauren (4 September 2015). "Minecraft Users Recreate The Shire From 'The Lord of the Rings'". Tech Times. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "The Lord of the Rings Mod: Renewed". Curseforge. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ Rubin, Peter (4 February 2014). "If Middle-earth Were Real, These Exquisite Shots Would Be Its Vacation Brochure". Wired. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- ^ Bored of the Rings at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
- ^ Price, Richard (August 1986). "The Boggit". Sinclair User (August 1986): 76–77.