Ludography
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David's Midnight Magic cover

1981 · Arcade · Pinball

David's Midnight Magic

Atari console exclusive

Midnight Magic utilized the Atari 2600 joystick for performing simulated pinball functions, such as activating the flippers and shooting the ball. Moving the joystick controller down pulls the pinball machine plunger back while pressing the joystick button shoots the ball into the playfield. The left and right flippers are activated by moving the joystick controller left or right. Hitting all five drop targets at the top of the table increases the bonus multiplier (2x, 3x, and so on). Extra balls can be earned when hitting the rollover targets at the top left and right corners of the table when the bonus multiplier is activated.

Released
1 December 1981
Platforms
Apple IIAtari 2600Atari 8-bitAtari XEGSCommodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXCommodore Plus/4NEC PC-6000 SeriesNEC PC-8800 seriesPC-8800 SeriesPC-9800 Series
Genres
ArcadePinball
Developers
—
Publishers
BroderbundAtari CorporationAriolasoft UKSystemSoft Alpha
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Action
Country
United States
Languages
English

About

David's Midnight Magic is a pinball simulation video game written by David Snider for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. The game was published in Europe by Ariolasoft. A port to Atari 8-bit computers was released the same year, then the Commodore 64 in 1983. In 1987, Atari Corporation published a cartridge version in the styling of the then-new Atari XEGS.

Media

David's Midnight Magic screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

David's Midnight Magic is closely modeled after the real-life pinball table Black Knight, released by Williams in 1980.

Players begin a game with five balls, and can earn extra balls. The game has magna-save near the top of the outlanes. The game can be played by up to four players. The bonus score is multiplied by a bonus multiplier. Balls could be trapped in a collector in the upper playfield, which released after collecting three balls, hitting an arrow, or draining down an outlane on the last ball.

Development

Seeing Raster Blaster inspired David Snider to create a pinball video game. By September 1981 the game was half completed when Snider attended a computer conference and had a serendipitous meeting with Doug Carlston and agreed to become a developer for Broderbund.

The 1982 Atari version has four colours, reduced from the six colours in the Apple II version. The bumper cap has an apple on it in most versions, but this is changed to the Atari logo on the Atari versions.

Reception

Softline stated that David's Midnight Magic "ratifies Bill Budge's extraordinary program as a programming tour de force", as it was only equal to Budge's Raster Blaster despite being released nine months later. The magazine concluded that "the fact that [David is] second should not dull the glitter of this effort". Computer Gaming World stated that Midnight Magic was a better game than Raster Blaster, but lamented the requirement of removing write protection from the floppy, thus voiding the warranty, in order to save high scores. The Commodore 64 Home Companion called the game "extraordinarily realistic ... complete with all the features that make pinball so seductive".

David's Midnight Magic won "Computer Game of the Year" at the 4th annual Arkie Awards, where judges described it as "a program that is both an exciting video game and a fairly faithful evocation of pinball mystique".

Legacy

Atari Corporation released a pinball game called Midnight Magic for the Atari 2600 that plays differently from the similarly named David's Midnight Magic.

Doug Carlston of Broderbund said in 1983 that Snider earned "somewhere in the six figures" in royalties from David's Midnight Magic. David Snider's brother Eric later similarly used his first name in the titles of the game Eric's Ultimate Solitaire and the screensaver Eric's Cascade.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Apple II31 December 1981North America
Atari 8-bit31 December 1982North America
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1983North America
PC-8800 Series1 July 1984Japan
PC-9800 Series31 December 1984Japan
NEC PC-6000 Series31 December 1984Japan
Atari 260031 December 1986North America

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Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.