Middle-earth in video games
There are many video games that have been inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's works set in Middle-earth. Titles have been produced by studios such as Electronic Arts, Vivendi Games, Melbourne House, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.[1][2]
Unofficial games[edit]
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 Moria (1983), a roguelike based loosely on The Fellowship of the Ring (and unrelated to a 1975 game of the same name with only scant connection to Tolkien); its various forks such as Angband (1990), loosely based on The Silmarillion; Elendor (1991), a MUSH based on Tolkien in general;[56][57] and two MUDs based on The Lord of the Rings: MUME (Multi-Users in Middle-earth) (1992)[58][59] and The Two Towers (1994).[60]
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 Heroes of Might and Magic, Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, Rome: Total War, Medieval 2: Total War, Warlords 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mount & Blade, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, and Age of Wonders. The game Minecraft has been used extensively as a tool to recreate Middle-earth, most notably the servers MCME (Minecraft Middle Earth)[62] and ArdaCraft,[63] in addition to large-scale mods like The Lord of the Rings Mod: Bringing Middle-earth to Minecraft.[64] Furthermore, The Middle-Earth DEM Project released a playable dataset compiled for Outerra's engine which attempts to model the terrain of the full Middle-earth in great detail and to feature notable landmarks within the world as 3D models.[65]
Delta 4 released the two parody games Bored of the Rings (1985, not directly based on the Harvard Lampoon parody novel of the same name),[66] and The Boggit (1986).[67]
