Documentation from Microprose

• Microprose Press Release for Darklands
• Microprose Spring 1992 Newsletter
• Microprose June, 1992 Newsletter
• Microprose December - January, 1993 Newsletter
• Microprose Spring 1993 Newsletter
• Darklands v7 ReadMe file
• Darklands v6 ReadMe file
• Darklands v5/5.1 ReadMe file
• Darklands v4 ReadMe file
• Darklands v7 BANNER.DAT file
• Darklands v6 BANNER.DAT file
• Darklands v5/5.1 BANNER.DAT file
• Darklands v4 BANNER.DAT file

Community

Gather the sage wisdom of the old masters and share your own adventures with others! Michel has setup a mailing list for Darklands which resides on Yahoo! Groups. Be sure to sign up! It's free and easy!

Reviews of Darklands - Read all about the best game no one's ever played

Reviewer extraordinaire, Dimitriy A. Levin, has this to say in his review of Microprose's Darklands:

"The game is very detailed. From the manual which very well describes all entities you can meet, all weapons (and there're quite a lot of them), all chemical potions, and all saints, to the cities in which city halls, inns, and churches have names which are the same as in the real cities."

Without a doubt, Home of the Underdogs is THE best source for abandonware games. While the legality of having such files is shady, these guys' website is anything but! They place Darklands in their Hall of Belated Fame (where it belongs!). Check out what they had to say about Darklands:

"One of the very best RPGs ever produced, and definitely the BEST historical RPG ever, Darklands was unfortunately plagued with a slew of bugs when it was first released, many of which could critically damage system files. The newest version (7.0) corrects most of these bugs and makes the game what it was supposed to be, but by then a lot of people have already given up trying.... making this game the first and only RPG from Microprose."

MobyGames is a historical archive, documentation, and review project for all electronic games (computer, console, and arcade). They also happen to have a review of DL with supplemental reviews by other users. Here's a portion of the main review:

"The game has an epic scope, and can go on for as long as you'd like it to. The main goal is to collect as much fame for you and your party as possible, because the more fame you havem the better quests you'll receive, and the better the rewards. :) Overall, an amazing, if overlooked, RPG that will give the player literally years of enjoyment."

Guilds' Whisperings - Tidings from beyond the borders of the Empire

• Interview with Arnold Hendrick - A realtime conference on the now-defunct GEnie online service held shortly after the release of Darklands.
• Hiring Game Designers - Magazine article entitled written by Arnold Hendrick for the February 1998 edition of Game Developer magazine. He was working for I-Magic at the time of the article.

Stories - Tales inspired by Darklands adventuring!

• Sacrifices (Diebin Am Nacht) - Timothy "Timeras" Parker submits this short story for your enjoyment! It's loosely based on characters from the Darklands world. Note: For systems that can use TrueType fonts, the author recommends using " Black Chancery" for best viewing.
• Ebhard's Guide to Adventure – by the one, the only, the legendary Ebhard of Achdorf (circa XVc.), as translated by Arnold Hendrick (1992).

Historical Background - Some recommended reading for those who want to learn more about medieval life

alchemy

• Medieval Online tells us what's what regarding everyone's favorite pseudo-science.
• Thought you knew everything about alchemy? The alchemy website begs to differ.

Baphomet

• TemplarHistory.com is (most likely) your one-stop shop regarding information on the chief baddie in Darklands. Whether that's a good thing is up to the reader. This site features articles with titles such as: "The Baphomet Mythos", "Baphomet: Theological Views", and "Baphomet - What's In A Name?" Interesting reading, to be sure.

Hussite Rebellion

• Steve Lydolph sent word that infoplease.com has an article on the Hussite Rebellion.
• Hundred Years War (I'm guessing it's a MMORPG of some sort) has a write-up on the Hussites.

Holy Roman Empire

• A general overview of the sacrum romanum imperium. This one was found on Heraldica.org.
• This essay on the empire was found on a personal website. No credit will be given because it's swiped from Grolier Encylopedia.
• An essay on The Nobility of the Holy Roman Empire can be found on Almanach de Gotha's webpage. Almanach de Gotha is a society commited to providing Royal Geneologies and is based on London, England.

Knights Templar

• Oddly enough, one can find information on the Knights Templar on TemplarHistory.com. This site is quite extensive and features many essays dealing with several aspects of this infamous band.

religion

• Medieval Online offers some words on the state of Medieval Christianity, as well as many other topics.
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook links to an insane amount of essays and writings regarding the Roman Church in the Middle Ages. Make sure you have some free time before taking this one on.

Wild Hunt

• The Witching Hours contains some information on historical witchcraft and has a little blurb on the Wild Hunt.
• Here, on The Outlands, we find some more information on the Wild Hunt. Careful, though...I noticed some AD&D stats (eww) toward the bottom of the page. Try to ignore them.

witchcraft

• The Dark Side of Halloween - Here's a site that discusses the origins of halloween, witch cults, and sabbats. This is an essay by a Christian, Pastor David L. Brown. It is openly biased, and makes no pretense of balancing neo-pagan or secular points of view. Thanks to Kneem for the link!
• The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger - One of the many books used by the design team in creating Darklands. This book is actually a 20th century translation of a codex written back in the 1400's. This book was used as a HOW-TO by the Church for finding witches and dealing with them.
• MSN Encarta has an article about witchcraft.

MicroProse, MPS Labs, and Darklands are copyright © 1991-1995 MicroProse, Inc.
Microprose and Hasbro Interactive are properties of Infogrames, Inc. © 2001-2002, All rights reserved.
Infogrames, Inc. and Infogrames Interactive are subsidiaries of Infogrames Entertainment S.A

Unless otherwise noted: site content © 1998-2002 Matt Wirkkala;
"New" site design © 2001-2002 Myles Q. Martinez and 2000-2002 Savcho Savchev.
"Darklands Domain" and "Darklands.NET" © 1998-2002 Matt Wirkkala
Darklands FAQ © 1995-2002 C. Michel Boucher, Fred Farzanegan, Dennis Ahr, and Alex von Lünen.

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