| David's Midnight Magic | |
| Programmer: | David Snider[1] Martin Kahn (C64) |
| Developer: | Broderbund |
| Publisher: | Broderbund Ariolasoft (EU) Atari Corporation (cartridge) |
| Released: | 1982: Apple, Atari 8-bit 1983: C64 1987: Atari 8-bit cartridge |
| Genre: | Pinball |
| Modes: | 1-4 players alternating turns |
David's Midnight Magic is a pinball simulation video game written by David Snider for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982.[1] 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.
David's Midnight Magic is closely modeled after the real-life pinball table Black Knight, released by Williams in 1980.
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".[2] 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".[3]
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".[4]
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.[5] Snider's brother Eric later used his first name in the title of Eric's Ultimate Solitaire.
In 2005, a Visual Pinball recreation of David's Midnight Magic was created called David's Midnight Magic 2005 which is rendered with 3D graphics.