How to play Midnight Mutants online
- Start the game: Z or X on the title screen
- Move Jimmy: arrow keys
- Use the selected weapon or item: Z (the left button)
- Grampa screen (hints and inventory): X (the right button). Choose an item with the arrow keys, then press X to return.
- Pause and resume: F4
- Restart from the title screen: F3 (Reset)
- Full screen: F9
Both the USA (NTSC) and European (PAL) releases are on this page; use the switch to choose. There is no save or password feature, so a full game has to be played in one sitting.
Gameplay
On Halloween night in 1747, the warlock Dr. Evil was burned at the stake and swore revenge. On Halloween 1992 he returns at a pumpkin patch and traps Jimmy’s Grampa, a descendant of the man who burned him, inside a magic pumpkin. Jimmy is the only one who can set him free.
Seen from an angled overhead view, the world is free to roam: ten areas including a mansion with a basement laboratory, a church, a cabin, a graveyard, the pumpkin patch and caverns with an old shipwreck. Jimmy starts unarmed and gradually finds a knife, a cross, an axe, a blaster and a Mega Blaster, plus a key, potions and other useful items.
Watch the two gauges at the bottom of the screen. Health drops when zombies, wolves and other monsters touch you. Blood purity drops when bats and ravens bite you. If either reaches zero, the game ends. Red potions restore blood purity and blue ones restore health; diamonds add health too. At key points you face huge Mutant Bosses that fill most of the screen. Each has a weak spot, and it flashes when you hit it there. Beat the bosses one by one, then destroy Dr. Evil to free Grampa.
Tips
- Arm yourself in order. Get the knife (in the mansion), the cross (in the church) and the axe (in the cabin) first, then the blaster and the key.
- Clear the zombies. The blaster only appears after you destroy every zombie in the mansion basement, and the key only appears after you clear the zombies from the upstairs bedroom.
- Use the warp hole outside the cabin. It leads to the corral and the first boss, who needs the axe.
- Get the lantern before the caverns. It is in the pumpkin patch, and without it you cannot explore the caverns or the dark fields.
- Find the necklace in the shipwreck. It halves boss damage and lets you take the heart from the fountain, which keeps your blood pure for good.
- Ask Grampa. His advice is not always serious, but it sometimes points to your next goal.
The story behind Midnight Mutants
Midnight Mutants was developed by a small team called Radioactive Software: Peter Adams designed and programmed it, Tammy Moore wrote the story, Les Pardew created the art and Paul Webb wrote the music. It came out in 1990 and was one of Atari’s last releases for the 7800. It never appeared on any other system.
Grampa is drawn to look like actor Al Lewis in his role as Grandpa from the TV series The Munsters, both on the box and in the game. Neither the actor nor the show is named anywhere in the game or its packaging. Hidden in the code is a joke message marvelling that Peter ever got the program “bedugged”.
In 2008 IGN ranked it the third-best 7800 game, praising its large map, and Retro Gamer has called it one of the most advanced games on the system.
