Game 449: The Curse of the Middle Kingdom (1982)

            

The Curse of the Middle Kingdom

Called Middle Kingdom in some versions 

United Kingdom

Pro Software (original publisher); Dragon Data (Dragon 32 publisher); Computerware (U.S. Publisher)

Released 1982 for BBC Micro, 1983 for Dragon 32, 1984 for TRS-80 Color Computer

Date Started: 5 March 2022

Date Ended: 3 July 2026

Total Hours: 3

Difficulty: Very Easy-Easy (1.5/5) at medium difficulty level depending on the version.

Final Rating: 11

Ranking at Time of Posting: 30/460 (7%)
Ranking at Game #579: 51/579 (9%)

    

[Note: I re-wrote this entry on 3 July 2026 to reflect information uncovered by El Explorador de RPG on his blog and in the comments section of this post. The paragraphs below are part of my new summary; the original entry is shown below that after the asterisks.]

 

The Curse of the Middle Kingdom is an adaptation of The Valley (a type-in game from the same year) that itself was adapted and plagiarized several times. (In my original entry for this game, I was tricked into playing a cracked version with incorrect attribution.) It is not quite an RPG given the lack of character development, but it's at least a proto-RPG. The player controls a character on a mission to explore multiple structures (randomized for each new game) and recover a kingdom's lost magical treasures. Along the way, he fights the typical Tolkien bestiary with both might and magic and collects a variety of items that can assist him.

 

The original game's intro. I want to know why the most powerful kingdom in the world was called the "Middle Kingdom."

       

The various versions of the game vary quite a bit from each other. The original BBC Micro version has a detailed framing story (a peaceful kingdom had its magical treasures stolen and scattered), five character classes, and seven difficulty levels, and the character has to recover ten treasures—a variety of weapons, armor, and valuables. The other two versions, while enhancing the graphics, drop the number of treasures to three (all magic rings), drop the number of classes to three, and change the framing story to say that the character must recover the treasures to become king. The original version allows saving while the later two do not, although they're also much quicker games. The character in the BBC Micro version is stuck with his starting weapon, a choice of four swords with different balances of power to speed; the later versions expand the number of weapons and allow the player to find them in the dungeon. Similarly, in the BBC Micro version, the player starts with all potential spells, and in the other two versions, he must find them.

    

The original character creation.

      

The Dragon 32 and TRS-80 Color Computer versions scatter gold in the dungeon, which adds to a "Score" not present in the original. They also offer more advanced graphics.

    

The most significant change is that in the original, the character beings in an outdoor desert and must enter and explore a temple, a catacomb, an oasis, and a pyramid; the other two simply cast the player into a single dungeon. Removing the outdoor area helps obscure the game's Valley origins.

      

Starting out in the desert.

          

In the review I originally posted (below), I gave the game a GIMLET score of only 10. I bumped it to 11, awarding a 1 to "Game World" to recognize the BBC Micro version's framing story. 

 

****

      

Lots of mysteries on this title screen. See below.

        

Jesus please-us, at this rate I'm going to be able to write my reviews in a tweet. I've been letting random rolls guide me this week, but I may need to take charge before I die of anemia.

   

Middle Kingdom might be the first game that I've won before taking a screenshot of any of the action in the game. The first shot I took was the winning screen. It took me less than 10 minutes. I was able to win twice in about half an hour. 

       

The brief character creation process.

     

The game's graphics suggests some inspiration from one of the Daniel Lawrence "DND" line, perhaps Telengard, but it plays far more simply than even that. You start off specifying a difficulty level from 1-3, a name, and a profession (magician, warrior, or merchant). I'm not sure that the starting profession affects anything more than starting equipment. Then you're thrust into a small dungeon on a quest to retrieve 3 magical rings and return them to the starting point so you can be crowned king of your land.

     

Starting out. To win, I have to return here with three magic rings.

     

The dungeon configuration, monster allocation, and item distribution are randomized for each new game, but the dungeon consists of no more than a couple dozen rooms. You could find all three rings within the first few rooms, as I did the first time, and win before you wonder where the $27.95 you spent for the disk went.

   

Controls couldn't be simpler. You move around the dungeon with the arrows. Under the map, you see the entirety of your inventory, which includes weapons (e.g., axe, sword, trident, bow) or spells ("Fireball," "Lightning Bolt," "Petrify"). All you have to do is hit the number corresponding to the item you want to use in combat, and it will automatically activate the next time you meet an enemy. You change items during combat if one seems ineffective. There are no other commands.

    

Fighting a troll with my sword. I also have a dagger, "Lightning Bolt" spell, and "Fireball" spell. One of the magic rings waits beyond the obstacle in the room (which I could never do anything with).

   

Enemies are the usual D&D-derived monsters, like ogres, trolls, lizardmen, zombies, and dwarves. You trade blows automatically and gain experience if you win. You also gain points to your "score." I don't know what either does for you. Treasures are also of dubious value since there's nothing to spend them on and the game doesn't keep track of a scoreboard.

   

That's really all there is to report about the game. There's something vaguely cute about it, and with more tactics it would be a passable way to spend a couple of hours. It's hard to regard it as an RPG without knowing more about what "experience" does. I give it a 10 on the GIMLET with 0s for the game world, character development, NPCs, and economy and some 1s and 2s elsewhere.

     

My first act as ruler will be to give my kingdom an actual name.

      

As with Monsters & Magic, we have something of an international mystery here. The game is credited on various web sites to a developer called "Jay-Soft, Ltd.," and indeed that designation appears on the title screen of some of those sites. I can't find any reference to the company that is not also a reference to Middle Kingdom. The mystery is that we don't use "Ltd." in the United States, and yet the game was published by California-based Computerware. It gets even weirder, though. On the version I was able to find (as well as the one on MobyGames), instead of Jay-Soft, the title screen has a copyright to a personal author, Carlos Simoes. Under it, it says "TEL. 241-2614 SP." There aren't enough numbers there for it to be a telephone number in any country I know (and this was almost 40 years ago), and I'm not sure what "SP" would be. The only possible reference I could find to a Carlos Simoes came from a TRS-80 message board based in Brazil. Solve that while I try to find a more interesting game for the weekend.

      

[Ed. El Explorador de RPG figured it out in the comments below. The game was originally published as The Curse of the Middle Kingdom (1982) for the BBC Micro. "Carlos" must have just messed with the title screen.]

    

****

   

For further reading:

   

• El Explorador de RPG's coverage of the game.
• Other titles in The Valley lineage:
• The Valley (1982) 
• The Tower of Alos (1982) 
• The Amulet (1983) 

07/03/2026