New release: His Dark Majesty

File this one under “new to me”: His Dark Majesty is an aggressively lo-fi turn-based fantasy strategy game “that takes the core elements of Advance Wars and The Battle for Wesnoth.” Developed by a small team, HDM was released back in 2010 for–wait for it–the Atari 800. No, really. (There’s a Windows version too, thankfully.)

The premise:

The world hath never been a safe and silent place, however its perils were familiar and well known. The Dark Army that descended upon the land one disastrous decade ago brought with it chaos and pain, and made of these simple worries only a memory. An eternity of dread and affliction became a certainty for the high-born and peasant alike. The virtuous king of the land hath been executed and his son left to rot in a prison cell. Memories of his life as the Prince of the land have faded away like mist, and only half-remembered visions, clutched tightly to his breast, of the sun upon an open field, or the smile on a maiden’s face armor his soul from complete madness. It seemed that all hope had been relinquished…

Though His Dark Majesty bears a lot of superficial similarities to Fire Emblem, characters are not persistent and there is no leveling or character advancement. This is pure fantasy strategy, in other words, not a strategy RPG.

Here is roughly 5 minutes of gameplay:

His Dark Majesty is free. On the off chance that you don’t have an Atari 800 or an Atari 800 emulator (as if), there is a Windows installer available on the download page.

Hat tip to Brian Jeffears!