Yet another missing Synapse Software title in the archives, with thanks to Bertrand/Atari Frog for highlighting. The game was mentioned as an upcoming title in Protector 2’s scrolling text, but also listed in a Synapse Software price list from September 1983, with a slated release date of October 1983.
Thanks to an anonymous contributor (thanks as always!), in the US newsletter “The video game update” from Jan 1984, page 147, there’s a brief update on this game: https://archive.org/details/computer-entertainer-2-10
They stated that Synapse had dropped NEW YORK CITY and QUASIMODO for Atari computers and shelved MORGUL for the C64.
However, our anonymous contributor makes a very interesting theory and suggestion, which does seem to have legs. In the September 1983 list, although Morgol is mentioned – Necromancer (also released in 1983) is not!
Was perhaps Morgol a working title for Necromancer? In this Synapse catalogue, Morgol is spelt as Morgul with a “U”. The word “Morgul” according to our contributor, hails from Lord of the rings, and is an elven word for “black arts, sorcery, necromancy“. https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Morgul
We’ll quote directly the contributed theory, as it sums things up perfectly:
“Morgol (Morgul) could have been the working title of the game which eventually became Necromancer. Perhaps the name Morgol got stuck in some PR material and started living its own life. Interestingly enough, Necromancer is actually mentioned in the Atari section of the price list, here with the proper name – and with the same cartridge release date (10/83) as C64 Morgol. One could easily imagine a secretary getting documents from the Atari and C64 departments separately and just typing them up verbatim.”
That could very well be the case. Perhaps there are remains of “Morgol” or “Morgul” still in the Necromancer code which could confirm this?
Thanks to contributor HG (see comments), its been revealed that box art was produced for the game. It clearly hasn’t been used, but it begs the question as to whether the game had got that far. With packaging produced, that suggests it may well have done. Also, does this therefore dispel the suggestion that Morgol may have been a working title for Necromancer? It also has different artwork too.
Do you know anything more?
Contributions: Bertrand / Atari Frog, Anonymous, HG, Archive.org
Morgol was definitely more than just a working title, because look:
https://archive.org/details/SynapseSoftwareArt/page/n15/mode/2up
A scan of the box! (Featuring different artwork from Necromancer, for what it’s worth.) What are we to make of this? It made it all the way to production and then was suddenly pulled? There must be a story there.
That’s a brilliant find, thanks HG! I’ll add now to the page and will update quickly.
It does indeed look like the game must have been quite a way along to have the packaging produced – though there have been times where packaging has been produced well before an actual game exists. It gives hope though!