Image via The Electric Monk of TGS
Neil Gaiman’s Lover the sandman comic book series has a moment in the sun. Since the first issue hit shelves in January 1989, comic book fans have already known: the sandman was something special, with the years that followed I saw the fandom grow as more and more people picked up the collected editions. But with the critically acclaimed Netflix show just premiering, the story of the Endless is now enjoyed by millions around the world.
But although the sandman comics, audiobooks, TV shows, and various spin-offs, it has never ventured into the world of video games. That’s not to say there haven’t been attempts, with Dave Gilbert of WadjetEyeGames revealing in 2015 that he pitched a concept and test image:
But nothing ever came of it and there was never a game based on it the sandman. Or has there?
The Sandman: Love and Magic
In 1984, Amstrad released the 8-bit Color Personal Computer (CPC), which was popular in European markets as an alternative to the Sinclair Spectrum and Commodore 64. Sony PlayStation and PC players are gearing up for iD Software’s breakthrough earthquake.
But even in the mid-90s, some programmers were still working on the old 8-bit microcomputers. And so in 1995 on the Amstrad CPC we got the first and so far only video game set in The Dreaming: The Sandman: Love and Magic, created in its entirety by 19-year-old Ulrich Schreitmueller (aka The Electric Monk or TGS). In this graphic text adventure, Dream and Desire battle each other over the stability of the dreaming world.
You travel through the dreams of humanity, to Earth and across the dreams to gather the necessary knowledge to put Desire in their place. Along the way you will come into contact with many remarkable characters from the sandmanincluding the Endless, Hob Gadling, Fiddler’s Green, Cain, Abel, Eve and Matthew the Raven.
Love and magic is not for everyone: even in 1995 this would have been considered archaic, playing it today requires patience and a walkthrough is a necessity. But get there with the right mindset and this is about as good a sandman game as you might hope given the circumstances of its creation. Almost all of the characters (especially Dream) sound like their comic book counterparts, despite the four-color palette, the locations are instantly recognizable, and there are some really nice Easter eggs tucked inside (you can visit Batman’s dream!)
How it happened
We spoke to Love and magic‘s creator to ask him about his thoughts on his game unearthed 27 years after its original release, how it came about, what he’d done differently, and his feelings about how the Netflix show adapted Gaiman’s books.
Schreitmueller says: the sandman comics blew his mind, praising the Goth aesthetic, varied art style, and Gaiman’s writing:
“I’ve always been a fan of mythology, and the sheer wealth of references knocked me out. For all I recognized, there were three other things I didn’t recognize. As I mentioned, there was no readily available internet in those days, let alone anything like Wikipedia, so I found myself in school in my spare time, reading the latest paperback, and stopping every few pages to go to the big one. encyclopedia in our school library to find out who Azazel or Geryon were. And it’s not just the references, it’s the whole writing style.
There are rules that resonate with me to this day. I can recite Etrigan’s “Return to your gate and duty, Squatterbloat” rhyme in its entirety. Abel’s “It’s only blood, little brother” still brings a tear to my eye, and “She… She’s decided she no longer loves me” is just beautiful in its somber acceptance.”
Sadly no one else had even heard of it the sandman in his small rural town, but inspiration struck and he turned to the only computer he had access to, the Amstrad CPC (or as it was known in Germany, the Schneider CPC). He further explains that:
“The game was written when I was 19. I was a shy, withdrawn, enclosed person. I had a really good friend at school, I was in love with a girl I actually addressed as “milady”, I wore a long coat, a black turtleneck sweater and an Ankh necklace, and I found myself incredibly deep, smart and mysterious. ”
In our books, that makes Schreitmueller the perfect person to sandman play, although the end result of his labor seems to have been the simple satisfaction of creation in the first place:
“In fact, I had produced a game in an unpopular genre, on an outdated computer, on a fringe segment of an already shunned type of literature, in a different language.”
When Love and magic finished, he handed a few copies to friends (at least one of them even played it!) and that might be the end of the story. But once the internet took off, it was uploaded to a few Amstrad FTP sites and recognized as a late homebrew release in a history book on the system.
Now the game is reaching a wider audience. Schreitmueller posted about the game at the sandman‘s Facebook page and got an “overwhelming” response from fans happy and surprised that there was even a sandman not play at all.
To adjust the sandman like a video game
We wanted to know what it was like to tackle a property with such a broad scope, especially since the characters don’t tend to engage in conflict in the traditional sense. Schreitmueller’s solution was to have the player do nothing, just explain why Dream wouldn’t do it at the time:
“You have to keep in mind that when you play a creature that is essentially all-powerful, you essentially have to do two things: first, you have to limit the player’s powers in some way, otherwise you’d end up with a sandbox-like god simulator have to write. So instead of the game telling you “you can’t take the table” when the player tries, it instead only discourages you with messages like “you don’t have to rearrange the furniture now”.
Most developers today would still struggle to develop a game with an all-powerful figure like Morpheus as the player’s character. We asked how a sandman game on modern hardware might look like this:
“I can’t really imagine it” sandman as something other than an interactive story. sandman was never about action, so those genres wouldn’t fit well. It may work as a role-playing game, but since so much of Morpheus’ character is defined by the fact that he not change, I don’t really see him being squeezed into a system where he can increase hit points, spells and armor.
Perhaps a more viable way to make the game is about a character that is not Morpheus, but only interacts with the Endless, but I think part of the appeal for players is to put themselves in the shoes of the Dream Lord itself. An open-world multiplayer game where you join one of the Endless and do tasks for them?”
Perhaps an interactive story really is the best way to go, possibly in the style of the defunct Telltale Games or Supermassive Games’ Dark photos anthology.
The Netflix show
To wrap things up, we asked for Schreitmueller’s take on Netflix’ the sandman. Unsurprisingly, he’s “very impressed” as he’s been following the live-action adaptation throughout its journey through development hell. Would he have done something different?
“Sure. I think any fan would too. Would the show have been better? I doubt it. For example, I was adamant on the show that Dream NEED those dark eyes with the stars in them, as well as the chalky white skin. Now I After seeing a few pictures of (incredibly good) Dream cosplayers, I realize the character would look way too bizarre, what works on a comic book page doesn’t necessarily work on screen.
So is the level of violence. Sandman started out as a horror comic, and many of the elements that were raw and sharp at the time now seem like a shock for the sake of shock. Yes, I wish they’d kept Alex Burgess’ penalty streak ‘Eternal Waking’, but I’m glad some of the more gratuitous elements in ’24 Hours’ have been toned down.”
If you want to play The Sandman: Love and Magic it can be downloaded here for Windows machines (right click, save as) in a relatively easy to use format. We strongly recommend that you read the “2022 Readme” before you start, because if you’re not used to this style of play, it gets confusing quickly.
the sandman is now available to watch on Netflix.
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