Midwinter

Midwinter is a post-apocalyptic first-person action role-playing game with strategy and survival elements, designed by Mike Singleton and published by MicroProse on the Rainbird label. Set in 2099 after a meteorite strike plunged the world into a nuclear winter, you play as John Stark, commander of the Free Villages Peace Force on the 160,000-square-mile island of Midwinter. General Masters is attempting to take over by force. Armed with grenades, a sniper rifle, and skis, you must recruit 32 civilians and militia members to mount a guerrilla campaign. Gameplay features a unique timer system: two hours per character. Movement includes skiing, snow buggies, cable cars, and hang gliders, rendered with shaded 3D polygons.

Atari ST

Released in 1989 by MicroProse/Rainbird, the Atari ST version is one of the original platforms alongside MS-DOS, programmed by Dave Gautrey . The game supports joystick, keyboard, and mouse controls . Graphics run at low resolution with 16 colors, featuring detailed fractal landscapes and untextured low-polygon 3D models . The ST version is renowned for its sound effects—the best among all ports—with realistic walking, vehicle engine, shooting, missile, and explosion sounds . There is no background music. The game is distributed on two single-sided floppy disks and requires 0.5 MB of RAM . Players praise its atmospheric winter world, enormous fractal landscape, and overwhelming strategic elements . Critics note that the game runs with a low frame rate that can make hitting enemies difficult .