Although Datasoft was primarily recognized for its variety of arcade conversions and licensed action games, the company did venture into the graphic text adventure genre with a few titles. Among them was the 1987 animated graphical text adventure, Dark Lord designed and programmed by Kyle Freeman. Originally titled Nemesis and developed for the Apple II in 1984 but remained unreleased. After being picked up by Datasoft, who wanted a multi-platform title, Freeman created a version for the Commodore 64, and both versions were published in 1987.

After reading of your grandfather’s adventures, you decide to journey through the magic Cheval mirror and into the Alterworld where you must search for the ancient, lead-lined skull, the only weapon capable of defeating Nequam, the Dark Lord.

Kyle Freeman’s graphic text-adventure, Dark Lord was originally written for the Apple II in 1984 but was unreleased. When Datasoft picked it up they wanted a multi-platform title and Freeman converted it to the Commodore 64.
Both the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions were released by Datasoft in 1987

Dark Lord clearly shows it was conceived years prior to 1987 as it’s very much in the style of the early classical graphical text adventures, nonetheless, it’s one of the best in the genre, and the Apple II versions might be the best the system has to offer.
Well-designed and with beautiful atmospheric animated graphics and original music by Gary S. Wilens