Comments on: Dark Castle

Question: Dark Castle

ORthey — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:09:29 -0800

Did anyone used to play Dark Castle on the old Macs? I spent a lot of my childhood playing it... and I'm thirsting for more. Now I have a PC - does anyone know of a way for me to find it online? Or elsewhere?

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:12:16 -0800

ORthey, I too played this game and am very curious to hear if there is any hope. I've got an old disk containing the game somewhere and have considered buying an old Mac for the sole purpose.

By: ShawnString

ShawnString — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:15:38 -0800

doesnt have that game in-particular, but this site has a bunch of old FREE games.

By: loquax

loquax — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:18:20 -0800

Did this thread from yesterday remind you? That game was the first thing I thought of when I saw the old black and white graphics. Sorry I can't help, but I'd love a windows version too.

By: killdevil

killdevil — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:22:31 -0800

Download Dark Castle from Home Of The Underdogs here. This is probably the number one place to find abandonware games of this sort.

Note that this is the DOS version of the game - I don't know if the gameplay is the same.

Another approach would be to get the Mac version of the software and run it inside a 68k Mac emulator (of which there are a bunch). I recently went through this process because I had a desperate desire to play Cap'n Magneto again (great game, by the way!).

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:00:43 -0800

killdevil - that version must have come along after I lost interest. The version I played was even more two dimensional and completely in black and white. Still, cool to see it.

By: dasibiter

dasibiter — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:04:03 -0800

I wouldn't mind a game of 'Uninvited' or 'Fools Errand' for that matter.

Thanks Killdevil.

I never knew that Lane Roathe was the one who made Dark Castle.

By: majcher

majcher — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:06:34 -0800

I wouldn't mind a game of 'Uninvited' or 'Fools Errand' for that matter.

You're in luck.

By: dasibiter

dasibiter — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:10:56 -0800

Rock on majcher.

The snow outside gives me another good excuse to stay in tomorrow.

By: RikiTikiTavi

RikiTikiTavi — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:56:47 -0800

I spent lots of time playing Dark Castle long ago. It's produced by a really cool company (Delta Tao Software) headed by a really cool guy (Joe Williams). I wouldnt' call it abandonware, given that you can buy the color version now, and the demo of Return to Dark Castle is out.

Please support an independent game developer and drop $25 on the legal version. Delta Tao is definitely still alive and kicking; they're just a little more laid back over there.

By: RikiTikiTavi

RikiTikiTavi — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:02:33 -0800

Ok, well, the DOS version may be considered abandomware, I dunno. It doesn't seem to be offered on the Delta Tao site, anyway, so maybe they totally sold the rights away for that platform or something. Could always ask them.

It should be noted that the version I'm talking about that's still for sale is for the mac. The new sequel seems to be for the mac, but I couldn't find it explicitly mentioned.

By: LairBob

LairBob — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:18:23 -0800

God, what an awesome game. Spent _way_ too much time throwing rocks at bats, way back when.

By: Jack Karaoke

Jack Karaoke — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:17:05 -0800

I spent way to much time jumping into walls/off cliffs, getting bludgeoned, sliced, electrocuted (?), and variously mauled. It's curious that it never made it to PCs, was there a commodore version?

Dark Castle, Continuum, 3 in 3.. hmm.. Conan, Miner 20049er, Karateka..

By: krisjohn

krisjohn — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 03:54:46 -0800

Dark Castle is also available for the Amiga and the MegaDrive (Genesis). I picked up a MegaDrive version ages ago at a swapmeet. I think I then sold it on eBay. These games are around if you really want them.

By: skallas

skallas — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 05:34:22 -0800

I'd love to play the old B&W version, but dont have access to a mac at home. Is there an emulator or something that would let me do this?

By: jdroth

jdroth — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 06:55:33 -0800

I know you're after the PC version, and I know killdevil linked to The Underdogs already, but I think it's important to note for future finders of this thread that there's a Mac Underdogs site, too, where one can find old Macintosh games. Though Dark Castle isn't available there, many other old gems are. (And we Mac users have always had to cling to our gems, because there aren't many of them!)

By: robotspacer

robotspacer — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 07:09:55 -0800

Dark Castle was not created by Delta Tao. It was created by Silicon Beach Software, a company that made some great games and other apps in the earlier days of the Mac (like Airborne! and SuperPaint). Silicon Beach is no longer around.

Delta Tao bought the rights to the game, and if you ask me they destroyed the gorgeous black and white graphics. It's a shame they haven't released the original version. I'd pay 50 bucks for an OS X port of the original games!

Jonathan Gay was the game's programmer, who went on to create Flash, among other things. The game's beautiful graphics were by Mark Pierce, who helped found MacroMind, which later became Macromedia.

By: robotspacer

robotspacer — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 07:28:01 -0800

vMac is a popular Mac Plus emulator, by the way, available for various platforms. It crashes pretty early on in Beyond Dark Castle for me, but you may have better luck. I'd try the first game but I'm not sure where the floppy is!