Dark Castle

February 25, 2005 7:09 PM

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?
posted by ORthey to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

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.
posted by FlamingBore at 7:12 PM on February 25, 2005

doesnt have that game in-particular, but this site has a bunch of old FREE games.
posted by ShawnString at 7:15 PM on February 25, 2005

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.
posted by loquax at 7:18 PM on February 25, 2005

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!).
posted by killdevil at 7:22 PM on February 25, 2005

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.
posted by FlamingBore at 8:00 PM on February 25, 2005

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.
posted by dasibiter at 8:04 PM on February 25, 2005

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

You're in luck.
posted by majcher at 8:06 PM on February 25, 2005

Rock on majcher.

The snow outside gives me another good excuse to stay in tomorrow.
posted by dasibiter at 8:10 PM on February 25, 2005

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.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 8:56 PM on February 25, 2005

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.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 9:02 PM on February 25, 2005

God, what an awesome game. Spent _way_ too much time throwing rocks at bats, way back when.
posted by LairBob at 9:18 PM on February 25, 2005

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..
posted by Jack Karaoke at 11:17 PM on February 25, 2005

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.
posted by krisjohn at 3:54 AM on February 26, 2005

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!)
posted by jdroth at 6:55 AM on February 26, 2005

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.
posted by robotspacer at 7:09 AM on February 26, 2005

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!
posted by robotspacer at 7:28 AM on February 26, 2005