I thought I'd make two of these three classic games available here for people who's old Apples no longer work, only have a PC to use and want a nostalgic trip back to when fuel and beer were cheap, darts were dangerous and everyone was smiling.
Black Knights, Dragons, Jailors, Bats, Gargoyles, Eyeballs and more, oh my!
Click download for the files you need to play. The ZIP contains MiniVMac with a Mac Plus ROM file. The Mac image contains System 6, Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle. It DOES NOT contain Return to Dark Castle.
When you've downloaded the fairly small ZIP file, extract the files to a folder then just drag and drop DCImage onto the Mini vMac program to get going.
The two folders for Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle are available once the emulated Mac has booted, open the game of your choice and take a trip down memory lane.
I recommend you press CTRL-F to go to full screen mode, otherwise you'll likely move your mouse off the window at a critical time.
EASTER EGG: Set your date to December 25th to see the festive graphics.
A true blast from the past: Dark Castle, by Delta Tao, is a true pioneer in Macintosh gaming. One of the first memorable Mac games for the 9-inch Mac systems, its black-and-white original stole many hours away from this IT engineer in the late 1980's. Was it the multi-level action? The animations? The embedded humor? Let's find out...
Dark Castle is in black-and-white, requiring you to boot up an application disk which contained a "minifinder"...anyone remember these?
Dark Castle was written in 1986 by Mark Pierce and Jonathan Gay for Silicon Beach. It was a huge success, showing off how great the Mac was at sound and graphics. It won every award there was, and made lots of money. However, the Macintosh evolved, and Dark Castle didn't. The Mac II, color, and Multifinder all came out, and Dark Castle slowly stopped working. Aldus acquired Silicon Beach for its graphics, not its games. There were no more Dark Castle games following the acquisition.
For those who were born after Dark Castle's original release (sigh) or who need a refresher on the game, the goal of Dark Castle was to defeat the Black Knight. In order to do that, you (Duncan) will need to explore the castle to find the tools you need to take on this bad boy or to avoid the nasties that try to stop you.
Each level in DC is totally different, requiring different skills to complete them. Many of them lead right to the dungeon (most trap doors and drop-offs will send you there (meaning you'll have to get through 3 dungeon levels in order to get back to the Great Hall). This linkage allows for loads of game play, although it can get a bit repetitious (the nasties are always in the same place). As you increase the difficulty level, the number of nasties increase. Some levels require you to be fast while others require careful observation and meticulous steps.
Return To Dark Castle is a 2008 platform game for the Macintosh. It is the third game in the Dark Castle series, following the original Dark Castle (1986) and its sequel Beyond Dark Castle (1987), and the first to be developed by Z Sculpt. Development on the game, begun in 1996, was notoriously protracted, and the game was often labeled as vaporware. Return To Dark Castle was originally scheduled to be released in Winter 2000, but was not released until March 14, 2008.
The player fights his way through various areas inside and around the Dark Castle, in an attempt to defeat the Black Knight. The player's character, named Bryant by default, is identical in appearance to Duncan, the hero of the earlier Dark Castle games. In the game's intro, we read that Duncan never returned from his quest to the Dark Castle. Bryant now approaches the castle in an attempt to succeed where Duncan had apparently failed. Bryant must collect 10 orbs hidden around the castle (similar to the orbs from Beyond Dark Castle) before he can confront the Black Knight. If Bryant defeats the Black Knight on any difficulty other than advanced, the Black Knight chides him for wanting an ending but expending too little effort. If Bryant defeats the Black Knight on advanced difficulty, the Black Knight's armor is knocked off, revealing Duncan, now old and with gray hair and beard. Duncan and Bryant are forced to flee the castle, as the Black Knight's armor had imprisoned Duncan, and now threatens to imprison them anew. Duncan and Bryant descend a rope to the Black Knight's Pier, and there board a ship to visit an unnamed destination that Duncan always wanted to see.
The previous games each had 15 levels, and Return To Dark Castle contains all the levels from these first two games, plus over 50 new levels. The new areas are a mixture of single-screen levels in the style of the first two games, and larger horizontally and vertically scrolling levels. The levels contain 25 orbs, 10 of which are required in order to complete the game. Many of the new levels contain secret areas which can be accessed by activating hidden doors and switches.
The game's gameplay is, with a few notable exceptions, essentially identical to its predecessors. Bryant's principal weapon remains the rock which can be magically upgraded to the fireball, and a magical shield can be obtained. New features include the ability to carry weapons in the player's inventory as well as the ability to keep teleportation potions in the inventory. The player can also acquire the "stone ball", which joins the fireball as an upgrade to the standard rock weapon. The stone ball can be used to obtain other special weapons within the castle. The game allows players to record and play back "demos", videos of play.
Beyond Dark Castle is the continuation of Dark Castle. The objective of this follow up is to find the five magic spheres of Merlin and place them on the plinths in the first room. That should enable you to open the portcullis and face the Black Knight. You will traverse the various rooms of this labyrinthian castle and will have a whole heap of nasty encounters…
The play is controlled with the mouse and the keyboard in exactly the same way as the previous game. It should be mentioned that gameplay can be particularly difficult at three in the morning with substantial amounts of alcohol in your bloodstream as the game can be very frustrating at times. It is nevertheless a brilliant game that has a addictive quality about it, regardless of its age, the sounds and the music are not bad, animations are good and can be amusing as is the game design of each level.