Dark Castle
| Dark Castle | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Silicon Beach Software |
| Designer(s) | Mark Stephen Pierce (graphics) Jonathan Gay (programming) |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, MS-DOS, Mega Drive/Genesis, Commodore 64, CD-i, MSX |
| Release date(s) | 1986 (Mac) 1987 (DOS) 1987 (Commodore 64) 1987 (Commodore Amiga) 1987 (Atari ST) 1989 (Apple IIGS) 1991 (Mega Drive/Genesis) 1992 (CD-i) 1993 (MSX) |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Dark Castle is a 1986 computer game for the Macintosh published by Silicon Beach Software, later ported to various platforms, where it was published by Three-Sixty Pacific. It was designed and illustrated by Mark Pierce and programmed by Jonathan Gay.
Dark Castle is a platform game where a young hero named Duncan tries to make his way to the evil Black Knight, dodging objects as well as solving occasional puzzles. The game is notable for its use of sampled sounds to great effect. A sequel titled Beyond Dark Castle was released in 1987. A second sequel, Return to Dark Castle, was announced in 2000, though it was not released until March 14, 2008.
Mark Pierce was based in San Francisco with his own company MacroMind, while Jon Gay and the rest of the Silicon Beach team were in San Diego; so after an initial launch meeting, most of the collaboration between Pierce and Gay was handled remotely. Pierce designed the animations in MacroMind's "VideoWorks" (the direct ancestor of Adobe Director) and then mailed the files on floppies to Gay, who then coded the game in 68000 Assembly Language on an Apple Lisa (a few parts like the high-score system were written in Pascal). The digitized sound was created by Eric Zocher who worked with voice actor Dick Noel.
The game opens with a vista of the castle with storm clouds in the distance. The opening notes of play and are followed by thunderclaps. The title along with the programming and development credits are shown on this screen.
Movement within Dark Castle is typical for most platformers. Duncan can run, jump and duck, and can throw a limited supply of rocks at his enemies. More rocks can be found in little bags along the way, as well as bottles of an elixir that provide a one-time antidote to bites of the numerous rats and bats found around the castle.
To defeat the Black Knight, Duncan needs to pull several levers which topple him from his throne. To aid Duncan, a magic shield and the power to hurl fireballs can, fortunately, be found within the Dark Castle. The game begins in the Great Hall, where the player can choose from four doors. The large center door leads to the Black Knight. One other is marked with the shield, and the remaining two mysteriously alternate between the fireball course and a more troubling path. The game can be played at three different skill levels, the hardest "Advanced" level containing more enemies and a few extra surprises.
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Wikipedia