Return to Dark Castle (Dark Castle 3)...WOW!!....

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:04 am

http://www.zsculpt.com/website/games/darkcastle3/

I don't know if this game's been finished or released yet, but HOLY CRAP; this is enough to convert me to Macs!! Those screenshots look beautiful, and the game contains ALL of the stages from Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle. Even though we also had a NES (and later a Genesis) at the time, BDC got TONS of playtime from me on our Mac Plus.

A most impressive effort; when I do get my own computer I may very well choose a Mac over a PC just due to this game!

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:14 am

Well, it looks nice but I remember Dark Castle on the Genesis and it played like crap. Never tried any of the computer versions though.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:01 am

Ganelon wrote:Well, it looks nice but I remember Dark Castle on the Genesis and it played like crap. Never tried any of the computer versions though.

I didn't know anyone else knew about this game. I have it, and I really want to like it, but the controls just blow too much.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:52 am

I agree... the game played like shit.

But it seems the game has its fans.... I've seen it in the "top list" of some gamers during my life...

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:10 am

The original Dark Castle is just plain bad, by any standard. I never actually knew there were people who liked it...

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:13 am

Maybe the Genesis version is a bad port? Have you tried the PC or Mac versions?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:17 am

I've only played Beyond Dark Castle on a Mac Plus, and the controls, using the mouse and keyboard, were excellent.

I'm sure Dark Castle plays well on a computer, but judging from how well computer controls work on BDC, porting it to a home console was probably a mistake.

Blue Lander · Post by **Blue Lander** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:20 am

I played Dark Castles back in the day on the B&W Macintosh. It was a cute game, but not very playable. I probably wouldn't even consider buying a new Dark Castles game.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:42 am

I wonder if Silicon Beach Software, Inc. is still around?

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:34 am

sethsez wrote:The original Dark Castle is just plain bad, by any standard. I never actually knew there were people who liked it...

I think the sense of exploration is nice. In its ideal form, this game would be just like Fester's Quest. Think of it as a good structure for a game, rather than a good game.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:29 am

Andi wrote:
sethsez wrote:The original Dark Castle is just plain bad, by any standard. I never actually knew there were people who liked it...
I think the sense of exploration is nice. In its ideal form, this game would be just like Fester's Quest. Think of it as a good structure for a game, rather than a good game.

?

The Genesis version (which is the one I played) was four screens. Not exactly much in the way of exploration.

Then again, the Fester's Quest bit throws me off too... we talking about the same Dark Castle? The sidescroller that's a bit like Prince of Persia from hell?

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:24 pm

sethsez wrote:The Genesis version (which is the one I played) was four screens. Not exactly much in the way of exploration.

Then again, the Fester's Quest bit throws me off too... we talking about the same Dark Castle? The sidescroller that's a bit like Prince of Persia from hell?

We are, but there are WAY more than 4 screens. Each of the screens has at least 1 exit that leads to another screen. It starts with 4 places to go, but after that it branches it a great deal.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:28 pm

Well here's some interesting information on what happened to Silicon Beach Software, who made both Dark Castle games, on the website of a company that some of it's former employees work for:

http://www.webstudio.com/site/about.asp?Page_Id=100

"No, we don't spend our time at the beautiful San Diego beaches, we don't go surfing at lunch time. That would be nice, but we have awesome software to create! Here's the real story.

"There was a software company that many of us worked for in the late 1980's named Silicon Beach Software. It was a relatively small company with a loose, informal culture. It was the most enjoyable company any of us worked for. It's nickname was "the Beach." Oh yeah, we created some really great products at the Beach.

Silicon Beach was bought by Aldus Corporation in the early 1990's. Aldus created the desktop publishing revolution with their breakthrough product, PageMaker. Aldus was then bought by Adobe Systems in the mid-1990's. Adobe, of course, created PhotoShop, Illustrator, Acrobat, etc.

The name, Back to the Beach, reflects a desire to return to the earlier days with the informal culture, versus the corporate culture during the Aldus-Adobe days. We wanted to get back to the culture of "the Beach"."

Interesting stuff indeed-that is if you're into the history of the gaming industry, like me.