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246 points by evo_9 3 days ago | hide | 33 comments

Note that Dark Castle was programmed by Jonathan Gay, who would eventually go on to make FutureSplash. You might know it better from what it was renamed to: Flash (of Macromedia/Adobe).

The first time Marc Canter (who founded Macromedia) introduced me to Jonathan Gay at CGDC as the creator of Dark Castle, I excitedly and respectfully held and flapped my hands above my head and shouted at him: "Nya nya nya nya nya! Yow! Uuuurh! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" (The sound of the nasty monsters, and picking up rocks.)

https://youtu.be/6U6v3XyrPLc?t=43

For years after playing that game, I would always say "Yeah!" whenever I picked up a rock, and I'd always look for bats every time I entered a room.

After my friend and I (whose Mac we both relentlessly played Dark Castle on) went to pick up a big chunk of hash from his pot dealer, we both looked at each other and said "Yeah!" Fortunately we refrained from throwing it at a bat.

Someone claiming to be the creator of Dark Castle says they are working on a 40th anniversary edition in the comments of that video.

Another commenter figured out how to spell "Woah! Wueeeueehh, wueeeueehh, wueeeueehh! Mmmbrbrbrbr!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U6v3XyrPLc&t=416s

Was the dual “euh weuuu heu heuuu” when you were drunk or when you fell from a a bit too high?

The latter. There's only one heavy drinker in Dark Castle, and it's not the hero. ;-)

Wow, thanks for that lesson! I owe that guy my career.

Also playable in browser at https://classicreload.com/play/mac-dark-castle.html

Thanks! On the original download site I'm getting a 404 MS Azure download error.

User input doesn't seem to work. Other classics on the site do work but not Dark Castle (at least for me)

Z Sculpt sells an updated version of Return to Dark Castle:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4054940/Return_to_Dark_Ca...

This game came out the same year the original Castlevania did. They're different enough games, but there are a few similarities that do make you wonder if they had any particular shared influences.

I'd love to see a Fabien-style Game Engine Black Book for some of these older Macintosh games.

The download links are all dead.

But archived!

https://web.archive.org/web/20250901121225/https://darkcastl...

Might as well link directly to the game:

https://archive.org/details/mac_DarkCastle_1_2

I thought it was only me. Or it's temporarily down because some HN overload or something.

Microsoft Azure strikes again!

If the author sees this: it's "whose old Apples", not "who's". Only mentioning this because it's very prominent on the landing page.

Also the feedback form doesn't work in Firefox, Chrome, and Edge.

Such a classic. Played these for many hours as a kid.

If you've never played it before, Dark Castle really is worth looking at. Its artwork is incredible even before considering the constraints, and its gameplay holds up remarkably well for something from 1986.

You can also play it in the browser in Infinite Mac: https://infinitemac.org/1991/System%207.0

(Worked somewhat better for me than the classicreload version)

Would it be possible to play this in those retro platform emulation handhelds? Was able to find ports for DOS, Mac, Genesis, C64, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIgs, CD-i. Is this a viable portmaster suggestion?

The other thing I remember of that era was the (unrelated) Talking Moose

The right way to play this game is on CD-i

So, I was disappointed to find dead links to a Windows-based emulator :-(

Does anyone know...

* What happened to the creators?

* Who owns the copyrights, if at all?

* Has anyone been approached to release the source code and games resources?

Also, if anyone has an appropriate Linux emulator, which supports these games, please share a link and perhaps instructions.

Mini vMac (bundled in the zip) has Linux versions too.

https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/

Dark Castle was by Jonathan Gay, who also did Shockwave Flash, a somewhat more popular project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gay

Mini vMac. You’ll need a mac plus ROM file and a copy of the software disk images.

Or, return to dark Castle is now available on steam as mentioned elsewhere in this thread. It contains all the dark castle and beyond dark castle levels plus many more new levels and works on modern computers.

Elsewhere in a comment someone posted the archive links which worked - I had fun playing in the emulator on my Windows PC

instill have the floppies :)

i still remember the christmas easter egg in there

ahhh.. childhood!

wow nostalgia!