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.)
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
