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The story of Dark Castle, the best 64K Macintosh game ever

LisaXL

Active member
II just read a story about making of Dark Castle. I would like to share with you on that

I think Dark Castle is the best platformer ever made. Better than Super Mario brother, in my opinion. Its sequel Beyound Dark Castle was even better. To these day I still play time to time with it.

So what's your thoughts and experiences with the games?
 

Byte Knight

Well-known member
This is a game I'd really like to get into, but it's so damn hard! I know there's an invincibility cheat out there somewhere that I really need to try...
 

LisaXL

Active member
Thanks for the reply. If you can find the cheat code for invincibility, please share it with us. I Google and find nothing.
 

LaPorta

Well-known member
You can use the program Behind Dark Castle for that I think.

This article is an excerpt from Richard Moss’ book. I own the book, it is filled with fascinating stories such as this. In fact, some from here may have contributed to it. The image in the book of the Shadowgate box cover art is a scan of my copy.
 

LisaXL

Active member
Besides the Dark Castle series. What other 68k games are your favourite? I also like Lemmings and Glider Pro.
 

LisaXL

Active member
You can use the program Behind Dark Castle for that I think.

This article is an excerpt from Richard Moss’ book. I own the book, it is filled with fascinating stories such as this. In fact, some from here may have contributed to it. The image in the book of the Shadowgate box cover art is a scan of my copy.
I wish the author can release an eBook version as I don't live in the States.
 

Byte Knight

Well-known member
Besides the Dark Castle series. What other 68k games are your favourite? I also like Lemmings and Glider Pro.
Prince of Persia, Arkanoid, Armor Alley, Oregon Trail, Pirates!, and Star Wars are some of my favorite B&W Mac games (along with Glider).

BTW, I've got a big collection of B&W Mac games in the Downloads section of CQ II BBS:

 

LisaXL

Active member
You can use the program Behind Dark Castle for that I think.

This article is an excerpt from Richard Moss’ book. I own the book, it is filled with fascinating stories such as this. In fact, some from here may have contributed to it. The image in the book of the Shadowgate box cover art is a scan of my copy.

Too bad this book is available as hard cover only. And there is no way for us living in countries without Amazon to get it.
 

mossy_11

Member
Hey folks, Secret History of Mac Gaming book author Richard Moss here. The book was recently republished in an Expanded Edition by Bitmap Books (a UK-based publisher). New material includes a timeline, loads more images, and several thousand words of additional text (covering Snood, Stick Man Games, Mac Action magazine, and The Dungeon of Doom, among other things). We also revised the layout and fixed several errors that made it into the first edition.

Here's the product page: https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/the-secret-history-of-mac-gaming-expanded-edition

It's not available right now, but we're hoping it'll be back in stock in April. I also plan to self-publish a new text-only digital version that includes the new written content without any images, but I won't have that out until the new year at the soonest. You can follow news on that via my website for the book, my Twitter handle, or my low-volume announcements newsletter for my books.

(Also a quick plug, my second book will be out next year from Unbound. It's called Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet, and it covers the heyday of the shareware games scene across Mac, PC, Amiga, and Atari ST — with a focus on the people and ideas that made shareware such an influential form of software distribution.)
 

Byte Knight

Well-known member
Hey folks, Secret History of Mac Gaming book author Richard Moss here. The book was recently republished in an Expanded Edition by Bitmap Books (a UK-based publisher). New material includes a timeline, loads more images, and several thousand words of additional text (covering Snood, Stick Man Games, Mac Action magazine, and The Dungeon of Doom, among other things). We also revised the layout and fixed several errors that made it into the first edition.
Got my copy and I'm loving it! I read the first edition so long ago that all of the material seems new...
 

Mu0n

Well-known member
I recently bought the expanded edition and I am loving it. I really should read it besides a mac while loading a few games I've never heard of and try them out alongside the chapters. Just reached the Shufflepuck café part.
 

mossy_11

Member
Wonderful. I'm so glad you're both enjoying it. And yes, reading with an old Mac close at hand is ideal so that you can get a good look at the games you've just (or are about to) read about — whether remembering old favourites or discovering the forgotten gems I was able to document. We made that much easier with this edition as well by replacing the index (we lacked the budget to redo it) with a chapter-headed gameography list.

I'd be curious to know if anyone has found out about a classic Mac game they now love thanks to my book?
 

LaPorta

Well-known member
Well, I played Spectre as a kid, but it was on a Mac Plus and terribly slow. Then, I played it a bit on the iPad and it was awesome as well. However, reading about it in your book made me look back at the original, and now that I have a IIfx, I play it on there!
 

Crutch

Well-known member
@mossy_11 thanks for posting here. I have the original edition and it’s really terrific.

(whispers) I think BeamWars is a pretty nice game but noticed it isn’t in your book … 🥲
 

mossy_11

Member
Come to think of it, was Tetris Max ever mentioned?
Yep! It got one glorious sentence as part of the preamble to talking about Randall Cook's Tetris. I may include a more detailed history of it in volume 2, which I've started working on but probably won't have done for another 1-2 years.

@mossy_11 thanks for posting here. I have the original edition and it’s really terrific.

(whispers) I think BeamWars is a pretty nice game but noticed it isn’t in your book … 🥲
A definite candidate for volume 2 as well. I'll be in touch when I'm ready to get the lowdown on its development and reception.
 

LisaXL

Active member
It's really too bad that there is no color version of Beyond the Dark Castle which I consider superior to the original Dark Castle. That means the color Macs could not play beyond dark castle(sounds doesn't work on the newer Macs).
 
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