Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Dark Castle Mobile Screens

I finally got around to making a "Dark Castle Mobile Screenshot Gallery", it can be found:


In other news I gave Izdale and tbone, much needed badges to show that they were my original 2 members.

Blurry Graphics fix.

I noticed how the graphics for the test demo of Return to Dark Castle, were washed out, and blurry, and remembered something the Zacks said, the game is emulating a 640x480 monitor, so it still works, otherwise they would have to redo the game completely.

Thus, if you launch the game at 640x480 already, the game looks really good.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Forum Avatars

I realize that people on my forum are doing fine making and finding their own avatars, but I have been trying to make my forum more "new-user" friendly, so I spent a few hours making avatars, which I put in a new topic:



In other news, I finally got to using a new signature, as to make it easier for other people, who had previously complained.

Positive and Negative Beta User Reviews Episode 1

After that ridiculously long name, Anything I say will sound way to serious, or silly. Anyways, I decided to collect user reviews of the beta from around the web, to see what people think of it, I am starting with the popular Mac Gaming site 'Macgamefiles.com', so here it goes:


Positive:


5/5
good. That's it. Good.
 -A
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
keep it real
 -joney
(Macgamefiles)

4/5
isent there allready a color version of dark castle?
 -Kamahawk
(Macgamefiles)

4/5
I like this game... but why is the remake taking 3-4 years?!?!? It's not very complicated...
 -David
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
"this game is really cool, i've played it before and i would give it a 5, but now when i try and d/l it and play it, it says it is expired" set your computer date back,  THIS GAME RULES!
 -Some Guy Who Likes dark castle
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
Fun Game
 -Chris Arthur
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
It's about time I can play this game in color
 -Pete
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
The first version - Beyond Dark Castle - runned quite smoothly on my SE-30 Mac. Although it was B&W, not so many levels, ect ect ect, the concept behind this game was quite impressive for the time. I just wish I could download this version to check it out on my home iMac.
 -Static Beast
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
Great but still needs work. When it is finished it should be totally awesome :-)
 -Nai
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
That great Beyond Dark castle game in color, the cool sounds..
 -Chiky
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
I am very excited for the full version of this game to be released. The levels in the demo are great, and the gameplay is just as great as the older games.
 -jst
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
Ahhhh.... I *loved* this game when I played it on my Mac+... It rocked back then, and it rocks now! I just hope it wont be long until I can play "Return to the pyramid of RA" =)
 -The Tiny Toad
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
Yes! The original Dark Castle had a richness and variety to the game play that you can't find these days, and this  re captures that. It also is true to the dark but fun to the original - only now with beautiful color graphics.
 -Corneilius
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
If there ever was a remake and/or sequel to the original Dark Castles, this is the best it could possibly be.
 -cap'n bishop™
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
Wow!
 -Zarek
(Macgamefiles)

5/5
Looks extremely promising. I'm already addicted. :-)
 -Pual A.
(Macgamefiles)

4/5
The levels themselves are identical to the ones I played 1989 on my old Mac SE. But it certainly shows quite a bit of potential. If the new levels they design are good, this will certainly be a worthwhile game.
 -Matthew Wendorf
(macgamefiles)

4/5
Seems promising
 -Vick
(macgamefiles)


Negatives:


2/5
They should just give up...by the time it is finally released we'll all probably be dead.
 -HellsBell
(Macgamefiles)

3/5
I gotta agree woth fast-sammy.  Open  source the code or something. Maybe the open source geeks can do something with this. It's taking waaaay too long.
 -A
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
It has potential, but nearly 8 freaking years in development? Release it or give it up.
 -fast-sammy
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
Um...what? This game has been on macgamefiles.com for years, LITERTALLY. Every so often the publisher remembers  "Oh shit! I was making a game, wasn't I ?!" and then makes some minimal update to this barely finished piece of junk. Why doesn't he either give up or just release the freakin' final version already? I think it's pretty insane that this title has been in the "demo" stages for over 3 years. This "demo" is hardly even playable. I'd call it more of a "demo of a demo" since there is more replay value in a game of Pong. Don't waste your time on this POS, since the final version obviously will never be released.
 -The Joker
(Macgamefiles)

3/5
I can't wait to see the full final version... but at this pace... this game  won't be 'finished' until late 2009. I second  the statement: WTF  if  taking so long!!!
 -Rob
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
wow this game sucks...who else is tired of seeing this popping up every so often on macgamefiles? i think people who like this r trying  far to hard to enjoy retro gmaing :-)
 -jim
(Macgamefiles)

3/5
WTF is taking them so long!?
 -Tom
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
Yes, do keep it real and don't download this piece of crap.
 -Red XIII
(Macgamefiles)

3/5
Pretty good, but feels too outdated and boring. BTW What's wrong with 2d Graphics? Some of the best games ever made are of 2D graphics... and some great GBA games are jolly good fun even thought they are 2D. And many of Ambrosia's games are great even thought almost every one of them are 2D.
 -MineMi
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
Fun...when it works. I got a type one error after playing for a bit. My machine then froze. I tried again, and it crashed out, currupting my monitor prefs, requiring an extensions off reboot, pref trashing and PRAM zapping... They aren't kidding calling this a beta.
 -Ben

1/5
This game is total squirrel shit.
 -=(
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
This game is realy cool, i've played it before and i would give it a 5, but now when i try and d/l it and play it, it says it's expired.
 -Yoda
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
it's a shit game
 -immi
(Mcagamefiles)

1/5
After reading yer reviews think I will download something else for my amusement...
 -Dunno
(macgamefiles)

1/5
You are an idiot if you download this piece of junk.
 -Pathetic
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
It's no wonder it was made in 1985.I don't see why 2D graphics is suddenly a good things. I wonder what they were smoking when they made this game.
 -Matt
(Macgamefiles)

3/5
Matt, if this game was made in 1985? Why is it getting so much hype 16 years later? PLEASE TELL ME WHY? don't i have some right to be frustrated? I mean...what am I suppose to do when I play this game? Dance I...I...words can't describe what I am feeling for this game.
 -Pbeentje
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
what...the hell is this?
 -OMG~!!!!
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
I DO N T like this demo!!!!!
 -helen
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
Q3 is better! Ok, for a low price.
 -Michel
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
lol Wired...
 -Dev
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
am I stupid (or a bug) but cannot get through any doors ?(can open them though). Training area stops half way through. Looks a bit retro
 -bagman
(Macgamefiles)

3/5
Seems to have all of the joys and frustrations of the original black and white  Dark Castle 2
 -AHGamer
(Macgamefiles)

1/5
really bad. the movement and action is really bad for an arcade game. the game play is bad. boring. I played  it for about  five minutes. then I threw it in the trash. cant wait till warcraft III comes out.
 -nathan
(Macgamefiles)

2/5
No way to change the keys in the game so lefties are s.o.l. at this stage. Game looks  interesting, but not much more then a colour version of the last one. The training area is a nice touch at least.
 -Lagwolf
(Macgamefiles)


And we are done, this is not all the reviews from macgamefiles.com, as I didn't post some non sensical ones, and some ones that just make people look stupid.

EDIT:
My stance on what people think now: I think that most of the people that gave it bad reviews were because of the following reasons A. They ran into a glitch. B. they don't like 2D games. C. the expiration date stopped them from trying it. and then the number one reason: D. It's taking to long/it will never be released.

Do you think people's minds will change when they the full game comes out? what do you think people will think? Leave some comments telling me what you think.

I'll do a few more of these episodes at some point.

Short Evolution of DC3

I made a short evolution of Dark Castle 3 topic, showing how some of the levels matured, and how the graphics changed, throw a look at it over here:

In response the the "help" post.

I now only need the 12th Beta, if ANYONE has it, please, please share..

For those that missed it the first time around..

I while back, 2001, If I recall correctly, IMG had a preview for Return To Dark Castle, to me this was the greatest thing in the world, and i reread it for years to come, now if any of you missed it the first time, here it is again:

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Help, if you can.

I am currently trying to get a hold of Return To Dark Castle Betas, 1, 2, 3, 11, and 12. And if anyone has the 1.1 (which I doubt), it would also be welcome. Anyways, if you DO happen to have them please upload them somewhere for me, like megaupload.com

Thanks in advance to anyone who even reads this :)


EDIT: I managed to acquire most of them, and I am only missing betas 1, and 12 (I got 1.1!!), so if anyone has em...

Old Zack Black interview

Izdale pointed out an old Zack Black interview, so I thought I'd share it

Well, I was bored and stuck at home today...

So I decided to spend some hours working on making the forum more interesting, by the way of new content. So I went around thinking "What does my forum NOT have?" So I made some new topics, pinned some, unpinned some, and added a lot more content, which can be found at the following links:

First off we now have pictures, and descriptions of all the levels in the hacked teaser demo, which can be found here:

I finally got around to making a topic with all the 'interesting topics' linked to in it. it can be found here:

I know new users are often worried about how many topics are already in the forum, and don't feel like digging through all the topics to find the real gems, so I did the 'interesting topics' post, but I also added a link to it, and the FAQ in the 'new users post here' section:

Another thing I've done, is add a catalog of all the funny pictures I've made for different occasions, such as 1,000 posts, ect:
Link

I've been saving the best for last. When I was thinking about what for forum needed, I though, "Hey, Why don't I compile all the levels we know of so far" which I did, there is a picture of every level so far shown in DC3:

Hours of time spent, I hope everyone enjoys the new content!

Welcome All to the Dark Castle BLOG!!

Like the title suggests, I finally got around to making a Dark Castle blog, following the newest Dark Castle news, and mostly, pointing to Dark Castle news articles, and new posts on my forum, and perhaps some cool 'New' info.

Thanks for watching!

-Jon God


For those who just stumbled upon this page, and are looking for the forum, it can be found here: