Dark Castle Blog

Dark Castle stays in top 50 on app store 2 days in a row

2011-03-01T23:24:00.001-08:00

Hey! Return to Dark Castle just got in the top 50 Top Paid Games on the Mac OS App store in it's 2nd day! Thanks everyone! - MSP

Taken from SHFF's Twitter account.

Return to Dark Castle 1.4 on app store!

2011-02-25T16:24:00.000-08:00

LINK

$4.99, too. Careful of the screenshots though, they contain spoilers.

No sign of the level editor, PC version, or iOS port, but a step at a time.

2009 article mentioning DC3 iPhone

2011-02-12T15:53:00.000-08:00

LINK

This obviously didn't make it out in time for 2010, but who knows the status of it now.

And another tweet from MSP

2011-02-08T00:43:00.000-08:00

Tweet: Still waiting on Apple's review/release of DC3 for OSX. Hoping for a good response so we can start providing updates. Bunches of ideas.

Release updates to us early adopters while you wait!

2 More Tweets from SHFF

2011-02-06T15:47:00.000-08:00

First: Return to Dark Castle back @ Apple.

Second: Cool news soon... are there other platforms ...

The first one probably has to due with apple approving DC3 with the app store, the second is anyone's guess, it could not have anything to do with Dark Castle, though it is the 3rd tweet in a row, and the first two are Dark Castle related.

Return to Dark Castle heading to the App Store

2011-02-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

So it's been confirmed that Return to Dark Castle will be heading to the app store via a tweet by SHFF which can be seen here:

http://twitter.com/SHFF/status/32975713971740673

I am going to assume this is just the Mac version, and not a iOS version, though who knows, it could surprise me.

Say goodbye to eSellerate!

Zack Black visits SHFF

2010-10-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

For the first time, Zack Black (Return to Dark Castle co-creator) meets Mark Steven Pierce (Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle co-creator) for the first time in person. Not sure on what exchange went on between them, other than it was positive. Here's to 2 decent men, and progress.

Link to Zscuplt

Dark Castle Blog "WEEKLY!?? Update (9/3/10)

2010-08-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, dear readers, I am guessing you didn't expect to hear from me again so soon. Well, this week, we will be chatting with someone from Super Happy Fun Fun, Bill LaCoste, the producer of Return to Dark Castle.

Jon God: Can you tell me when you first got involved with Return to Dark Castle?

Bill LaCoste: I got involved with Dark Castle way back in April of 2008.

Jon God: Had you ever heard of, or played any of the original games before then?

Bill LaCoste: I had heard of Dark Castle before then, but never played it. My last Apple computer was an Apple IIe, which I had when I was in middle school and high school. After that it was straight PC gaming for me. I certainly loved it when I had it and was excited about games like Karateka, Wasteland, Haunted House, and many other text adventures. But that's not DC related, so feel free to do what you want with that info.

Jon God: What is interesting having worked on cell phone games up till then, suddenly working on a computer game?

Bill LaCoste: Well, my career spans farther back than that. I began my career in 92 working at Origin on PC games and some Mac ones, then moved over to Iguana in 95 working on consoles, and then finally over to SHFF in late 2005 to work in mobile. To me, it was just another product on a different platform and I was perfectly comfortable in getting it developed and out to the market.

Jon God: Is there anything specifically you had to do differently with this game over any previous games?

Bill LaCoste: In relation to my previous PC/Mac experience, no. I took the same approach in looking at the available operating systems, their specs, and made sure that we covered a good range of operating systems, graphics cards, and input devices. As you know, though, it's impossible to catch every single combination, so we do what we can and work with the developers to fix issues when they arise.

Jon God: What is Super Happy Fun Fun's decision, as to when the Level Editor will be released?

Bill LaCoste: Right now, it's on hold until all of the issues and have been addressed. We realize this has been an ongoing issue and that people are excited about seeing it, but with a product like this it's very important that the UI is solid and informative, and that the game is not adversely effected by the creation of new levels. I also should mention that both SHFF and Z-Sculpt have had limited and resources to make this happen. I certainly hope that we'll be able to make this happen soon.

Jon God: What is your opinion on porting Return to Dark Castle to other platforms, such as the Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Playstation Portable, or Nintendo DS?

Bill LaCoste: I think in some ways, it would be a welcome product on the PSP and the DS, but a lot of design and prototype work would need to be done at the beginning, because you have to design for the device. The challenge is doing that and maintaining the same unique, challenging, and classic gameplay that the game is known for.

Jon God: Have you ever visited the Dark Castle Forums?

Bill LaCoste: Yes, many times. I think it's important that we see feedback from our customers who have been so loyal to the product for many years.

Jon God: Will there ever be a chance, for those who missed it, to play Dark Castle Mobile (The original cell phone Dark Castle by Super Happy Fun Fun)?

Bill LaCoste: Not unless you have one of those really old phones. For mobile devices, I feel the right way to go is forward with a new story/product built for modern devices.

Jon God: Did you request any large changes to Return to Dark Castle after becoming the publisher?

Bill LaCoste: Nothing major because I understood the game and the market we were going after. Most of the changes were just aesthetic and under the hood.

Jon God: What made you suddenly go with a new type of DRM near the release of the game?

Bill LaCoste: DRM is always a nasty subject. A lot of customers hate it, but it's sometimes necessary for developers and publishers to implement a system so that the end user has to make a conscious decision of whether or not to steal the product or buy the product. It's that simple. Many people on forums will argue that it can be cracked easily, and I truly understand that, but we need that line to protect the product. The developers work VERY hard on these products and deserve to be paid for that work. The original DC titles had well over 1 million people play the game, but only a fraction of those people actually purchased it. I think that's sad and there's a lot of hypocrisy there.

Jon God: What is Mark Steven Pierce like as a (boss)Co-Worker?

Bill LaCoste: I enjoy working with Mark. I think he's passionate about making games, has a long history of successful titles, and cares about the people he works with.

Jon God: Have you thought of sequels, or expansion packs to Return to Dark Castle?

Bill LaCoste: Absolutely. I think the product has a great community, following, and history. I would like to see it move forward as a whole, though. Advancements in graphics, technology, and gameplay, while still remaining true to the original titles. I think that can be done and we'll see what the future holds for DC.

Jon God: Have you thought of rereleasing the original Dark Castle titles at some point?

Bill LaCoste: I think there has been some discussion here and there, but nothing in stone. The focus for Z-Sculpt has been on RtDC.

Jon God: What are the chances for a open, or closed beta for the level editor?

Bill LaCoste: Those chances are high, I just don't know when. I know a lot of people would like to help out with this and it would give us a much better chance of catching bugs and improving the editor before final release. Beta testing with the community has been discussed and I'm 100% in favor of it.

Jon God: Alright, thank you for your time, and work on Return to Dark Castle.

Bill LaCoste: No problem, my pleasure.

PUZZLE & ANSWER:

Each week, I hope to have a puzzle for you to solve, which will somehow relate to Dark Castle. This week's puzzle is in the form of a description without the word it belongs to, relating to castles.

Description: I am a tiny cell where prisoners were left to die.

Answer for last "week's" puzzle: Bailey

--

Feel free to send in feedback, what you did/didn't like, what you'd like to see, ect, as I would love to hear it.

Dark Castle Blog "WEEKLY!?" update

2010-08-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

Dear readers, it's been a while. Today I have a special treat for you though.

Joe Williams, CEO of Delta Tao, one of the people that made the remake to the original Dark Castle, Color Dark Castle, in 1994.

Jon God: Hey you got a moment?

Joe Williams: Sure. What's up?

Jon God: I was curious on some dark castle history, if you have the time for a few questions.

Joe Williams: Sure. I'm not the biggest expert, but I'm game.

Jon God: What made you originally want to port Dark Castle to Color?

Joe Williams: We just thought it was a great game, and it was a shame to see it go out of print. And black and white games weren't marketable in 1992 any more.

Jon God: In the manual to Color Dark Castle, you said that Color Beyond Dark Castle was planned. Did it ever get beyond planning?

Joe Williams: Nope. Sales for CDC were disappointing, and it was more work than we expected. Return to Dark Castle includes all the BDC levels, though we gave it back to Mark before it was done.

Jon God: Any figure you can cite for the sales?

Joe Williams: I'd just be guessing. Maybe 10,000?

Jon God: The manual lists Howard Vives as credited to the artwork for Color Dark Castle, was he a part of Delta Tao or was he brought in to help?

Joe Williams: He was an employee. Our main artist for all our games.

Jon God: What made you go with different intro/main menu screens?

Joe Williams: Were they different? My memory has them nearly the same. We worked pretty hard to be true to the original.

Jon God: Dark Castle, Color Dark Castle, Main Menus.

Joe Williams: I just let Howard go nuts on those, and do what he wanted.

Jon God: Who's idea was it to include the new Secret Level?

Joe Williams: Timmer's.

Jon God: Was there a conscious decision on turning the Water from Fireball 2 and Fireball 3 into lava?

Joe Williams: Yeah -- it seemed more dangerous that way.

Jon God: In Color Dark Castle it was added that you could hit command Q to return to the great hall. This made it easy to skip the dungeon. It also could be used to avoid losing lives, was that something done on purpose?

Joe Williams: Yeah, I guess so. The whole "limited number of lives" thing was kind of dated by then.

Jon God: Was there any other extras added to Color Dark Castle besides the Secret Level? There were rumors of another date easter egg.

Joe Williams: Not that I remember, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Jon God: What convinced you to let the relatively new software company Z Sculpt start working on a Dark Castle Sequel?

Joe Williams: We weren't doing anything with it, and they seemed pretty fanatical.

Jon God: How much involvement did you have with the development of Return to Dark Castle?

Joe Williams: I was pretty involved in the early days, but we pretty much canceled the project years before it released. Zack got married, and the project fell impossibly behind schedule. I'm glad it did eventually get released.

Jon God: What do you think about Return to Dark Castle, now that it has finally been released? Did you play it?

Joe Williams: A bit. It was way too hard for me. I've got old-guy slow fingers.

Jon God: How much did the rights to Dark Castle cost originally?

Joe Williams: No cash. Aldus had bought Silicon Beach for its graphics stuff, and didn't want to be in the games business. We swapped them some graphics technology we had developed for Zeus. It may have eventually found its way into Photoshop when Adobe bought them.

Jon God: Small world. Dick Noel, who is he? In the Color Dark Castle manual, it says he voiced Fred Flintstone, but I've not been able to find out if it's true, or what. I asked Jonathan Gay, the original programer to Dark Castle, and Beyond Dark Castle, but he wasn't fully sure either.

Joe Williams: Yeah, I've never been able to validate it, either. He's in the credits, and that was in the notes, but I don't know the details.

Jon God: It was a shame, I always wished there'd be a Beyond Dark Castle Color, I thought you guys did a great job on Color Dark Castle. I made this at one point, not sure if I ever E-Mailed it to you.

Joe Williams: Did you like RTDC?

Jon God: I did indeed. Though, each game in the series has been a bit different than the previous in style. The first was mostly an arcade game, high scores, lives, ect. Beyond Dark Castle was more adventure-y, but still contained lives and high scores. RTDC is a straight up adventure game. I also would have loved to see Delta Tao's touch on BDC.

Joe Williams: My take on it would've been even more adventure-y.

Jon God: Aye, Color Dark Castle was more adventure-y than the original.

Joe Williams: Was it? I don't remember changing that much.

Jon God: It had a saving system, and when you beat the game on advanced it scrolled credits, making you unable to continue playing indefinitely until you ran out of lives.

Joe Williams: Oh, yeah. Saving was a big change, I guess. Not difficult, but it meant you could do it in pieces. With the original, we had to leave our Mac on all night and not do anything else with it until we finished the game. Not to mention all the dungeon runs to pile up lives... I always thought the high score was backwards -- it was harder to get a low score when winning the game than a high score.

Jon God: There was someone on the Dark Castle forums who beat the original on advanced with 13 rocks.

Joe Williams: LOL! Players can be amazing. I always thought of myself as an expert on Spaceward Ho!, but there are players who are much better than me.

Jon God: The same person beat all of BDC, starting on beginner and ending on Advanced, without dying or falling into the dungeon once.

Joe Williams: I never beat either game on advanced.

Jon God: There was a special ending for Beyond Dark Castle on Advanced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wpxvlt_iC8

Joe Williams: I told you they were fanatics.

Jon God: Did you ever get a chance to try the RTDC level editor?

Joe Williams: Yeah -- it seemed great!

Jon God: Awesome. thanks for your time.

PUZZLE & ANSWER:

Each week, I hope to have a puzzle for you to solve, which will somehow relate to Dark Castle. This week's puzzle is in the form of a description without the word it belongs to, relating to castles.

Description: I am the open area inclosed by the castle walls.

Answer for last "week's" puzzle: Quarrel

--

Feel free to send in feedback, what you did/didn't like, what you'd like to see, ect, as I would love to hear it.

Return to Dark Castle giveaway contest!

2010-03-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Izdale, there is a Return to Dark Castle giveaway, for rules and a chance to enter, click the below link!

LINK

Return to Dark Castle, 50% until April 1st!

2010-03-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking to pick up a second copy, or are thinking of buying it for the first time, Return to Dark Castle is currently on sale for the measly price of $9.95.

This deal ends April 1st, so hop on!

LINK

Stop to spamming comments

2010-01-30T14:03:00.001-08:00

While this isn't Dark Castle news, this blog has been getting tons of spammer comments, so I disabled all comments except for registered users.

Minor update, that could put a smile on your face. :)

2009-10-22T17:18:00.001-07:00

Straight from the mouth of Mark Steven Pierce himself, from the facebook group:

Hey, Been busy but trying to get the Zsculpt guys to get the level editor wrapped. Will get back with news as this develops.

That's what I like to hear! Now that I have more time after finishing the Myth II project I've been working on.

Keep your eyes on this space, as I will keep you updated on all Dark Castle related news

Snow Leopard - Confirmed!

2009-08-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

Tested by Dark Castle Forum moderator La Porta, Return to Dark Castle seems to run perfectly fine under the mac operating system, Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard.

You can stop crossing your fingers. :)

Return to Dark Castle producer talks DRM

2009-03-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Responding to a comment on the Dark Castle Facebook group, Return to Dark Castle producer Bill LaCoste talks DRM:

Bill LaCoste (Austin, TX) wrote
at 7:36am
Hi,

While I can't talk openly, or specifically, about how the API was designed and implemented, I can say that users who are seeing the activation every time they start should contact support@shff.com so that we can assist them. That certainly is not the expected functionality.

I play DC myself, so for my own selfish reasons the activation would not have been designed or implemented in that way. =)

Interesting, I see them getting quite a few E-Mails, and soon.

Twitter quote

2009-03-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

I noticed a new post on the SuperHappyFunFun Twitter account:

Yes I am playing that game but don't say the name in a public place

Does this mean it's Dark Castle related? Probably not... But it could be, keep your hopes up, and wait till GDC.

iPhone Dark Castle to debut at GDC?

2009-03-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

A tiwtter message on SHFF's Twitter account suggests an iPhone game is almost finished, and perhaps will debut at Game Developer's Conference, perhaps we will get some new info on the iPhone version of Dark Castle then, who knows.

Update: I checked the GDC website and it looks like it will be taking place from March 23rd to March 27th, Sweet!

Link

Update 2: I realized I juped the gun, as it's not a Dark Castle Twitter account, rather a SHFF twitter account, meaning it could just as easily be another iPhone game. Sorry to burst your bubbles!

Jaw dropping Dark Castle 3D concept art

2009-03-11T15:37:00.001-07:00

Wow, I didn't expect this, and certainly not so soon. Mark Steven Pierce has updated the Facebook group with some concept art for the previously mentioned Dark Castle 3D.

Here are some small versions, for the full versions, I will host them down below.

Duncan Picture

Black Knight

Potion

Well, this is most impressive, I must say. :)

Mark Steven Pierce talks about gaming in the 80s, and gaming now

2009-03-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

He makes some good points too.

Play almost anything from the 80's and it is a challenge. There was a macho competition between player and the game.

When I played the original games (in RTDC) for the first time in a decade or so I couldn't believe how hard I had tuned the original game. As Chris states this has softened a bit with each game but the play mechanic is still very demmanding.

Today's casual market is way simpler.

After many discussions we agreed to keep the original format (which the Zack's) mastered in the new levels.

After playing for a while I remembered how the game rides the edge of being just hard enough to make you want to come back until you clear a room.

All the same I do think there should be some softening here and there but the core shouldl be kept faithful to the original because a.) that is what the game is about and b.) no other game out there today is similar.

Sounds about right to me.

Some words on the Level Editor

2009-03-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This is a screenshot of the level editor from 2002, not the current one.

I know you are not used to so much news, and news on the level editor no less, anyways, straight from MSP:

Level Editor is in high demand. We are going to see what we can do to post this. Any thoughts on having a central depository for user generated levels would be welcome. Ideally these levels could also be played on the iPhone as well.

Sounds good to me, now, about Princeduncan.com......

Regarding DC3's DRM

2009-03-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

I know many have complained about the harsh DRM (Copy Protection) that Return to Dark Castle uses, and it seems that now SuperHappyFunFun may have heard you too. MSP has said that they are looking into the DRM, saying it "Should only need to connect to the internet once a month." Players know that it tries to connect every time the program launches, which is extremely harsh. So, this isn't a confirmation, but it could be leading to some good news.

Finally changing the blog poll

2009-03-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Looks like most people think Return to Dark Castle was worth the hype, and wait. Props to Z Scuplt, and Zack Black!

Be sure to vote in the new poll!

SuperHappyFunFun starts twitter account

2009-03-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

SuperHappyFunFun has now opened a Twitter account, which should help the community stay in contact with what SHFF is doing, provided they keep it updated.

LINK

How coincidental, I was just talking about this earlier today...

Mark Steven Pierce talks again

2009-03-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Another quote from the Dark Castle Facebook group:

Thanks for the interest.

We are just know starting to begin to advertise more. I have begun with ads on Facebook and look to expand with other service.

SHFF is mostly a developer and we have lots of projects that help keep the lights on and have limited resources for big ad campaigns.

We were hoping to get the Zsculpt guys to get the PC version along with the level editor done but there have been some delays. The Zack's were not far off before X-mas so i am hopeful they can get back on it.

Ideally we could get a Mac/PC with level editor DVD out there by the fall.

The iPhone version woudl ideally be at the same time and then we could justify a bigger push.

I am just happy to have got the rights back to a game I am proud to have made and to have folks like Zsculpt who have done the most faithful version one could hope for and folks like you ant the others here who appreciate it as well.

MSP

I believe he's talking Fall for a boxed release, hopefully the Level Editor will be out before then. Still, it gives us hoping for a boxed release something to look forward to. Here's hoping it has less strict copy protection!

MSP reveals some info on Facebook page

2009-03-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some quotes of MSP on the Dark Castle Facebook page linked earlier:

Thinking about controls for DC on the iPhone. The game is an action puzzle solver but with two handfuls of controls how do we make the jump and keep the soul?

Nice bump in people today! I am digging up the original art I did in the 80's to make the game. Trying to hunt down Jonathan Gay (programmer) as well.

The level editor does need to be finished. We got to a beta state but never got to finalize with ZScculpt. The team at SHFF who is likely to do the iPhone version is a seperate resource.

We have a bunch of stories developed for a 3D version. Right now the iPhone intrigues me most. Thinking about an auto run that you tap the destination. Finger strokes for the rock direction.

It's interesting to hear his stance on the iPhone version, along with the level editor. The fact that he brought up future Dark Castle games gives me hope for the future. :)

My advice is to join up, perhaps we will find out more in the coming days!

Mark Steven Pierce invites you to join the Dark Castle facebook group!

2009-03-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

Mark invited you to join the Facebook group "Fans of Dark Castle".

Mark says, "Mark here,

I designed and animated Dark Castle (DC) in the late 1980's. SHFF released Return to Dark Castle in 2008 which includes DC, Beyond DC and 30 new levels by ZSculpt. We would love to hear from folks who have had fun playing these games.
".

To see more details and confirm this group invitation, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=537524190&k=5VM235T53Z6M5BFAYF24YW

Facebook helps you find and keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues. You can share unlimited photos, plan events and join discussion groups. It's free and everyone can join.

To register, go to:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=537524190&k=5VM235T53Z6M5BFAYF24YW&r

If you're receiving this email and are already a member of Facebook, please make sure this email address is associated with your Facebook account.

Thanks,
Fans of Dark Castle

MSP (Accidentally?) confirms PC/iPhone port of DC3

2009-02-09T02:11:00.000-08:00

Fear not other platform DC fans, it seems that Mark Steven Pierce confirmed a PC and iPhone port of Return to Dark Castle, so no more worries.

iPhone though? How will that work?

LINK

Backup in case the comment is pulled:

PC World names the original Dark Castle one of the best mac games ever

2009-02-09T02:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm glad to see that people still remember Dark Castle as well as we do.

PC World named the original Dark Castle one of the beat mac games of all time.

LINK

Sorry...

2009-01-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

I know you are all curious on what happened to the weekly updates....

Well, I've been really busy in my personal life, but hopefully I will have time to start them up again soon.

Be sure to watch here, or the forums for an announcement.

Weekly Update

2009-01-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not doing this sooner, I've been busier then busy. Plus, the holidays.

I am still debating weather to make this a bi-monthly update, or not, let me know what you think, or want, via the forum or comments down below. This week I will interview John-Robert La Porta, who is one of the forum moderators, and the author of the Mini vMac guide.

Jon God: Hi La Porta, welcome to the Weekly Update.

La Porta: Hi Jon, how are you?

Jon God: A bit worn out, but ready to serve the ever-watching readers.

La Porta: Hah, fair enough man, it's a good thing you are doing here for the forums.

Jon God: Speaking of the forums, I would like to thank you now for all the work you've done as a moderator.

La Porta: Well thank you, I wish I could be there more often to help out. My trek through med school has made it difficult to keep up. But I have been honored to do it. It's great to be part of something so crucial to the continuation of my favorite game as a kid

Jon God: What was your reaction to being selected as a moderator for the Dark Castle Forum?

La Porta: I really was happy about it. The whole community is terrific. I remember that you wanted some extra staff because of the anticipated flood of forum users from the release of DC3. In a good way, it came. Now we have a ton of people...and more keep coming.

Jon God: Yup, and between the whole Dark Castle Forum staff, we've been pretty good about stopping spam, and keeping things organized. Before we move on, you got anything to say about the rest of the staff?

La Porta: Sure. I think that the people I know best are you, Izdale, Gruz, and in a way, Richard. Izdale and Gruz have been great, I can talk to them about almost anything. Richard and I usually elbow each other with words now and then, all in fun. It is great to toss around conflicting ideas and views with him. All in all, I can't think of anyone who isn't a team player. It really has been going great.

Jon God: So, Return to Dark Castle finally did come out, what is your opinion on it?

La Porta: That is a huge question. I don't think one person's interpretation of it can be the same as anyone else's. I have been happy with in the most part. Me, I'm a stickler for consistency and originality, and I have to say that the game is pretty true to the originals. One thing I haven't been happy with is that there are so many secrets and so much to do that sometimes it becomes too much to handle. I realize that the game was designed to be either quick and dirty, or played to beat 100%, but I liked how the originals had a clear-cut path and objectives more.

Jon God: So, more or less pleased. Anything you would have done differently, besides what you just listed?

La Porta: Well, I think anyone would agree having the level editor released concurrently with the game would have been a major plus. We would have had content coming out of our ears by now. Otherwise, I think that the original "Heroes of Merit" music from the betas was better and more suited to the game. I also would have liked to see some of the sound effects more like the original (I liked the use of the "chain pull" sound for opening doors in the originals). Short of that, I can't criticize the game seeing as what the Zacks had to go through!

Jon God: Heh, I brought up some of the same things to Zack Black. Now, speaking of the Level Editor, do you have any plans for Level sets?

La Porta: Well, there are two specific level types that I have planned. One will be an "Incredible Machine" type of thing, where Bryant has to turn of conveyor belts, fire arrows, etc, to activate parts of the level, just like in TIM. The other is an idea that I had that I call "probability." In the Boston Science Museum, they have a set up with falling balls to test the bell curve hypothesis (where most balls will fall in the middle, and less outlying that point). I want to have two rock henchmen at the top of a vertical scrolling level, and have the walls set up in a pattern so the rock henchmen throw the rocks in towards the middle, and the balls funnel down vertically placed walls in a random pattern to potentially hit Bryant on his way up. I think it will be pretty neat.

Jon God: After hearing some of the fan ideas for Level sets, I am pretty excited for the editor, how long do you imagine people will continue creating content for DC3?

La Porta: Well, I can base what I know on other games. The Marathon series lives on in it's Aleph One incarnation. My brother has been working on level sets for it since the late 90's, and he still works on them. He is far from the only one. Every once and a while, I get into it as well. I think that as long as the game has a popular following, we can continue to expect seeing content for years to come.

Jon God: A bit of a drastic change of subjects, you wrote the Mini vMac guide, which can be found on the Dark Castle Forum, what was your incentive for that?

La Porta: I think what started it was the fact that we as a community didn't have a unified guide for how to get Mini vMac and DC up and running. I figured that since I had been using Mini vMac for years before the forum started, and had spoken with it's developer Paul Pratt, that I would be in a pretty good position to write it. It was more difficult than I thought. The first version was decent, but I thought it was too cluttered. That is why I made version 2.0. I am always looking for feedback on it as well, but I am pretty satisfied with it. Many people have been able to use it to get DC/BDC up and running, and I don't think that I could ask for a better result than that.

Jon God: I know it's taught me a thing or two. :) How did you first get to know Paul Pratt?

La Porta: My involvement with Mini vMac started before there even was Mini vMac. I started using the original vMac way back when that was all that was around. It was far less refined than it is now: DC wouldn't even work correctly - if you pressed the movement keys in any direction, they would stay "stuck" going that way until you hit a wall!. Once vMac stopped being developed, I discovered that Paul was creating his own version which was much smaller in size. I was pretty excited about it, and he seemed pretty open to feedback. Also, I have real Mac Plusses at my disposal, so I could test if problems were present on the actual hardware, or were genuine bugs of his program. So, I reported more to him, and requested features, etc. He also made suggestions to the guide as well.

Jon God: Is he a Dark Castle fan as well?

La Porta: You know, I never actually asked him specifically. I think we should get him to join the forum though!

Jon God: Was it surprising to find this community initially?

La Porta: Well, honestly, I can't remember how I found it. I probably was looking randomly for Dark Castle-related stuff (as it was always on and off my mind). When I got there, I think there were about 5 of you guys on there regularly. It was wonderful: such excitement - in those days, we didn't even know the game would ever be done for sure! It was much more focused on DC/BDC. I had always assumed that there weren't that many fans, but apparently there were.

Jon God: Any closing comments for our readers?

La Porta: Sure. I think that it is wonderful that you are doing these interviews, and I think that we will continue to have an active forum, especially when the editor comes out. Otherwise, just a thank you to all the members of the forum, helping us grow from the less than 10 real members when I joined, to over 100 now. Thank you!

Jon God: Thank you for your time, and Goodnight!

La Porta: You are welcome!

PUZZLE & ANSWER:

Each week, I hope to have a puzzle for you to solve, which will somehow relate to Dark Castle. This week's puzzle is in the form of a description without the word it belongs to, relating to castles.

Description: I am an arrow for a crossbow. What am I called?

Answer for last week's puzzle: Pillory

--

Feel free to send in feedback, what you did/didn't like, what you'd like to see, ect, as I would love to hear it.

Weekly Update

2008-12-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

I am still debating weather to make this a bi-monthly update, or not, let me know what you think, or want, via the forum or comments down below. This week I will interview Jonathan Gay, one of the original creators of Dark Castle, and Beyond Dark Castle. He went on to create Flash, and then form his own company, Greenbox Technology.

Jon God: Have you ever thought about returning to game development?

Jonathan Gay: I really enjoyed building Airborne! and the first two versions of Dark Castle but I've have not been tempted to try another game. I find game technology very interesting but I've always spent more time programming than playing games and I find it's interesting to keep trying new things so it's been good to get to work in a variety of areas of software in my career.

Jon God: Have you gotten a chance to play Return to Dark Castle, if so, what did you think?

Jonathan Gay: I have not played Return to Dark Castle. I have a fondness for the simplicity of the original Dark Castle so it does seem like an interesting challenge to try and keep that feel while taking advantage of the capabilities of modern computers.

Jon God: What inspired Dark Castle?

Jonathan Gay: There were a combination of things. The technology we had available on the Mac was one driver. We had gained some skills with working with digitized sound on the Mac from Airborne! and I also did some work to get smooth flicker free animation on the Mac. We also wanted a game that made sense with the mouse and the keyboard as input. Many arcade games used a joystick but that was not available on the Mac. Having a talented artist and animator, Mark Stephen Pierce, on the team was also a new thing for Mac games at the time so that allowed us to do good animation. Mark was in San Francisco and I was in San Diego so we met for a couple days in San Diego to develop an idea, Mark started sending artwork and animation mockups and I started making it work.

Jon God: How long did it take to write Dark Castle?

Jonathan Gay: It took about a year.

Jon God: Was there anything you could remember that didn't make it into the games?

Jonathan Gay: There were certainly some sound effects we did not use. I think we used most of the animations that Mark created.

Jon God: Was the original vision of the game supposed to be scary or comedic?

Jonathan Gay: I think we are aiming for a touch of serious but fun. Kind of like the experience of the Pirates of the Caribean at Disneyland.

Jon God: Did you ever expect the games to do so well?

Jonathan Gay: It was early on the Mac so we did not really know what to expect in terms of sales. I wanted to make the best game on the Mac but I assumed that it would fade away in year or two as people wrote new and better games. The game sold well but we never really knew how many copies were out in the world as a result of piracy.

Jon God: A lot of people switched to mac, because of Dark Castle, and Beyond Dark Castle. In general, Dark Castle defined mac gaming for years, and showed what the mac was capable of, was it hard to achieve such quality?

Jonathan Gay: The key to the quality was the team of a good programmer and a talented artist. The game was certainly a lot of work. The startup screen was written in Pascal but the whole game was written in 68000 assembly language which can be tedious. The debugger, MacsBug, I used was not very sophisticated at the time so it was pretty low level work. Defining the animation offsets and sequences using assembler macros and def statements was also pretty tedious.

Jon God: Did you ever have plans for a third Dark Castle?

Jonathan Gay: No. SuperPaint was making much more money than the games for Silicon Beach Software at the time so that pushed the company to focus on graphics software.

Jon God: Did you ever imagine that 22 years later there would still be people playing what you helped create, along with having communities based around it?

Jonathan Gay: I never would have guessed it. I think Dark Castle was the first game on the Mac to bring together digitized sound, good animation and game play with a bit of depth. I think that first experience of hearing sounds react to you actions and working to get the timing right to get through the various levels seems to have had a lasting impact on people.

Jon God: How did you originally get involved with the project?

Jonathan Gay: I had met Charlie Jackson, the founder of Silicon Beach Software, at a Mac User group meeting. He did not have much startup capital so he was looking for programmers who could work and get paid royalities after the game sold. Since I was still in school and living at home, I did not need an income. The first game I did for them was Airborne! That did well so took what we learned about building Mac games, found an artist and we did a second more ambitious game, Dark Castle.

Jon God: The credits list Dick Noel as the person behind the sounds, but I have been unable to find any information on him, anything you remember about him?

Jonathan Gay: I never met Dick. He was a professional voice. He was reputed to have some work on some of the Flintstones cartoons but I was never clear on which character or how much he did. Eric Zocher went to his home studio with a list of sounds we wanted. Eric spent an afternoon and came back with an audio tape. Dick did pretty much all of the human sounds. The rat squeak was a women in the Silicon Beach office and the clanking noise was a metal part under a folding table in the office.

Jon God: How hard was it to fit a game of such high quality on two 800KB disks?

Jonathan Gay: Fitting it into the 128k of RAM on the Mac was a bigger issue than the disks. We had some very simple sound compression and some simple image compression but since the images were all 1 bit they weren't that big. Since the code was written in assembly language and the data for the levels was defined by hand, that part tended to stay small on it's own.

Jon God: Do you by any chance know when the game was released, more then just the year?

Jonathan Gay: I don't recall.

And there you go, see you again after christmas!

PUZZLE & ANSWER:

Each week, I hope to have a puzzle for you to solve, which will somehow relate to Dark Castle. This week's puzzle is in the form of a description without the word it belongs to, relating to castles.

Description: I am a punishment frame that usually grips victim's hands and head, so onlookers can throw garbage.

Answer for last week's puzzle: Atilliator

--

Feel free to send in feedback, what you did/didn't like, what you'd like to see, ect, as I would love to hear it.

Weekly Update

2008-12-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

(Apologies on this taking 2 extra days)

I am debating weather to make this a bi-monthly update, or not, let me know what you think, or want, via the forum or comments down below. This I will be talking to a member from our community, and one of the moderators of the Dark Castle Forum, we will be talking about the community, history, and his currently work in progress Dark Castle website, http://www.princeduncan.com/

Jon God: Hello, thank you for joining me today.

gruz: My pleasure. *Smiles*

Jon God: Let's start with the Dark Castle forum, what was it like to find a community of people that also still played and enjoyed Dark Castle?

gruz: I honestly never thought I would find such a place, it was a real delight to see that other people were still interested in a game I grew up with in the 80's.

Jon God: How did you originally find the forum?

gruz: Hmmm... I believe it was through Wikipedia. I remember I registered on the forum, and lurked for a few days before I felt that I had something to add of some value. I posted a link to a guide on how to setup Mini vMac on a keychain flash drive. After I posted that, I was surprised on how friendly the community was.

Jon God: Let's move forward some time, you were the first moderator for the forum, and I have often called you the fastest, mod on the forum, is this something you're proud of?

gruz: Hahaha, I was and still am glad to help out whenever I can. I took the responsibility pretty seriously when I first was appointed moderator. Actually it was unhealthy, as I'd be checking the forum 30 times a day or more, every hour that I was awake. I honestly am glad that we have a team of people now. La Porta and Izdale make life a lot easier for me now, and they do an excellent job. Thanks guys.

Jon God: What do you think draws people to the Dark Castle series?

gruz: I honestly feel that the majority of modern computer gamers who have never played the originals, or even Color Dark Castle, probably won't be into the series if they're coming into it in 2008. The thing is though, that the originals sold millions of copies on several different platforms. Those people still exist, and the sounds and graphics of the originals were so good that they're burned into people's brains. All they need is to see or hear those things to instantly spark the Dark Castle memories buried deep in their brains, and they're going to want to revisit the old games, or buy Return to Dark Castle.

Jon God: Do you think it's just circumstance that Dark Castle has a community following it, when most games from the same period have little to no following, or is it something about the game?

gruz: Definitely the game. People love great graphics, sound, and gameplay, even still to this day. Dark Castle delivered something that was unseen at the time, and nothing could come close. People remember it because of just that. Although the graphics aren't what they once were, I still love them. In fact, I have been known to hit command-option and click on the demo button in the title screen and just watch it for a while.

Jon God: Let's move away from the old Dark Castles, a while ago, you registered the domain 'Princeduncan.com', and have been working on it off and on since then, why should the Dark Castle community be excited for it?

gruz: We, as a community, aren't a particularly large one. We have our core members, and our drive-by members. I want more people, and more variety of opinions being thrown around on the forums. The main site of PrinceDuncan.com will probably offer nothing new to those that consider themselves 'Hardcore', but that was never the focus. My main goal with it is to spark those buried Dark Castle memories, and get people thinking about the game again. "Remember this game? Yeah? Wanna play it again?" Hopefully it will be worth the time and money that I'm putting into it, and eventually get some more people on the forums.

The downloads section however, is something that everyone will hopefully be able to enjoy. It's mostly completed and allows for custom levels and heros to be uploaded, commented on and rated on a 5 star system. You, Jon God, are working with me to provide some additional content also.

Jon God: I have seen the website and I think it's wonderful, I think other members of the forum will enjoy it quite a bit, and I can see the downloads section becoming the hub for downloads of Dark Castle related media around the web, any idea when it will be opened, or previewed to the public?

gruz: The downloads section will be officially opened up no later than when the level editor for Return to Dark Castle is released, even if it's not 100% how I want it. At this time, it looks like it might be opened up before the we get the level editor. It really won't do a lot of good until we get the level editor though, as the replay feature in Return to Dark Castle is still broken.

Jon God: Speaking of the level editor, have any plans saved for for the release of it?

gruz: Yes, I'm going to go take my laptop to McDonald's and create a wacky Dark Castle/Mc Chicken hybrid custom level.

Jon God: I dunno if I should take that as a serious answer, or just wait and see...

gruz: Next question.

Jon God: Okie dokie, having waited so long for Return to Dark Castle, what do you think of it, are you happy with how it ended up, or disappointed?

gruz: I absolutely loved Return to Dark Castle. I can't say that it captured me in the same way as the originals, but I'll be honest, there's no way that it could have. I love it for what it is, and I think that it's a great step forward for the series. The game feels a bit behind though, and I probably would've loved it even more if it was released back in the early 2000's. Stuff happens though, and I can understand where they're coming from. I'm hoping that Z Sculpt will deliver our next fix before the end of 2010, we're ready for more. The Zacks have earned a bunch of lifetime fans with this game, don't keep us hanging.

Jon God: I hear you, so what about your youtube channel, I remember you talking about making a video comparing all versions of Dark Castle, but I don't know it's current status, feel like telling us about your channel?

gruz: My Dark Castle YouTube channel is another way that I am trying to spark those Dark Castle memories in people's brains. It's a lot of fun for me to make videos when I have free time, so I try to post at least 1 Dark Castle video a month. The channel used to be my own personal channel with videos of family and pets, but after I had posted a bunch of videos to it, I decided to transform it into a Dark Castle only channel. I want to thank everyone who's taken the time to comment on my videos and subscribe, it means a lot.

I've had the files and footage for the comparison video on my desktop computer for quite a while, and was pretty much abandoned for a while. I've recently picked the project back up, and decided to do something different with it. It'll be basically what it was originally supposed to be, but probably a lot more info and critique. It's probably better that I waited on that project.

(EDITOR'S NOTE) If you are reading this and haven't subscribed to his channel yet, what are you waiting for, click here and subscribe.

Jon God: Alright, preference, do you prefer Dark Castle, or Beyond Dark Castle?

gruz: Dark Castle, it's what I played first. I always loved how much better Beyond Dark Castle looked though...

Jon God: Fair enough, got any closing comments?

gruz: I want to thank the community for being so awesome.

I also want to thank Z Sculpt for not giving up on DC3.

Jon, thanks for your Dark Castle passion, it's given us all hours and hours of entertainment.

Support Paul Pratt, http://minivmac.sourceforge.net/ without him we'd be playing Dark Castle on crappy emulators like a bunch of jerks. DONATE TO HIM.

Keep an eye on http://www.PrinceDuncan.com (there's a hidden message in the website, can you find it?)

Have a good day everyone!

Jon God: Alright, thank you for your time, and constant work around the Dark Castle Community.

Stay tuned, next week I will have an exclusive interview with Jonathan Gay, one of the original creators of Dark Castle, and Beyond Dark Castle, who went on to create Flash. If there are no problems the blog should be up Wednesday, December 24th, some people know it as 'Christmas Eve.' :P This is one interview you wont want to miss.

PUZZLE & ANSWER:

Each week, I hope to have a puzzle for you to solve, which will somehow relate to Dark Castle. This week's puzzle is in the form of a description without the word it belongs to, relating to castles.

Description: I am a castle worker skilled in making crossbows, what is my title?

Answer for last week's puzzle: Embrasures

--

Feel free to send in feedback, what you did/didn't like, what you'd like to see, ect, as I would love to hear it.

Short Weekly Update Delay

2008-12-18T01:39:00.000-08:00

The update for this week will be shortly delayed, it should hopefully be up before the end of the week if not sooner. If it's not up by the end of the week, I will give you another update, sorry for the wait guys, just hold tight.

Weekly Update

2008-12-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

I am going to try and start a weekly update, which will give us a look into Z Sculpt, and what goes into developing and porting Return to Dark Castle. This week, will focus on the rumroed PC port, and development of Return to Dark Castle, via an interview with Zack Morris.

Jon God: So, when was it decided that there would be a PC port of Return to Dark Castle?

Zack Morris: Well, I can't say anything conclusive about this, because nothing is set in stone and SHFF is not sure about the ramifications of doing a port, but I can say that it is something we considered soon after finishing the Mac version. Before that, the prospect was just too ominous.

Jon God: Does that mean you've given up on Mac gaming?

Zack Morris: Definitely not. The Mac is a bigger market now than ever before. Lately we've given up on limiting ourselves to just the Mac, because the market is fairly small compared to the vast ocean of all platforms combined. The iPhone store has been a big surprise, so if something like that was implemented (either through the iTunes store or otherwise), we'd see the Mac market more closely approach its actual size of maybe 10% of PC games.

Jon God: I recently brought up to you Mac Game Arcade a similar system to Steam, but for mac, which falls in line with what you were just saying, does that mean we can look forward to seeing your older games, or newer games from you on this or similar systems?

Zack Morris: The other Zack and I are busy making our game engine compatible with the iPhone and other platforms so that we can "write once and run anywhere". This is comparable to the workload we faced when we ported Dark Castle from OS 9 to OS X. After the engine is updated, we are going to recompile all of our games under it so that they can be rolled out under other portals. We'd very much like to get modernized versions of all of our games into as many venues as possible, especially the low end since they might find new appeal there.

Jon God: Have you been watching the success of the retro acrade games on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Wiiware?

Zack Morris: More like being blinded by it. Those platforms are revolutionary, as big a paradigm shift as the internet was for shareware back in 1995. The difficulty lies in being in the right place at the right time to anticipate new markets. It's apparently much easier for a Flash developer to get on Xbox Live Arcade than it is for the typical baggage-laden Mac or PC developer. That's why we're updating our engine to be not quite so Mac-centric. I correspond daily with a guy making a tidy sum from his iPhone game, and he has big plans for the Wii.

Jon God: Looking at the success, of say, Jonathan Mak (Creator of the PlayStation Network game, Everyday Shooter) does it seem like a path you might want to follow? For clarification, Jonathan Mak was a independent game developer, who was found by Sony, and now has a mutli-game deal with them, and they give him breathing room to make whatever he wants.

Zack Morris: That's what I would call a path to stardom. Not everyone can be a Jonathan Mak (back in my day I aspired to be John Carmack, hah), but we can all aspire to be better artists, designers and creators. My hat's off to him, but I think perhaps we are too far down a different trail. Success for us will be having a stable presence on the web and developing markets, and make enough from that to be an independent studio. Shareware games were somewhat of a means to an end for me, so I don't see myself as having the passion to be in the spotlight, so to speak.

Jon God: I know your hands are tied in terms of what you can say about the future of Return to Dark Castle due to SHFF. However, if it were up to you, would you want to port Return to Dark Castle to some of these services? (Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, iPhone games library)

Zack Morris: I would very much like to port Dark Castle, but truth be told, I'd like to see our engine ported so that we have a full cross-platform library. Then we get all of the rest of our games ported for free, like people using SDL or other libs.

Jon God: I know you cannot talk numbers about the sales of Return to Dark Castle, but compared to your expectations, how is it doing?

Zack Morris: It's doing far better than any of our other games ever did. We've been able to work fairly independently now for 6 months, and I've paid down my student loans and other debts substantially. The problem is that the Mac market is not so much limited as it is remote. The signal to noise ratio is enormous. We'd probably see 10 times the sales on the iPhone, not so much because it's a bigger market, but because it's more convenient than anything that's come before, once you pay your "iPhone entry fee". The total sales are perhaps a little lower than our original expectations, but the possibilities that have opened up because of it, far exceeded our expectations.

Jon God: Moving back to the development, what were some problems that came as a surprise when original developing Return to Dark Castle?

Zack Morris: The long duration of the final push from release candidate to final was unexpected for sure. Also, memory management became a non-issue in OS X, so much of our optimized OS 9 code to get DC3 running in 20 megs of ram became cumbersome. Zack did all of the actual game programming, and I remember he spent the most time fine-tuning the level engine and sprite management. I spent the most time making optimized blitters and 16 bit color code for PowerPC, which surprisingly became slower than plain loops when Apple move to Intel. So the biggest surprise of all was Apple constantly changing their code base. We just never saw that coming when we thought we were done back in 1999. When we came to terms with that, I suppose I was surprised how easily we adopted OpenGL or moved from 8 to 16 bit color. I'm still surprised how cumbersome input devices and force feedback are on all platforms. So there are hurdles we ran into by using the wrong approach. For example, Quicktime is a tremendously complicated API that does things that Flash does trivially. So at first glance, something that DC3 does that looks simple was actually very complicated. The swinging ropes use a complex blitter that's a few lines of code in OpenGL. In a way, all of DC3 came as a surprise, both in complexity and time required, but at each step of the process, I can't see how we could have done anything differently. It was a perfect storm of setbacks, but we learned a lot of what not to do. And, I am grateful every day that we aren't the Duke Nukem Forever guys!

Jon God: Has the delay of the level editor surprised you?

Zack Morris: Yes and no. The editor itself was essentially done the day we finished DC3 in-house. Unfortunately, we didn't anticipate how much effort would be required to actually ship DC3. It took us many months of testing and bug fixes. So you multiply that amount of loose end cleanup, with the potential for people to really shoot themselves in the foot with the editor, and I can see why SHFF is hesitant to release it. That said, at some point you just have to let people run with it. Now that the initial sales of DC3 have run their course, I'm hopeful that SHFF will release the editor. Its release is tied into some other decisions that I won't go into, but there is a big support workload involved, similar to the one we faced and continue to manage, involving the Replay system.

Jon God: When do you expect we will hear about Z Sculpt's next projects?

Zack Morris: Well, Zack and I just started a new schedule at our day jobs that has me working 3 days per week and him 2. Before that, we were working too much overtime, which left us just 2 days per week to meet and write code. We should release an iPhone app in a few weeks, then an update to DC3 to fix the graphical bugs people have been experiencing on the newest Macs, and then our engine should be updated enough to release updated versions of some of our games. We are constantly diligent, which is hard to demonstrate to the public, so it's mostly a matter of finalizing our engine. I would say that just 10% of our time goes into actual game design. The techniques I learned for internet play in Khufu are going into the engine, and Zack and I each have a new game planned for early spring, which we will announce on zsculpt.com.

Jon God: Just a few more questions.

Zack Morris: Ok.

Jon God: How was it to finally release something you had been working on for so long?

Zack Morris: It was a huge weight off our shoulders. We don't want to go through that long of a development cycle again. Luckily we won't have to, because computers are finally starting to stabilize. There really is a best way to do most anything, which wasn't reflected in the underlying code of OS 9, which is what DC3 was based in. Now we can use modern techniques for a much faster turn around time. We have converted our engine to OpenGL, OpenAL and have rewritten some of the cryptic Apple file management and input device code using the standard c++ libraries and HID. We are still going to do 2D games, but they will have a much richer feel to them, more like a Flash game, except without the performance penalty.

I've personally started talking with more Mac developers, so have learned volumes about lua scripting and other rapid application development tools. If you base a game off of standard libraries, you don't have to worry about Apple changing them. That means that probably over half our workload just disappears for the next game. Which doubles our productivity and potential for success.

Jon God: What have you thought of the fan reaction to Return to Dark Castle?

Zack Morris: It's pretty overwhelming, but not so much so that I can't still be a part of it. *Smiles* We don't get flooded with emails or constant IM requests. I think the DC fan base is quite savvy and down to earth. Many of the fans have helped us with Khufu beta testing and I consider their comments invaluable. For the most part, feedback has been positive, but it's hard sometimes when people criticize bugs, because they simply don't understand how big the DC3 code is, or how many other projects we juggle. I often wish we only developed for a single console, like the Super Nintendo, because support would be a non-issue. I hope they aren't too disappointed with the setbacks, because honestly I think I would be in their place. For example, I'm no fan of DRM, and sometimes I wonder if we arrived at an acceptable compromise with eSellerate. The iTunes and iPhone stores seem to have found a middle ground. We have fixes in the works for inconveniences people have faced, and I really think that this stuff is getting better over time, albeit slowly. Hopefully the level editor will spark a renewed interest in DC3. We go through these long periods of inactivity and then a burst of new releases, so if people are still around when that happens, they won't be disappointed.

Jon God: Any closing comments?

Zack Morris: Just that, we are grateful to everyone for hanging in there, and never give up hope. Look at what's happened in the world in the last couple of months. Anything is possible, and I may not remember the years 2001-2008 very fondly, but they were pivotal years in my life. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, that sort of thing. After a decade of working on DC3, we hadn't really stopped to think what life would be like when it was done. But now, we're starting to think in new ways we hadn't anticipated. Zack and I feel like we've reached about 5% of our creative potential. We want to try making some tools and games to just make life a lot more pleasurable. Success doesn't have to involve great struggle to still be sweet. There are other ways of working and living. Thank you for the questions, I hope I answered them satisfactorily. And thanx for running such a great forum, I think I've enjoyed your community more than I've actually played DC3

Jon God: Alright, thank you for your time, and thank you for helping deliver a wonderful game to all those who've long been waiting for it.

Zack Morris: Thanks, 'till next time!

There you have it, I would keep your fingers crossed for more info from SHFF on the level editor.

PUZZLE:

Each week, I hope to have a puzzle for you to solve, which will somehow relate to Dark Castle. This week's puzzle is in the form of a description without the word it belongs to, relating to castles.

Description: The Arrow loops in the Merlons.

What am I?

--

Feel free to send in feedback, what you did/didn't like, what you'd like to see, ect, as I would love to hear it.

Dark Castle Level Editor news update straight from SHFF

2008-12-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Customers and loyal Dark Castle fans,

SHFF would like to apologize for the delay in the release of the Return to Dark Castle Level Editor and we greatly appreciate the enthusiasm that the community has expressed regarding it.

With any software that we release, we strive to ensure that it meets with our quality standards. Once those standards have been met and we feel the product is ready for public release, it will be available from the SHFF website and all RTDC customers will be notified of its availability.

While we have your attention, we would like to also dispel the rumor that SHFF will be charging for the level editor. It has always been our intention to release the level editor as a FREE download and our position on this has not changed.

Again, we apologize for the delay and appreciate your continued patience.

Thank you for your support,

Mark Stephen Pierce
Super Happy Fun Fun, Inc.

http://www.superhappyfunfun.com/games/gam_returntodc_leveleditor.html

1.3.1 out for real this time

2008-06-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, Return to Dark Castle version 1.3.1 is now out, and can be downloaded by anyone. It contains all the previously mentioned fixes. It can be found here at this link:

LINK

There seems to be a recording problem with the update... Don't worry. All the replays should run fine now, all the ones that have been recorded in 1.3.1 that is. No more out of sync. However, if you try to record, cancel, and record again, it seems to quit. Hopefully this will be fixed soon, in the mean time, try out all the other changes.

Apparently version 1.4 is already in the works, though it could be a while 'till we see it, and who knows what it might contain.

Now, about that Level Editor....

1.3 out... with a catch....

2008-06-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

Return to Dark Castle 1.3 is out, BUT, there's currently a catch... it's only out for new buyers, and I am told that a patch is almost here.

In the meantime I got to try out the patch:

It feels as though the game is a lot more like the originals. Random items are welcome, along with lots of little tweaks here are there. Overall, I didn't quite so much like the consolidation of files, as it can be a bit harder for new users to find their saves, recordings and such. But the enhanced movement tracking completely makes up for it, as the game now feels as tight as the originals, and there no more missed jumps to be blamed on the game.

In the end, it's a patch, so there's not a lot to say, other then a feature list, so, as it is fun, I am more looking forward to the level editor.

Demo Version 1.3

2008-05-28T01:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I know everyone is as tired of waiting as I am, but in the mean time, the demo linked to at SHFF has been updated to version 1.3, and includes all the below listed changes and more, I know it's only a demo, but it's worth checking out if you're bored.

LINK

Return to Dark Castle 1.3 - Coming VERY soon!

2008-04-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

Change list:

1.3
• Fixed control responsiveness (keyboard & mouse)
• Fixed replay recording and playback
• Fixed water buckets freeze in observatory
• Fixed hero facing direction after pulling a chain
• Classic Gameplay Changes
° Random Items (rocks, elixirs, food, poison)
° More aggressive snakes
° Faster gargoyles
° Food only restores 50% health
° Slide into dungeons looses health
° Bombed guards don't respawn
° Randomized river logs
° Wizard and Witch kill you if you haven't picked up the orb
° Hero explodes if trying to carry two orbs
• Easier Novice Mode
° Start with 5 lives / Maximum of 12
° Less aggressive enemies
° Fewer traps & hazards
• New Features
° Replays have no recording size limit
° Replays can be paused during recording and playback
° Replays can fast-forward by pressing the right arrow key or caps-lock key
° Replays can skip rooms by pressing the down arrow key
• Files and folders are stored in Application Support folder by default
• Other misc. bug fixes.

Sounds good to me, let me know what you think!

Two "lates" don't make an "on time" (First official review)

2008-04-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I missed this news story by a few days, but in context, the site missed the game's release window, by a month or so.

Anyways, here is the first non-user review of Return to Dark Castle on the web, feel free to agree, or disagree with it.

LINK

Beat the game? Want another 5 minutes of Content?

2008-03-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Zack Black has given us a test level set made with the level editor for an example. It contains very little content, and can be beaten fairly quickly, but hey! It's an example, just something for us to look forward to.

If you'd like to grab a copy, just right click this link, and save file:

LINK

To instal it, simply drag it to the "DC3 Custom Levels" folder in the "Dark Castle 3 ƒ" folder, then enter the level: Laboratory, and pull a chain, it will ask you for a level set, select "Test Levels" and then walk below the tube next to the switch and hit W.

Enjoy!

What is going to happen to the Dark Castle Blog?

2008-03-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

So, Return to Dark Castle came out. Now what? Since this is a New blog, will it be closed?

Short answer? No.

Long answer? No, the blog wont shut down until there is nothing left to say. I still have plans for the blog, it should be the best choice for Dark Castle news around the net.

Sorry for not updating recently, I have been really busy, but I will have more time, so you should see faster updates now.

Fanart anyone?

2008-03-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

I am not an artist, sure I draw every now and then... that is if then is 2 years ago, and now is a week ago...

I in a night of boredom, decided to draw a piece of fan art for Dark Castle, so if you'd like to take a look, go ahead, Feel free to tell me how much I rock(or suck) at drawing, Here:

LINK

Return to Dark Castle problems? Patch incoming, Soon..

2008-03-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Find any bugs in DC3? Yes? No?

Well, I know I wasn't the only person to find a handful of bugs, such as broken replays and unresponsive controls. Also there were crashing glitches, and numerous bugs and glitches.

Well, worry no more, as it looks like Zack Black has been working on a patch that will fix most of the problems currently present in DC3.

The main ones to think about is the controls, which will be 4 times more responsive, and the replays, which should work every time.

Sounds good to me, got any other bugs you'd like to let him know about? Throw a comment over here.

Lastly, release date? None is set yet, but it shouldn't take too long.

Return to Dark Castle press release

2008-03-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

SuperHappyFunFun has issued a press release, which includes some interesting information, such as the Dark Castle series sales, and Mark Stephen Pierce' (The original creator of Dark Castle) thoughts.

LINK

Jon God's Return to Dark Castle Review Minor Spoilers

2008-03-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

I am not sure that I am completely satisfied with it, but here you go:

Return to Dark Castle, that name means a lot of things to a lot of people. It is often known for it's famously long development time, spanning somewhere near 12 years. It also also talked about due to the fact that it is the sequel to the 1987 mac classic, 'Beyond Dark Castle'. A lot of people gave up on Return to Dark Castle ever coming out, but in the end, it has finally been released, so, how is it?

In general, Return to Dark Castle follows down the path started by it's predecessor, Beyond Dark Castle, rather then the original Dark Castle, it contains much more open ended gameplay, with no bonus counting down, or any points at all, going for more of an adventure game feel, like Beyond Dark Castle, but a few steps farther then that.

The story of this game, though light, it much heavier the then original two games, as when you open the game, you are treated to the back story. It also takes place after the legendary ending of Beyond Dark Castle, which means somethings wont be as interesting unless you have seen it, though you will still get everything, as it is explained well. This game contains something it's predecessors don't, and that is brief cut scenes. In general, the story is better then say, Mario, but don't expect a really deep story. As a negative, the ending on the easier difficulties is extremely disappointing, go for the hardest difficulty for the best ending.

When booting up the game, right away you will notice that this game has great music, with mellow tunes, to exciting, and even epic songs, none of which are annoying, or even average. All the tunes in this game manage to sound right, and fit perfectly with the dark castle setting, and the levels they are assigned to. In addition to music, this game contains the same sounds from the original games, and, despite aging 20 years, they still are just as funny, and great to listen to. They sounds have also gotten the stereo treatment, so you can hear where things are just from the sound, and it really sounds good.

When you first lay your eyes upon the graphics you will not be impressed, it runs at an emulated low resolution, and looks blurry, and around the edges of the models you will see jagged lines. Though the graphics are no wonderful at first glance, they do have their own style which reminds a lot of the original games, and works very well for what it is. There are a lot of new effects on the graphics, such as sparks, fire, lighting and such, which will overall make you forget about how the graphics look slightly blurry, you will often find yourself admiring the enemies as they burn from the new fireball effects.

So, how does it play? A lot like the originals. And that's not a bad thing, this is one of the best sequels to a classic I have ever seen, they didn't change nothing, and have it be a 'Tomb Raider Style' sequel, nor did they completely change it. Instead they added onto the amazing gameplay of the originals, but kept the same feel. In addition to all the gameplay elements you found in the originals, there are now a bunch of new things, while, not drastically changing the gameplay, helps you feel more in control of the character, such as the ability to crawl anywhere, carry around warp potions, and such. There are also new weapons, abilities, which gives you more of an ability to play the game the way you want to play it. Sadly, the gameplay as good as it is, is not without problem, as the controls are often unresponsive at times, which can get you killed, and is often extremely annoying. After playing for a while, you get used to this, though, it would be nice to not have to deal with it at all.

This game is huge. When making a sequel to the originals, which only contained 15 levels each, one would think that it would contain maybe a few more levels, but surely not much. Well, one would be wrong, as this game breaks away from the size of the originals, becoming a large open ended game, with tons of treasures, mini games, extra orbs, and secrets to find, there are only 10 orbs required to beat the game, but an additional 15 can be found, and any combination of orbs from all throughout the game can be used to open the final gate and beat the game. Simply beating the game will not unlock 100% completion though, instead there are tons of secrets hidden throughout the castle, which can be found by the help of hint notes which contain riddles which when solved tell you were to find secrets.

There are four difficulties in the game, and for getting 100% on each one you unlock secrets, and just to get to 100% is a objective all to it's self. Once you have done that though, there is also the ability to save films, which are small files, which can be shared with friends, and are easy to set up and view. Sadly, they seem to be glitchy and often come out differentially then recorded. When they do work however, it can be very fun to see who can beat levels faster, or with less rocks. At the time of this review, the level editor is not out yet, but soon there will also be a level editor to use.

Final Words:

It's been a long time, but Return to Dark Castle is finally here. In general, this game reminds me of Super Mario World, or The Legend of Zelda, with it's large game area, and non-linarity, it also contains some killer level designs, and really well hidden secrets. Although not as challenging as the originals in some respects, and can be gltichy, it completely lives up to the Dark Castle title, and is worth the $30. Hopefully soon enough, the patch will be released, along with the level editor.

If you were considering buying this, Buy it. You wont regret it, it'll keep you playing for a while, and years from now, you will want to com back and play it.

Presentation - 9.7:
The game sports a huge playing area, with tons to do. It also manages to keep the feel from the originals.

Graphics - 8.2:
The graphics look blurry, but there are a ton of effects to admire, such as roasting mutants with fireballs.

Sound - 10:
Amazing music, wonderful and classic sound effects won me over, this game has just about perfect sound design.

Gameplay - 8.9:
The game plays almost exactly how you remember, though the unresponsiveness is extremely annoying.

Lasting Appeal - 10:
Normal quest, check. Side quests, check. Secrets, check. Unlockables, check. Saved Films, check, Level editor, check, need I say more?

Overall - 9.6

It's been out a whole weekend, let's hear your opinions!

2008-03-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

As you all know, Return to Dark Castle has finally come out last friday, and you've all had a few days to waste playing the game. So, I would love to hear your opinions on it.

So, hit up the comments, and leave your weekend impressions of the long awaited, Return to Dark Castle.

Finally, some website updates.

2008-03-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

The Return to Dark Castle pages at Zsculpt, and Returntodarkcastle.com have been updated to reflect the release. There's not really any new content, but it's great to see these pages updated. Here hoping for more content and soon. :)

www.returntodarkcastle.com

www.zsculpt.com

The moment you have ALL been waiting for. No joke.

2008-03-14T15:04:00.001-07:00

It's here. Get it. Now.

LINK

Slight news, and major apologies.

2008-03-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

Zack Black Has posted some new news, and a apology:

In response to all the angry posts about us jumping the gun and hyping false release dates: If only it were that black and white. When I said it was "done" back in Dec. '06, I meant exactly that. Delta Tao was going to distribute for us. They didn't have the large team of beta testers or other resources that SHFF has, so they were happy with it as it stood, as were we. I personally don't care about a bug or two here and there as long as there is nothing serious like the game suddenly locking up while you're in the middle of playing, because I know we can always make an update a week or two down the road that takes care of any minor quirks. We believed the game was ready to ship. Then a few weeks later, the year rolled over and Delta Tao lost the rights back to SHFF. Begin exhaustive beta testing, changes to art, new features (Novice mode), etc. I'm really not bitter about all of this, as I believe it has made DC3 a better product. But don't misunderstand: It was just as ready then to go public. So, when the public demo 1.1 was released a few weeks back, it was also "done", as in SHFF had it uploaded to the server was ready to flip the switch to make it live. I was 99.99% that is was going to happen that day or the following. Then SHFF got worried about the game being massively pirated and they pulled the plug at the last minute. I apologize about getting people worked up, but I only did that because I was sure that it really was just around the corner. So as to not upset anyone else, I will not be posting any more "hints" about when I think it's ready. "It will be up when it's up." Besides, nothing interesting ever happens on Thursdays anyway... (bat)

Well, there you have it, I know you are all as annoyed as a dog being denied a ball, but at least you have some insight into what has been going on.

Copyright protection update:

2008-03-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

Zack Black:

Frustrating times for everyone, I know. We're doing as much as humanly possible with SHFF to get this all wrapped up and into all of your anxious hands. MSP is wanting something that is flexible for everyone, meaning you can register once and play on multiple macs (up to a limit of course). I know it's a tough wait, and gets tougher the closer we get. Please don't despair. We have a system nailed down and are in the process of integrating and testing it this weekend. Like someone mentioned on here the other night, this will all seem like a distant memory once you get to click that big red download button. Yeah? Let's all try to be patient just a little longer and it will happen. Thank you everyone for your support. (Mutant)

There you have it, let's all hope for the best.

6 days, sorry about that.

2008-03-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

First off, I don't have any big news, but hey, it's been 6 days, so I'm hoping this will be good enough for now.

For one thing I have beat the game on beginner, and have managed to get 97%, but that last 3% is hidden to well for me to find... I am trying to beat the game on Advanced, but not being the best Dark Castle player, it is taking some trouble.

Now, I'm sure people are asking "Well, where is my copy?" It's true, you should have your copy, after all, I do. This story though, goes like so:

The game is done, and was all ready to be put up, but at the last minute, SuperHappyFunFun decided that it was afraid of mass pirating, and is considering putting on additional copy protection. Zack Black, is doing his best to convince them otherwise.

Zack Black said a few days ago that there was a good chance for it to come out within the week, though considering that there is only one day left in the week, I would assume probably next week.

Something else I seemed to have missed on the IRC chat, apparently someone from SHFF signed on, and was talking to people, letting them know that they want it out as bad as we do.. Well, I guess we can all hope.

Sorry I don't have more, or better news...

P.S: In addition, I would like to thank everyone for their comments, and remember, you don't have to sign up to comment, so if you have any questions, go ahead and leave a comment, and I will answer it.

11 hours later...

2008-02-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

First off, the game is not publicly out yet.

Second, I have it. I have played it for 11 hours.

Third, it is amazing.

Even from someone who built up hype for years upon years, and who has look forward to other games, and never had a game ever live up to my expectations, ever, someone who owns 100+ console games, and around the same for computers, the same person who is usually extremely critical of games.

This game, both lives up to everything you wanted it to be, and will surprise you over and over again.

Instant Classic. Those 12 years were not wasted.

In other news, a new demo has been released, go check out SHFF's page.

LINK

Update: Is this finally it?

2008-02-25T15:07:00.000-08:00

In regards to the other news story about the "storm coming", Zack Black has posted something new:

...as the fireball hit the wererat's brown matted hide, it lit up like dry brush on a hot summer day. The beast shrieked and collapsed into a pile of black soot as the hot magic consumed its evil body. The pungent smell of singed hair polluted the otherwise fresh evening breeze. As the orange glow of the fire faded from Bryant's face, he felt a single raindrop hit his cheek. Looking up he could see the dark storm clouds gathering overhead. It was time to head to the tower top.

Time for the next round testing
No, I said... it's time to head to the tower.

This sounds like the news we have all been waiting for.

News from Zack Black

2008-02-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

Good marrow all, and happy anniversary to the great DC forum! Well, I really pushed to have the game released today, but sometimes no matter how hard we try there are things beyond our control, and we must accept them. I do have some good news though. There is only one remaining bug, but it is kind of a nasty one. I say this because it is only happening on one Mac that SHFF has (and it is a real crash, not a harmless quirk) so we're having to do some long distance bug tracking and it's a slow process. We do have some tricks up our sleeve though, so with any luck we'll get this thing squashed and... well, you know... Keep those shields ready. The weatherman predicts a storm moving in next week. 8)

Straight from Zack Black, the closest thing to a release date in a while.

Here's some more quotes:

"Though he hinted that it MIGHT be next week."
The weather can be difficult to predict. There is definitely a storm front on the horizon, but wether we'll get thunder and lightning remains to be seen.

Time to keep those fingers crossed.

Anyone remember the "Armory" level from the trailer?

2008-02-22T18:06:00.001-08:00

I'm sure some people remember this level, shown in the trailer for Return to Dark Castle:

But, what if it had been done by the original team? How about this?:

I know, don't even try to say "Too much free time".

Anyways, something to distract you from the fact that the game isn't out yet.

Calm Before the Storm update

2008-02-18T23:17:00.000-08:00

Zack Black has given us a few more riddles, and clues to the coming news, here are the snippets:

While SHFF has been busy hunting pests, I have not been idle. I decided to try a different approach to perhaps bring the rats out of hiding. After much pondering, I recalled a trick a friend of mine showed me once, when he helped the townspeople of Hamelin. (Rat)

"It's called playing us a merry tune and having us follow along hypnotised. So as I said "
This is one possible interpretation. There is definitely another. (Rat) (Rat) (Rat)

"There are three of them following you now... Which way is the river?"
Lol. Ahem... Ah, but it is neither the river nor the rats that are of interest. I shall say no more, but rather hum quietly to myself as I read the posts.

So, again, take this how you will, and rack your brain for any possible solution to the riddles, and if you find anything, let me know with a comment!

UPDATE:

Zack posted some more hints, along with a "hint.mp3"

"The Pied Piper? He's a pretty cool dude."
Very cool dude. We used to jam together back in the day. (rat)(rat)(rat)(rat)(rat)

"Every one of his posts refers to music. Even when he says he'll hum quietly"
(Whispers nonchalantly and stares at the ceiling...)
LINK - Hint.mp3

"Looking at the file info, it was encoded with Amadeus II, which is my audio editor of choice"

Methinks there will be much amusement over the riddles and secrets in RTDC. ;)

"Maybe Zack Black's so frustrated with the delays and not being able to say anything that he's done slightly mad and this is how he's venting."
This would seem to make the most sense since I did use A(mad)ues to encode the music.

In the end, it looks as though Zack Black has added music, though we don't have a confirmation at this point.

Zack Black: The Calm Before the storm

2008-02-18T00:54:00.000-08:00

Last week was a slow week, hmmm...

Take this as you will, it could mean that the game is set for release.... Or it could be, that there is news coming.. Take it as you will, but take it for good news. :)

NEWS! Straight from the source

2008-02-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

First off, the picture is a custom level made by Zack Black to show off the level editor.

Also, Zack Black was left us all with some news, so, I will go straight to the quotes.

GAME NEWS:

Here's the latest news: SHFF has very thorough beta testers. DC3 is, and has been, extremely stable for about the last 6 months to a year. SHFF is finding little things like, say you use a morning star in the training to defeat the henchmen then die by running into a wall and restart the training while patting your head and rubbing your tummy AND you're playing on a Friday the 13th, then the training stops working and you have to quit back to the main screen, lol. I'm not knocking them for their hard work, it's great to have people who can find these weird little edge cases we never thought of, but that is what is actually delaying the game at this point. Let me be clear that MSP wants to release ASAP, as in today if it were possible. But they are going to continue to experiment and stress test until they are completely satisfied with it. In the supposed "final" build that was sent to them around the time the trailer was released, they found 13 of these little quirks. I fixed all of them and sent another build a few days ago, in which they uncovered 5 more. All of which were quickly dealt with. I sent them another build last night with all issues solved. They will test it on Monday at the latest.

The release is very close. It's NOT going to take another year. SHFF wants it out as badly as we (you) do. Stay cool all.

Level Editor news:

The level editor will likely be made available as a free download shortly after the game is released. Price is yet to be determined, but likely in the $20 - $30 range. Distribution is initially going to be download only, but SHFF is looking at boxed copies down the road if it sells well.

I think most of you expect that I never answer any of these because I've been hiding in a crack in the Dungeon for the last couple of years. I'm making an effort to play a more active role now.

You can customize wall / floor textures, stairs, backgrounds, just about anything except for items and enemies.

So, I'm sure everyone will be happy with this news. I know I was. :)

Now, as promised, a shout out to everyone that left comments before!

Thayne, you are stoked for Return to Dark Castle. Thanks for leaving a comment!

Izdale, I know you go to the forums and such, but I said I would give a shout out to everyone who left a comment, Thanks!

Freed, I'm right there with you, I can't see how anyone wouldn't be excited for DC3! Tahnks for the comment!

Anonymous, You may not have put a named down, but I'm glad you read this blog, and I'm sorry there isn't more news to share. Thanks for the comment!

Hamishi, Thank you! I'm glad some people are reading this, and Thanks for the comment!

SHFF site, extremely minor update.

2008-02-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

As I said in the title, there's been an extremely minor update to SuperHappyFunFun's site, which is now linking to some of the news articles mentioning Return to Dark Castle.

Like, I said, nothing major. But it's good to know that they are keeping tabs on what people think of Return to Dark Castle. :)

On a side note, this is the blog's 50 post. Congrats to those watching this blog, and keeping it alive.

Everyone reading leave a comment, and get a shout out in one of the next blog posts.

Source [SuperHappyFunFun]

UPDATE: Zsculpt.com partially updated.

2008-02-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

I realized that there was something I missed when I first read the page, and thanks to 'Bryant Esquire', I noticed it, and without further adu:

Many milestones have been reached in the recent weeks, so we can finally think about what comes after DC3's release. Feel free to post the trailer anywhere you like, and spread the word that the final release is just days away.

I bolded the part that is the best news of all. :)

Magic Brooms - News From Zack Black

2008-02-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

Why did Merlin conjure them up? To help sweep away the nasty dust and spiders that plagued him while he was working on his electrical inventions. If only the software development process was as easy to deal with. Not to worry though, the current build is very stable on all the Mac setups we've tested, but SHFF seems to have a knack for discovering rats that escaped our traps.

I quotith Zack Black, and once again, you can take this any way you want, it could mean that everything is done, and he is just worried SHFF might dig up some small bug. Or it could be taken as, they found another glitch at the last moment...

Like I said, take this how you will?

ZSculpt.com Partially updated!

2008-02-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we've gotten our news from the Zack's web page, but they have finally posted an update, it's not really new news, but the fact that it's been updated at all is great news.

www.zscupt.com/website/news/index.php

In addition if you care, it seems that Joe Williams has moved his blog, the new location is located here:

LINK

News from... Joe Williams?

2008-02-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

It seems like forever since we heard anything from Delta Tao, probably because it's been almost a year since we heard anything Dark Castle related, yet tonight, he sent out an E-Mail, which read:

Delta Tao gave the rights to Dark Castle back to Mark Pierce, the
original designer, so Return to Dark Castle will be published by his
new company, Super Happy Fun Fun. When? We still don't know -- but
it's looking very, very close.

Check out this trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az6ispvk_WM

Also, keep your eyes open for updates at:

http://www.returntodarkcastle.com

Don't forget to vote! Make a difference.

Thanks!

--Joe Williams
President, Delta Tao
http://deltatao.com/deltajoe/

So, take this as you will, it could mean that that game is really done, and that he's been asked to let people know through his mailing list.

Or, it could just be him seeing all the headlines lately...

Like I said, take is as you will...

Enter Monday, Commence waiting...

2008-02-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

Well, it's monday, the weekend is over, and in all odds, Return to Dark Castle will be hitting sometime this week.

So, like the title says, as hard as it is, it's time to start waiting. Not that you haven't been doing this for a while now, but if this truly is the last week, and it really could come out by, or before friday... Then, well, it's going to long week.

Remember, whoever see that's it's released first, and posts a comment, either here, or on the forum, will get a shout out. Besides, you'll have to wait for it to download anyways, right?

Remember though, this is if all goes well, keep those fingers crossed.

Proof that DC3 wont get swept under the rug?

2008-02-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

After the release of the trailer, I decided to go on a pilgrimage to all corners of the web, advertising it's existence. Here's what's come so far:

LINK

Not bad, I would like to thank every one of these sites and encourage you to keep visiting them, as they are great sites.

Now, as good as I did, I think that WE can do better, so I am asking for your help in E-Mailing these sites, in hopes they will run the story also:

LINK

Good luck, hopefully they will listen to numbers. :)

EDIT: I added another site.

EDIT: More sites picked up the story.

Update: "Tomorrow's News"

2008-02-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

Now, after yesterday's news flash, the news finally came.

Sadly, the game is not out. BUT before you start screaming and breaking things, that doesn't mean that nothing has happened.

Zack Black and SuperHappyFunFun have brought us the 'first' Return to Dark Castle trailer, and good gosh, it's amazing, so without spoiling anything more, I shall link you:

LINK

Enjoy!

P.S. If you would like to discuss it, feel free to visit this forum topic:

LINK

ANNOUNCEMENT Big news tomorrow, possible release!

2008-01-31T22:36:00.000-08:00

News, news, news, news!

It's been a while since we heard from Zack Black, or Zack Morris for that matter, but this afternoon, Zack Black posted on the forum, mentioning a release date, but not speaking more then that. Additionally, he hinted that the final copy of the game has been sent to SHFF.

Don't throw anything at the computer screen yet, because later he posted a new topic, hinting at a "surprise" tomorrow, which will be a friday, and the first day of February.

First Forum Topic:

LINK

Second forum Topic:

LINK

Keep your eyes on this space!

Return to Dark Castle news, Finally!

2008-01-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

After quite a drought of official news for some time, DuncanFanCoolDude, noticed that SuperHappyFunFun updated their site with new pictures, information, and the required specs to run Return to Dark Castle.

Not a bad update at all, in fact, almost the best update we could have asked for.

Still I hear you asking: "WHEN?"

Well, according to SuperHappyFunFun's site:

"This game is coming very soon for Macintosh computers."

LINK - SuperHappyFunFun

Returntodarkcastle.com

2008-01-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

Tbone has noticed that the domain "returntodarkcastle.com" was registered by Zack Morris, THE Zack Morris.

At the moment, it is only a picture with the words "Yes it's done... Watch this space" and a link to Z Sculpt's site.

LINK

And a link to the forum topic discussing it:

LINK

Lego my Dark Castle - Shield Edition

2008-01-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

After Destroying my last Lego creation, I started on another, and a few hours later, another creation was born, I give you, Lego Shield 4:

LINK

Lego My Dark Castle - Fireball Edition

2008-01-11T19:47:00.000-08:00

After letting La Porta's new stay at the top of the list for a while, I decided to catch up on news, starting with:

A while ago, I made Trouble 3 in Legos, and people liked it. A few weeks ago, I received a lot of new legos for free, so I decided to dive in and make some more Lego Dark Castle.

For a link with Pictures, check the Link:

LINK

Important News From la Porta:

2007-12-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, Paul Pratt (the guy who made and maintains Mini vMac) has added a new page on the Mini vMac site for donations to the project in general, or towards new features. The page is located here:

LINK

I thought it would be nice if we sent in whatever we can to keep the development of Mini vMac up (especially with it being around christmas). We don't want Mini vMac to someday go to dust...then we couldn't play DC or BDC anymore! I think it is a good idea since Paul has kept the project going for the past few years. Without him, we would be pretty lost.

UPDATE: The link is fixed.

My first encounter with Zack Black, Chat saved, now posted

2007-11-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for a while, it's the original chat I had with Zack Black, sometime before I started the forum I think. Keep in mind that this may be outdated as it is almost a year old.

It can be found here:

LINK

They are still working on it..

2007-10-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Now, due to people blowing their top over from news that ends up not being as soon as it sounds, take this with a warning attached: Don't get to hyped up, it will lead to disappointment.

Blah blah, now that that is overwith...

Zack Morris:

"we ran into a bit of a bug we are working on today

it's minor, but we can't reproduce it, so hafta send version to SHFF and get responses till it's fixed

there are literally like 2-3 bugs left

and we are in final talks now about distribution and payments and stuff

can't go into details tho, but feel free to tell the forum

and sorry about the web page, we'd update it, but just don't have anything new to report

zack talks to SHFF about every day no

the last month has basically been explaining bugs and gameplay decisions to SHFF and checking them off their beta testing system

there have been some holdups, mostly becase SHFF is more about marketing and we are more software engineers

I'm 90% sure it will come out this fall

if it were up to zack and I, I'd say 99.9%, but SHFF has the final say"

Best Birthday Present EVER.

2007-10-15T15:01:00.001-07:00

I know my birthday was a while ago, but I finally had a party last weekend, and it lasted 2 and a half days. And on the second day I got the best present ever. It's so great in fact that I need to share it with you guys.

Return to Dark Castle Beta 12.

2007-10-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY GOT IT! Here you guys go:

LINK

Beyond Dark Castle Wiki updated more.

2007-10-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am still getting time to work on the Dark Castle Wiki, occasionally, I finally added the Beyond Dark Castle section though, let me know what you think.

LINK

Color Dark Castle Review

2007-10-10T02:29:00.000-07:00

I finally review Color Dark Castle, give it a look:

LINK

Any and all feedback is welcome, that's right, let me know what you think.

More graphical tweaks to the forum.

2007-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

I added some more graphical tweaks that I had been meaning to add for a while to the forum..

Opinions anyone?

New stuff!

2007-10-03T23:46:00.000-07:00

I wrote a review for Beyond Dark Castle, which can be found here:

LINK

I did something interesting with photoshop, and Fireball 1 here:

LINK

The almost complete catalog of DC3 Demos/Betas:

LINK

Also, I added new emoticons from the forum, go check them out here:

LINK

Zack Black Speakith.

2007-10-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

SHFF closed out all the issues regarding the gameplay or graphics changes today except for a few small things I'll be looking at this week. If they're read, then we should have the intel build of the demo posted any day now.

Slow news lately. Original Dark Castle review by Jon God

2007-10-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got to writing a review for this game, after playing it for a good deal of my life, I was worried that it would be hard to review. It turned out that it really wasn't that hard.

LINK

I know I gave it that score, which is the first time I have ever given something that score, but I had a hard time thinking of ANYTHING that was bad about this game.

Return to Dark Castle Soundtrack

2007-09-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

In the earlier demos if Return to Dark Castle, there was music, who knows if it will make it's way into the final game or not. Anyways, I collected all the music I could from the Dark Castle Demos.

They are not perfect, but as good as I could get, sorry.

Enjoy everyone! Leave a comment telling me what you think, Should DC3 keep Music?

LINK

More done to the Dark Castle wiki

2007-09-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

I did a lot more work to the Dark Castle wiki, most noticeably, with the galleries, for levels, and versions of the games, and pages for each level and level path, go check it out!

Once again if anyone feels like it.. PLEASE DO HELP!

Link

Lastly, for anyone reading this, someone asked me "Any insider news?", My reply? "Oh little things here and there, but I heard something small but good recently"

Still, you're looking for better news, I would say look no farther then this forum topic(With quotes from Zack/s!):

Link

Started work on the Dark Castle Wiki

2007-09-11T01:01:00.000-07:00

I gave a start to the Dark Castle Wiki tonight.

I did one new page:

Link

As well as start cleaning up the Original Dark Castle Page:

Link

Still, we're just getting started, and any help would be nice.

I'm back!

2007-09-06T03:10:00.000-07:00

Although I forgot to mentioned to you guys reading my blog.

I had some personal issues I had to sort out, and I am finally back

Which means more blog posts... Hopefully :p

Hey everyone....

2007-08-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Man, The more I talk to the Zacks, the more I get the feeling that they are just waiting on SHFF got no good reason. Like SHFF just doesn't care, and is looking for some reason to delay the game longer, after all, the game has been finished since november, and here we are waiting for it still.

SuperHappyFunFun looks to be holding Return to Dark Castle back for no good reason. It seems like every time I talk to the Zacks, they are just waiting around, and they seem less and less enthusiastic about it, as it gets pushed farther and farther away.

Let them all know, let them know we have been waiting and er are getting impatient over pointless delays, let them know it all.

Here are their E-Mails:

whazup (at) superhappyfunfun.com

mpierce (at) shff.com

joe (at) deltatao.com

And even the Zacks, let them know how much we care, let them know how much you want it.

Their E-Mails:

zmorris (at) zsculpt.com

zblack (at) zsculpt.com

I'm as tired of all this as you are, let's try again to do something about it.

Public Secret - Good News! Shhh though.

2007-07-31T16:53:00.000-07:00

What I am telling you is so secret, that I am not even allowed to tell you, so what I can tell you is:

Good News. Coming Soon.

You never heard, nor saw me.

Congratulations New Moderator! Guess who!

2007-07-29T01:18:00.000-07:00

After the recent spam attack and the closing of the "Off Topic" section, and the ever approaching release of Return To Dark Castle, I knew I needed another Moderator, to help me keep things under control.

I held a Poll for people to vote on who they thought should be a mod, because after all, this is a community, and I will let them decide for themselves what they want. And so voting commenced.

And now that it's past midnight, so now we have our new Moderator, and I would like everyone to give a hand to our, and you newest Moderator:

gruz!

I know, NO one saw THIS coming :P seriously though, may he help for a long time to come, and be there to help out those in need.

In following, if you missed them before, here are some of the recent additions to the forum:

• Users can now find this board through invisionfree's database under 'Macintosh'.

• 'User browsing this forum' section, and 'users browsing this topic' added.

• Users must now verify their E-Mail addresses manually, which hopefully will cut down on spam

• Behind the scenes prepping for new Moderator.

I still have some aces up my sleeves, so expect some other cool additions over the coming months :) I know, I'm too good to you.. jk.

Another thing to note, is that the "Off-Topic" is opened again, it may be a feeding ground for spam bots for a little while, so be careful, but feel free to use it now.

And lastly! There's one more thing, as a present to this forum, and blog, I spent some hours today working on this, and I think I will share it with you check it out here:

LINK

Forum Troubles and other news...

2007-07-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

First off, I know that there have been recent porn-spam-bot attacks, and I have been working on the situation, and have temporarily closed the "off-topic" section. I also have started a topic, fir I realize now that I really do need another moderator, for my forum. If you think you can be of some assistance, don't hesitate to tell me right here:

LINK

In other news, I beta tested Khufu with Zack Morris, and some other people I did not know, it was really fun, and helped Zack out a lot, I plan to keep helping him as much as I can, and you know what? you can too! I would personally suggest trying this game out, it's really fun online, and they need all the help they can get.. I know it's not Dark Castle, but it's nice to be able to help Z Sculpt Entertainment in anyway we can. For more information check here:

LINK

Until next time!

According to Zack Morris, "SHFF has the final say, we are waiting till everything is ironed out and they give the go ahead"

2007-07-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

It's time that we show them our support and gratitude for this sure to be great game! We need everyone to email SHFF at whazup@superhappyfunfun.com

Let them know that you are a member of the Dark Castle Forum (if you are), and that we understand that RTDC is near to being released, and that we are offering our support and thanks for working on this great game, and that we are highly anticipating it's release.

-Izdale

What we know so far....

2007-07-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to making the 'What we know so far' topic I have been meaning to start forever...

It will basically be a topic will all the information we know so far (no, really?), which will be helped along by you guys, telling me everything I have forgotten so far.

LINK

I think we have found the best Dark Castle player...

2007-07-12T01:57:00.001-07:00

For a while I thought Action Jack was the best DC player, but along came this fellow, who has done the impossible, and claimed the throne of best Dark Castle player... for now... Action may contest it when he gets his computer back, but for now I think we should give KING RICHARD a round of applause.

For those who might doubt his greatness, or are just curious on how he proved himself, look no farther, for Richard has done thus: Starting on Beginner in Beyond Dark Castle, he beat the game, continued on Intermediate, beat the game, then through advanced.... WITHOUT DYING/SAVING/LOADING! The full run clocks, 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 1 second, which in itself is incredible!

Link to the video HERE

EDIT: This is not to say the permanent champion, feel free to try and surpass him, we'd love to see your skills!

Also, Richard as awarded the label of "Current Dark Castle Campion" on the forum

Zack Answered out prayers... er.. Questions...

2007-07-07T15:04:00.001-07:00

Zack took the time to answer a lot of questions that had piled up in the forums, and once again I am really excited for Dark Castle 3.

Link

We all know it, and even the best of us fear it...

2007-07-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

I am of course talking about the West Tower Wall, Featured in Beyond Dark Castle, and Return To Dark Castle, that level that had you shouting about how unfair it was that you fell in the dungeon on your 83rd try. But what is this level, and what makes this level so feared?

Looking at it right off the bat, we notice that most of the level is above a large pit to the dungeon, and there are many chances to fall into that pit.

There is a mutant, that is willing to come out at just the wrong time to ruin your day.

Ah, yes the birds, they plague the other half of the level, making it difficult to jump from platform to platform, and impossible to beat the level without killing them.

Looking at all this one might say that this level is a nightmare, but looking upon it, I think that this level is ingenious, with many different skills needed to beat it, and a nice background to go with it.

I think that, despite the level being so darned hard, it was one of the best levels in all of Dark Castle So far...

Do people think that DC3 might have even harder levels?

Do people agree with what I said?

Please, post comments!

Online Soreboards

2007-07-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

I started an online scoreboard for speed runs of Dark castle and Beyond Dark Castle, be aware though, you'll need video proof of your feat to have it accepted.

Link

Positive and Negative Beta User Reviews Episode 2

2007-07-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

The second episode on this topic, this time targeting Macupdate, which has less reviews..

Pros:

4.5/5

There's a lot lacking here, as people have mentioned - various bugs with screen and control handling (still can't change my controls from the defaults, even after the download), and it took some patience to figure out what the controls even were (documentation sucks). However, gameplay is smooth and it's so nice the play DC again, even a little bit.

Good enough for a teaser release, but thus needs to come together soon. There are still some basic gameplay bugs in this demo (death is sometimes cancelled by falling down a chute, for example), and it is ANNOYING to go back to the main hall every time you stumble into a level that is not part of the demo. Just put me back where I was, please :(

-Alden Stradling

(Macupdate)

4/5

wot the hell us up with you moaning mo fo's!!

Sure there are a lot of problems and nothing is 100% complete, but it ain't even at v1 yet!! :(

To the author, great release and thank you - appreciated over here. :)

-Anonymous

(Macupdate)

5/5

Its like being in a time machine going back to the set of a black and whie film, very eerie. I love the attention to detail in this version, no other game has ever had as many bricks! You still need skill to play this game too. Please can we have an OSX release of Solaris II next.

The weirdest thing is the price of a mac has dropped since the game was first released in 1991, $5,000 dollars bought you a 20 mhz Mac IIsi with 5 megs of RAM 40MB hardrive and 13" of glorious 256 color.

-Anonymous

(Macupdate)

5/5

I know the game as i played it on the mac plus, but the beta 11 wouldn't start up, it complains about a "NewpixMap" Does anyone now what that means. I did play beta 6, and i loved it!

-Darcastler

(Macupdate)

3.5/5

This game isn't to good yet but by the time it's finished it should be really cool. I hope it has customizable keys.

-Zoolander

(Macupdate)

4.5/5

This us a great game, as was the original. Everything is looking good so far. It has all of the excitement of the original ad then some (yes, I'm old enough to remember playing DC and BDC for hours on my old Mac SE). The only problem is it will occasionally crash for no reason, but that's to be expected as it is only a beta

-Anonymous

(Macupdate)

4/5

As a veteran Macgamer, I cans still remember playing te original Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle on my dad's SE. I had nightmares about swinging around on a shap pendulum. The atmosphere of the old games and the good old rock chuckin' fun has been flawlessly reproduced and enhanced. The stars are give are JUST for the beta demo. I have high hopes for the finished project, as it would be difficult to screw up such a great game.

-Lester

(Macupdate)

5/5

this game is stupid just kidding it is so good I play it every day butt I want the hole game please tell me where to buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-JAMESON

(Macupdate)

5/5

the best game I have ever plade. the music rules.graphicks are good

-john

(macupdate)

CONS:

2.5/5

Would be a decent little game is a) there weren't so many bugs (major ones that make game play impossible), b) the demo didn't crash, c) the "training" area worked in the demo and e) if there was some clear way to learn the controls. It's got the graphics and sound, it's just missing in the details department something fierce

-John

(Macupdate)

2/5

Poor Default controls. And it requires you to download and instal extra drives so you can configure the controls! Just plain lame. Apple has API for this stuff, even a cross compiling library lets you access keyboard and mouse events. It's not that hard.

It defaults to a low resolution, low color full screen mode. Switching to window mode causes the game to crash.

Level exits are poorly defined; I have to walk offscreen instead of going through one of the doors? That isn't intuitively obvious, there are other side scrolling games that have done this better.

So it's essentially a side scrolling game circa 1995. It's been done before, and they couldn't even be bothered to do it well apparently

-Tomis

(Macgamefiles)

2/5

shite

-ben

(Macupdate)

3/5

This game is too unfinished to give a correct score, but it is looking good. I like the idea of developers releasing unfinished "demo betas" of their products, so that people will know weather or no to anticipate the product.

-Hugh

(Macupdate)

And there you have Macupdate.com, it seems to be filled with more varied responses, but highly positive ones.

Final Take: A lot of people still bash it due to the beta state it is in.

More episodes will be on the way later.

Dark Castle Mobile Screens

2007-06-26T04:10:00.000-07:00

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

HERE

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

Blurry Graphics fix.

2007-06-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Dark Castle Blog

Dark Castle stays in top 50 on app store 2 days in a row

Return to Dark Castle 1.4 on app store!

2009 article mentioning DC3 iPhone

And another tweet from MSP

2 More Tweets from SHFF

Return to Dark Castle heading to the App Store

Zack Black visits SHFF

Dark Castle Blog "WEEKLY!?? Update (9/3/10)

Dark Castle Blog "WEEKLY!?" update

Return to Dark Castle giveaway contest!

Return to Dark Castle, 50% until April 1st!

Stop to spamming comments

Minor update, that could put a smile on your face. :)

Hey, Been busy but trying to get the Zsculpt guys to get the level editor wrapped. Will get back with news as this develops.That's what I like to hear! Now that I have more time after finishing the Myth II project I've been working on.

Snow Leopard - Confirmed!

Return to Dark Castle producer talks DRM

Twitter quote

iPhone Dark Castle to debut at GDC?

Jaw dropping Dark Castle 3D concept art

Mark Steven Pierce talks about gaming in the 80s, and gaming now

Some words on the Level Editor

Regarding DC3's DRM

Finally changing the blog poll

SuperHappyFunFun starts twitter account

Mark Steven Pierce talks again

MSP reveals some info on Facebook page

Mark Steven Pierce invites you to join the Dark Castle facebook group!

MSP (Accidentally?) confirms PC/iPhone port of DC3

PC World names the original Dark Castle one of the best mac games ever

Sorry...

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Short Weekly Update Delay

Weekly Update

Dark Castle Level Editor news update straight from SHFF

1.3.1 out for real this time

1.3 out... with a catch....

Demo Version 1.3

Return to Dark Castle 1.3 - Coming VERY soon!

Two "lates" don't make an "on time" (First official review)

Beat the game? Want another 5 minutes of Content?

What is going to happen to the Dark Castle Blog?

Fanart anyone?

Return to Dark Castle problems? Patch incoming, Soon..

Return to Dark Castle press release

Jon God's Return to Dark Castle Review *Minor Spoilers*

It's been out a whole weekend, let's hear your opinions!

Finally, some website updates.

The moment you have ALL been waiting for. No joke.

Slight news, and major apologies.

Copyright protection update:

6 days, sorry about that.

11 hours later...

Update: Is this finally it?

News from Zack Black

Anyone remember the "Armory" level from the trailer?

Calm Before the Storm update

Zack Black: The Calm Before the storm

NEWS! Straight from the source

SHFF site, extremely minor update.

UPDATE: Zsculpt.com partially updated.

Magic Brooms - News From Zack Black

ZSculpt.com Partially updated!

News from... Joe Williams?

Enter Monday, Commence waiting...

Proof that DC3 wont get swept under the rug?

Update: "Tomorrow's News"

*ANNOUNCEMENT* Big news tomorrow, possible release!

Return to Dark Castle news, Finally!

Returntodarkcastle.com

Lego my Dark Castle - Shield Edition

Lego My Dark Castle - Fireball Edition

Important News From la Porta:

My first encounter with Zack Black, Chat saved, now posted

They are still working on it..

Best Birthday Present EVER.

Return to Dark Castle Beta 12.

Beyond Dark Castle Wiki updated more.

Hey, Been busy but trying to get the Zsculpt guys to get the level editor wrapped. Will get back with news as this develops.

That's what I like to hear! Now that I have more time after finishing the Myth II project I've been working on.

Jon God's Return to Dark Castle Review Minor Spoilers

ANNOUNCEMENT Big news tomorrow, possible release!