6 ms·

Dark Castle and Macintosh System 6 Emulator

79 points by Bud 11y ago

crocal 11y ago
It always strikes me how often these "old" games stimulate imagination and satisfy the soul much more than all these µ%*$ "candy-crush-pay-per-view" stuff I see all over the place.
- ianlevesque 11y ago
  You don't even have to go back that far, just a few years before Zynga.
  - ido 11y ago
    There are plenty of good games coming out today too (e.g. "The beginner's guide" that came out just a few days ago). Maybe more than at any other time in history.
    - danielrpa 11y ago
      Yeah, I agree. There were great games then, there are great games now. I'd expect MORE good games now due to the better capabilities, but games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne are legendary. Maybe you could say that never so many people played so many bad games, but good games are still plentiful.
      - ido 11y ago
        Gaming only became mainstream (the way tv, music, cinema, etc are) in the past few years though. So all these sorta make sense.
- chasing 11y ago
  There are plenty of new games that are evocative and stimulate the imagination. I'd suggest not getting too caught up in the enormous mass of Candy Crush exploitative garbage out there (which, there was a metric shit-ton of crappy games in the 1980s, too). Pay attention to stuff like Journey, the Portal series, Limbo, Device 6, etc. -- the games that people will look back upon nostalgically when they're complaining about how games made in the 2040s lack the imagination of the games of their youth.
  - Joeri 11y ago
    Exactly this. A while back I was looking at old copies of defunct gaming magazines from my youth, and the thing that struck me was how most of the games in there were crap, and are now buried under so much landfill. We only remember the memorable. I actually think we're living in a gaming golden age right now, with more good games coming out than ever before.
- lolive 11y ago
  Welcome to Zork!
Lazare 11y ago
Oh man, that brings back memories. I used to play Dark Castle on my father's Compaq Portable III (a giant semi-portable suitcase of a machine, with a tiny amber screen). Viciously hard game as I recall (as so many were bath then).
lectrick 11y ago
I can't tell you how happy this makes me. This game was LEGENDARYYYYY back in the day. I remember the day I got it in 1986, I was 14. Incredibly hard, incredibly addictive. And it showed off the Mac's digitized sound and high-res screen long before PC's had the former. Trivia- This was actually the very first game in history to use WASD, I believe. (Even though this copy doesn't default to it, the original one did.) I don't hear audio. Is there audio? The audio was one of the best parts of this game!
- kbutler 11y ago
  Trivia seems inaccurate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#WASD_keys https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#WASD_keys states that Wizardy (1981) used WASD first.
  - lectrick 11y ago
    Looks like MORIA (1975) predates even that. Damn. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(PLATO) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(PLATO)
  - jghn 11y ago
    Perhaps it was because I had the Mac version but I could swear that I used arrow keys on Wizardry 1
twic 11y ago
I didn't even open up Dark Castle. Looking at the Scrapbook was enough to take me back!
chris_wot 11y ago
That Mac Classic emulator booted on Safari on my iPhone 5s in about 5 seconds. A Mac Classic took up to several minutes to boot! Remarkable.
trimbo 11y ago
Love it! Who's up for a game of Maze Wars?
robterrell 11y ago
This game was a real problem for me in college -- it arrived around the end of the term and I definitely scored lower on several exams due to being unable to stop playing it.
lips 11y ago
Fantastic. This also led me to find that the entire trilogy is available on the App store. Now all I need is "Continuum," and some grape Crush, and I can pretend I'm 14.
hugh4 11y ago
Dark Castle was pretty good, but of they could get Crystal Quest...
gurgeous 11y ago
Love this game and the sequel. So innovative. Fun fact - Jonathan Gay, the creator of Dark Castle, went on to create Flash. If you squint a bit you can see the lineage from Dark Castle leading directly to Flash. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gay
lolive 11y ago
I had always thought the intro music of both Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle were supreme. And then I discovered it was written by a guy called Bach. My (musical) life was changed forever. PS: I was 9 at that time :)

79 points by Bud 11y ago

It always strikes me how often these "old" games stimulate imagination and satisfy the soul much more than all these µ%*$ "candy-crush-pay-per-view" stuff I see all over the place.

ianlevesque 11y ago
You don't even have to go back that far, just a few years before Zynga.
- ido 11y ago
  There are plenty of good games coming out today too (e.g. "The beginner's guide" that came out just a few days ago). Maybe more than at any other time in history.
  - danielrpa 11y ago
    Yeah, I agree. There were great games then, there are great games now. I'd expect MORE good games now due to the better capabilities, but games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne are legendary. Maybe you could say that never so many people played so many bad games, but good games are still plentiful.
    - ido 11y ago
      Gaming only became mainstream (the way tv, music, cinema, etc are) in the past few years though. So all these sorta make sense.
chasing 11y ago
There are plenty of new games that are evocative and stimulate the imagination. I'd suggest not getting too caught up in the enormous mass of Candy Crush exploitative garbage out there (which, there was a metric shit-ton of crappy games in the 1980s, too). Pay attention to stuff like Journey, the Portal series, Limbo, Device 6, etc. -- the games that people will look back upon nostalgically when they're complaining about how games made in the 2040s lack the imagination of the games of their youth.
- Joeri 11y ago
  Exactly this. A while back I was looking at old copies of defunct gaming magazines from my youth, and the thing that struck me was how most of the games in there were crap, and are now buried under so much landfill. We only remember the memorable. I actually think we're living in a gaming golden age right now, with more good games coming out than ever before.
lolive 11y ago
Welcome to Zork!

Lazare 11y ago

Oh man, that brings back memories. I used to play Dark Castle on my father's Compaq Portable III (a giant semi-portable suitcase of a machine, with a tiny amber screen). Viciously hard game as I recall (as so many were bath then).

lectrick 11y ago

I can't tell you how happy this makes me. This game was LEGENDARYYYYY back in the day. I remember the day I got it in 1986, I was 14. Incredibly hard, incredibly addictive. And it showed off the Mac's digitized sound and high-res screen long before PC's had the former. Trivia- This was actually the very first game in history to use WASD, I believe. (Even though this copy doesn't default to it, the original one did.) I don't hear audio. Is there audio? The audio was one of the best parts of this game!

kbutler 11y ago
Trivia seems inaccurate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#WASD_keys https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#WASD_keys states that Wizardy (1981) used WASD first.
- lectrick 11y ago
  Looks like MORIA (1975) predates even that. Damn. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(PLATO) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(PLATO)
- jghn 11y ago
  Perhaps it was because I had the Mac version but I could swear that I used arrow keys on Wizardry 1

twic 11y ago

I didn't even open up Dark Castle. Looking at the Scrapbook was enough to take me back!

chris_wot 11y ago

That Mac Classic emulator booted on Safari on my iPhone 5s in about 5 seconds. A Mac Classic took up to several minutes to boot! Remarkable.

trimbo 11y ago

Love it! Who's up for a game of Maze Wars?

robterrell 11y ago

This game was a real problem for me in college -- it arrived around the end of the term and I definitely scored lower on several exams due to being unable to stop playing it.

lips 11y ago

Fantastic. This also led me to find that the entire trilogy is available on the App store. Now all I need is "Continuum," and some grape Crush, and I can pretend I'm 14.

hugh4 11y ago

Dark Castle was pretty good, but of they could get Crystal Quest...

gurgeous 11y ago

Love this game and the sequel. So innovative. Fun fact - Jonathan Gay, the creator of Dark Castle, went on to create Flash. If you squint a bit you can see the lineage from Dark Castle leading directly to Flash. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gay

lolive 11y ago

I had always thought the intro music of both Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle were supreme. And then I discovered it was written by a guy called Bach. My (musical) life was changed forever. PS: I was 9 at that time :)