Dark Castle Returns to the Mac

By Geoff Duncan March 3, 2008

Dark Castle Returns to the Mac

If you’re old enough to remember Dark Castle and its sequel Beyond Dark Castle, odds are that you played them from floppy discs on one of those original compact Macintosh computers with a 9-inch, 532 by 384-pixel, black-and-white screen. And you probably loved them. Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle represented some of the earliest “hits” in Macintosh gaming, presenting a 2D Mario-like game in which a nameless medieval hero runs through a haunted castle in a quest to defeat the Black Night. Along the way, the hero had to puzzle through levels, fight bats, goons, gremlins and haunted suits of armor, and pick up magic spheres, weapons, and other objects that might help out on the way.

Little known geek trivia: in order to get the game’s performance up to an acceptable level on those old 8 (yes, eight) MHz 68000 processors, Dark Castle did most of its animation by implementing its bitmapped graphics as fonts.

Z Sculpt Entertainment has been working on a new version of Dark Castle for years, and a version for mobile phones appeared in 2006, developed by Super Happy Fun Fun. Now, the companies have posted a demo of Return to Dark Castle, the third installment in the Dark Castle franchise, which should run on any Mac that can handle Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer. The new game features more than 50 new levels, new secret rooms and mini-games, as well as redone versions of all 30 original levels from the original Dark Castle titles. The game also features new monsters and bosses, new power-ups and weapons, random labyrinths and mazes, and game recording so sessions can be shared between users.

Super Happy Fun Fun says the full version of the game will be available “very, very soon.” No pricing information has been announced.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

Apple has backed itself into a corner

Apple iPad Pro 11 with Apple Magic Keyboard.

Apple is rumored to finally be updating its new iPads at its forthcoming May 7 event. While this may come as a relief to anyone who’s been patiently waiting to upgrade their iPad Pro or iPad Air, a new report has thrown the whole situation into confusion.

That’s because the latest Power On newsletter from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman claims that the upcoming iPad Pro will contain an Apple M4 chip. On first blush, that doesn’t seem all that unusual -- the iPad Pro has come with an Apple silicon chip for years, after all. But here’s the wrinkle: this launch plan would mean the iPad will get an M4 chip before the Mac, and that has all kinds of weird implications. By delaying the iPad for so long, it looks like Apple has left itself with a very odd update cycle for its chips this time around.
The end of the M3 Ultra?

Computing

iMac deals: New, renewed and refurbished iMac computers

Apple iMac with Retina 5K Display review close

If you're in the Apple ecosystem and need a desktop computer rather than something like a MacBook, then you'll want to go for the Apple iMac, which is one of the best all-in-one computers on the market. There are quite a few screen sizes and specs to pick from, and if you're willing to go for a renewed option, you can get some older, yes still powerful, iMacs for a great price. Even if you aren't, there are still some great Apple deals you can take advantage of to save yourself some money, which is why we went out and scoured the internet for the best deals we could find.
Apple 21.5-inch iMac (2018) Renewed -- $409, was $460

Even cheaper than any of the MacBook deals going on, this Apple 21.5-inch iMac (2018) might be a few years old but it offers plenty of juice for the price. That's the beauty behind many iMacs -- they last a long time thanks to offering reliable hardware and the benefits of MacOS, which tends to mean they stay fast for awhile. In the case of the 2018 21.5-inch iMac, you get a 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor paired up with 16GB of memory which is a great set of specs for ensuring you can get plenty of work done.

Computing

MacBook Pro OLED: Here’s everything we know so far

Halo running on a MacBook Pro.

While many of Apple’s laptop rivals have embraced OLED screens, Apple has stuck firmly with mini-LED in its MacBook Pro -- and the results have been spectacular. As we said when we reviewed the M3 Max MacBook Pro, it has the best display out of any laptop, bar none.

Yet there whispers that Apple is working on something even better: its own brand of OLED display that could take the MacBook Pro to the next level. It’s still early days, and there are all sorts of different rumors flying about, but it seems that something big is definitely in the works.