Color Dark Castle

Color Dark Castle
Developer(s)	Delta Tao
Publisher(s)	Delta Tao
Designer(s)	Joe Williams
Platform(s)	Apple Macintosh
Release date(s)	1998
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player
Media/distribution	Two 3.5" 1.4MB floppy (Mac)

Color Dark Castle is the first Computer Game in the Dark Castle series developed after the rights were sold from Silicon Beach Software to Delta Tao. Color Dark Castle is essentially a remake of the original Dark Castle, in color. Though it may seem identical at first (besides the color), Delta Tao reported that they had to redo the code from scratch; also, they added a new difficulty and an alleged "Secret Level".^[1] Since this is a remake, the sequel to it would be Beyond Dark Castle. Another color version of Dark Castle was announced in 2000, titled Return To Dark Castle. As of 2007, the game was finished by Z Sculpt Entertainment, and was made available by spring of 2008.^[2]

Features

Including almost identical gameplay as Dark Castle, being a remake, Delta Tao also added a few of their own things, such as a new difficulty "Novice" for beginner players, eliminating some of the harder levels in the game and having fewer monsters. Also, the great hall's door setup was static, as opposed to the random setup of the original. There was a new "Secret level" added, it was accessed by hitting 4 spots hidden throughout the game, without dying. They added a save system that allows one save, that can be saved, or loaded from the great hall.

Story

The evil Black Knight terrorizes the townspeople, our hero Prince Duncan decides to topple his throne, but in order to do that, he must travel to the four sections of the castle: Fireball, Shield, Trouble, and Black Knight.

After collecting the Fireball, and Shield, Duncan makes his way to The Black Knight's Throne room, where he topples the Black Knight's Throne. On Novice, Beginner, and Intermediate the Black Knight stands up shaking his fist, as a gargoyle takes Duncan to Trouble 3. On advanced The Black Knight's throne falls off the bottom of the screen, while Duncan dances, and it fades out.

Levels

This game had 16 levels, one more than the original game, all of which came out of the 4 doors in the Great Hall. Unlike the first game the setup of the doors is static, rather than random.

• Left most door: Trouble 1, Trouble 2, Trouble 3.
• Farther away door on left side: Fireball 1, Fireball 2, Fireball 3, Fireball 4.
• Middle Door: Black Night 1, Black Night 2, Black Night 3.
• Right Door: Shield 1, Shield 2, Shield 3, Shield 4.
•  ????: Secret Level

Secret Level

The Secret level was announced in the Color Dark Castle F.A.Q.^[3] The F.A.Q. said you had to pull 4 secret chains, this is untrue, but one must find 4 secret spots. The first 3 spots’ order don't matter, but the fourth must be done last. It's easiest to do when the shield and the fireball have already been obtained. To activate a spot, one must find the spot, and jump at the wall. To find the secret room, one must hit all 4 spots without dying. Hitting Apple-Q, during a level, will take you back to the great hall, and it doesn't count as dying, which makes this much easier to find.

• Spot 1 - Shield 3, in bottom right corner of the screen, lower platform.

• Spot 2 - Trouble 3, from the top, jump the gap, climb down the stairs, and jump to left to the small walkway, it's at the end.

• Spot 3 - Fireball 1, middle platform, right side.

• Spot 4 - Black Knight 1, bottom platform right side.

On jumping into the 4th spot, you will go through the wall into the secret room.

Remakes

At the end of the credits, the game states: "Watch out next year for Beyond Dark Castle," but this planned release was dropped due to the announcement of Return To Dark Castle, which is a sequel to Beyond Dark Castle in full color, including all the levels from Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle. It was ultimately released on March 14, 2008^[2] and was developed by Z Sculpt.

A remake of the original version for mobile was released in 2006. It is developed by Super Happy Fun Fun and published by Bandai, It contains slightly remade level designs as well as updated color graphics.

References

1. ^ "Color Dark Castle new features " Color Dark Castle F.A.Q.
2. ^ ^{a b} SHFF : Games : Return to Dark Castle
3. ^ Dark Castle mini-FAQ

External links

• Delta Tao Homepage Creators of Color Dark Castle.
• Color Dark Castle review From MacGamer.
• Dark Castle links, including the official forum (where players can chat with Zack Black and Zack Morris of Z Sculpt, the developers of Return to Dark Castle).