PixlBit

There were games galore to choose from. It was a good time to be a gamer with SNES and Genesis battling it out. Ones that made the first cut were: Wolverine [NES], Robin Hood Prince of Thieves [NES], Uncharted Waters [NES], Batman: Return of the Joker [NES], Road Rash [Genesis], Dark Castle [Genesis], Phantasy Star III [Genesis], Streets of Rage [Genesis], Warrior of Rome [Genesis], P.G.A. Tour Golf [Genesis], Ys III [Genesis], Final Fantasy II [SNES], Pilotwings [SNES], Twin Bee '91 [arcade], Duke Nukem [PC], and Secret of Monkey Island 2 [PC]. So many good ones here, but I had to revisit Dark Castle. It's lucky that I have a friend who can lend me his copy for this.

             

                DC on the Mac, when it was in glorious monochrome and played like a charm.

I played Dark Castle on an Apple Macintosh computer in '86 or '87 along with it's sequel Beyond Dark Castle while in college. I loved everything about it from its 2D fixed screen platforming action, funny sound effects, J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (it was used in Disney's Fantasia), and the neat line drawings in black and white. The Genesis port is the only version available on consoles, so outside of fiddlin' with an old Mac or running an old OS on a current Apple computer, this is what I've got.

                                   

                                                   Dark Castle on the Genesis

The Genesis port is in color and the sound is pretty good, but the controls are completely awful. This must be an early example of how devs were completely clueless as to how to translate keyboard controls to a game pad. The main problem is the aim of your arm that throws your only offensive weapon, rocks. You have to push up or down on the d-pad to rotate your arm. This is way too slow an action when your being bombarded by bats or clearing rats at your feet while zombies are shooting fire balls at you.

Moving around in the 2D environment works fine but it's really easy to trip over any little thing or go all dizzy by dismounting a vine even slightly too high from the platform. To pick something up you have to hold down "B" and push down on the d-pad. For some strange reason I had to tap "C" twice just to throw a rock unless I really mashed the button hard. This could be my controller but it seemed like possibly part of the controls because it was always twice-to-throw-once with a normal press on the button. Basically all the controls are too slow and awkward for fun action platforming gameplay. I rage quit after trying several of the levels and failing over and over again, which after a while was kind of hilarious. I don't think I cleared a single screen.

                                           

                                                         DC or DK. You decide.

The level designs surprised me after all these years as being pretty derivative of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.. One level is almost exactly like the first level of DK and another is full of vines just like DK jr.. This was probably delightful for Apple Mac fans in '86 who had few other platformers to play. I know I loved it then.

                             

                                             DC or DK jr.. You decide.

I went through some trouble getting my Genesis 3 console running. I had to borrow an AV cable and the game from my friend, but I finally got it to work. I almost bought a Retron 3 at my retro store when they didn't have an AV cable for my Genesis.

Finally I watched the AVGN review of Dark Castle for Genesis and Phillips CDi.

                       

The thing no one mentions when they review this game though is that the Apple Mac version is really good and should be rereleased with good controls. I fear these awful ports have doomed this game to oblivion although I've heard it may come to iOS sometime soon. I'd love to play a good version of this game that I have fond memories playing.