ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (11/07/87)
[ What'll I do with the middle button on my mouse? ]
One of the more popular games to come out for the Macintosh was a
goodie called Dark Castle. Now, this game is available for the Amiga. I
recently picked up a copy, and have played around with it for a while. For
those who care, here are my impressions of the game.
Amiga Dark Castle attempts to be as faithful a recreation of the
Macintosh original as possible, right down to the title screen. Thanks to
the Amiga, we get to enjoy this game in color and stereo. The game is
published by Three-Sixty Pacific, and comes on two very full disks.
For those who have seen neither version, the game works like this:
You are a local small-time adventurer who has taken up the task of
destroying the Black Knight who lives in the Dark Castle on the hill. To
defend yourself, you carry a number of rocks to throw at enemies, which
include rats, bats, vultures, mutants, guards, gargoyles, and the Black
Knight himself. Bags of rocks are scattered throughout the castle to
replenish your supply. Also scattered about are elixirs for warding off the
lethal bites of the rats and bats.
You wander through the castle, collecting artifacts and powers which
will be necessary for you to effectively combat the Black Knight. While
your task is a serious one, the activities of the characters of the game
will make it hard for you to keep a straight face.
I have played the Macintosh version extensively, so I was able to
pick out similarities and differences, including minor ones. By and large,
Amiga Dark Castle is an excellent port. Almost every detail of the MAC
version has been replicated on the Amiga (right down to the mutants',
"Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah!"). There are a couple of differences regarding
sound effects, but are unnoticeable (sp?) unless you know what to listen
for. The Amiga version is also slightly easier to play than the MAC
version. The game plays virtually identically to the MAC version (both
mouse and keyboard are employed). A joystick option is also provided.
Good Points:
o Game is started from, and returns to, the WorkBench.
o Works with expanded memory.
o Attempts to utilize stereo sound.
o The color screens are a nice embellishment.
o All sound effects are great; perfect duplicates of the MAC
sounds.
Not-so-good Points:
(Note that these are all minor details, but I tend to pick out
little things like this.)
o I get the impression that the screens are merely "colorized"
versions of the MAC screens. I.e. the artwork in some places is
not the greatest, which is understandable (we can't all be Jim
Sachs).
o The MAC version allows you to remap the keyboard commands to keys
you like. No such facility exists on the Amiga version
(fortunately, I like the default settings).
o The MAC version allows you to type your whole name in on the high
score chart. The Amiga version only allows three initials.
o The animation on the Amiga version seems to bog down as the number
of objects on screen gets large.
o Appears to dislike MicroBotics Mousetime.
o Printed manual (a card, really) could be much better.
Bad points:
o Disk access gets to be painfully slow. The program does no
caching of already-read data for large-memory systems.
o Copying main data file to RAM: doesn't work (Guru).
o Program refuses to work with FACC ][ (Guru; Dark Castle must be
doing something awfully stupid to not work with FACC).
o Works perfectly on my 2.5M 1000, but Guru'ed imtermittently on a
1M 500, apparently dependent on the Phase of The Moon.
o Copy-protected. It's a game; what did you expect?
Despite shortcomings, it's a very entertaining game, definitely
worth your attention, and probably even worth the $40 I paid for it.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\
\_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctoreric@hector.UUCP (Eric Lavitsky) (11/09/87)
Leo - I don't know what it is you're doing, but Dark Castle works
fine with FaccII on my machine. My roomate bought DC a few weeks
ago. I launched it from my workbench with FaccII running about 800
buffers (I have a 4M machine). It did help speed things up a lot
when going back to the previous screen (back and forth between
screens).
I do agree - the game is an excellent port. I'm buying my own copy
at the JAUG meeting this month...
Eric
ARPA: lavitsky@topaz.rutgers.edu "Lithium is no longer available
UUCP: ...{wherever!}ulysses!eric on credit..."
...{wherever!}rutgers!topaz!eric - from Buckaroo Banzai
SNAIL: 34 Maplehurst Ln, Piscataway, NJ 08854jmo@ems.UUCP (11/10/87)
The Mac version of Dark Castle is not copy-protected, and can be mounted on a hard disk. Are we Amiga owners less trustworthy? -- John M. O'Shaughnessy jmo@ems.mn.org +1 612 375 8138 EMS/McGraw-Hill -guest ihnp4!meccts!ems!jmo
trudel@topaz.rutgers.edu (Jonathan D.) (11/10/87)
In article <4393@well.UUCP> (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > Good Points: o Get info, and one of the mutants appears near the base of the screen. Wait a while longer, and another one appears. Others follow. I wanted to see how many would appear, and the number levelled off somewhere around 50 after 1/2 an hour. Bad Point: o The above action does not result in a constant cacophany of "Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh"'s as I would have expected - there are lulls of 1/2 a second or so where none of the 50 say anything :-( After this wait, select "More" or "Cancel" and watch the slooooow rate of flashing... One question: How do you get past the thing before the waterfall in the log flume room? -- Hm-m-m-mm? I thought this place was for Brontosaurusses only!?!!?!!
spencer@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Randy Spencer) (11/12/87)
In article <4393@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
...[ What'll I do with the middle button on my mouse? ]
...
... One of the more popular games to come out for the Macintosh was a
...goodie called Dark Castle. Now, this game is available for the Amiga. I
...recently picked up a copy, and have played around with it for a while. For
...those who care, here are my impressions of the game.
...Not-so-good Points:
... o I get the impression that the screens are merely "colorized"
... versions of the MAC screens. I.e. the artwork in some places is
... not the greatest, which is understandable (we can't all be Jim
... Sachs).
Ooooo! I had lunch with the artist yesterday, he wouldn't like that review!
... o The MAC version allows you to type your whole name in on the high
... score chart. The Amiga version only allows three initials.
What can you say, the guy that did the program came from an arcade
background, the version of the program I have seen has the initials 'VID'
right above the initials 'KID'. I think he likes that stuff.
...Bad points:
... o Disk access gets to be painfully slow. The program does no
... caching of already-read data for large-memory systems.
I asked Mike about that, he says that the problem is the copy-protection
that 360 put on the disk. They didn't put hooks into the program, they
put in a patch so that the protection can be ported from machine to machine
I guess, but the loss of control on the programmers part means that even
though the program is key disk protected, you can't run from any other
disk than the original. Sort of bad managment all around.
... o Copying main data file to RAM: doesn't work (Guru).
See previous line...
... o Program refuses to work with FACC ][ (Guru; Dark Castle must be
... doing something awfully stupid to not work with FACC).
See previous line...
... o Copy-protected. It's a game; what did you expect?
Aaah, that's it, there's the problem.
...Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Randy Spencer P.O. Box 4542 Berkeley CA 94704 (415)284-4740
I N F I N I T Y BBS: (415)283-5469
Now working for |||||||||||::::... . . BUD-LINX
But in no way |||||||||||||||::::.. .. .
Officially representing ||||||||||||:::::... .. ....ucbvax!mica!spencer
s o f t w a r e spencer@mica.berkeley.edu
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-spencer@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Randy Spencer) (11/12/87)
In article <1271@ems.Ems.MN.ORG> jmo@ems.UUCP (John M. O'Shaughnessy) writes: > The Mac version of Dark Castle is not copy-protected, and can be > mounted on a hard disk. Are we Amiga owners less trustworthy? As I understand it, Amiga Dark Castle is published by a different company than the Mac version. They bought the rights to do the port. So I guess that it is 360 Pacific that is dumb for protecting their version, see previous message... >John M. O'Shaughnessy jmo@ems.mn.org +1 612 375 8138 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Randy Spencer P.O. Box 4542 Berkeley CA 94704 (415)284-4740 I N F I N I T Y BBS: (415)283-5469 Now working for |||||||||||::::... . . BUD-LINX But in no way |||||||||||||||::::.. .. . Officially representing ||||||||||||:::::... .. ....ucbvax!mica!spencer s o f t w a r e spencer@mica.berkeley.edu -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-