Delta Tao lost interest of the Dark Castle Series over the low sales Color Dark Castle, this is sad in a way, though here are some things to consider:

They originally had plans to make a Color Beyond Dark Castle, as told in the credits of Color Dark Castle, why this was abandoned? Was it the low sales of Color Dark Castle? Lack of interest on Delta Tao's part? Was it the start of the great project called Return To Dark Castle?

Color Dark Castle was, controversial, with many saying it had lost the classic flavor the original had, also, it really wasn't much more then a colored version, with almost the same graphics, the save system, though welcome, made the game much shorter, and easier. Lastly, the new Secret Level, wasn't worth the trouble of finding it to most.

Perhaps we shall never know, but what is your opinions on this?
Do you think it's a good thing that Color Beyond Dark Castle wasn't made?
Do you think they should have carbonized Color Dark Castle?
Do you think it's a good thing that Delta Tao no longer has the rights to Dark Castle?

Well, my opinion is that it's really unfortunate they never did a colorized Beyond Dark Castle. Granted, I think the reason was that it was scrapped because Return to Dark Castle would include all the levels from DC and BDC, but even still it's not quite the same thing (though, I won't mind when they release it!). It would be cool if Z Sculpt included both original games with the level structure they came up with for RTDC (which is the best yet, in my opinion, full color levels yet the look and feel of the b&w Castle was pretty well preserved).

They did change some things that made Color Dark Castle lose some of the original's flavor (the randomness of door 1 vs. door 2, for instance), however, they did preserve the most important thing (in my opinion)-the humor! And, the color scheme gave the game a very cartoony look, which I think is very appropriate. I loved that game, and I wish they would carbonize it for OS X. But, I suppose there aren't enough people out there who care, so it may never get done.

As for the rights to DC, unfortunately, I think it is a good thing that Delta Tao no longer holds the rights to the franchise, because they either don't have the resources, the will, or the desire to do anything with anything anymore (I don't know how they're still in business, quite frankly, they have all but stopped releasing new products of any kind!). However, that may just have spelled the end of DC that much sooner, I guess time will tell on that one.

Well, I think that they didn't do a good job with Color Dark Castle, in the sense that, unless you already knew about it, you'd never hear about it, it was not well advertised at all, few people reviewed it, and thus, Delta Tao thought of it as a failure, at least this is what sighs point to, it may not just be that not enough people liked it, because most people I've shown Dark Castle have fallen in love with it :)

I would simple love a Carbonized Color Dark Castle, or a Beyond Dark Castle Color, as I play the original 3 to this day. :)

Though it may be a good thing that the rights are no longer Delta Taos, but the company that has them now could be worse, as it's a Cell Phone game only company :(

Well, you're right; I dunno, maybe Delta Tao is just a "mom and pop" operation, and maybe they thought that by getting the rights to a game that was famous in the eighties, they would becme big without having to work very hard (or at least, that the game would do most of the marketing work for them). Obviously, that seems not to have happened.

However, I will say that I first saw the game advertised in a catalog (MacZone or MacMall or something else that my dad used to get) and I thought, "this couldn't be the same Dark Castle that I used to play on the Mac Plus, right?" Well, it was, and it was a pretty cool experience to get the game and see all the new colorized levels.

But, yeah, you're right, if I hadn't known about the game before I saw it in the catalog, I probably would not have given it a second glance. You're right, though, if they got more people to just sit down and play it, I think they would help people rediscover the charm of the game, which is why it was so successful to begin with.

Hopefully there'll be enough of a degree of success with RTDC that Delta Tao (and Mark Pierce) will consider releasing DC and BDC carbonized, colorized, and ready for the new generation of computer users to enjoy. That may be asking a lot, though, especially if there's a chance that even RTDC won't be released.

Yeah, and you're certainly right about the cell phone thing. Unless we see the development of some ultra-cool cell phones in the near future, or if SHFF conisders giving the rights to a "real" gaming company, DC is about as dead as the 2-D Prince of Persia (that's another game that I really liked).

We can always hope... I guess...

Oh, and hearing you like the 2D Prince of Persia, I wanted to make sure you tried this:

http://www.gamespot.com/promos/princeofpersia-game/flash/

All right! Yeah! Such great memories, do you know how to beat this level? The controls don't seem to work exactly like the original game (I tried a careful step up to an edge, and he "careful stepped" right into a spike trap?!).

Thanks for the link, that sure was an enjoyable moment. Too bad I can't get POP and POP2 back out anymore, because 10.4 doesn't include OS9 (I tried them in classic, and it just didn't seem quite right). Though, I haven't tried the emulators yet, maybe that will do the trick.

Yeah, they work through the emulators. I don't know how to beat the level, I never really tried, I found it a while ago, and didn't play it much.

Well, I'm sure it's not much, even if you figure it out, but the POP game sure was a cool memory trip.

Awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Also, I just had a thought, you had mentioned that Color Dark Castle was considered a failure, because it didn't do well, and you pointed out it was because of a lack of advertising. I came across an article about Joe Williams (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/column_index.php?story=8459) in which he says that he doesn't like to advertise his games, because he feels like it's "pimping them out" or something.

So, how can he consider Color Dark Castle a failure when, in fact, he didn't even want to advertise it? He says that he prefers to keep his games a secret, so that "only the really cool people find them." I'm sure he's only being lighthearted (at least I hope), but-how can you expect a game to make any kind of money with this philosophy? I would think he'd be thankful for ANY sales of the game that he received.

I dunno, just a thought (and a bit disconcerting, since we're relying on HIM for the release of RTDC! :angry: Oh well, nothing that any of us can do about that.)

Yeah, I saw that too, he also mentioned how the Cell Phone game sold better then Color Dark Castle, bleah, hopefully, now that the internet is not such a new thing, previews, and screenshots, demos, and reviews, can help bring in more people. Maybe they'll let Z Sculpt handle it more as well.

Yeah, hopefully, although they certainly aren't doing as much in that way as they *could* be, in my opinion (I mean, even Z Sculpt hasn't updated their site in more than two years, there *has* to be some other stuff that they could've been putting up there, and don't even get me *started* on Delta Tao's RTDC site, c'mon, he could've done SOMETHING with that since 2000!)

I dunno, I feel like I complain a lot in these forums. :) I guess it's because, when I was really frustrated with these guys before, there was nowhere to vent it. I'll forgive them (ONCE I'M PLAYING THE FULL GAME :) ).

Aye, Z scuplt has been out of it for a while, they're trying to 'clean up before showing their face to the public again' so yeah, I agree, with you, but they're working on it, also, the site has been updated, See: Online.

Delta Tao.... Oh gosh their site... bleah...


I'm with you man :)

Yeah, well, I know, Z Sculpt is just a two-person operation, *and* they've got dayjobs and stuff, so I'm a bit more understanding about them. When RTDC comes out, they'll be redeemed. :)

Delta Tao just acts like they don't really care, and they don't have day jobs, do they?

I haven't any clue, I don't know as much about them.

guys, have you heard any success stories of CDC on an intel mac? Sheepshaver is running really slow for me (Mac OS 9.0; Macbook Pro). And I can't run it on Basilisk II because the system software I have that works on Basilisk II doesn't seem to allow the emulator to recognize the files.

I didn't think there was a version of Basilisk II for Mac...

Sure there is...check the emulation sites around.

Yup, I got Basilisk 2 and SheepShaver working, though neither of them are as accurate as mini-vMac's Plus emulation. I haven't tried CDC though, since I no longer have the binaries.

If I read what you said correctly, the system software you use WITHIN Basilisk II doesn't recognize your Color Dark Castle files?

Try downloading a fresh copy of System 7.5.3, that's what I use in Basilisk II for CDC.
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Suppo..._Version_7.5.3/

If SheepShaver doesn't run fast enough for you I don't think you have any choice but to use Basilisk II. I'm not sure if it's the same in OS X, (I use a Windows machine right now) but Basilisk II runs a lot faster than SheepShaver. Depending on the ROM you're using you can only run up to 8.1 in Basilisk II.

Basilisk doesn't ever run smoothly for me, but it works better in full screen then sheepshaver on my computer.