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

Back to school PC deal: Mac Mini with M2 just crashed under $500

Someone using a Mac Mini while sitting at a desk.

One of the best Apple deals today is thanks to Best Buy. Head over there and you can buy the Apple Mac Mini with M2 chip for $499 saving you $100 off the regular price of $599. While it might not be the M2 Pro model, it's more than powerful enough for most people. Here's a look at everything else you need to know about it before you hit the buy button.

Why you should buy the Apple Mac Mini with M2
The Mac Mini is a great desktop computer, whether you're going for the M2 Pro model or this one with a standard M2. The best desktop computer for home use, you get a powerful 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU which is great for multitasking or using graphics-intensive apps. Even games look a little better here than you'd usually see with Mac performance. Alongside that, there's 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. That might sound low but Macs are good at optimizing performance so 8GB should be sufficient for most people. Of course, more storage space would be nice but it's not essential.

Computing

Why the M1 MacBook Air still beats the Dell XPS 13 in 2023

An opened Macbook Air M1 sitting on a table.

The Dell XPS 13 has been rated as the best laptop for a few years now, thanks to a streamlined and high-quality design and excellent performance. It's seen its challengers, but they've all fallen short. There's a new model that dramatically redesigns Dell's iconic laptop, and it's aimed at Apple's MacBook Air M1 that's built around a fast ARM-based CPU. There's also a newer version of the MacBook Air using Apple's M2 CPU, but the older model is still for sale and represents the least expensive MacBook you can buy.

These are both excellent laptops with great portability and robust build quality. But only one can come out on top.
Specs

Computing

How to take a screenshot on your Mac: the best methods in 2023

The keyboard and trackpad of the MacBook Pro 14-inch.

If you're new to the Mac, the first question people have is how to take a screenshot. There's no Print Screen key, so you'll be forgiven if it's not immediately obvious. Or hey, maybe you just forgot the keyboard shortcut or want to go deep into the very best screenshot apps available. We got ya.

There are plenty of options and customizations, so there's plenty to dig into. Here’s everything you could ever want to know about taking a screenshot on your Mac.
How to take a screenshot using keyboard shortcuts
MacOS keyboard shortcuts are the quickest ways to take screenshots, whether you're capturing the entire screen or just a portion. By default, Apple's methods save your screenshot to the desktop, but if you want to copy the screenshot to the clipboard, there's a keyboard shortcut you can use instead.
How to capture a selected area