Some of you remember, I’m sure. The black plastic tower with the keypad on it, the tomb and the ruin with the dastardly Brigands inside, the keys, Pegasus, the three keys…it was an awesome game back in the 1980s. Now it costs upwards of $300 on EBay for a pristine copy. It’s become very cost prohibitive to own, although I must say that somewhere I have my very own busted up copy.
Here’s the big news, though. Ready? For those of you that love Dark Tower, I have exciting news for you. Now you can play it anytime you want, because I have found a copy of it on the Internet, in Flash.
I LOVE THAT GAME!!
Thank you so much for reminding me of it.
I saw a copy at a yard sale several years ago for $5.00, but didn’t have any cash on me (I was there with someone else.). I should have gone and found an ATM.
I never played it but I sure remember it being advertised by Orson Welles. And with his authoritative presence it sure seemed like quite the game. “Last night I visited the Dark Tower…”
Wow! Talk about a blast from the past. My aunt and uncle had that game, and I spend a few hours without the manual trying to figure it out. Eventually I did, but I could only play two games.
I remembered the game (my brother got it for Christmas one year, and I think it’s still in my parent’s attic–although certainly in less than pristine condition) but I had totally forgotten that Orson Welles did that commercial.
[Hijack]: anybody remember those wine commercials he used to do: “We’ll sell no wine before it’s time.” [/Hijack]
Dark Tower was a very cool game and I used to play it for hours (by myself) when I was a kid.
It’s kind of funny to think about now, but before computer games got big, (which IMHO didn’t really happen until the late 80’s/early 90’s) this is how little geeky kids amused themselves (or at least how this little geeky kid used to amuse himself): play a multiplayer board game by yourself. I used to love to play the game “Divine Right” like this. It’s supposed to be a multi player game, of course, but I would play all the kingdoms. Actually I used to do this with risk too.
My husband had one. We always joked that the game knew who its owner was, because it would always give him things just for the asking. Everybody else had to work their way through all the steps or fight brigands or some such, but he’d walk in and the thing would just give him the key or whatever he needed. I think it got lent to the in-laws, which is like sending anything to the bottomless pit.
It’s a great game! Picture four territories, spaced like quadrants of a circle. Your home territory is the one in front of you. Starting with an allocation of men, food, and gold, you travel anti-clockwise through the other three territories, and in each you must find a key.
Along the way you’ll face plague, a dragon, getting lost, battles with brigands, and if you fail to feed your men, starvation.
You can also win battles, receive extra men and gold, purchase beasts, scouts, healers, and extra food.
Once you have all three keys, return to your home territory and answer the riddle of the tower. The keys must be entered in the correct order, and then you meet an unknown number of brigands within the tower. If well prepared, you are rewarded with an electronic rendition of Wagner. (the part sung by Elmer Fudd as Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit…)
Ah poop, so 'tis. Anyone have the swf file saved to disk, who’d be willing to email it ‘round a bit? I’d be much obliged to see this piece o’ gaming history again. (My Dark Tower’s motor burned out many many moons back, now.)
I recall seeing the well-of-souls tribute site just a month or two back (in fact, I think it was a thread in CS that pointed me to it), and only the java version was available at the time. And I still can’t get that bugger to work.
Without digging through the closet, I think I have a working tower and a more than complete set (as a result of buying several incomplete sets at yard sales). I also have a nonfunctional tower, missing the plastic archway screen, perched atop one of my wall-mounted speakers.
My folks gave me my first tower when I was in elementary school. As a result, Ride Of The Valkyries sounds wrong to me unless played by a tower.
What other board game had the excitement of a battle with brigands? Their picture would illuminate, along with a number in the LED display. Then, silence and the whirring of the motor as the cylinder rotated. Then, the picture of your troops would illuminate, along with a number. The tower would switch back and forth, the numbers declining as the forces met in bloody combat.
What other game had haggling? How many times could you press that button, and get a lower price, before the tower switched to displaying bazaar closed?
The handheld D&D game still works, though I lost the battery compartment lid.
The D&D boardgame IIRC sometimes works. The switches mounted in the squares break easily.
