from the late 80’s, a Prince-of-Persia type involving jumping, swinging, switches and whips.
Somewhere in the late 80’s/early 90’s a friend of mine had a Mac (or an Apple… what’s the difference?), with this Prince-of-Persia type game involving (IIRC) jumping, swinging, switches and whips, all through a big castle type level.
I’ve always thought Apple made a decent machine, but was never willing to shell out for one. Given that my neighbour is ditching a Macintosh Centris 660, I figure the price is right. Now if I can just remember what the game is called, I have half a chance of playing it again!
Tips on downloading old Mac games would be welcome too. The only place I’ve heard of is the underdogs, but it appears to be PC only.
Was it in a castle? And there was a catacombs which was one of 4 sections of the castle to go through? I remember it if it was…Give me some time and the name will come.
Sounds like you’re talking about Dark Castle or Beyond Dark Castle. They’re pretty primitive by today’s standards, but they were quite fun in their day. I doubt they would run on modern Mac hardware (especially the older Dark Castle, which was made for the nine inch black-and-white Mac screen), but one can dream.
Anyway, there’s a division of The Underdogs just for us Mac guys. It’s at mac.the-underdogs.org.
The Apple Computer company produces the Macintosh family of computers, which has a lineage stretching back to 1984 — or even earlier, if you include the design years before the computer’s public release. However, the company was originally founded to produce a computer called simply the Apple computer, later renamed the Apple I after the introduction of the Apple II in 1977, which was an instant runaway hit.
The Apple II was one of the most successful 8-bit computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and various models were in production all the way through 1993. It was definitely not a Mac in any sense. It had more in common with the Commodore 64, TRS-80, and the first IBM PC. That is: a 40/80-column character-cell screen for text, graphics modes with relatively coarse resolution and small color palettes, crude audio output, and disk storage dominated by 5-1/4 inch floppy disks. Software and hardware designed for the “Apple” (meaning the Apple II family) were in general not usable with the Macintosh.
I realize that it’s now 2004, and many people familiar with the Macintosh now would not necessarily be aware of the Apple II, or that the name Apple, for a computer, ever referred to anything besides a Mac. Aside from me, you probably won’t find many who care about the distinction. But it’s there nonetheless, and I felt compelled to point it out. (I can be insufferable that way.)
Nifty… thanks guys! I found an updated demo, and the sound effect smacking a mouse with a rock confirms it’s the game. Now I just need to get my hands on the original version…
As for age vs. playability, I would posit that if you haven’t played at least one of the Space Quest series of games, you’ve missed out on fun an order of magnitude larger than you’re getting right now. A fun game 15 years ago is a fun game today!
Oh, and Bytegeist - despite using the Apple II, IIc, IIgs, Mac Classic and others, I really was asking. Not a very clear cut distinction for anyone who hasn’t kept up on the corporation. I imagine some Mac people probably say the same about IBM and PCs…
Now if I can just remember what the game is called, I have half a chance of playing it again!
A fun game 15 years ago is a fun game today!