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Dark Castle - Is nothing sacred?


decle

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My son was given one of those cheap retro arcade machines as a secret santa. Among the 240 games was Dark Castle. Look familiar?

 

post-46336-0-37538100-1545316487_thumb.jpg

 

post-46336-0-09705600-1545316510_thumb.jpg

 

Interesting what they did and didn't copy. So the font comes, but not the bats or rats. And there isn't any music, perhaps even Chinese pirates have some respect for David Warhol's excellent work?

 

The boy is on the hunt for other Intellivision rip-offs...

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Wouldn't it be funny to have an Intellivoice version of Dark Castle?

 

If you aren't familiar with the old monochrome Mac game (forget the Electronic Arts port on Sega Genesis, please), turn up your sound:

 

 

I actually feel lightly sorry for the 2 bats on the second screen. They are just sleeping and some jerk with a rocks kills them. ;)

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Hey Guys,

At the risk of kicking off yet another "bad people are leading the Intellivision Community to Hell in a handbasket" thread, my son and I have taken one for the team and gone through all 240 games on his Retro Mini Arcade :? The results suggest that m-crew might have a point, once you start being "inspired" by other's work it seems it might be difficult to stop...

Fancy a game of Sub Hunt Silent Hunter anyone?

 

post-46336-0-03951200-1545414343_thumb.jpgpost-46336-0-37837400-1545414345_thumb.jpg

Sticking with the martime theme, Shark Shark Hexapod War looks strangely familiar. Before someone asks, yes the black eel thing is the shark and yes, you can tweak its tail:

 

post-46336-0-88073600-1545414313_thumb.jpg

Then there's the bizarrely named IQ Champion which is a slightly surreal take on Buzz Bombers...

 

post-46336-0-79919700-1545414336_thumb.jpgpost-46336-0-07155600-1545414317_thumb.jpg

However, the developer's don't seem to have felt that fully capture the essence of Buzz Bombers, so they gave it another crack with Hexapod New...

 

post-46336-0-46500300-1545414310_thumb.jpgpost-46336-0-32201100-1545414312_thumb.jpg

Although it has had a bit of a new skin, Air Alert plays alot like Astrosmash, including the decrementing score, background changes, death explosions and "Peak Score" screen:

 

post-46336-0-56283900-1545414297_thumb.jpgpost-46336-0-20947000-1545414299_thumb.jpg

Shrew Mouse is clearly a clone of SNAFU, it even has the same game selection screen:

 

post-46336-0-01939700-1545414341_thumb.jpgpost-46336-0-99226700-1545414338_thumb.jpg

Baseball New is an out and out lie, it comes straight from 1978...

 

post-46336-0-83406700-1545414303_thumb.jpg

Whilst it might not seem obvious from the name, I think that Surfg Sport's heritage is clear (no I have no idea how surfing through a future version of Venice works either)...

 

post-46336-0-61995200-1545414347_thumb.jpgpost-46336-0-48088300-1545414350_thumb.jpg

Warrior is Night Stalker, all day long

 

post-46336-0-11612400-1545414356_thumb.jpg

DaDa plays very like Popeye to me

 

post-46336-0-72250900-1545414305_thumb.jpg

Aimless feels alot like the battle part of Space Battle (although they totally failed to nail the fluid movement of the enemy patterns)

 

post-46336-0-99851200-1545414294_thumb.jpg

While it is a step up graphically, I can't help but notice how the spectators are all lounging around under umbrellas at the wood? in Volleyball 2P

 

post-46336-0-10803700-1545414353_thumb.jpg

So I make that 13 games in all. And that is before you consider games that were Intellivision ports like Mission-X or more generic games like Wrestling. For those that are interested, this is the machine in question. Yet another way in which the Intellivision legacy lives on, although perhaps not one Intellivision Entertainment would wish to publicise.

Happy Christmas everyone. I hope you have a good one, see you on the other side. :party:


decle

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Guys,

 

At the risk of kicking off yet another "bad people are leading the Intellivision Community to Hell in a handbasket" thread, my son and I have taken one for the team and gone through all 240 games on his Retro Mini Arcade :? The results suggest that m-crew might have a point, once you start being "inspired" by other's work it seems it might be difficult to stop...

 

Fancy a game of Sub Hunt Silent Hunter anyone?

 

attachicon.gifsilentHunter0.jpgattachicon.gifsilentHunter1.jpg

 

Sticking with the martime theme, Shark Shark Hexapod War looks strangely familiar. Before someone asks, yes the black eel thing is the shark and yes, you can tweak its tail:

 

attachicon.gifhexapodWar.jpg

 

Then there's the bizarrely named IQ Champion which is a slightly surreal take on Buzz Bombers...

 

attachicon.gifiqChampion2.jpgattachicon.gifiqChampion.jpg

 

However, the developer's don't seem to have felt that fully capture the essence of Buzz Bombers, so they gave it another crack with Hexapod New...

 

attachicon.gifhexapodNew1.jpgattachicon.gifhexapodNew2.jpg

 

Although it has had a bit of a new skin, Air Alert plays alot like Astrosmash, including the decrementing score, background changes, death explosions and "Peak Score" screen:

 

attachicon.gifairAlert1.jpgattachicon.gifairAlert2.jpg

 

Shrew Mouse is clearly a clone of SNAFU, it even has the same game selection screen:

 

attachicon.gifshrewMouse2.jpgattachicon.gifshrewMouse1.jpg

 

Baseball New is an out and out lie, it comes straight from 1978...

 

attachicon.gifbaseball.jpg

 

Whilst it might not seem obvious from the name, I think that Surfg Sport's heritage is clear (no I have no idea how surfing through a future version of Venice works either)...

 

attachicon.gifsurfgSport1.jpgattachicon.gifsurfgSport2.jpg

 

Warrior is Night Stalker, all day long

 

attachicon.gifwarrior.jpg

 

DaDa plays very like Popeye to me

 

attachicon.gifdada.jpg

 

Aimless feels alot like the battle part of Space Battle (although they totally failed to nail the fluid movement of the enemy patterns)

 

attachicon.gifaimless.jpg

 

While it is a step up graphically, I can't help but notice how the spectators are all lounging around under umbrellas at the wood? in Volleyball 2P

 

attachicon.gifvolleyball.jpg

 

So I make that 13 games in all. And that is before you consider games that were Intellivision ports like Mission-X or more generic games like Wrestling. For those that are interested, this is the machine in question. Yet another way in which the Intellivision legacy lives on, although perhaps not one Intellivision Entertainment would wish to publicise.

 

Happy Christmas everyone. I hope you have a good one, see you on the other side. :party:

 

 

decle

 

 

I have a similar plug and play unit with these same games. If the game list is the same as the one I have, then there's a bunch of sports games that are single events ripped from NES Track and Field.

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  • 2 weeks later...

88.Fighter, and 194.Man In Red, 224.Protect are Buzz Bombers re-skins, too. The movement patterns of the ... things is the same. Also, if you let the ... things reach the bottom of the screen, they fence you in. You get unlimited shots, though.

 

There are some elements in the pinball game that seem familiar, but only if you really stretch it.

 

'Antiquarium' == 'Air Alert'

122. Cannonade and 153. Star Fighter are re-skinned Astrosmash, too. You have hyperspace, large and small "diving ships" -- though they don't split... And these spinning bombs that, when they hit the ground, kill you -- with a red 'splody screen. You don't lose points though for missed rocks ships.

 

126.Devildom Doom == tweaked Night Stalker, sans safe house.

 

171.Deformable and 191.Lightning look a lot like the car race part of Triple Action

178.Fish Story looks like modified Shark! Shark!

 

206.Volley is also Volley 2P -- looks like exactly the same one twice.

240. Baseball Super == Baseball New.

 

There are two copies of a game that is Dig Dug, and surely there are plenty of other games on these things that are tweaked versions of other newer titles.

 

In fact there are quite a few outright duplicates it seems... Different name in the menu but exactly the same game starts up.

 

I suppose there isn't all that much value in documenting just how many times some of these old favorites get cloned, but there it is.

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Some of those do not look like Intellivision originals, but either ports themselves on the Intellivision, or inspired by common extant mechanics of contemporary arcade machines.

  • Popeye was an arcade before it was ported to the Intellivision.
  • There's very few ways to make a Pinball game, and they have existed since the early days of the Apple ][.
  • The Baseball game looks closer to something from the NES than from the Intellivision. The similarities are obviously driven by the nature of the game and common hardware limitations.
  • Aimless looks like another take on the "3D plane skimmer" mechanic like beamrider. There were early games like it back from the Apple ][ and C=64 days as well.
  • Buzz Bombers is obviously inspired by Centipede, if you want to get to that. ;)

However, some are obviously ripped off from Intellivision originals, like Shark! Shark! and Night Stalker. The rip-off of the latter is so obvious, it includes the spider web (although it is changed into some sort of chain-link fence).

 

But hey, if they play well and are cool, then that's what counts, no? Some of the original games play rather crappy or flawed on the Intellivision, even if the games themselves are very cool. I'm thinking of Buzz Bombers, with slow and unresponsive input handling; or Shark! Shark! with it's occassionally glitchy collisions.

 

-dZ.

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Regarding pinball games, a site like Atarimania has 118 variations for the Atari 8-bit computers designed using Pinball Construction Set, and of course there is room for more. The one game Nanochess posted a picture of seems more or less identical to the layout in the Intellivision Pinball game. So yes, while the concept of a such pinball game isn't exclusive to the Intellivision, the particular layout definitely is.

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There were 25 games in the original technosource Intellivision direct to tv unit. That pinball is definitely from there. If they look like nes games it's because they are essentially nes conversions of intellivision games. There was no popeye, beamrider, or any third party licensed games in the original 25. Buzz bombers and baseball were in the 25.

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This is kick ass. How do you emulate a MAC?

It IS kick ass.

 

To emulate an old Mac (not MAC, please) like this, MinivMac is the best emulator. You'll need a copy of the system ROM and disk images for the boot disks and games. It's probably easier if you are familiar with the original system.

 

Here's a prerolled version you can play in your browser.

http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/macplus-darkcastle/

 

WASD keys for walking (A for left, D for right, W for up stairs, S for down stairs)

SPACE for jump

Mouse up and down to aim

Click to throw a rock

TAB to pause

 

More here http://darkcastle.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Castle

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