So I've posted a lot about Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, but now I'm going to talk a a bit about one of the games that I actually played in the early 1980s, Milton bradley's Dark Tower. I played this probably more than any other game between 1981 and 1986 and loved every minute of it. If you aren't familiar with the game, here is a video of the game in actual play. It doesn't show the full game, just the demo for learning how to play, but it gives a decent feel of the game.
The goal of the game was to circle the board, searching for the three magical keys and gathering an army so that you could lay siege to the Dark Tower and recover the magical scepter from the Tyrant King. All the while you had to contend with getting lost in the trackless wastes, fighting marauding brigands, deadly plagues, a capricious warlock, and of course, a fire breathing dragon.
You could visit the bazaar to buy warriors and food. You could visit ruins and tombs in search of treasure. You could even visit the sanctuary for assistance if things went wrong for your expedition. All the while, the tower in the center controlled what happens through the magic of 1980s computer technology. The game truly did live up to its billing as "A FANTASY ADVENTURE BORN OF ELECTRONIC WIZARDRY". Here are a few other pictures of the game.
 |
| The Dark Tower in all its glory |
 |
| A closeup of the kingdom of Brynthia |
UPDATE: James Merrill provided a link to another flash version of Dark Tower with very fancy visuals.
1 comment:
Hello, I'm writing a book about dead malls and there is a section on popular games from the 80s. I wrote a feature story on Dark Tower and would like to use the picture of the game board set up that you have on your page. Do I have permission to use this picture? I will credit you and your website. I hope to hear from you. Thank you.
Jon Callahan
Post a Comment