About the Dark Tower site
The Dark Tower site is
brought to you by the Well of Souls. It was created
on 9/1/97, and was my very first web site, so forgive the sloppy nature of the pages.
This site is not connected with or endorsed by Milton Bradley (or its parent company, Hasbro) in any way.
Most images on
this site and much of the text are scanned from the instruction booklet that comes with the
game. They are used without permission. Big thanks go out to Death Lock
for recording and sending in the sounds.
Dark Tower FAQ
Where can I get a copy of the game?
Dark
Tower has been out of print for many years now, so the only way to get a
copy is to find one second-hand. Needless to say, complete working copies of the game are
rare. If you are willing to pay $150 or more, you can often find games for sale at eBay (search for "dark tower game"). Various pieces to the game
can also be purchased at Gamepart.com.
According to
Polygon.com, Gloomhaven is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign some
time in 2019 for a planned relaunch of Dark Tower in 2020.
Who did the original artwork for Dark Tower?
The artwork for both Dark Tower and Dragonmaster was done by illustrator Bob
Pepper, who
has also been responsible for many children's books and science fiction and
fantasy book covers.
Mr. Pepper was kind enough to answer a few questions about his experience
creating the game, which I have posted here. Mr.
Pepper has since
passed
away, in January of 2019.
My Tower is broken! Any chance I can get it fixed?
Simple problems, especially with the carousel, can usually be fixed by opening up
the Tower and having a look-see. There is a common ailment with old Towers which is
relatively easy to fix. Symptom: When I turn on the Tower, I can see the
red "00" and then flashing "--" on the
numeric display, but when I press a button to begin play, it dies. Diagnosis:
The motor that drives the carousel has likely become stuck. Solution:
It's a fairly easy matter to open the Tower (from the bottom) with a screwdriver and
manually free up the motor. If for some reason the motor is still dead, it
can be replaced, but it will take some tinkering... standard motors that
you can buy often require resistors to get them to spin at the correct
speed, and/or gears to get them to spin in the correct direction. Gamepart.com offers to repair Dark Tower units, for a substantial fee.
Has anyone made a computer version of Dark Tower?
Michael Bommer has coded a Java version
of
Dark Tower (v1.0.4, 11/25/03), which you can download here: program
(1.9 MB ZIP), docs (295 KB ZIP), source
(1.8 MB ZIP).
Paul J Taylor has created a
Flash version.
There is an
Android
version of Dark Tower, and an
iOS version.
Tabletop Simulator (Steam) has a
mod for Dark Tower.
If anyone else
has a completed
software version of Dark Tower, contact me
and I'll be happy to post info about it here.
Note also that there was an unpublished Vectrex
version of the game.
What the heck was DragonMaster?
DragonMaster
is an unrelated card game (which plays very much like Hearts) released by MB at about the
same time as Dark Tower. It features artwork by the same artist, which has a very similar
fantasy theme. Accordingly, I decided to include artwork from this game in the Dark Tower
site. And before you ask, DragonMaster is also long out of print.
What the heck was Triumph?
Triumph was a prototype game that was, according to a successful legal suit, the
indirect ancestor of Dark Tower. For more information, see the Triumph
page.
What the heck was Atlantis?
Atlantis seems to have been a German release of Dark Tower. It had a
different box and manual; the tag line was Das Imperium kehrt zurück
("The Empire returns"). The board
was also different, with a watery theme, and there were plastic bins for
the pieces. Otherwise, however, the gameplay seems to have been identical.
Will they ever remake Dark Tower?
Restoration Games in currently working on a "sequel" called
Return to Dark Tower, slated for release in February 2021. It appears to be quite
different in many respects, and is very much in the vein of modern Kickstarter niche hobby boardgames; it is much more complex, and moves the
display from the tower to a mobile app, and I'm assuming it will be quite
expensive. The tower itself is now mechanical with opening doors and a
series of rotating chutes; you drop playing pieces (skulls) into the top,
and they are discharged to a random location on the board (a little bit like
Restoration's previous title, Fireball Island. The game is now cooperative
instead of competitive for 1 to 4 players, there are a variety of different
character classes to play, and a variety of different foes to face in the
tower and scenarios to determine victory. For more information,
see the
Polygon article here, or a
video
preview here.
The Kickstarter is live now!
Will
they ever remake Dragonmaster?
Yes, Restoration Games has released an updated version of Dragonmaster
called Indulgence. It
combines elements of of Dragonmaster and a 1966 trick-taking card game
called Coup d'Etat, with a Renaissance Italian theme rather than a
fantasy theme, but features card artwork in a very similar style to that of
Dragonmaster. Instead of magic crystals, players earn silver florin coins
and gems. A leader sets an edict card (a rule such as "Don't take any
Medicis), and other players choose to either abide by this rule or break it
to earn a "Sinner" bonus. Sinners can use the Indulgance, a jeweled ring
that lets them turn any card into a 10. Players can use Papal Bull cards to
replace the edicts with a new set.
If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, feel free to contact me at arioch@well-of-souls.com
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