Dark Tower

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DragonMaster card game

Vectrex Dark Tower game

Triumph: Origins of Dark Tower

 


 

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Milton Bradley Games

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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