Dark Tower (game)

Last updated
Dark Tower
Dark tower box cover.jpg
Designers Roger Burten
Alan Coleman
Vincent Erato
IllustratorsBob Pepper
Publishers Milton Bradley
Publication1981;43 years ago (1981)
Players1–4
Playing time90'
Age range10+

Dark Tower is a 1981 electronic board game, by Milton Bradley Company, for one to four players. The object of the game is to amass an army, collect the three keys to the Tower, and defeat the evil within. The game came out during the height of the role-playing game craze in the early 1980s. Advertising for the game included a television commercial featuring Orson Welles.

Contents

A sequel, Return to Dark Tower , was developed by Restoration Games and released in 2022. [1]

Components

The game consists of a battery-powered center unit (the Dark Tower), a circular cardboard game board divided into four interlocking quarters (with a hole in the middle for the Tower), four cardboard tokens, several plastic flags, playing pieces, and locations which are placed in holes in the board. In addition, there are several peg boards (with red Battleship -type pegs) used to keep track of a player's number of troops, gold and food.

The Tower itself consists of a small membrane keyboard beneath a "display" (a piece of tinted plastic). Behind the display cover is a carousel containing a number of film cels, which, when backlit by one of three lights mounted underneath, display the appropriate picture on the display cover. The display cover also conceals a digital LED display for representing numbers up to 99. As the Tower rotates and illuminates the appropriate cells during gameplay, it also emits sounds for the events represented by each cell.

The artwork was by Bob Pepper. [2]

Gameplay

To play, each player takes turns rotating the Tower to face them and then moving their chosen hero about the board either clockwise or anticlockwise. The quarter of the board in front of a particular player is their territory. Gameplay proceeds by moving a player's token one space and then pressing a button on the Tower that corresponds to the type of space (e.g., Sanctuary, Tomb, Bazaar, Frontier, free/unoccupied space and ultimately onto the Dark Tower space). The Tower then resolves what happens to the player by showing the player the appropriate cel and reporting whatever occurs. For instance, if the Tower decides that the player has encountered Brigands, it will turn to the Brigands cel, simultaneously displaying the number of brigands encountered. If the player chooses to fight, the Tower resolves the battle by alternately counting off the remaining numbers of friendly troops and Brigands down to a win or loss(unless the hero runs from the battle..). Once all events have resolved, the Tower is rotated to the next player and their turn begins.

Each territory besides a player's own contains one of three keys—bronze, silver and gold, in that order—needed to unlock the Tower. The location of the key is randomly determined by the Tower. Each player will therefore need to travel around the board, through each of the other three players' territories, until the player has all three keys. At this point, the player returns to their territory, buys reinforcements for a maximum complement of warriors, and then attempts to unlock the tower with a key code which once cracked brings them to the final battle to defeat the Tower, which contains a predetermined number of defenders inside. The first player to beat the Tower wins the game; losing requires building up another army.

Rarity

Working copies of Dark Tower are increasingly difficult to find and thus highly sought after by collectors. This is primarily due to two things: (1) wear and tear on the tower unit, which tended to experience technical faults with the light bulbs and carousel after prolonged use, and (2) the fact that the game went out of print shortly after release due to a lawsuit brought against Milton Bradley for intellectual property theft.

Litigation

Dark Tower was the subject of trade secret litigation in 1985. Two independent game developers named Robert Burton and Allen Coleman submitted a game to Milton Bradley titled "Triumph" that involved an electronic tower as the centerpiece. Milton Bradley rejected the game, but proceeded to release Dark Tower some time later. The inventors sued for misappropriation of trade secrets and won a jury verdict for over $700,000. The trial judge, however, vacated the jury's judgement. Despite finding that Milton Bradley had likely "plagiarized the plaintiffs' idea without so much as a by-your-leave" the judge proceeded to issue a directed verdict for the defendant because Burton and Coleman had signed a contract waiving any contractual relationship (which arguably included any duty of confidentiality). The First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, finding evidence that Milton Bradley entered an implied agreement to keep the game confidential and reinstated the damage award. [3]

Reception

Games magazine included Dark Tower in their "Top 100 Games of 1981", noting especially how the "tower itself swivels so that each player alone views what happens to his own band of warriors". [4]

In a retrospective review of Dark Tower in Black Gate , Scott Taylor said "as I remembered Dark Tower, and its card game predecessor Dragonmaster, I couldn't help but get incredibly nostalgic. There was something truly unique about those games, something almost spiritual, and I can credit this most certainly with the artist who brought them to us, Bob Pepper." [5]

Reviews

Legacy

Several web-based versions of the game have been developed over the years; an app called Droid Tower developed by Muse of Water was available for Android; and a similar app by MacCrafters is available for iOS.

Sequel

Return to Dark Tower was launched on Kickstarter on January 14, 2020, by Restoration Games as a cooperative game for 1-4 players. [7] Designed by Isaac Childres and Rob Daviau, the creators of Gloomhaven and Pandemic Legacy respectively, the game features a motorized rotating tower guided by an app. [8] The game is tentatively set to have fulfillment commence before end of July 2021. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Scotland Yard</i> (board game) 1983 board game

Scotland Yard is a board game in which a team of players controlling different detectives cooperate to track down a player controlling a criminal as they move around a board representing the streets of London. It was first published in 1983. It is named after Scotland Yard which is the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police Service in real-life. Scotland Yard is an asymmetric board game, during which the detective players cooperatively solve a variant of the pursuit–evasion problem. The game is published by Ravensburger in most of Europe and Canada and by Milton Bradley in the United States. It received the Spiel des Jahres award in 1983-the same year that it was published.

<i>Twister</i> (game) Game of physical skill

Twister is a game of physical skill produced by Milton Bradley Company and Winning Moves Games USA. It is played on a large plastic mat that is spread on the floor or ground. The mat has four rows of six large colored circles on it with a different color in each row: red, yellow, green and blue. A spinner tells players where they have to place their hand or foot. The game promotes itself as "the game that ties you up in knots".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axis & Allies</span> World War II strategy board game series

Axis & Allies is a series of World War II strategy board games. The first version was initially published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as Axis & Allies: Classic was published in 1984. Played on a board depicting a Spring 1942 political map of Earth divided by territories, players take the role of one or more of the five major belligerents of World War II: the Axis powers of Germany and Japan; and the Allied powers of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Turns rotate among these belligerents, who control armies of playing pieces with which they attempt to capture enemy territories, with results determined by dice rolls. The object of the game is to win the war by capturing enough critical territories to gain the advantage over the enemy.

<i>Jenga</i> Game played with a tower of blocks

Jenga is a game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili word "kujenga" which means 'to build or construct'. Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively more unstable structure. The game ends when the tower falls over.

<i>Battleship</i> (game) Strategy type guessing game for two players

Battleship is a strategy type guessing game for two players. It is played on ruled grids on which each player's fleet of warships are marked. The locations of the fleets are concealed from the other player. Players alternate turns calling "shots" at the other player's ships, and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing player's fleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dungeon crawl</span> Type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games

A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment, battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games and board games which predominantly feature dungeon crawl elements are considered to be a genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shogun (1986 board game)</span>

Shogun is a board wargame set in feudal Japan, first released in 1986 by game maker Milton Bradley.

Advanced HeroQuest is a board game published by Games Workshop in 1989, a sequel to HeroQuest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merlin (console)</span> Early handheld electronic video game

Merlin is a handheld electronic game first made by Parker Brothers in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooperative board game</span> Type of board game

Cooperative board games are board games in which players work together to achieve a common goal rather than competing against each other. Either the players win the game by reaching a pre-determined objective, or all players lose the game, often by not reaching the objective before a certain event ends the game.

<i>Easy Money</i> (board game)

Easy Money or The Game of Easy Money was a board game introduced by Milton Bradley Company in 1935. Like Monopoly, the game is based on The Landlord's Game in the movement of pieces around the board, the use of cards, properties that can be purchased, and houses that can be established on them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Bradley</span> American publisher and game designer

Milton Bradley was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and folded in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thunder Road (board game)</span>

Thunder Road is a post-apocalyptic themed racing board game invented by Jim Keifer and published by Milton Bradley. Using an assortment of four different vehicles each ranging from a modified dune buggy to a gyrocopter, players must race down an infinite roadway against one another. The goal of the game for players is to either be the last player team alive or simply out race the other teams. Although the game was originally published by Milton Bradley in 1986, Hasbro currently owns the rights to the game, since it acquired Milton Bradley in 1984.

<i>The Game of Life</i> Board game created in 1860

The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as The Checkered Game for Life, the first ever board game for his own company, the Milton Bradley Company. The Game of Life was US's first popular parlour game. The game simulates a person's travels through their life, from early adulthood to retirement, with college if necessary, jobs, marriage, and possible children along the way. Up to six players, depending on the version, can participate in a single game. Variations of the game accommodate up to ten players.

<i>Mansions of Madness</i> Flight games

Mansions of Madness is a tabletop strategy game designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2011. Players explore a locale filled with Lovecraftian horrors and solve a mystery.

<i>Trump: The Game</i> Board game

Trump: The Game is a board game named after Donald Trump. Milton Bradley Company initially released the game in 1989, but it sold poorly, with only 800,000 copies sold out of an expected two million. Parker Brothers re-released Trump: The Game in 2004 following the success of Trump's reality television series, The Apprentice, from earlier that year. Trump: The Game received poor reviews from critics and the public audience.

<i>Darkover</i> (board game) Board game

Darkover, subtitled "The Ages of Chaos", is a board game published by Eon Products in 1979 that is based on the Darkover novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

<i>Loopin Louie</i> Childrens game

Loopin' Louie, is an interactive electronic board game designed by Carol Wiseley and published by Milton Bradley in 1992. It was given the Kinderspiel des Jahres award in 1994. Although the game is designed for a maximum of 4 players, unofficial modifications were made by modders to increase the maximum number of players to eight. A Star Wars variation called "Loopin' Chewie" was produced by Hasbro in 2015.

Return to Dark Tower is a board game for one to four players, designed and published by Restoration Games. The game is a sequel to the 1981 board game Dark Tower, by Milton Bradley Company. Return to Dark Tower has players cooperate or compete as they rule over kingdoms surrounding the titular Tower, with their chosen "heroes" gathering resources, defeating monsters and enhancing their strength. As the game progresses, the Tower dispenses corruption across the land, which players must cleanse, while also looking to identify the foe inhabiting the Tower, so that they may defeat it, to win the game. Return to Dark Tower features a circular mat that is sectioned into quarters, to represent the kingdoms, with a Bluetooth-powered Tower at the center, which is connected to an app that runs the game.

Bob Pepper was an American illustrator whose work included record and paperback covers, greeting cards, magazine illustrations and game artwork, between the 1960s and 1980s.

References

  1. ↑ "Return to Dark Tower".
  2. ↑ Arioch. "Conversation with Bob Pepper". Dark Tower. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  3. ↑ Burton v. Milton Bradley Co., 763 F.2d 461 (1st Cir. 1985)
  4. ↑ "Top 100 Games of 1981". Games . No. 26. November–December 1981. p. 44.
  5. ↑ "Art of the Genre: Dark Tower and Bob Pepper – Black Gate".
  6. ↑ https://archive.org/details/familygames100be0000unse/page/80/mode/2up
  7. ↑ Marks, Tom (January 13, 2020). "Return to Dark Tower: First Impressions and Unboxing Its Massive Mechanical Tower". IGN . Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  8. ↑ Hall, Charlie (January 14, 2020). "The Gloomhaven and Pandemic Legacy creators team up for a new project". Polygon . Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  9. ↑ Restoration Games. "IMPORTANT: Production and Fulfillment Timeline Update" . Retrieved 2021-02-27. Let's get right to it: We are going to miss our original estimate of beginning fulfillment in February 2021. We now expect fulfillment to begin in July.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.