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.
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.
(Thanks to Brett McLeod for the info.)
Mr. Pepper was kind enough to answer a few questions about his experience
creating the game, which I have posted here.
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.
Dark Tower Parts also sells
replacement pieces.
Has anyone made a computer version of Dark Tower?
Hot Flash Games has a nice
Flash version of Dark Tower that can
be played online here.
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). If you have trouble running it, please contact Michael and not me.
Another Flash version of Dark Tower (v0.98) by Paul J. Taylor (multiplayer only) was located here, but the page is no longer active.
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 is 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 is Triumph?
Triumph was a prototype game that was, according to a legal suit, the
indirect ancestor of Dark Tower. For more information, see the Triumph
page.
What the heck is 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.
If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, feel free to contact me at arioch@well-of-souls.com