Before Stephen King began publishing his magnum opus there was an electronic board game that capitalized on the Dungeons & Dragons craze known as Dark Tower. Featuring a built-in calculator, lavish graphics, and creepy (if admittedly dated) sounds, Dark Tower swept the gaming world by storm and is fondly remembered by many children of the 80s. Four years after the game debuted, it disappeared. Who finally defeated the Dark Tower and what can gamers do to find it again?
[h=3]The Tower Triumphant[/h]Dark Tower's play is straightforward: Up to four players roam through four realms, battling dragons and brigands in search of three mystic keys that unlock the Dark Tower. Gathering an army, the triumphant player must first solve the riddle of the keys and then wage a final battle with his warriors against the brigands within.
Board Game Geek explains the appeal:
Why is Dark Tower considered a classic? It's a combination of its appearance, its interactive nature, and the simulation of a mass-combat system:
Artist Bob Pepper's artwork is surely part of the appeal, as he explained in an interview:
Milton Bradley went all out, including a commercial narrated by Orson Welles:
The charm of Dark Tower is just one reason the game retails for over $300 today. Magisterrex explains:
Dark Tower was rare for another reason that has nothing to do with the game and everything to do with case law.
[h=3]Brick by Brick[/h]According to the legal record, the tale of the Dark Tower begins with the origin of another game entirely, Triumph. Invented by Alan Coleman and Roger Burten in 1979, Triumph was a prototype of microprocessor-controlled board game that Coleman and Burten demonstrated to Milton Bradley executives in 1980:
Was Triumph really the mist-shrouded origins of Dark Tower? Robert Hoffberg, who programmed Connect Four and Cosmic Hunter for the Microvision, describes the connection between the two as tenuous at best:
Hoffberg claims Dark Tower was in fact inspired by another game entirely:
Wilderness Campaign was released in June 1979 by Robert C. Clardy through Synergistic Software, Inc.:
Magisterrex isn't entirely convinced:
Dark Tower was registered as a trademark on January 12, 1981, by Paul N. Vanasse. He is currently the Director of Global IP and Enforcement as Hasbro.
[h=3]The Tower Falls[/h]It's not just Dark Tower's charm that has made the game so rare. Wikipedia explains:
Two years after Dark Tower was released, Coleman and Burten noticed something strange at a toy fair in New York:
Burten v. Milton Bradley Co. elaborates:
This judgment would change case law involving confidentiality agreements. That unfortunately doesn't change the rarity of the game, which is bad news for fans of Dark Tower. Fortunately, the Internet has given new life to the game.
[h=3]Building Your Own Tower[/h]Although it was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons-style gaming, Dark Tower relies most heavily on the exploration element that D&D in turn borrowed from Outdoor Survival, as Jon Peterson explains in Playing at the World:
Thoul's Paradise describes Dark Tower in D&D terms:
Dark Tower may best be utilized as an army simulation. It includes feeding and moving large groups of warriors, who succumb to plague, brigands, and dragons. In that regard the game could easily be used for player characters who are amassing small armies, with the final tower battle role-played out as part of a larger adventure. Fortunately, just about every element of Dark Tower can be replicated with other mechanics.
For gamers who want to play the board game, it's possible to print the original board and create your own tower at the center. You can see my version in the picture above. Because the original electronic towers are prone to breaking down, it's possible to use a smart phone to perform the same functions; there's an app for iPhone and Android devices, and even a handy guide on how to install them into a broken tower.
If you don't want to use your smart phone, you can reproduce the randomness of the encounters and treasure with the artwork from the game. I created my own customized deck of cards to reflect the randomness of the electronic simulator. For combat you can use dice as a mass battle simulator between warriors and brigands, and the inventory of items can be replicated with tokens and miniatures. I also created a set of customized rules to recreate the board game using dice or the aforementioned deck of cards.
The game setting can serve as inspiration for a campaign. At least one enterprising game master adapted the board game to a hex-crawl. If you just want to play the game, there are Java-based, Flash-based, and iOS versions.
Although Dark Tower is long gone, its legacy -- in board gaming, in technology, and even in case law -- lives on. Dark Tower may have been inspired by the D&D craze but it forged its own brief path that gamers everywhere still try to recapture to this day.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.
[h=3]The Tower Triumphant[/h]Dark Tower's play is straightforward: Up to four players roam through four realms, battling dragons and brigands in search of three mystic keys that unlock the Dark Tower. Gathering an army, the triumphant player must first solve the riddle of the keys and then wage a final battle with his warriors against the brigands within.
Board Game Geek explains the appeal:
Dated and primitive by today's standards, Dark Tower was nevertheless an astonishing achievement when it was released in 1981. Every aspect of the game was monitored by a small computer inside the black plastic shell of the tower itself, an unheard of innovation at the time. Players input their moves on a small membrane keypad each turn and the computer took over from there, doing everything from conducting the progress of battles to keeping track of how much (or little) food was left to feed the players' always hungry warriors. It could even play recognizable pieces of music at significant points during the game.
Why is Dark Tower considered a classic? It's a combination of its appearance, its interactive nature, and the simulation of a mass-combat system:
Dark Tower deserves to be called a classic thanks to the imposing plastic tower that dominates its board--the tower houses a computer that controls the entire game, which entails playing out battles, tracking players' loot, army size and food supply. The Tower plays dual roles as antagonist and dungeon master, exemplifying the "play against the board" gameplay later electronic board games would adopt...As an experience, Dark Tower is something special. The whir of the tower's motors, its beeps and boops, and the backlit film cells are charming and technologically impressive for a 31-year-old device...The play experience comes from interacting with the tower and watching helplessly as it controls your destiny. Random (and often punishing) events lend Dark Tower the old school feel of an 80s video game--a rarity in modern gaming on consoles or tabletops. Most of the electronic board games preceding Dark Tower did little to justify their tacked-on circuitry; Dark Tower created an experience impossible to replicate any other way.
Artist Bob Pepper's artwork is surely part of the appeal, as he explained in an interview:
They then gave me their next "biggy" designed to cash-in on the new Dungeons & Dragons craze, "Dark Tower". The proposed artwork on this was not as open to possibilities as before, because of the relationship of the illustrations to the game, and consequently less intriguing for me. It was still very exciting to work on, and I was happy with the results, although I think they should have had me design the board and the box, because it is a mess, pasted together with cutouts of my art.
Milton Bradley went all out, including a commercial narrated by Orson Welles:
The company took an aggressive advertising stance, hiring Orson Welles to star in the commercial designed to hawk the game on Saturday morning TV shows. The commercial was a masterpiece, with Welles’ commanding voice intoning not only how the game was played but how he was “victorious.” Electronic games were still fairly novel, and therefore somewhat expensive, but between the commercial and the sheer “cool” factor of the game, it looked like Dark Tower was set to become yet another Milton Bradley classic.
The charm of Dark Tower is just one reason the game retails for over $300 today. Magisterrex explains:
It could be the collective memory of playing the game, but at its original price point (more expensive than a regular board game; reading people’s recollections of how much they paid run the gamut from $40 to $130, which goes to show you how subjective our memories can be…but I digress.), it was not as ubiquitous on North American game shelves as a game such as Monopoly, which would belie that hypothesis. Perhaps it is as simple as the memory of wanting to play Dark Tower, but not being able to afford it – or being able to convince the responsible parental units to purchase it. That desire for a memory that could have been may be driving the price of Dark Tower.
Dark Tower was rare for another reason that has nothing to do with the game and everything to do with case law.
[h=3]Brick by Brick[/h]According to the legal record, the tale of the Dark Tower begins with the origin of another game entirely, Triumph. Invented by Alan Coleman and Roger Burten in 1979, Triumph was a prototype of microprocessor-controlled board game that Coleman and Burten demonstrated to Milton Bradley executives in 1980:
Milton Bradley has a policy to consider game ideas only from inventors known to it, and only after inventors agree to sign its "Disclosure Record" form. Appellants willingly signed Milton Bradley's standard disclosure agreement which ostensibly delineates the parties' rights pending evaluation of the product, and Triumph was accepted for review. The disclosure agreement contained language to the effect that the submission was undertaken voluntarily, that no relationship to Milton Bradley was to be implied from the company's willingness to review the idea, that Milton Bradley assumed no obligation to accept the product, and that the disclosing party was to retain all rights under United States patent laws. The disclosure agreement also authorized Milton Bradley to reproduce for its records all material submitted. Appellants failed to secure a contract on the first review of Triumph, so they modified the game and resubmitted it to Milton Bradley after signing new disclosure agreements. Triumph again was rejected by Milton Bradley.
Was Triumph really the mist-shrouded origins of Dark Tower? Robert Hoffberg, who programmed Connect Four and Cosmic Hunter for the Microvision, describes the connection between the two as tenuous at best:
I was employed at Milton Bradley at the time Triumph game was shown to them (approx March 1980). From my memory, Triumph was a game that was based on space travel (moving around the universe). The only commonality between Triumph and Dark Tower was a game board with a controller positioned in center of the board.
Hoffberg claims Dark Tower was in fact inspired by another game entirely:
Dark Tower is based on an Apple II computer game "Wilderness" which many of us played at Milton Bradley. The concept for the game (taken from Wilderness) and adapting it for multiplayer (including solving of the key sequence to win in order to give another player of winning who is a few turns behind), predated my viewing of Triumph. I knew Allen Coleman (I shared an office with for a period in 1979 when worked for Milton Bradley), so I distinctly remember Allan Coleman bringing in the Triumph prototype. The credit for the game should go to Vince Erato, who also created Big Trak.
Wilderness Campaign was released in June 1979 by Robert C. Clardy through Synergistic Software, Inc.:
The sequel to Dungeon Campaign takes graphical role-playing games on a very early foray to the great outdoors, with extra enhancements and added game mechanics inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Wilderness Campaign is another turn-based affair set in a fantasy world, this time starring a party of adventurers on a mission to save the once-prosperous realm of Draconia from the unpleasant Necromancer, who's running things from his magically-protected keep.
Magisterrex isn't entirely convinced:
After watching the YouTube video of “Wilderness Campaign“, some similarities between it and Dark Tower can be seen, but the reality is that the same can be said about half the published (and unpublished!) AD&D game modules of the era. Trekking through the wilderness, running into random encounters, heading into a store for more supplies, and ultimately facing the evil Overlord in his castle were standard motiffs of the day. So, perhaps Mr. Hoffberg is correct, perhaps not; without further evidence, the court’s opinion continues to be the historical record that the Dark Tower story is based on.
Dark Tower was registered as a trademark on January 12, 1981, by Paul N. Vanasse. He is currently the Director of Global IP and Enforcement as Hasbro.
[h=3]The Tower Falls[/h]It's not just Dark Tower's charm that has made the game so rare. Wikipedia explains:
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.
Two years after Dark Tower was released, Coleman and Burten noticed something strange at a toy fair in New York:
A year later the pair saw Dark Tower being demonstrated at a toy fair in New York, and concluded that Milton Bradley had stolen their game concept, and pursued legal action, suing Milton Bradley for fraud, breach of contract and two counts of trade secret misappropriation.
Burten v. Milton Bradley Co. elaborates:
Because appellants believed that Dark Tower contained significant structural and design similarities to Triumph, they brought this action for trade secret misappropriation...At the close of appellants' case, the fraud count was withdrawn, the court directed a verdict for Milton Bradley on the contract claim, and denied without prejudice Milton Bradley's motion for a directed verdict on the misappropriation counts. After the lengthy trial was concluded, the jury returned a general verdict for Coleman and Burten in the amount of $737,058.10 for royalties based on the Dark Tower profits. Milton Bradley moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and the district court, after a meticulous survey of the cases, which it recognized posed a "surprisingly close question", set aside the verdict. We share the court's view of the closeness of the question, but feel constrained to allow the verdict to stand.
This judgment would change case law involving confidentiality agreements. That unfortunately doesn't change the rarity of the game, which is bad news for fans of Dark Tower. Fortunately, the Internet has given new life to the game.
[h=3]Building Your Own Tower[/h]Although it was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons-style gaming, Dark Tower relies most heavily on the exploration element that D&D in turn borrowed from Outdoor Survival, as Jon Peterson explains in Playing at the World:
The object of Outdoor Survival is to navigate a wilderness, though there are five scenarios providing distinct justifications for doing so: for example, lost players returning to civilization at the edges of the map or racing to find the object of a search party. Given that the board itself is not a secret from the players (Outdoor Survival has no referee), some other means is required to simulate being lost in the woods, since the players necessarily command a bird’s-eye view of the environment. Dice therefore determine whether or not players are lost, and if so, in which direction they will wander. The board is overlain with a hexagonal grid, segmenting the board into hexagons about 1.5 centimeters across; as there are six possible directions on a hexagonal board to move, a six-sided die can easily dictate the orientation of lost players. Each hex contains a particular terrain type, in much the manner of Hellwig: there are mountains, swamps, rivers, deserts, plains and even roads (well, trails).
Thoul's Paradise describes Dark Tower in D&D terms:
In essence, Dark Tower is a campaign in a capsulized form, complete with an end goal and roles suitable for player characters: the leader, a scout, a healer, a wizard, perhaps even a merchant to haggle at the bazaar.
Dark Tower may best be utilized as an army simulation. It includes feeding and moving large groups of warriors, who succumb to plague, brigands, and dragons. In that regard the game could easily be used for player characters who are amassing small armies, with the final tower battle role-played out as part of a larger adventure. Fortunately, just about every element of Dark Tower can be replicated with other mechanics.
For gamers who want to play the board game, it's possible to print the original board and create your own tower at the center. You can see my version in the picture above. Because the original electronic towers are prone to breaking down, it's possible to use a smart phone to perform the same functions; there's an app for iPhone and Android devices, and even a handy guide on how to install them into a broken tower.
If you don't want to use your smart phone, you can reproduce the randomness of the encounters and treasure with the artwork from the game. I created my own customized deck of cards to reflect the randomness of the electronic simulator. For combat you can use dice as a mass battle simulator between warriors and brigands, and the inventory of items can be replicated with tokens and miniatures. I also created a set of customized rules to recreate the board game using dice or the aforementioned deck of cards.
The game setting can serve as inspiration for a campaign. At least one enterprising game master adapted the board game to a hex-crawl. If you just want to play the game, there are Java-based, Flash-based, and iOS versions.
Although Dark Tower is long gone, its legacy -- in board gaming, in technology, and even in case law -- lives on. Dark Tower may have been inspired by the D&D craze but it forged its own brief path that gamers everywhere still try to recapture to this day.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.
