I never thought I would own a working copy of Dark Tower (1981). Now that I do, it kind of terrifies me. The box is gigantic! The tower worked when I bought it, but it is so legendarily fussy, I’m loathe to turn it on again. And, honestly, it looms so singularly in my consciousness that it just intimidates the hell out of me. Safely in the box, all my preconceptions about the game remain intact.
Here are the basics: it’s an electronic game. Each player controls a quarter of the board, their kingdom, and seeks to raise an army to find the three keys that allow them to lay siege to the tower and it’s evil. While they move about the board, much of the action of the game is interacting with the tower, which presents and resolves events, and generally tracks their progress. There’s a digital display, but also a number of back-lit slides featuring Bob Pepper’s art work (which correspond to events). It’s a very impressive, if finicky, bit of tech for 1981.
The game was designed to take advantage of the momentary rise in popularity of the fantasy genre generally and D&D in particular — it was very much for folks who were curious about D&D but didn’t want to be a D&D weirdo and had the money to indulge. Despite investing a staggering amount of money into the game (including on an ad featuring Orson Welles), Milton Bradley kept it on shelves for only a single holiday season because it got entangled in a lawsuit claiming the design was stolen (which it seems M-B eventually lost to the tune of $750k in 1985). Having read a bit about it, I’m not convinced that was the right result. Nevertheless, the suit certainly shortened Dark Tower’s longevity. Because of that, the small number of units produced and their relative fragility, working copies are genuinely scarce today.
Part of the problem for me is that the game came out when I was three years old. By the time I became aware of the game, it was an immediate object of interest, but already largely a ruin whenever I encountered it. One kid, whose older brother had the game, used the box as a toy chest for his monsters; the game itself was nowhere to be found. Another friend was sure he had it, but could never find it, or maybe it was busted when he did. I knew a guy in college who had a dusty, broken tower on his dresser. When I crack open the box, I feel like I’m visiting an abandoned place.
So I’ve let Return to Dark Tower fill the void. It’s a good alternative, but admittedly, something is lost in the move to modern razzle-dazzle. Bob Pepper’s art carries so much of the mystique of the original. Like Dragonmaster (but unlike most of his book cover work, oddly), the art here seems archetypal, but for a system that is beyond our knowledge. Similar to the way we can identify religious objects that are Celtic but, because they left no written record, the details of their practice are lost.
I’m loathe to spoil such a rare mystery.
[Update: Since writing this, I spoiled the mystery. We fired up the game and it made for an enjoyable time experience, a bit simple and straightforward (and complicated for one player by a glitch) that was made sort of magical by the way the tower works, sounds and focuses attention. It lacks some of the complexity and wow-factor of Return but, I think I like it a smidge more?]
I spent many more hours playing that game than I should have. I didn’t use the map, cards or any of the tokens. Just played it like a proto-gameboy.
Love Bob Pepper’s art. I am curious about the lawsuit and will have to research that further.
I just looked around and can’t find any of the documents I read re: the suit. They used to be gettable on the web, but search stinks now and I can’t seem to be able to dig ’em out.
i had no idea that the game was so rare, or short-lived, because we played the hell out of it. Even that’s surprising – my parents were a little anti-video games, we didn’t have any other electronic games, but somehow they got me this. We played it ALL TIME. And we LOVED it. I don’t remember any glitches with the tower at the time, but I do remember it was a monster battery hog.
A couple of years ago, I was clearing stuff out of my parent’s house, and discovered the Dark Tower box – still intact, with the tower and all the pieces inside! I put in new batteries, and was deeply saddened when the tower turned on (got some lights and sounds), but beyond that didn’t seem to work. I’m sure there’s corrosion in the components inside. Damn. I’d have loved to play it with my own kid.
There are folks who will refurbish it!
I remember this game being all the rage for that one season but neither I nor any of my friends were amongst the lucky ones. However, reading this made me nostalgic for the time and I was bowled over when i was looking at the art for the game you have up above! I owned and my friends and I played a fair amount of Dragonmaster, so I immediately recognized Bob Pepper’s art. I remember it being the best part of Dragonmaster, but it was fantastic! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonmaster_(card_game)
The Dragonmaster art is SO good.
I have only the vaguest memories of knowing about this.
Also, DAMN, Stu, your house must be so big! I’m on a total boardgame moratorium and need to clear out twelve or fifteen shelf feet of gaming stuff or we will literally drown in it. I mean, I live in a four-room railroad apartment, but still. Things have grown DIRE.
That said, I ordered your book this evening. I was already pledging too much to Marathon, so why not!
It helps that I have a converted garage, ut even then, I purge regularly. And need to do so more. Wanna buy some stuff? Ha!
Thanks for buying the book, man! Hope you don’t hate it!
I played this game incessantly as a kid of 10 until God knows when. Absolutely obsessed with Bob Pepper’s art style to this day. Had an artist friend paint 20×20 versions of all the panels on the Tower for my bedroom. Bought the Dragonmaster card game a few years back, too. Just had to have that art.
And yes, you can get Dark Towers refurbished and mailed back to you. Just do a little web searching and you’ll find someone. I’ve lost the contact info I had for the guy I used a dozen years ago when I bought a broken one and had it fixed, but they are still out there.