What's in the box
Variants of this Box
All from this Series
2 variants
The artist behind this box art
The box art of this game was done by David Wyatt.
Get more details from the official website and via Mobygames or Wikipedia.
Memories
Up until Castle Master, all games purchased for our beloved C64 were budget tapes released by e.g. Mastertronic or CodeMasters. While the games were usually fun, the packaging was just a clear plastic case with the minimal instructions on the inlay. As kids with not much money to spend this was of course very welcomed and to be honest, I didn't really know that there were other forms of game boxes.
One day, at the local Niedermayer store, I did spot something different though. A new title on the shelf, a game for C64 but not just a tape but it's a little cardboard box that had the tape as well as a booklet with all the instructions inside.
The box art was spectacular looking too! A spooky looking castle, a looming red sky and thunder strikes crashing through the night. Above, the game's title: Castle Master. I grabbed the box right away for closer inspection and I just couldn't believe what I saw: detailed rooms and a scary looking monster, all in 3D!
I can't remember if I bought it right away or if I had to check my piggy bank first but I did end up taking it home. The box was in German, but the manual was in English, but I had asked my uncle to help translate it and in the end, we had figured it all out.
Well, the game. The 3D was - and IMHO still is - breathtaking, even though it ran at ~1 frames per second only. The castle was huge and a joy to explore; fights were tricky but manageable. Something that was not mentioned on the box was the fabulous music that lured you into this fantasy realm; I still get goosebumps when listening to it.
Almost 25 years later, the box became relevant again as I rediscovered the joy of collecting boxed games thanks to another C64 game, C64anabalt. This even tinier box started not only my physical collection, but also sparked the idea of getting my beloved games out there on the net thus allowing me to share my very first box game with friends and like-minded folks all over again.
Title screen
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Now here's a rather useless entry for #MapMonday:
the basic castle layout of "Castle Master" as shown in the game's manual 😅
Left, the disk version and right the smaller tape version; both for C64. The latter is my very first boxed game, bought back in 1990 🤩
