Thunder Castle is a 1986 maze video game for the Intellivision. The player controls a knight navigating three mazes, defeating enemies to progress. To defeat the enemies, the knight must interact with objects throughout the maze before interacting with them.
The game was designed by David Warhol. It was initially going to be shipped by Mattel Electronics but the company closed its electronics division in 1984. It was released in 1986 initially by mail order by INTV who specialized in releasing Intellivision games following Mattel Electronics closure.
The game received praise from publications like Computer Entertainer and Allgame, with Dave Beuscher calling it one of the best games for the Intellivision.
In Thunder Castle, the player controls the knight via the Intellivision direction disc, moving the night up, down left and right in the maze. The knight continues in that direction pushed until a turn is possible. The game can be played single-player or two-players alternating. The player guides their knight through a series of mazes slaying three dragons in the forest maze, six sorcerers in the castle maze, and nine demons in the dungeon maze. Magical objects are scattered through the maze to energize the knight to slay the monsters. The game is set in three dungeons: a forest, a castle and a dungeon. After completing the final maze, the game restarts with enemies moving faster. The player can energize their knight for a few seconds by interacting with a bat in the forest, a mouse in the castle or a red skull in the dungeon. Being energized lets the knight slay a monster in its maze. Each dungeon has gates in its maze, magical creatures can move through the gates, while knights can not. Scattered through the mazes are various magic item power-ups which are activated by using any of the action buttons on the Intellivision controller. These items are very in their ability to energize the knight, increase its speed, let him move through a gate, or move to a random location in the maze. Collecting a comb item will cut the player’s score in half.
The goal is to complete a high score by slaying the monsters in the maze until you run out of lives by interacting with a monster when not energized.
