Thunder Castle

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.

Gameplay
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.

Development
Thunder Castle was developed by David Warhol. It was initially scheduled to be released by Mattel Electronics as Mystic Castle. By October 1983 Mattel Electronics had a $201 million deficit and closed their electronics division in 1984. After Mattel Electronic closed, Warhol formed Warhol Audio Arts specialized in computer game sound effects and music for companies like Electronic Arts and Interplay.

Terrence Valeski, Mattel Electronics senior vice president of marketing felt that as 3 million people had Intellvisions, that there was a market and formed a company Intellvision Inc., later changed to INTV. Valeski began marketing new games. These games included the games that were completed by a former Mattel Electronics office in France (World Cup Soccer and Championship Tennis) and two previously completed unreleased games World Series Baseball and Thunder Castle.

Release and reception
Thunder Castle was distributed by INTV Corporation predominantly through mail order in 1986. Thunder Castle was included in the compilation game Intellivision Lives!.

A review in Computer Entertainer found that nothing was innovative in the game, but "for the first time in a while, the maze lovers among you have something new to add to your library." From retrospective reviews, Dave Beuscher of AllGame wrote in his overview of the system that Thunder Castle was among the best titles for the Intellivision. Jonathan Sutyak from the same publisher gave the game a four out of five-star review, stating it had "some of the best visuals ever seen on the Intellivision" noting nicely drawn characters, detailed backgrounds and fluid movement for the characters. The review concluded that "The action can get tedious when the enemies continually avoid your character, but the game is nevertheless a lot of fun." Mike Bevan wrote in Retro Gamer that "from an aesthetic point of view, this is Intellivision's visual masterpiece." Bevan found that while there were only three stages in the game, "quality rather than quantity sets this title apart."

Legacy
Warhol later re-branded Warhol Audio Arts to Realtime Associates and began making completing old and making new Intellivision games such as ports of Dig Dug and console exclusive games like Hover Force.