14Jul Hidden Iphone Game Dark Castle

Apple is famous for hiding easter eggs in their OSes, dating back to the original Macintosh’s hidden credits movie. But a curious teenager in England has managed to uncover a big one in the source files to the iPhone and iPod Touch… the classic Mac game “Dark Castle”, in its entirety, hacked to work with touch screens.

Activating the easter egg takes a bit of work, but if you’re keen to play this classic game, just follow the steps below:

1. On your main menu screen, press the Settings button
2. Choose Brightness
3. Turn OFF Auto-Brightness and set the brightness to the lowest setting.
4. Go back to the main menu and press the Music button
5. Hit the Playlists option at the bottom of the screen five times.
6. Go back to the main menu and view the Calendar.
7. Skip to November 28, 2011 and view it by the day. Scroll down all the way to the bottom.
8. Rotate the entire iPod in a clockwise motion for seven full rotations. Be careful not to tip it to the side or the gyroscope may not detect the motion, and you’ll have to start from step 1 all over again.
9. Now, without leaving that screen, restart your iPhone/iPod by pressing and holding the standby button on the top of the unit until a slider appears that says “slide to power off”. Slide it and wait for the unit to shut down.
10. Restart your unit by pressing the standby button again.
11. You should now see the Dark Castle icon in your list of applications!

The easter egg is a bit finicky, so don’t be surprised if you have to try this a few times before you get it to show up. Be especially careful with #7… that’s where I had the most trouble. Also, make sure to play the game in landscape mode, as it was originally intended for old-style computers. This tip has been tested in firmware up to 1.1.1, so it may not work under the new 1.1.2.

If you can find any other hidden features in the iPod or iPhone, send them in to us at PTTBT!

Tags: game, hidden, iphone