Castle Infinity
Encyclopedia
Castle Infinity is a freeware
MMOG for Microsoft Windows
developed by Castle Infinity, LLC, an American
non-profit organization
.
The official language of the characters in Castle Infinity is a modification of Esperanto
.
The new wave
a cappella
group The Bobs
provided several original songs for the soundtrack. Additionally, members of the band also lent their voices for several of the characters in Castle Infinity.
, but the company was bought three times and eventually acquired by Disney. The game itself changed owners several times, from Digital Evolution to US Interactive. Access to the game became intermittent starting in 1998 and had shut down entirely by 2000. Soon after, the game servers were rescued from a dumpster
by Kevin Quitt, a C
programmer, who happened to be one of the game's lead players, and improvements on the game started up. From this group, Castle Infinity, Inc. a non-profit organization was born. Player population has dwindled in the years since, leaving only a few die-hard fans. Nonetheless, in 2005 there was fresh media coverage of the game by way of Slashdot
and BoingBoing.
wall was made, and old players continued to discover the community. Talk soon emerged of redevelopment of the castle, but until recently no action was ever taken.
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
MMOG for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
developed by Castle Infinity, LLC, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
.
The official language of the characters in Castle Infinity is a modification of Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
.
The new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group The Bobs
The Bobs
The Bobs were dubbed the first new wave a cappella group in history when they were founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1980s. Now based in Seattle, Washington, this genre-bending, eccentric vocal group has maintained a healthy cult following in the U.S...
provided several original songs for the soundtrack. Additionally, members of the band also lent their voices for several of the characters in Castle Infinity.
History
Castle Infinity was first released in 1996, making it the first fully released MMOG designed for children. It was originally designed by Russell Ginns, Gregg Foster, and Scott Wallin. It was developed by StarwaveStarwave
Starwave was a Seattle, Washington based software and website company, founded in 1993 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. The company produced many original CD-ROM titles, including disks for Clint Eastwood, Sting, and Peter Gabriel...
, but the company was bought three times and eventually acquired by Disney. The game itself changed owners several times, from Digital Evolution to US Interactive. Access to the game became intermittent starting in 1998 and had shut down entirely by 2000. Soon after, the game servers were rescued from a dumpster
Dumpster diving
Dumpster diving is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but that may be useful to the dumpster diver.-Etymology and alternate names:...
by Kevin Quitt, a C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
programmer, who happened to be one of the game's lead players, and improvements on the game started up. From this group, Castle Infinity, Inc. a non-profit organization was born. Player population has dwindled in the years since, leaving only a few die-hard fans. Nonetheless, in 2005 there was fresh media coverage of the game by way of Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
and BoingBoing.
Corruption and Closure
On October 6th, 2008, it was announced that the database had been corrupted following a programming error. Kevin D. Quitt, the current administrator of Castle Infinity at that time, made the following announcement: "I have... with great reluctance and many tears, closed the Castle - almost certainly forever." However following this a FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
wall was made, and old players continued to discover the community. Talk soon emerged of redevelopment of the castle, but until recently no action was ever taken.
Revival
On January 9th 2011 a test server was launched by a former player who wished to remain anonymous. With Kevin. D Quitt's blessing he handed over all procedures of the server to Spencer Jerome, (The Architect Seademond) who is reviving the Castle and maintaining the revived server as long as there is interest. Spencer has since founded Castle Infinity, LLC, a company to manage the Castle. A website has launched, and a beta is now available for download.Gameplay
Castle Infinity places a heavy emphasis on player interaction. Players can take on challenges which require multiple players to participate together, activating new levels and advancing into deeper tasks within the game. For example, in order to jump to higher levels, at least 3 or 4 members are required to stand on the same spot for the lift to activate. Once all members are present, the jump activates and players will advance to a higher level.External links
- Castle Infinity Revival Project Website
- Castle Infinity website from Starwave era
- Castle Infinity website from user-owned era
- Slashdot thread about the return of Castle Infinity