Diane, I’m holding in my hand an Atari game program called Black Lodge…
Yesterday, I was only dreaming of a Twin Peaks adventure game. Today, an old-school Twin Peaks video game starring Dale Cooper is here, ready to be played! Turns out my If There Were A Twin Peaks Video Game post was somewhat prophetic!
Black Lodge is an Atari 2600-style action video game for PC and Mac, created by Jak Locke as a love letter to both retro gaming and Twin Peaks. From the manual (which I highly recommend reading for your amusement and gameplay experience):
A day in the FBI was never like this before! You are Special Agent Dale Cooper and you’ve found yourself trapped inside of the Black Lodge, a surreal and dangerous place between worlds.
Try as you might, you can’t seem to find anything but the same room and hallway no matter which way you turn. Worse yet, your doppelganger is in hot pursuit! You have no choice but to keep running through the room and hallway (or is it more than one?) and above all else, don’t let your doppelganger touch you! Your extensive physical training in the FBI will provide you a seemingly limitless supply of energy to run as long as necessary, but running out of breath is the least of your worries!
You’ll find quickly that you’re not alone in the Black Lodge, though your friends are few and far between. Not only that, the lodge itself seems to be actively trying to trip you up at all times! You’ll be dodging chairs and crazed Lodge residents all while trying to keep your own insanity. How long can this go on?
No time to think of that now -here comes that doppelganger again. Just keep on running through the curtains or it will surely be curtains for you!
Actual in-game screenshots, no mockups!
Lovely 8-bit graphics, a chiptune version of Sycamore Trees, and early speech synthesis technology (check that Game Over screen)… It’s hard to believe this one-player video game isn’t 20 years old like Twin Peaks, but was created just a few days ago! It’s nothing short of brilliant. Let me repeat that: BRILLIANT! Special Agent Jak Locke, you are my hero!
» Download Black Lodge 2600 for PC for free!
» Download Black Lodge 2600 for Mac for free!
» Read the interview with creator Jak Locke!
Now I’m off to try and score 5000+ points in order to see the easter egg! What’s your high score so far?
Fire walk with 
I can’t figure out how to get out of the first room! Is their something obvious I am missing? I am looking for a gap in the curtains, or a way to open one?
OK! I figured it out by reading the book. Move along!
This is friggin hard.
It is. The randomness of the rooms makes it painfully hard. But don’t give up on Coop!
im running osx 10.4.11 g4 and a g3 and i can not get the game to load. the icon seems to have a circle with slash in it and there is no extension. Whats up? i really want to play this. can someone advise me?
Twin Pie let me know about your problem with running the game.
As ridiculous as it is for an Atari-style game to have such lofty requirements, I’ve unfortunately just discovered that the language/compiler I used to build Black Lodge 2600’s Mac port (GM7 for Mac) produces app files that require OSX 10.5 at minimum.
I’ve amended the download page for the game to reflect that requirement now that I’m aware of it, but I’m very sorry that you had to go through the trouble of downloading the game to discover it. I really wish I had better news about this.
I always get to about 1800 points and then I lose D:
I got to 2750 last time…. ugh
4100… so… fucking.. close…
Don’t give up, Ethan! Almost there.
And it would be awesome if you could record a +5000 run with something like http://www.screencapturer.com/ 🙂
Just got a 4550. I’m going to start recording, and I’ll be sure to send a capture of my first 5000+ game your way!
Cool! Good luck, Paul!
Is this game the world’s last, best, and only chance at saving Coop?
I am having trouble down loading. I go thru all the clicking, waiting and captcha, but the dl never starts and the website is saying I can only dl one thing at a time, but it never started dl’ing in the first place! Help! 🙂
thank you
the link has expired! can anyone repost please?
For folks having problems downloading the free game, there’s the original download location as well as a mirror. At least one of them should work.
This is a hilarious idea. Lord knows everything looks better as an 8-Bit game, but Super Mario Bros 3 would have been more contemporary when Twin Peaks came out. NES or SNES would have been the dominant platform?
This needs to be made into a phone app BADLY.
Love it! I’m having a problem though. After I meet the doubleganger once, I can shoot the laser fine. After the second time, though (when I theoretically have one life remaining), the lasers stop working. The owls fly, the two meet, and it’s game over. Is this happening to anyone else?
I got up to about 8100.. After dying I was told to leave the first room then return and look for someone. Upon returning you can now exit the room in the upper top left part of the screen. Then a bunch of shadow men seem to turn the doppelganger to ashes and say lets play a different game. A couple rooms later you run into the giant and he says something about using the white arrow against the owls and also something about the statues. From this point forward the statues will shoot you with laser eyes if you walk past them without something between. More rooms are now unlocked and the doppelganger eventually does return. I haven’t gotten much farther than this though.
Wow, Chip, wow!
I recorded a 5700 score game to demonstrate. If I have the patience I will try and hit 10,000 points next! (The sound didn’t record however.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtPgZLB0RZs
OK, I played some more tonight and I’m not 100% sure if I “Beat” the game or not but spoiler alert for anyone not wanting to know the trick to beat Bob……
.
.
.
.
Ok, so after reading the words of the giant about the owls only fearing the white arrow and his hint about the 4 screams I went forward until reaching the hallway with the 4 screams from behind the curtains. I then exited at the bottom of the screen and came to a room where most of the black lodge residents were hanging out. Bob says something like “what are you doing here” and exits to the right. I followed him through the curtain and came to a room with Bob at the top and a double row of statues between us with no way out or passed the statues. You are forced to walk into the statues and get knocked down. Bob says he is going to end the game and take your soul and you can’t move at all as he approaches you. Now this took me a while to figure out, I kept trying to type words in the keyboard like “BOB”, “White Arrow”, “Laura Palmer” etc.. thinking that was the trick but you actually just have to use the mouse or ‘white arrow’ and click on Bob. He says “What did you do?” and fades away. The curtain opens up revealing light and you can then exit the top of the screen. At this point you are in what appears to be a forest grove with a Throne in it. If you sit on the throne a new screen comes up with a picture of Cooper on the Throne and the text says “Ascension” and shows your score. After this if you wait a few moments you will start back at the beginning of the game with 0 points again. I’ve played a little past this and haven’t noticed anything different or unlocked afterword so I assume that was the end of version 1 of the game.
Thanks for your effort and for sharing this, CHIP! Seems like you truly mastered this game and saved Coop for all of us.
@Inauthenticity warning: this game is hard as hell http://t.co/JIodazZw
I think @brightlightx2 might like this Atari-style TwinPeaks game: http://t.co/h0KtiXw1
This Twin Peaks game is close to the best thing ever. http://t.co/hNp9iqlS
How did I not know about this Twin Peaks computer game before? http://t.co/rFCAgnkD
does the game save itself or do you just have to start a new game each time you open it?
Hi Megan! The game doesn’t support saving.
Hello all
When I go to play it it says “‘Black Lodge 2600’ is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash” 🙁
Im running OS X 10.8.2
any ideas?
Go to Settings, Security, click the lock to make changes, and then under “Allow apps from:” select “Anywhere”. Hope this helps.
How do i download the game?
Need a port of this game on iOS/Android !
I get the same “Black Lodge 2600? is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash” message on my Mac when I try to play the download :/
Sorry, it’s terrible.
Hi !
Sorry to bother you guys, but how can I even get out of the first room ? *new at this*
Thanks ! ^_^
Try to go through the top right curtain!
The resolution of the horse is far to big to make it authentic Atari 2600 graphics.
Agreed. Fixed
It’s offline :'(
Sorry, no 🙂
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