The developer of the Trump Castle "trilogy" was Capstone Software, a company that was well known for less than stellar license games they poured out. They tried their damnedest to utilize known brands, betting there was money to be made in turning series like Miami Vice, LA Law and Home Alone into games, if not by quality then by name recognition alone. The developer has been defunct for years, their last game came out in 1996 and considering Trump Castle was their first game, their focus might have been a tad optimistic.
Trump Castle: The Ultimate Casino Gambling Simulator (1989), developed and published by Capstone Software
The first game in the series was slapped with a monstrosity of a name. It was meant to be a serious casino game simulator as well as an advertisement for the Trump Castle in Atlantic City. It offers the possibility to play six different games: BlackJack, Roulette, Poker, Keno, Slots and Craps. The platforms it was released on were Commodore 64, DOS, Amiga and Atari ST, of which the best looking versions were, unsurprisingly, the Amiga and Atari ST ones. They probably sounded the best as well.
During its release, the regular press gave favourable reviews for the game, stating it was a good simulation of the real deal. Games press, however, was less than kind, criticizing the graphics, sound effects and the simulation of the games presented.
From a modern perspective, Trump Castle is far from being a good game. The DOS version I tried, suffers from bad controls and the gameplay is overall bland and confusing. The graphics are ugly, by '89 DOS computers were capable of much better. They even had proper soundcards. And even if the artists were still often chained to 16 colours, they still could do much better work than is shown here. Just look at what Sierra or Lucasfilm pulled off even before Trump Casino came out.
As a whole, Trump Caste comes out pretty much what it is: a cheaply made advertisement for Trump's real-life casino. To trash bin with it.
Don't worry, the second game in the series was still a simulator, the box states as much. If it does have a subtitle, it might be Casino Resort by the Bay. The subtitle isn't the only thing that has changed, as this time around, the game was released only for DOS and Amiga with better graphics and even the DOS version has music.
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. Trump Castle II does look better than its predecessor, if you can stomach poorly digitized, low-resolution photos the main bulk of the relatively unnecessary graphics clutter of the game consists of. Even before you manage to find a single casino game to play, you'll probably spend some time aimlessly clicking all over the main menu that is a photo of the lobby of the actual casino. If you are unlucky, you might end up at the lounge, where you are forced to read slow and tacky jokes thrown around. As a cherry on top, there is music. A horrendous looping tune, that makes you want to rip off your ears.
Games you get to play in this casino hell are BlackJack, Poker, Craps, Slots, Roulette and Baccarat. When you start the game, you can opt to play with up to 4 players if you want some multiplayer action. Otherwise, it's just you against the computer. With 1000 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, you are set to win big. Virtually, obviously.
While Trump Castle 2 is an improvement from the previous game, it ain't a great game to play. The interface still manages to feel clunky and tedious. The first game, with inferior graphics and even worse UI, felt similarly clunky and while there are improvements, time just hasn't been too kind to it. The worst offender about it really is the lobby main many, which is unnecessarily confusing, especially on how the UI works by clicking the right mouse button to scroll through hotspots. Interestingly enough you can save your game, so you can return to your game as often you want.
If someone doubted the agenda of the first game, Trump Castle 2 makes it abundantly clear, it is a game meant to advertise the real casino. That is the only reason why you can spend time moving around the actual casino and see what else it offers besides casino games.
Trump Castle 2 is an ugly, unappealing looking game. While there is some fun to be had playing the casino games, the fun is distracted by the poor controls and the navigation around the casino. But as the first two games were successful for Capstone, a 3rd followed.
I guess I have to admit, that as far gameplay goes, the best comes last. By 1993, Capstone had dropped all other platforms from their slate and released their final Trump Castle title only for PCs. Away are the digitized photos as well, as this time around, the game utilizes a rather ugly and rough-looking cartoon style.
Trump Castle III meant business for multiplying, as it offers some rather novel ideas to go with its modem multiplay: it allows you to customize your own avatar down to making it possible to change gender, facial features, apparel, hair and so on. It's just a damn shame, the game is ugly as hell. And the less said about the music, the better. There is some digitized speech included, which is a nice touch though, but other than that, the soundscape is rather sparse.
The main menu is again the main floor of the casino, but with clearly marked doors for each game. As a cute idea, your character can move around the casino along your clicking. the game really is full of that kind of nice idea, but they are trampled by the poor execution and less than stellar graphics.
Games in the offer are again BlackJack, Poker, Craps, Slots, Roulette and Baccarat. For what it's worth, they are pretty playable, even from a modern perspective. With this final entry to the series, Capstone finally managed to make the casino game properly playable and the UI is decent as well, albeit you could claim it as a bit too convoluted for its own good, especially now when the game isn't trying to advertise the real casino. Or if it is, the graphics fail badly at that.
Of the three games, the 3rd is clearly the most playable one, if you are interested in checking out vintage casino simulators. You might want to turn off the music, but other than that, you might have some fun with it.
I am certain if you are a casino game enthusiast, you could find better games out there, both retro and new ones. As far as Trump Casino goes, well, they are relics of their time. Games were made for a specific purpose, which was probably for Capstone to earn an easy buck and for Trump Casino to get some advertising.
Did they succeed in advertising the real casino? I have no idea. Are they good? No, not really. But they do provide an interesting view on how developers were trying to utilize known brands for their own good since the early days of gaming. These games are not the earliest licensed IP's, James Bond, for example, got his first entry as early as 1982, but it does show that the brand didn't always have to be a famous fiction character, a sports star or a known movie or a series. Sometimes all it took was a famous millionaire whose best business has always been selling himself.
When you search games about Donald Trump now, you'd be more likely to come up with crude joke games of the finely coiffured reality president. But before he became the Twitter addicted leader of the free world he is now, even when he was seen as a joke, his name was his best brand and with brands, there are people who want to partake in it. There are other serious games that tried to utilize his name, like Donald Trump's Realestate Tycoon! from Activision made in 2002.
Still, I am certain the man himself had very little to do with any of the games, especially because these Casinon-games didn't really need anything from him besides the name.
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