https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Castle_Strike

Why isn't the game here, or anywhere else for that matter? Anyone know that happened to Data Becker and who got a hold of their IP?

Edit: Maybe the rights reverted back to the developer, which are now part of Ubisoft? That would be unfortunate.

Of course it could be that no one knows the game or is interested. But let's assume that it was quite a popular game ..

When I read that the publisher was german company (Data Becker), then I usually have a good idea of what went wrong.
In the late 90s, early 2000s a lot of companies cooperated in realeases, many of them are gone by now and it's a f***ng pita to find someone who currently holds the rights to the games.
This happened in several countries (try to get Fox Interactive games), but sadly even more often in Germany.


ps: If you want the game, make sure to vote here:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#search=castle%20strike

What I found out was that the rights to Data Becker's games and software were acquired by Avanquest Deutschland GmbH, a subsidiary of the French company Avanquest Software S.A. However, I don't know and couldn't find any information about whether they are still the rights holders.

It's not a heavy hitter, but a rather nice Stronghold-like game. It's made by the team who also worked on the Anno series, so it's not exactly shovelware. Hmmm... well that's certainly a lead. At least they seem to still be around.

If any bisdev GOGBears are around, maybe, you know, give them a call? :P

I found it fairly easily on an abandonware website. As to why it's not on gog, probably for the same reason why ParaWorld (2006) isn't available along with many other titles.

The game appears similar to Stronghold 2, now why this one isn't here is a mystery considering much newer titles were published.

Your thread reminded me, that I own a copy of the game (it was given away on a Gaming Mag's DVD).
Out of curiousity, I gave the DVD a try.

Installing and running the game worked just fine on my Win 10 system (attachments) - initially.

However - after quitting the program and then trying to restart it, it doesn't work anymore.

Well, the game is a bit dated by now, since it came out in the good ol' days of DirectX 8. It might actually need "the GOG treatment" to run smoothly on modern OSes, which is why it's a pity nobody has bothered to sell it digitally or chase up on it.

Oh absolutely.

In another forum, someone claimed the game wouldn't be running on 64bit systems at all.

Well, I guess, my little experiment proved that person wrong - kinda.

That it can't be started again, after closing it after that initial start-up, is a real bummer, though.

I also gave that AW version a try, that another user here has mentioned - but to no avail.

That one didn't even start, after the installation was done.

I also tried with my CBS DVD version v.1.2, on Windows 11 (version 23H2). During installation, the game suggested the path .\Users\"Username"\AppData\Roaming, which I changed to F:\CBS\CastleStrike. After adjusting some in-game settings, I edited the Engine.ini and changed the <RefreshRate>...</RefreshRate> from 75 to 120. There was no need to enable any compatibility settings to run the game. Playing, saving sessions, quitting, and restarting all worked perfectly.

However, I encountered an issue with the audio driver. Whenever I attempted to change it, the executable would hang, requiring manual shutdown through the task manager.

Yeah, that's also the DVD version I have (CBS 06/2006). I also changed my installation path.
I didn't enable any compatibility settings, since the game ran just fine after (the initial) installation.
I also didn't try to change anything within the .ini file...maybe I should try that, too.
Would be nice, if the program works after that.

ParaWorld won't run on 10. I've tried. I bought it years ago on GamersGate. It ran on Win XP 64bit well enough.

Have you checked whether the process is still running after shutting the game down?

Nope.
After it didn't start again yesterday, I uninstalled it.

To check anything, I would first need to re-install it again.

Have you tried this fix? - https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/ParaWorld#Issues_fixed