Post by lightdialga03 on May 8, 2024 15:44:51 GMT
I thought I would post this story of a search that I've been on for a few years now, in case anyone was interested.
First of all, I was born in Canada in 2003, and went to a french elementary school in Ontario, and in the 3rd grade we were allowed to play computer games, and most of them were french versions of older PC games like "Adibou 2", "Tap Touch", and "Plumo au Ferme". However there was one game that I could never remember the name of for the longest time. It was an activity centre style game featuring a number of different characters such as a strong man with a moustache lifting dumbbells, a soldier character, and a ballerina, and some other characters I couldn't remember. I remember all of these characters standing in front of a Castle like lifeless PNGs. I also recall being able to play different activities such as Coloring Books, like a sliding puzzle or something, and I think a Music Maker (i could be completely wrong about that last one though).
Well, about 5 years ago, I tried finding this random PC game from the backwaters of my brain, and I found, quite literally, nothing. After about a year, I became increasingly curious about what I was remembering. Whether or not it was real, or just some random dream I had. Then one day, I decided to post what I remembered about the game on Reddit. I just wanted to see if anyone else had the same memory of this game as I did. After a few DMs were sent to me, someone messaged me about a kids TV show they remember watching as a kid, with a castle and characters that sounded very similar to what I was describing. A show called "The Toy Castle". I immediately googled it and, EUREKA, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I had found the show this game was based on. It was a Canadian TV show released in the year 2000 that aired till 2003, and I can't say I've ever watched the show (it was put off the air the year I was born), but I did recognize the characters from the show.All I needed to do now, was find the game, which wasn't very hard now that I had the name of the show.
Turns out, the game I was remembering, wasn't a PC game, (and I'm honestly surprised I didn't think of this earlier in the search), but it was a FLASH website made to promote the show. The link to the website is here (www.thetoycastle.com) unfortunately, it is no longer functional, as is the case for most 20+ year old obscure websites. The website featured an activity centre in both English and french. As mentioned before, this website is no longer functional, however it has been partially archived on the Wayback Machine. The main hub area, with the characters standing in front of the castle, is still functional, however the games and activities are possibly lost. At the time, I was satisfied that I was able to find this small piece of my childhood, even If I wasn't able to fully experience it as I did back then.
I figured I'd post this here, I know there are lots of people interested in hearing about this type of obscure media. Let me know if you also remember this website and if you remember anything else about the activities featured on it, I'd love to here more about other people's experience with it.
