You Can Now Play the First LGBTQ Computer Game, For the First Time
Caper in the Castro is a legendary video game, not because
legions of die-hard fans continue to play it, but because it was thought
to be lost forever. Now, what is largely considered to be the first
LGBTQ-focused video game (it was released in 1989) is on the Internet Archive for anybody to play.The game is a noir point-and-click that puts the player in the
(gum)shoes of a private detective named Tracker McDyke who is, in case
you couldn’t guess by the name, a lesbian. McDyke must unravel the
mystery behind the disappearance of Tessy LaFemme, a transgender woman,
in San Francisco’s Castro district, an historically gay neighbourhood.
OOOOOHhh!
The game was released as charityware – freely, with a strong request to give a donation an AIDS Charity of their choice. I’d like to push towards still following that and donating, if you’re able.
(And you might also want to donate to the Internet Archive, who is hosting it now, while you’re at it – they’re in the middle of a donation drive, and could use your support.)
Hey guys, thought I would add a walkthrough for anyone who is having trouble with the game. For a bonus, it doubles as a plot summary, as well.
First, you should start up the emulator. Once it is finished booting, click the Apple logo in the upper left and open “Control Panels”. Open “Keyboard” and set the layout to U.S. and Domestic– This will solve the issue of some of the keys being shifted over one space.
Back in “Control Panels”, scroll down to “Sound” and set it to 7 if you want to hear the wonderful audio effects in the game.
Finally, click the Apple logo again and open “Key Caps”. Check if you can type a hyphen (-) with your keyboard. If yes, you can skip the rest of this paragraph. If no, use your mouse to type one with the on-screen keyboard and highlight it. Press Alt+C to copy it to your clipboard. When you need to type some hyphens later, you can paste the symbol by pressing Alt+V.
Now, you can open the game by clicking “disk” on the right side of the screen and then opening “Caper in the Castro”.