three things you should know about The Dark before you download it...

The Dark downloads most quickly on a broadband internet connection. It should take about 10 minutes on a broadband connection.

If you do not have broadband and want to purchase a CD-Rom of The Dark, please email us. The Dark CD-Rom costs £6.00 and postage and packaging for the UK including Northern Ireland is an additional £1.50, and outside the UK, £2.50.

The Dark will run on the following types of computers (or better) using a broadband internet connection:

WINDOWS
Pentium III/500 MHz or higher
Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Windows XP
128 MB of RAM
150 MB free disk space
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher
Sound card
Headphones
Broadband internet connection (timings given are for a typical 512MBit/s connection)

APPLE MAC
Power Mac with PowerPC processor
G3 or higher recommended
OS 10.2 or higher
150 MB free disk space
Headphones
Broadband internet connection (timings given are for a typical 512MBit/s connection)
Netscape 4.0 or later
Internet Explorer 4.5 or later or Safari

Once you have downloaded The Dark onto your computer, you can access it offline whenever you wish.

The Dark is based in the 18th century, when Britain ruled the worlds of shipping and commerce, and created vast profits from the slave trade.

The Dark uses ghosts and 'ghostliness' as metaphors -  for both the dark and hidden aspects of our past, as well as for the difficulty that we experience when we need to respond to things that we can hear, but cannot see.

The ghosts of The Dark are based on real people and events from the 18th century. Find out more.

The experience
The Dark is a soundscape, and in experiencing it you should find that sounds move about and through your head.

For example, if you detect a character off to your left and you wish to move closer to them to hear what they are saying then press the left arrow key on your keyboard. While the left arrow key is depressed you should hear the sound pass from your left ear to the front of your head. When it seems that the sound is straight ahead/in both ears, this means that you are now pointing directly at the character. If you press the up arrow you will now move forwards and closer to the character. As you get closer to the character, their voice will appear to become louder.

Different characters in The Dark appear in different locations, for example at different ends of the ship.

The three main characters do not always appear at the same time. For example in the scene in Savannah Georgia, you will start the scene next to Kunle but later you will be able to hear the Captain bargaining with a trader. If you keep listening carefully, you will hear when characters appear and disappear in scenes.

Sometimes, the characters move around the space, pacing the deck of the ship or running up stairs for example. If they are still talking when this happens we suggest that you follow them to make sure that you can still hear what they are saying.

Finally, The Dark is a story, so relax, take your time, listen and explore. Enjoy!