Warrior of Ras, Volume One: Dunzhin was published by Screenplay in 1982 for the TRS-80, Apple II, and PC Booter and in 1983 it was ported to the Atari 8-Bit and Commodore 64. Randall Don Masteller was the author of the game and would go on to write three sequels with Steven Baumrucker. Masteller then left Screenplay and moved on to work for Microprose. His credits include Silent Service for the Atari ST and Crusade in Europe and Conflict in Vietnam for the Commodore 64. I could find no other credits for the author.
Dunzhin randomly generates it’s dungeon levels with each new game that you play and it also randomly generates the item that you’re looking for to complete your quest. In this way it guarantees that each play through will be different or unique. The White Amulet of Liviz was my target which I needed to find in order to complete my quest. There are five dungeon levels randomly generated in the game and the random item you’re assigned to find will likely be found on levels 4 or 5.
I wanted to double check the back of the box to make sure that the game does not advertise itself as “rogue-like”. It refers to itself as a graphic role playing game and this is certainly more appropriate. It greatly reminds me in many ways of The Sword of Fargoal.
The game manual is nowhere near as elaborate as a game manual produced by Epyx but I found it to have quite a bit of “character.” There is a short back story which you can read and the game mechanics and keys are described to you through the narrative of another adventurer who has survived the Dunzhin as well.
You do not get to purchase items or choose your type of armor or sword nor is there any sort of magic system in the game. When you step in to the first level of the dungeon it is much like Sword of Fargoal in that a fog of war is in play. You can only see the your immediate surroundings and the rest of the dungeon level that is unexplored is in utter darkness and it is not revealed to you. When you begin to navigate through the maze then the surrounding area reveals itself to you.
The picture depicted above shows an example of the fog of war in play. Rooms are only revealed to you as you enter them. Each of the rooms are labeled with a letter of the alphabet. Some of the rooms have treasures to obtain and other rooms reveal special properties that they have such as mending armor and weapons to recharging wands and staves.
The movement system is reminiscent of Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai though rather than facing a direction and typing a number one through nine; you literally type in MOVE SOUTH 2 or MOVE WEST 5. I rather liked that unique form of movement progression through the dungeon but I can see where others might find it tedious.
The really impressive thing about Dunzhin was it’s very complex system of combat.
You not only have an overall Armor Defense rating but each part of your body has it’s own individual armor class and defense rating. Each blow to a specific body part subtracts from both the individual’s overall hit points but also from the specific points assigned to that target area. If you overwhelm any one target area; or in other words if any body part falls to zero; it results in death. While certain body parts are harder to hit than others; you can try to end the battle rather quickly by trying to overwhelm a particularly vulnerable body part. I found the combat system to be extremely fascinating and it was definitely a highlight of the game. It is the first time I’ve encountered a combat system of this nature in home computer role-playing games.
You can also choose to make a normal attack, or AIM in which you’re trading power for a greater chance to hit, or you can use a FORCE attack whereby it is harder for you to hit but you’re letting it all hang out in an effort to deliver a titanic blow. The complexity of the combat is truly amazing. The head and neck are harder to hit but have fewer protection points. The chest and legs are easier to hit but usually have more protection. So you’ll have to decide if you want to try and wear down your opponent in a long, drawn out battle or if you want to try to slay them with one mighty blow by going for a harder to hit body part.
The complexity of the combat does not end there. You gain experience points for the foes which you conquer. This is unique from prior games in that the game differentiates the experience points you obtain from lower level monsters from higher level monsters. Level progression through the first 9 levels of experience is relatively quick but then the amount of experience points you need to reach 10th level and beyond increases significantly. When you gain a level the protection points for each body party increases as does your overall defense points. If you want to remain on the first or second dungeon level and fight low level opponents then it is going to take longer for you to grind to higher experience point levels. As you move deeper into the dungeon you will begin to encounter more difficult creatures which are worth more experience points when you beat them. You have the ability in the game to CALL YOUR FOES. If you desire to encounter a specific enemy you can SEARCH for them and find them relatively quickly. There are 18 different creatures that are listed in the documentation and in this way you can make sure that you encounter and experience all 18 of them. You can purposefully then seek out the toughest opponents in this way and thus earn huge experience point totals. Extremely unique and was really fun to test yourself against the most powerful foes.
You have the ability to save your game anywhere in the Dunzhin so permadeath is not really a threat in this game. There were also random messages that you’d encounter in various parts of the Dunzhin. Sometimes a ghostly voice would whisper “Go Away!” and you’d find yourself teleported to a different area of the Dunzhin. In another example a woman’s voice suddenly whispers next to you “I like you” and when this happens you’ll find that your luck improves in combat. I liked when this happened to me because immediately afterwards I would search for higher level foes to combat because I knew that my die rolls were going to be “lucky” or extremely good. The female voice though may sometimes whisper “I do not like you” and thus conversely many of your die rolls would be negatively impacted and so you had to be extremely careful at that point.
I eventually found what I was looking for on the 4th level of the dungeon.
It was then a simple matter of making my way back through the previous levels to the surface. When you get to the surface you receive a quick message that reads; You have exited the Dunzhin. Congratulations! You have obtained the item! WELL DONE! Short and sweet.
I played Warrior of Ras, Volume One: Dunzhin on an Apple emulator and it took me about three hours to win the game. I was a fan of both Sword of Fargoal and Temple of Apshai so it was not hard for me to instantly like Dunzhin as well. I am actually greatly looking forward to playing the sequel: Warrior of Ras, Volume Two: Kaiv which was also released in 1982. The sequel is actually next up in my que so when next I speak to you it will be concerning Masteller’s sequel.