Author: professor6153

Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling spent a lot of time trying to solve Colossal Cave Adventure written by MIT grad Will Crowther. The four of them had bonded because of their interest in computer games and they had collectively earned seven MIT degrees themselves. “The four of us spent a lot of time trying to solve Adventure,” says Lebling. “And when we finally did, we said, ‘That was pretty good, but we could do a better job.’”

In June of 1977 they had created Zork’s sophisticated word parser which allowed the game to understand far more words than previous games. The parser was able to understand adjectives, compound verbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. This meant that the game could include more intricate descriptions and puzzles. The writing was top notch and set it apart from other games. Zork sported no graphics but it didn’t need any. The game was developed and first played on the MIT mainframe operating system.

In February of 1979, three of them, plus seven other Dynamic Modeling Group members founded the software company called Infocom. It’s first product was a modified version of Zork that was split into three parts and released over three years so that it could fit a PCs’ limited memory size and processing power.

In the 1980s, at the height of it’s popularity, commercial versions of Zork released for home computers sold more than 800,000 copies.

I was extremely excited that Zork I was on my 1980 list of games to play and I could not wait to revisit it. I remember playing it with my friends in high school as we sat hunched over a Commodore 64. It was disruptive technology at the time and the world of Zork seemed large, exciting, and mysterious.

Zork I was the flagship game that launched a company which would become a titan in the 80’s gaming industry. It was a precursor or ambassador for several top notch Infocom games that would follow.

You begin the game standing before a mailbox just outside of a boarded up house. The sophistication of the parser is readily apparent as you begin to explore the surrounding locations.

The game understands most anything that you type, above and beyond anything I have experienced so far in my time traveling gaming experience. In the example above you are in a clearing which contains a pile of leaves. I type in ‘jump in the pile of leaves’ and the response is ‘Do you expect me to applaud?’ I then try counting the leaves in the pile and the game’s response is that there are 69,105 leaves in the pile. This is the kind of wit, writing, and sophistication found all throughout the world of Zork.

My experience with Zork I reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy leaves the cabin and encounters the land of Oz for the very first time. The black & white scene is suddenly filled with vibrant color. The Infocom parser is so good that it creates that same experience of divergence and color whereas other text adventures remain in black & white.

Zork I was a game that I had beat when I was a teenager in high school. I mistakenly thought, therefore, that my reacquaintance with Zork would be a “breeze” or a “walk in the park”. Wrong. Zork I is hard. There are three or four different puzzles that are diabolical in nature.

Zork I definitely pays homage to Colossal Cave Adventure as it is a traditional treasure hunt which also includes a very tricky maze. However it is so witty and charming, so mysterious and so well done, that we can forgive Zork for these classic text adventure tropes. The dungeon complex beneath the house as well as the surrounding locations are so well written that one cannot help but feel fully immersed in a strange fantasy world. You receive points for not only finding the treasures but then you are allotted additional points for placing the items in the trophy case. The following is the list of treasures which need to be found and placed into the trophy case:

• Jeweled Egg
• Bag of coins
• Painting
• Platinum Bar
• Trunk of jewels
• Crystal trident
• Ivory torch
• Gold coffin
• Sceptre
• Crystal Skull
• Emerald
• Scarab
• Pot of gold
• Jade figurine
• Sapphire bracelet
• Diamond
• Silver chalice
• Clockwork canary
• Brass bauble

You also receive additional points for the following actions:

• Entering the house
• Entering the cellar
• Getting past the troll
• Entering the Drafty Room
• Entering the Treasure Room

This game took me almost 10 hours to complete which greatly exceeds any of the previous text adventures I’ve played with the exception of Empire of the Overmind. There are some puzzles that are just plain evil within the game; so much so that they almost caused me to give up. There is more to the Jeweled Egg than meets the eye but good luck figuring out just what that is. You may need some help. Getting through the gates of hell to obtain the Crystal Skull is going to take some trial and error on your part. One of the hardest or trickiest puzzles of the game involves getting your hands on the Diamond. The Brass bauble, Gold coffin, and Trunk of Jewels are by no means easy to acquire either.

I want to rely on past practice here and avoid providing a complete walkthrough. My goal here is to bring attention to the game and my personal experience with it It is my hope that this may entice you to revisit this game or play it yourself. If anyone has any specific questions you can certainly reach out and I will be glad to nudge you in the right direction.

In my opinion Zork I and other Infocom titles that will follow are the crown jewels of the genre and represent probably the best parser that you’re ever going to find in a text adventure. I had an absolute amazing experience with this game and in my opinion it by no means shows it’s age. The puzzles are difficult so be prepared to save often. Brew the coffee or put your favorite soda in the fridge and get ready to be frustrated. I spent a lot of time in thought and drumming my fingers on the desk with this one.

Death Dreadnought is the fourth game published by The Programmer’s Guild. I have already played and reviewed Lost Dutchman’s Gold and Spider Mountain Adventure but have yet to play Temple of the Sun. The game was written anonymously by a Biff Mutt and Spud Mutt. Bob Lidddil, head of The Programmer’s Guild and also known as Captain 80 said in an interview that their royalty checks were endorsed the same way.

Death Dreadnought takes place aboard a derelict space ship. The entire crew appears to have been brutally murdered by an alien infestation. When the game begins you are the only survivor and looking for a way off of the ship. You realize however…that you are not alone.

Death Dreadnought is filled with gore and visceral images. While exploring the derelict ship each location contains vivid descriptions of blood soaked corridors, entrails and dismembered body parts. I actually had a hard time initially with this game. I knew that I was going to have to deal with an alien adversary but beyond that I wasn’t sure what to do. Once you begin exploring the ship you realize that the engine core is useless and that the ship is now a floating derelict. It is only then that I realized I might need to find a way off of the ship as well. I must admit that my approach to the game was influenced by my bias and presumption that this game was influenced by the movie Alien. The only similarity is that you’re trapped on a ship with an alien or aliens and that you must escape. This would be and still is a popular game theme as the years wear on.

Once I began to explore and create a map of the ship I realized that there was a shuttle bay which contained a lone shuttle. This was to be my way off of the ship. The ad description for the game above contains the biggest clue as to what you need to find in order to escape the ship. You’re going to need to find food, oxygen, fuel, and batteries in order to leave the ship.

There really are no puzzles to be found in the game. The game is more of a trial and error experience. There are many different levers and knobs throughout the game that you have to experiment with. Most of the levers and knobs result in instant death. I had to start this game over MANY times. There is a bit of a maze to deal with as you have to crawl through an air duct to ultimately find the ship’s batteries but it is a simple enough labyrinth to map out. The only way you can reach the fuel supply is to deal with one of the aliens. This is probably the only puzzle of the game and not a very logical one at that. In all honesty, it was through frustration that I accidentally uncovered the solution.

** SPOILER ALERT ** **SKIP this next paragraph if you want to avoid it**

One of the first things that you find in the game is a weapon. It is a blaster or phaser of some sort. My first reaction is that you can use the weapon to deal with the alien. You will find however that when you shoot the alien all you do is piss it off and it then proceeds to eat your face off and you die. However, and this is just so odd, if you THROW the weapon at the alien, it grabs it out of the air, examines the weapon and plays with the settings, and then accidentally discharges the weapon and kills itself. All righty then. The alien had been blocking a corridor and once the alien is dealt with you eventually find a way to fuel the shuttle.

There is a cruel red herring in the game that I spent a considerable amount of time with. You come upon a door which can only be opened by way of a fingerprint scan. Your own fingerprint does not open the door but you do find a dismembered hand near an air lock that you can use to open the door (this took some time for me to find). Once you open the door you discover that the crew must have trapped another of the aliens inside. Now that you have freed it, it rushes out and once again eats your face off. The gun can only be used one time so this particular puzzle is not integral to the game solution and only serves as yet another way to instantly kill you. I think I had mentioned that I had to start this game over MANY times.

Once you have collected the fuel, batteries, food, and oxygen you also need to make sure that you open the shuttle bay doors. Once you have accomplished all of this you will then be able to successfully use the shuttle to escape the derelict ship.

I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would. My initial bias was that this was just going to be an Alien rip-off however it stands on it’s own. The theme is a popular one and will be used quite often in the years to come. This may be the very first game to implement such a plot device. The location descriptions and plot device were enough to hold my interest and propel me forward. I am not sure if I liked this game more than the Lost Dutchman’s Gold but it was certainly much better than the previous Spider Mountain Adventure. I look forward to seeing where Temple of the Sun ranks among the lot.

Stuart Smith developed Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves in 1981 and The Return of Heracles in 1983. He is best known for his Adventure Construction Set in 1985, published by Electronic Arts, which has quite a fan base to this very day.

His very FIRST game however was Fracas which was written for the Apple II in 1980.

Fracas is a computer role playing game that offered the home computer user a number of firsts in 1980. The game offers a multi-player feature and gives you the choice of competitive and cooperative modes. You can have up to eight different players participate and there are six different alliances. The characters can work together as a group and be part of the same alliance or each player can join a different alliance and explore the environs of Faroph competitively on their own. This is an amazing feature offered in 1980. It allows a group of friends to play together and cooperate with one another or they can play competitively with one another. The game is turn based and so when one character is done moving and taking his or her actions then play rotates to the next person who can then take control of his or her character. I get that it is not quite Call of Duty but remember this is 1980 we’re talking about. You can also choose to play individually against the computer.

The incredible thing about this game is that the monsters and NPC’s that you encounter have the same features and choices as the player character. So an NPC can race across the room and take the pile of Ducats (gold) before you do or the NPCs or creatures can choose to target each other rather than you. When one NPC or creature defeats the other they gain experience, strength, or skill points! So the monsters are capable of advancing in levels just like the player characters. I’ve never encountered anything like this yet in the CRPGs of this era.

The map is enshrouded in a fog of war and as you move about more of it is revealed to you. This is reminiscent of Doom Cavern from this same year and of the Phantasie series which wouldn’t arrive until years later. The exploration and unveiling of the new areas of the map I found to be absolutely addicting. The game uses different color coded squares to represent each player and his or her alliance. The monsters and NPCs are never the same color as any of the players.

When you enter an area it gives you the name of the location, how many Ducats are present, and the NPCs or monsters which are also in the location. There is no overall plot or story and your only goal is to move about the map and find treasure while defeating various monsters. The manual suggests that in a game of multiple players that they should set the rules for the current scenario. Perhaps the player who acquires a fixed amount of wealth wins or perhaps the team with the most wealth wins or the player with a character left alive wins. A character that dies is out of the game. The players can enforce their own rules and decide what each person can and can’t do. The enforcement of rules becomes important during character creation because you can have the computer randomly roll your stats or you can manually type them in much like we were able to in Temple of Apshai. So players may want to govern or police against creating ultra powerful characters.

The locations, NPCs and monsters that you encounter are all written very creatively. There is frequent use of humor in the game which I am normally not a fan of but it works very well here. You may face Jack the Ripper in an alley, or in the granary you’ll encounter a fat rat, the biggest rat or Speedy Gonzalez (which you discover is very fast). I laughed out loud when I had an encounter in the tavern with BLOWHARD.

I laughed out loud yet again when exploring the crypt. I stumbled into the tomb of the NOT QUITE DEAD WARRIOR and then had to do battle with an animated skeleton. Great stuff. I also got quite a kick out of the different verbs that were used in the game to describe the physical attacks. There was wallop, clobber and lambaste. Each verb denotes just how hard you were hit or able to hit. I found myself fist pumping the room when I read that I had CLOBBERED the Vampire.

The humor can even be found in the maps which are slowly created to reveal an overall pattern you’re exploring.

When you slay monsters and find treasure you can gain experience levels. When this occurs you can choose to allocate 1 point to either strength or skill. You do not get to choose which type of weapon you begin play with. As your skill level increases so does your weapon skill. So a character with a 1o skill is using a cutlass while a character with a 17 skill is using a two handed sword. There is no magic system in the game of any kind. There are no spells or any magic items or weapons.

I wasn’t quite sure what kind of goal to set for myself when I first began to play but then once I started getting into the game my personal goal became very clear. I wanted to keep exploring and discovering until there was nothing left to explore or discover and that is exactly what I did.

The manual did a nice job explaining the game mechanics and it was well put together. The beginning of the manual tells the tale of Eldric and Mordella and their exploits in the Forbidden Forest. It serves as an example of the adventures that can be found in Fracas in the Faroph scenario.

I really enjoyed this game quite a bit. I never felt “bored” and I really enjoyed exploring the unknown parts of Faroph. The game speed while the map was being drawn was much faster than that of Temple of Apshai. I can imagine that a family or a group of friend in 1980 would have had a lot of fun in competitive or cooperative play. I am going to call Fracas a very pleasant surprise from 1980 and it stacks up well with the computer role playing competition of that year.

Dante’s Inferno was written by Gerard Bernor and featured in the January 1980 issue of Softside magazine.

The plot of Dante’s Inferno involves you trekking through Hell in search of the contract for your soul and then escaping with it. There is no parser for Dante’s Inferno. It recognizes the keys: B, F, U, D, L, R which represent backwards, fowards, up, down, left and right. This confused me at first because it led me to believe (there have been similar mechanics in past games) that the directional movement was based on the way in which you’re facing. I soon discovered however that was not the case and that the keys equate to normal compass movement on a map. So B is south, F is north, L is west and R is east. So Dante’s Inferno is basically one gigantic maze game. The up and down directions add a wrinkle to the maze.

The location descriptions in Dante’s Inferno are well written and help to create a particular gloomy atmosphere. I am not sure I would go so far as to say that it promotes any kind of anxiety because this is still just a “maze game”. I was able to find the records room in which my contract was kept and then quickly made my way out.

It took me roughly 70 minutes to complete the game and much of that was due to the effort of creating a map for the game. You would be very hard pressed to beat the game if you do not map out Hell.

An interesting and unique offering with not a lot of replay value once you recover your contract.

CIA Adventure was written by Hugh Lampert and was introduced to users courtesy of CLOAD. CLOAD was a subscription service for the TRS-80. Every month or so, you received a tape with a bunch of programs and a flyer with a brief editorial and contents of the tape. Some of the programs had instructions (a huge thank you to Garry for this information! ) Two previous CLOAD games that we have covered are Spider Mountain Adventure and Dungeons & Dragons.

CIA Adventure is actually very good. It has a plot and some interesting puzzle sequences that require some thought.

The only issue with CIA Adventure is that there were areas where I struggled with the parser. I was either playing “guess the verb” or the game took liberties with objects in the room and the player’s assumptions. A perfect example of this is in the beginning of the game. You begin the game outside of a tall office building and once you make your way inside you find yourself in a lobby. You can go east and west from the lobby (which result in dead ends for now) and then there appears to be nowhere to go or anything to do. The lobby description DOES contain sliding glass doors. You ask yourself “are these the entrance doors I walked in from the street?” or like many lobbies “is there an elevator?”. The building is described as being tall after all. Even though there is no description or clue that it exists; if you type PRESS BUTTON from the lobby then elevator doors open and you can then step inside.

In CIA Adventure there are two things that make it both challenging and memorable.

1. The first involves inventory management. You cannot carry very many items at any one time. This requires some tough decision making as you’re trying to determine when you should drop an item or even IF you should drop an item. You can even prevent yourself from finishing the game based on your inventory choices.
2. CIA Adventure requires a particular sequence of events to be performed in a specific order. If you fail to complete one of the tasks you’ll find yourself stuck or “stymied” and at a roadblock in the game. Late in the game it can even result in your death.

There are moments in the game where you will become painfully aware what you were SUPPOSED to do or WHICH item you should have kept and I found myself having to start over a few times.

You begin the game outside of a tall building on a busy street. Each time you try to enter the building you are thrown out by a security guard back out onto the street. It is then that I realized I had to remove and discard my CIA badge and then I was able to enter the building. There are some really unique and inventive puzzles in this game.

I had mentioned that discovering the elevator in the lobby made for a frustrating experience. Once discovered you’ll find that the elevator plays an integral role in the game as you move about three floors. Each floor has it’s own set of unique challenges. There is a video cassette recorder in the Visitor’s Room of the first floor and you’re likely going to play “find the verb” before you’re finally finished with the item. You’re going to have to find a way to power the device and connect it to a television so that you can watch a very important video tape later in the game.

There is more to the second floor here than meets the eye. The coffee machine plays a large role later in the game. Cough cough

There is a secret lair of CHAOS hidden within the building. Finding it will be a real “treat”. Giggle There are a couple of tricky parser and semantic issues to deal with on this secret level. One of them caused me to have to start over not once but twice until I understood it’s ramifications late in the game. Enjoy.

The puzzles on the third floor raise the stakes a bit. Death is suddenly a very real possibility and there are a few ways in which you can die. I think I personally found every one of them. The puzzles on this level are tricky ranging from dealing with the alert security guard, solving locks, and successfully stealing the ruby. Inventory management and sequencing of actions suddenly take center stage.

I debated about whether or not I should do a complete walkthrough with this one, the urge to do so was strong. But, I had to remind myself once again that my goal here is to hopefully entice YOU, dear reader, to play and experience these old games for yourself as well. If you DO decide to play this little gem and you need a nudge in the right direction you know where to find me.

While CIA Adventure is not going to win my Game of the Year award, it is pretty impressive fare for a game delivered to you on a CLOAD tape. It is definitely the strongest CLOAD entry that I’ve played to date. The game has an interesting plot, cohesive locations, original and interesting puzzles, and a great ending. A very pleasant surprise after having just finished Cavern of Riches. I strongly urge you to give this one a try. It is worth your time.

Cavern of Riches is a text adventure written by John O’Hare. He would write three of them for the Commodore PET in 1980: Cavern of Riches, The Great Pyramid, and Haunted Mansion. All three were later ported to the Commodore 64.

I played the Commodore PET version of this game. You can play the game yourself at this link here. One of the huge positives in the text adventure category in 1979 and 1980 was a transition away from traditional mazes and treasure hunts towards stories with an actual plot and cohesive locations. Cavern of Riches does neither of these things. The game tasks you with collecting 12 different treasures and then dropping them off in a cabin to earn points.

What is even worse is that the game is not very original at all but instead chooses to copy, almost verbatim, the puzzles from Colossal Cave Adventure. Below you’ll see the evidence of this:

Because I so very recently played Colossal Cave Adventure within the past year; playing through Cavern of Riches felt like a speed run. I believe I finished the game in about 70 minutes. The game played smoothly and it was certainly enjoyable despite it’s lack of originality.

The 12 treasures that you are tasked with collecting are:

• a jeweled trident
• ancient coins
• a gold nugget
• an ivory elephant
• a 74 carat diamond
• a firestone
• a gold plaque
• a jadestone
• a platinum pyramid
• a pot of gems
• a gold harp
• a string of pearls

The game ran flawlessly and was enjoyable but it was certainly a step backwards in text adventure game development and rather than a homage to Colossal Cave Adventure it felt more like a theft of intellectual property rights.

Morton’s Fork was developed by Chameleon Software and then later published by Adventure International as part of the Maces & Magic series. Morton’s Fork is the third in what Adventure International dubbed the Maces & Magic series.

The first in the series was first entitled Dungeon and then later changed to Balrog’s Sampler. The second in the series is the Stone of Sisyphus. I entered Morton’s Fork with a lot of trepidation as I have had poor luck with the first two in the series. I have yet to get Balrog’s Sampler even running and while I’ve played Stone of Sisyphus I’ve not completely determined if I’ve gone as far as one can possibly go. So while I would have liked to have played the series in order I am going to have to be satisfied doing a write up on this third installment.

The game begins with a character creation process and rolls for strength, luck, dexterity, intelligence, constitution and charisma. The character than chooses armor and weapons from quite a large assortment of choices. The games were meant to allow you to transfer your character from one adventure to the next much like Eamon. This may have worked at one time on their original computers but I have yet to be able to save or transfer a character in any way without any of the games crashing. The first two games for me are incredibly unstable. I was making progress in Stone of Sisyphus but now it keeps crashing to the point where it is unplayable. The copy of Morton’s Fork that I played was much more stable and a much better experience.

A Morton’s Fork is a situation in which there are two choices or alternatives whose consequences are equally unpleasant. I did not see how a Morton’s Fork applies to this game. There may have been some sarcasm involved in the title choice or it may have been an inappropriate idiom. There ARE almost always two choices for every encounter in this game. I would call Morton’s Fork a “thinking man’s dungeon” as there is usually a non-combative solution to every problem. Most of the foes which you encounter in the game will kill you instantly so it behooves you to find an alternative solution to deal with the problem.

Morton’s Fork is a text adventure / role playing game hybrid which have been popular in 1980 as the medium continues to see growing pains. It is more text adventure than role playing game but it is a damn good one. The text is well written and the plot involves you entering a castle, plundering it’s treasures, and escaping with your life. The story seems simple enough but what Morton’s Fork has accomplished is providing you with what seems a living, breathing environment waiting to be explored. The puzzles are ingenious and fair and the game is quite large. Once you understand that there is always a more intricate solution as a way to avoid most combats then it becomes an enjoyable quest to fully explore your environment. This involves clever use of your inventory which becomes quite large as the game progresses.

You begin the game in the countryside, outside of the castle, and you’re going to have to solve a couple of simple puzzles in order to make your way inside the castle. Once inside the castle it becomes a living, breathing environment to explore. Your ultimate goal is to obtain as many treasures as you can and then make your way out of the castle again.

The treasures that I acquired consisted of:

• a diamond stickpin – this was simply lying in a hallway
• a silk cloth – obtained after swimming the river to the other side and battling the slime worm found there. You’ll have to remove almost all of your equipment except your weapon in order to swim the river
• silver tea service – found by picking a lock with the hairpin
• coin collection – obtained by playing with the levers on the fireplace
• emerald orb – you have to strike the tuning fork against the iron rod which causes the dresser drawer to open in the luxurious bedroom upstairs
• large gold figure – you find a small gold figure but if you toss it into the magical blue flame upstairs it becomes enlarged. You can also jump through the magical blue flame once to increase your strength
• multi-jeweled crown – this is found in the hidden throne room which can only be found by solving a complex series of puzzles one after the other. You’re going to have to get by the bats, the sleeping dragon, and the hairy monster in order to enter the throne room.
• platinum chameleon – also very hard to obtain and the game’s most valuable treasure. It is found at the top of the tower which can only be found by way of a secret door. You’ll need to solve a series of puzzles as you climb to the very top to claim your prize. Both the crown and this platinum chameleon are the two hardest treasures to obtain.

Finding your way out of the castle was also equally tricky and the solution is like something out of a bugs bunny cartoon. In hindsight I believe this same solution has been used in other games as well and was standard comedic fare at the time. In one of the rooms on the first floor of the castle you find a can of paint. In a different part of the castle is a chute, that if you attempt to climb it, you will tumble down into a nondescript room with no doors or windows. You then literally need to paint the exit on the wall so that you may leave.

There are some encounters within the castle where the adversaries were just too powerful for me. I suspect that once you find the exit to the castle you could leave, trade in some treasure to improve armor and weapons, then come back and face these adversaries. I mentioned before that these Maces & Magic games are very unstable and anytime I tried to go back to sell inventory I would crash the game. So if I wanted to play all the way through it had to be a one and done for me but I suspect that is how you best some of the adversaries.

I was not able to beat the three bullies in the gymnasium or find a noncombative solution. There was also what I suspect was a secret door at the end of a corridor but I could not figure out how to open it. I also had some items in my inventory which I never did make use of: the dragon dung, lumber, a basket and a tiny anvil are a few. I first thought that perhaps I missed quite a few treasures however it looks like I had obtained almost all of the points that I could upon exit so maybe there was not much more to acquire. I do know that defeating the cookie monster in the kitchen pantry would net you Golden Cookies but I could not beat the cookie monster in combat nor devise a noncombative way to beat him. I believe the Golden Cookies are the only treasure I missed. Many of the items were used to circumvent combat. For example once your encumbrance begins to increase; you’ll cause the basement stairs to creak with your weight. This activates an encounter with rats however if you throw a cat at them from your inventory the cat scatters them and therefore you avoid combat. So it may simply be that there are some red herrings in the game and in my inventory or that the items help circumvent combat encounters.

I spent a lot of time with Morton’s Fork. It consumed more of my time then I would have imagined but the game is good. Real life had me busy but if I were to add up all of the time spent with Morton’s Fork it was at least 6 hours of game play to fully explore the castle and solve it’s puzzles. I highly recommend this game to text adventure fans because it is well written and the puzzles somewhat tricky in spots. I am not sure it really qualifies as a role playing game though it does check some boxes. I really enjoyed this one and for me it was a diamond in the rough in 1980.

Dungeons & Dragons was written by Peter Trefonas and the game appeared in CLOAD Magazine in 1980. This was a normal practice in the late 70s and early 80s which inspired a generation of programmers.

Dungeons & Dragons is a cross between a text adventure and a role-playing game. This was a very popular variant of computer role playing games as we’ve seen with Eamon, Black Sage and Doom Cavern.

The game begins with the character creation process. You choose your name and then the name of your God you worship. The game then randomly rolls your strength, dexterity, armor class and starting gold. You do not have an option to reroll your character. You then have the option to purchase one or two weapons (choosing two weapons is of paramount importance which I’ll get to later) and then the rest of your gold is converted to torches and elven healing cakes.

Whereas Black Sage and Doom Cavern did not have many combats, Dungeons & Dragons has a high number of combat opportunities. The encounters in Dungeons & Dragons are very difficult. I died many a gruesome deaths and had to begin again several times. There are a few random encounters involving goblins or hobgoblins but most of the encounters are fixed. You will encounter a troll, a vampire, a gargoyle, a demon and even a dragon. The combat itself took me by surprise and resulted in a quick, early death. Once combat begins your opponent attacks you repeatedly until you interrupt that attack by hitting the “A” key for ATTACK on your keyboard. Initially I was wondering; “When will it be my turn to attack?” before realizing that I needed to interrupt my opponents attack with my own. The higher your dexterity the quicker and more frequently you can interrupt an opponent’s attack with one of your own. You have to choose which weapon you’re attacking with as well. It was a very unique combat system, and like Crown of Arthain, seems par for the course in 1980.

Your weapon can break during combat and then you have to resort to a backup weapon. If you do not have a backup weapon you can fight with your fists but they are not as effective as a sword. Your fist can also break. Once your weapon breaks it is almost the equivalent of a “softlock” and you’ll likely have to start all over again. Once I discovered this I made it a habit of purchasing two swords but even after that precaution I even experienced games where I broke both swords AND my fist.

There are not many special items to find in the game nor is there much in the way of puzzles. In the games that I played I found an amulet which increased my strength, a potion which increased my speed, a ring which lowered my armor class and a lamp which is needed to defeat the dragon.

The dragon is the culminating encounter and the only one in which you can use special commands. It took several more deaths and starting over again before I realized that you can rub the lamp. When you rub the lamp you release a genie who then banishes the dragon. If you rub the lamp a second time outside of the dragon’s lair a whispered message tells you to hit SHIFT-B (which produces a lower case b) in the dragon’s lair. I did so and found a secret niche containing a diamond. You then can head back up to the entrance to the dungeon and you get a winning message and score.

It took me roughly three hours to beat this game. I always enjoy the text/RPG hybrids and this one was no exception. The experience was different than that of Black Sage and Doom Cavern but with one notable difference. The writing and descriptions in both Black Sage and Doom Cavern were far superior to the writing in Dungeons & Dragons. There are 26 total locations to discover in Dungeons & Dragons and their descriptions are very brief. This could easily be compared to one of the many Eamon scenarios as well. I find it difficult to speak disparagingly about a game that was offered in a magazine and I even found it a welcome diversion. If you discovered this game in 1980 and played it, to be fair, you’d have likely thought it an RPG gem. When comparing this game to the other CRPG fare in 1980, however, it will find itself closer to the bottom of the list. This may be the first game to attempt to use Dungeons & Dragons in its title for a home computer system as well.

1980 boasted such an eclectic group of CRPGs that you just never knew what you were going to experience with each one. Doom Cavern was a diamond in the rough for me and might have been in the running for an absolute favorite if not for the fact that it was so short or, some might even argue, unfinished.

Doom Cavern was published by Synergistic Software and even comes packaged with Sorcerer’s Challenge by Robert Clardy himself. I suspect the packaging was to make up for the fact that Doom Cavern was indeed too short or even unfinished.

I was not able to find anything about the author known as Morwe but what I do know is I would have liked to see additional levels or expansions of this particular game.

The plot involves an evil necromancer who has killed the king. A court wizard placed a protective spell around himself and the young prince. The necromancer imprisoned both of them in Doom Cavern and is holding them in the lowest level until he is strong enough in power to break the wizard’s protection spell. A party of three heroes have arrived to attempt to rescue the wizard and young prince.

The game begins with character creation and rolls randomly for each of the character’s attributes. The game adheres to what appears to be a Dungeons & Dragons ruleset (strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, charisma). You get four random rolls or chances with each character but if you refuse the first four rolls you must take the fifth. Clerics do not receive any spells until second level and the magic user gets to choose between the spells: Read Languages, Read Magic and Sleep. A party format like this is a first for home computer role playing games. Robert Clardy’s three offerings had you managing a group but they more or less took the place of hit points and were expendable up to a point. Here you are naming three characters that are based on a Dungeons & Dragons ruleset and they have different strengths. If this game had been properly finished I feel it would have made more waves and fared much better.

Once inside Doom Cavern is where the game really begins to shine. I loved the overhead representation of the dungeon level as you explore each corridor and room. Each room description had depth to it as well as the narration. I extremely enjoyed the puzzles and scenarios that had to be worked through on this first dungeon level.

The encounters are quite diverse and very entertaining. You’ll have to deal with a mysterious scroll, a frost giant, a room full of skeletons, orcs who have captured a princess and a holy sword with a personality! None of the puzzles are too particularly tough but you will find that they do need to be solved in a particular order. I’m not going to provide any spoilers for the encounters however if you do need any help with them do not hesitate to ask.

This entire experience with this first dungeon level was an incredible amount of fun and felt extremely close to sitting down to a tabletop session of Dungeons & Dragons. I enjoyed myself immensely with this game and could not believe how good it was, that is, until I reached the stairway descending to the second level.

The game ends at level one and the manual does indeed inform the player that the game only comes packaged with level one. I do not believe there were any additional levels that were created for Doom Cavern. If there were, I cannot find them. I do not know if this was done purposefully to be followed by several expansions or if this was an unfinished game that was published with another Robert Clardy offering to make up for it. I was very disappointed because this first dungeon level and the start of this game is very very good.

There are a lot of unanswered questions with this game and if anyone knows the true story I would love to hear from you. Who is this author known as Morwe? Why does this game end at the first dungeon level and if it was purposefully done why were there not more levels produced? I loved my experience with this game and was crushed when it ended at the end of level one.

There really were only two combats in this game that play out much like the combat does in Eamon. The rest of the encounters required special solutions to overcome the problem. The text was very well written and extremely interesting as were the puzzles and encounters. If you’re a text adventure fan I could see you liking this game even if you are not a fan of computer role-playing games. The first dungeon level IS a cohesive whole from start to finish that you need to complete before moving on to level two. It is good enough that even though it is unfinished I do urge you to give it a try.

When I first read this opening boot sequence for Black Sage I thought that maybe I had missed something. I had never heard of the Ogres & Orcs adventure line of games. I did some digging and found a document written by one of the programmers that claimed it was meant to be the first in a line of several games. Each game was supposed to allow more advanced play with more advanced characters, spells, and weapons. The entire effort was done on a non-existent budget and their inventory was a box of 100 Dysan diskettes. There had been two other Ogres & Orcs games that had been in production but they just didn’t have the funds to continue and eventually shut everything down. I am sure there are hundreds of other stories almost exactly like the one described.

The Black Sage seems to really be a text adventure disguised as a role-playing game. The players finds themselves within the Black Sage’s Castle and must successfully escape. The castle consists of 36 individual rooms, each of which contains a multiple choice adventure option. There is a lot of humor sprinkled through out the game.

There is character generation which takes place before the game starts but each time I try the stats for my character are exactly the same. This may be a problem with the emulation or it could merely mean that the stats generated are irrelevant. Here is an example of the humor found throughout the game: once the character has been generated you are asked if you want to keep these rolls. If you choose NO this is the response that you get:

There is a graphical layout of the castle and you are provided with choices on how you would like to proceed throughout the castle.

In one of the above rooms you can encounter the Black Sage himself and the game gives you a hint on just where to find him.

A figure in skating is a figure EIGHT and Bo Derek starred in the movie 10 so 8 + 10 = 18.

I found myself engrossed with this game. I found a way out of the castle quite early and then started over, avoiding the room, so that I could explore each of the 36 rooms. There are sudden grisly deaths that await you ala Monty Python type humor in many of the rooms. There are a couple of locations that require you solve one puzzle before you can solve another. I found that I did not want the game to end and took my time exploring each location. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. I can’t say this really qualifies as a true role-playing game but it is certainly an entertaining text adventure and a good way to spend some time.

There is more than one way out of the castle and the riddle above depicts only one of the three ways to leave. The game does make a show of you gaining an experience level and you get to choose how you want to allocate your new ability points but again I felt that your choices in each of the rooms impacted you more than increasing any ability scores or finding items.

I really enjoyed myself with this game. A big part of the fun with these early computer role-playing games is that you just don’t know what you’re getting yourself into when you begin a new one. The games that I have experienced so far in 1980 have been all over the place and I’ve mentioned twice that the genre seemed to be feeling it’s way around in the dark in 1980. One of the pleasures of doing this is finding a hidden gem like this and deriving so much enjoyment out of it. I encourage you to try it and check each of the 36 rooms in the castle out for yourself. It’s a shame that the gang didn’t get another chance to make another Ogres & Orcs adventure.