Author: professor6153

Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure is the third title from Robert Clardy and Synergistic Software. The first two games were Dungeon Campaign and Wilderness Campaign and Odyssey is a conglomeration of the two and more. I continue to be extremely impressed with Robert Clardy’s work. You can see his growth and development as a programmer as you move from one title to the next.

The plot of Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure is as follows:

The Hyborian Age existed thousands of years ago, long before the dawn of true recorded history. Remnants of earlier races than man still wandered the earth, making it a dangerous place where only the most powerful wizards and warriors could live without fear. The vampires, werewolves, ores, sea serpents, and dragons of our legends were the fearsome races that fought with mankind
for dominance of the world.

A mighty magician and heroic warrior rose to power in this deadly time. His many exploits and command of the magical arts earned him the title of ‘The High One’. His greatest endeavor began with the creation of a jewel encrusted orb imbued with much of his magical powers. From his fortress on the Isle of Lapour, the High One used his orb to seal off a protected realm. The Sargalo Sea and its islands were separated from all contact with the rest of the world. It was the High One’s intent to exterminate the many enemies of man within his kingdom and help mankind grow to power without constant threat of extinction by other races. When this goal was achieved. the High One intended to lead his people back to tame the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, the High One’s work was only partially completed when tragedy struck. The orb was stolen and hidden somewhere in the realm. With the loss of much of his power, the High One was killed in battle against a united army of mankind’s remaining foes. Fortunately for the human inhabitants of the realm
the army quickly broke into small bickering bands that wandered off to become bandits and predators on weak or unwary travelers.

Years have passed. The kingdom is returning to savagery where monsters wander freely and all fear the night. Villages, temples and castles stand ruined and abandoned as mankind congregates at only tile n1ost secure of cities. Travel is safely accomplished only by armed bands. The Caliph of Lapour, a usurper to
the throne. has seized the High One’s fortress and jealously guards its secrets and powers from anyone who might try to use them. for the good of the kingdom.

Your mission should you decide to accept it, is to recover the High One’s orb and return it to his fortress. There, with the help of the orb and the secrets of the High One’s powers, you can continue his work and. perhaps, insure the survival of the human race.

Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure is a turn-based role-playing game. The game features four major sections and places the player in charge of an army who sets out to defeat an evil wizard. A bit of a cliche but the background story is well written and the manual presents itself well. The unique thing about the game is that you control a small army as opposed to a single character. This was also the case in Clardy’s two previous games: Dungeon Campaign & Wilderness Campaign.

The first section of the game is also the largest and it involves the outdoor exploration of the island. The primary purpose of this section is to build your army and supply yourself with equipment that you’re going to need to solve the myriad number of puzzles in the game. There are swamps, quicksand, sheer cliffs, falling trees and avalanches to deal with. It is up to you to discover what pieces of equipment you need to deal with each of these obstacles. There are also ruined temples and dark dungeons to explore.

This first section much like Clardy’s previous Wilderness Campaign involves strategy and becomes a juggling act. You need a big enough army to not only man and operate a large sailing vessel but to storm a fortress as well. The more men you have in your army the more mouths you have to feed. Overland exploration of the temples, tombs, and dungeons becomes necessary in order to find enough treasure to not only buy equipment but to fund your army. You need to pay the men a salary as well as feed them. Adding to the stress on your funds is the need to save enough gold in order to buy a boat to sail off of the island.

Once you deem you have a big enough army and you have enough gold to purchase a ship you can then travel to the northernmost port on the island and set sail. You want to make sure that you purchase an extra set of sails before you embark from the island. It is very likely the original sails on your ship will eventually rot. If you do not have a spare set of sails this leaves you stranded and basically “softlocks” the game. You will not be able to proceed any further and will have to start over. This section of the game is a first for home computer role-playing games. There has been no other game to date where you have to navigate the sea, worry about wind currents, deal with sea serpents, pirates, ship to ship combat, scurvy, whirlpools, fog, storms and exploration of neighboring islands. I rather enjoyed this section once you get the hang of dealing with wind currents. It was so unique for this era that it resonated with me. This is the section of the game where you have to find a magical Orb.

There are a couple of ways in which you can retrieve the Orb in this part of the game. One way is that a God appears and you then sacrifice a magic item over the side of the ship and he’ll give you coordinates for the Orb at the bottom of the sea. The other way to retrieve the Orb is to search each of the islands until you come across some dungeon ruins. The dungeon route is the path that I took to obtain the orb. This will initiate what I call the third section of the game.

The catacombs are actually quite extensive and there are a number of levels and calamities which might befall you. Cave ins, creature encounters pockets of gas are a few of the obstacles you’ll encounter. Eventually you will make your way down to an altar which contains the Orb. Once the Orb is in your possession you then need to make your way out. These dungeon levels are wrought with danger and you’ll find your small army diminishes in size quite rapidly. Once you make your way out of the catacombs with the Orb you again board your ship and now you’re on the hunt for the hidden fortress and your final confrontation.

The fourth section of the game is the endgame and it begins as soon as you find the hidden fortress on one of the islands.

Once you land on the island you’ll have to make it through three different encounters/puzzles where having the right equipment can make the difference between winning and losing. Once you successfully navigate the three encounters and reach the fortress you’ll find that the caliph’s men surrender to you with the Orb in your possession. You then become the new High One.

I have enjoyed all three of Robert Clardy’s games thus far as I journey through time and look at the history of these games. I feel that Robert Clardy’s early contributions to the genre and medium have been understated compared to others’ work. Two books which you might enjoy on the subject are:

We are not done with Robert Clardy as I see he has another game available in the 1982 offerings should I be fortunate enough to make my way there. I enjoyed this game and once again I marvel at the tremendous differences in the different computer role-playing games that were published in 1980 as the medium continues to take it’s first steps in the pioneer field of home computing. I urge you to give this game a try and you’ll see what Clardy was trying to do in an attempt to create a complete campaign.

Crown of Arthain was created by Dan and Marilyn Meller of Illinois and published by Micro Lab, Inc. I am sure we could relegate the subject to an entire blog post but the box art above is simply awesome. The 80’s and 90s were an era where the commissioned art on boxes helped to sell the games. This is the case with Crown of Arthain where the box art seems to suggest that a magnificent adventure awaits you. Unfortunately for the buyer great box art doesn’t necessarily translate into a great game experience.

The Crown of Arthain is a 1 or 2 player game with the following plot premise:

The Kingdom of Arthain is a young kingdom, conquered by the Prince Arthain just 50 years prior. While the Prince was exploring the mountains of his newly conquered lands, his men came across a large cavern full of monsters. Deciding this monster home would be the ideal place to build his new capital, his men cleared the beasts from the caves, and called this their new home. Arthain hired elves and dwarves to deck the underground caverns in great splendor. Within 5 years, Arthain had married his betrothed Melora, and had two sons Berthain and Merthain.

Berthain and Merthain were forever jealous of the other, always seeking what the other possessed. Their jealously eventually led to the deaths of the other’s girlfriend. Outraged, Arthain banished each child to a fort on opposite ends of the far outskirts of his kingdom, never to step foot in the capital again. Arthain’s had further sons, but they were to lose their lives in the various skirmishes the kingdom partook in. Finally, on his deathbed, in need of an heir, Athain wrote a letter to his two wayward sons. His crown lies within the halls of the mountain kingdom, and the son who can first retrieve it shall become king of the mountain kingdom.

You can then choose two player competitive play or a single player campaign. I chose the single player campaign.

Most of the game is played primarily on an overhead hexagonal grid as shown above. The two princes are separated by an impassable mountain range. Each player then begins to explore their half of the map looking for two key NPCs. One of the NPC’s is a dwarf who has a map showing which of the mountains in the middle of the map contains the underground halls which contain the crown. The other NPC is an elf who provides you with a magical password to open the door to the underground halls. The first hurdle that you will need to overcome is that the dwarf wants 5000 gold pieces for the map. In order to obtain the 5000 gold pieces you are going to have to explore each of the hexes on your side of the map. Once you have completely cleared out a hex of monsters it remains cleared; the monsters do not repopulate that particular hex. The creatures that you will encounter in the game include: trolls, wights, ogres, goblins and more. Each hexagon usually contains a treasure which can be discovered by searching the area. The hexagon may contain gold, magic armor, a sword, cloaks of protection, copper amulets, a magic light or a magic shield. Most of the items serve to increase your attack and defense ratings and the copper bracelets increase the rate at which you regenerate lost hit points. You will need to procure the magic light before you enter the underground halls.

Combat in the game is like nothing I have encountered yet. Once you enter combat the screen switches to show you standing toe to toe with your opponent and you then begin exchanging blows until one of you is slain. You can (T)hrust, (H)ack, and (S)hield. It really seems to be an arcade experience based on rhythm and timing of your blows. It is one of the oddest gaming experiences I have endured so far as I play through these early role playing games. The dots depicted below are your hit points.

Once you acquire enough gold to purchase the map, and you have the password and magical light in hand, you can now proceed to enter the underground halls. This next phase of the game was surprising as well because once you enter the dungeon it feels as if you’re playing a module from the Dunjonquest series. Many of the keyboard commands are the same as you begin to move about the dungeon in search of the crown.

Once you do find the crown you’ll find that it is guarded by none other than a dreaded dragon!

Once you defeat the dragon you’ll win the crown.

I had mentioned in my previous blog post that these early role playing games seem like they are feeling around in the dark a bit and you get a good sense of what I’m talking about as you see that game play and experience between Caverns of Mordia and Crown of Arthain are like night and day.

It took me a little less than 2 hours to do a complete play through of Crown of Arthain. It was so unique and just short enough that I appreciated having had the experience by the end of it all. I do find it amazing however that in 1980 someone paid $35 for this given the amount of gameplay that you get out of it.

Caverns of Mordia was released in 1980 for the Apple II and was written by Hans Coster and published by Lothlorien Farming. Lothlorien Farming was based out of Sydney, Australia and Caverns of Mordia might represent the first CRPG that we’ve played out of Australia. If it were not for serendipity and the efforts of Neville Ridley-Smith; Caverns of Mordia might not have been preserved. Neville Ridley-Smith is the creator and author of OldComputerStuff.com and you can read about how Caverns of Mordia came back from the dead HERE. You can also read the transcript of his interview with Hans Coster HERE.

You never quite know what you’re getting yourself into when you begin to experiment with these older computer role-playing games. It has to this point felt like the medium is feeling its way around in the dark. The implementation has been quite a mixed bag in these early years. In a year in which I’ve moved from the Black Sage to Caverns of Doom to Crown of Arthain and now to Caverns of Mordia; if I could use only two words to describe my experience with these early offerings they would be diverse and eclectic. I would like to be clear, I am not saying that these offerings are bad or inferior in any way but it will be another year before the likes of Ultima and Wizardry help to shape the genre a bit more.

You are certainly not going to be bored playing Caverns of Mordia. I would describe the pace of the game as frenetic. You may become paralyzed by infoxication but you are certainly not going to be bored. The number of command codes to familiarize yourself with providing a myriad of choices in each room is impressive.

The plot feels like a conglomeration of the early Plato games. In Game of Dungeons you were seeking to wrest an Orb from the dragon and in Moria you were looking for the Reaper’s Ring. Now in Caverns of Mordia you are to deliver the Orb of Power to the Lady Elleda who dwells in the mystical land of Locklorien. The only way to get to Locklorien is by going through a magical portal that is located deep within the Caverns of Mordia. You will find and use the One Ring in the caverns to aid you in your quest.

If you think much of the plot and names are influenced by (as well as a homage to) Tolkien and Lord of the Rings you’d be right. The print manual which came with the game was a 72 page affair and very impressive.

Character creation is rather simple and you begin the game in a market in which you really can’t afford anything. You will find yourself returning to the market often to purchase more items. Once you enter the caves the game reminds me of a mixture of Treasure Hunt and Devil’s Dungeon with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in. The Gate to Locklorien is located on the 25th level of the cavern complex but you can choose to go much deeper. Room 1 is a unique room which allows you to return to the surface and hence the dwarven market or you can choose to exchange your current accumulated experience to add to your Agility or Strength.

You start with special equipment to aid you in your quest which includes: a dragon net, a dagger, the Orb of Power, the Magic Staff, the Wand, and a lamp. You can purchase from the dwarven market: a gas mask, a double-handed sword and Lymphas. To aid you in your quest you will eventually find scattered through the caverns: Elven Flares, the Charm Ring, the Dragon Occular, the Mithril Armor and then most important of all the One Ring.

Hazards that you may encounter are poisonous gas, hidden drop-offs, areas that extinguish your lamp, tremors which change the layout of the rooms (similar to Super Dungeon) and giant spider webs which can immobilize you.

The different monsters you can encounter in the caverns include: Orcs, Dragons, Trolls (they guard the Mithril Armor), Giant Vampire Bats, Balrogs, Demons, Araneida ( a giant spider), Goblins and Serpents.

Every 10 moves you are forced to make a camp and rest and this allows your strength and agility to potentially increase by 20%. You’ll also be reminded about what you’re carrying in your inventory. You will find that management of your Strength and Agility becomes quite a task the deeper you descend into the cave complex.

The combat in Caverns of Mordia involves a lot of strategy. You can exchange blows with your opponent and your chance of striking depends on your Strength, Agility, and Experience. You might choose to blind your opponents with Elven Flares which increases your odds of delivering the first blow. You might choose to use any one of your special items you carry depending upon the opponent that your facing. You can also choose to flee.

There is a general stress or constant anxiety associated with the game particularly as you get deeper and deeper into the caverns. The pace of the game is fast and the number of items and choices you have at your disposal insures that no two combats are ever the same.

I did end up making my way to level 25 and eventually finding the gate to Locklorien.

I am thankful that this game was not lost to the passage of time and that I had the opportunity to play it. I found my time with it to be quite an enjoyable experience. I found the diverse number of threats you may encounter in each room and huge amount of options you have to deal with these threats to be simply amazing and entertaining.

Warren Robinett spent approximately one year designing and coding this game in spite of the technical limitations in the Atari 2600 console hardware. Adventure was Robinett’s “brain child” and conceived as a graphical version of the 1977 Colossal Cave Adventure.

There are some today who would disparage the graphics in Adventure. One needs to be reminded however that Robinett had to design and create an entire game that was no bigger than 4 kilobytes! So some might complain that the player character is represented as a square or that the dragon looks like a duck but it is out of ignorance of the constraints which Robinett had to work with. Todays programmers and game developers are more limited by time and money than they are technological constraints.

Your quest is to explore and find a magical chalice and return it to the golden castle. There are roaming monsters that you have to contend with: three dragons who would like nothing better than to eat your face and a bat which steals items and then randomly deposits them about the game world.

There are three levels of play in the game. The first level is the easiest and can be completed in a matter of minutes. The second level is a bit harder and contains secret rooms and hidden items. The third level is the hardest because it completely randomizes where all of the objects might be discovered. This last choice can sometimes “softlock” the game and make winning impossible depending on which keys get randomly placed in which castles.

The Adventure game for the Atari 2600 provided a number of “firsts” when it was first introduced. It was considered new and impressive that a game world for a console could span several different screens. There are actually 30 different screens or rooms in the game. Enemies which could run at you and attack but then continue to move offscreen was a novelty at the time. There are three dragons in this game – the yellow Yorgle, the green Grundle, and red Rhindle – that protect or flee from various items and constantly try to attack the player character. I remember playing this in my youth and almost shitting my pants when the dragon would appear and run at you. There are also various items in the game which are considered helpful and introduced the idea of puzzle elements in an arcade game. The different colored keys open their respective castles, a magnet can be found to pull an item towards the player (sometimes a key you need might be stuck in a wall), a magic bridge which allows you to cross between walls or obstacles and lastly a sword which you can use to defeat the dragons.

Warren Robinett embedded his name in the game within a hidden room. He even kept this secret from Atari executives for more than a year. There is quite a process to reach this hidden room and you first have to retrieve the Gray Dot from the Black Castle catacombs. This remains one of the earliest known Easter Eggs in a video game and it greatly popularized the concept. Adventure was also the first action-adventure video game and the first fantasy console game. This may very well be the very first example of an open world game which is wildly popular today. The game was also the very first game to use a fog of war concept in its catacombs. When you are moving through the outdoor maze the screen is well lit but when you’re exploring the catacombs of the Black Castle it seems like you’re feeling your way around in the dark. This helps to create an element of suspense.

In numerous polls and magazines the game was voted the best Atari 2600 game and noted to be a significant advancement of home video games. The sales of the game were wildly successful for Atari who sold over 1 million cartridges. In both the novel and film versions of Ready Player One, the Easter Egg in Adventure is prominently mentioned and used as a plot device.

While this certainly cannot be considered a computer role-playing game by our definition; I wanted the experience of playing this game merely for a historical perspective on home video games. There are so very many firsts that this game achieved and it was only 4 kilobytes in size.

I played the 1st level and beat the game in a matter of minutes. The second level proved to be a bit harder but it was the third level which I enjoyed the most. I had to find the hidden room and see the Easter Egg for myself as well.

I had a good time playing the game and I am betting that this will provide a great deal of nostalgia for some. Since I’m traveling through time and looking at game progression with a historical lens this was a must play game for me to experience and I felt like I had to include it in my 1980 list of offerings. This game comes packaged with all of the Atari Flashback game consoles as well as many other games which allow you to relive your childhood.

This is the fourth in the Dunjonquest series and a direct sequel to The Temple of Apshai.

The game begins much like the first one. You can choose to create your own character or you can have the computer randomly roll a character for you.

In lieu of visiting “the Innkeeper” you instead visit three different shops: the Weaponsmith, Apothecary and Malacylpse the Mage. The Apothecary is a new feature and offers an odd assortment of potions and brews. The only way to figure out what they did was to experiment with them. When you purchase a potion it assumes that you drink it right away. Most of my choices seemed to increase my attributes for the duration of that particular dungeon foray. Malacylpse will enchant your weapon or armor for an increasing amount of gold. You can also purchase magic arrows and unique magical items.

There are four dungeon levels in Hellfire Warrior. Since this is a direct sequel to the Temple of Apshai the dungeon levels are referred to as levels 5-8.

LEVEL 5: The Lower Reaches of Apshai

This dungeon level plays exactly like the Temple of Apshai and it easily could have been an added level. It is populated by the same giant insects as the first game. One particularly annoying section of this dungeon contains a series of rooms that will allow you entry; but you can never get out. Just a nasty trap.

LEVEL 6: The Labyrinth

You are dropped into a winding maze that is populated by different species of minotaur. Once you are dropped into the maze there is only one way out and you have to find the exit to escape. The exit is a secret door that you have to slowly and monotonously search for. I certainly appreciated the attempt to do something different with the series but I found this level to be very tedious. I was relieved to find the secret door and finally be done with it.

LEVEL 7: The Vault of the Dead

Ghouls, ghosts, ghasts and spectres abound in this level and it is a brutal assault. Most of these undead reduce your attributes permanently. There is a unique treasure on this level that is absolutely necessary to obtain before you tackle the next dungeon level: The Seven League Boots. They allow you to move extremely fast. I found the title of this treasure to be fascinating and I was wondering about the origin of Seven League Boots. I looked up the origin of the name and was given this as an answer:

From the context of English language, ‘Seven-league boots’ originally arose as a translation from the French ‘bottes de sept lieues‘, popularised by Charles Perrault’s fairy tales. A league (roughly 3 miles (4.8 km)) was considered to represent the distance walked in an hour by an average man.

So the wording “seven-league boots” refers to the ability to travel very fast on foot. The phrase comes from a fairy story entitled Hop o’ my Thumb, in which magic boots enable the wearer to travel seven leagues in each stride.

LEVEL 8: The Plains of Hell

This is the best dungeon level of the four in terms of design and story and it is the main attraction of Hellfire Warrior. You have to travel to the Underworld which is haunted by lost souls and shades of the dead. Your quest is to find the warrior maiden, Brynhild, who lies upon a black stone slab in an enchanted sleep. To bring her back to sun and air and break the spell that binds her, you must overcome and slay the nine-headed pyrohydra, a great winged demon, cross bridges of flame, endure a cold that numbs the soul, and face Death itself.

Defeating both the pyrohydra and Death are no easy feats. You’ll need to first find magical javelins which exist on this level. They are the only means by which you can slay both of these adversaries and live.

The manual which comes with the game is impressive. Each of the numbered rooms comes with a description (the exception is LEVEL 6: The Labyrinth) and the writing is superb. The creatures and treasures are described as well. The manual, by providing room descriptions, seeks to create AND succeeds in providing a deeper level of immersion for the player.

From the manual:

This, of course, is the warrior maid Brynhild. Although her face is fair, her form comely, and her hair like spun gold, there is nothing elfin about her; her limbs are supple but strong, and her armored body is heavy. Yet, to release her from the enchantment that holds her in the grip of sleep, you must bear her out of these flaming caverns, through the great doors by which you entered, and all the way back to sun and air. The end of your quest lies before you–if you can  make it.

Brynhild is very heavy when you pick her up so you’re going to find yourself greatly encumbered and getting back out of the dungeon will be a bit of a slog.

The controls are exactly the same as in the previous game so returning players will feel right at home dealing with movement around the dungeons. There is no victory screen of any kind once you escape LEVEL 8 with Brynhild you find yourself back at the treasure screen and you’re asked if you want to play again.

The entire experience of all four dungeons takes roughly 9.5 hours. The best strategy early on is to keep returning to the entrance with treasures in tow and build up experience and equipment (the proverbial grind).

I enjoyed the Hellfire Warrior experience and I am thankful that I was able to obtain a working copy and play through all four dungeons.

Happier New Year! This is the phrase I have been using now that 2020 is in the rearview mirror. A terrible pandemic and social injustice were in the spotlight this past year. Many people found themselves quarantined within their homes and working from home or worse – unemployed. The one benefactor from such a challenging year was gaming. Confinement to the home caused more people to turn to gaming than ever before. Some turned to gaming because they had so much more time on their hands. Others used gaming to relieve stress and anxiety; as a solace or safe haven from the pressures of 2020 and to counteract depression.

I found myself in both of these categories and I used it as a springboard to create this website. Now that I am older and have more time on my hands I wanted to go back and take the time to play all of the computer role-playing games and adventure games that I had only WISHED I could play. I challenged myself to attempt to play every CRPG and adventure game in order in which they were created or published. I wanted to create a community of avid CRPG and adventure game fans so that we could share in our passion and appreciation of the genre.

I time travelled back to 1975 and began to methodically play each of these games in order and I am now in the 1980 offerings.

This particular blog entry is a look back upon the year and a challenge or gauntlet that I am laying down for 2021.

• There were 70 blog posts that I created in 2020 which averages more than a post a week but I am going to strive for 100 blog posts in 2021. If you are a reader or a lurker of the site and you are passionate about computer role-playing games or adventure games I encourage you to participate and to post.
• I personally challenged myself to play every single computer role-playing game and/or adventure game in the order in which they were published. I created the blog to archive that journey. I wasn’t satisfied with merely having the blog and so I spent a considerable amount of time and money to build a website around the blog that would act as a database for ALL games. This is not an attempt to challenge as there are other sites that do the same thing but it is a passion project. So Retrogamestrove.com was born which is merely fancy wrapping for the blog itself.
• I played 55 games in 2020 and beat 54 of the 55 games for a 98/1% win rate. I had a damn good time doing it too. It has been a real treat and pleasure to experience first hand and witness the historical progression of these games and their influences on one another.
• I am going to continue to update the site and there will be changes and growing pains but my main focus is of course my blogging challenge and to build community.
• I am officially challenging you to attempt to play 100 games in 2021. You do not necessarily have to finish or beat each game to completion but take it upon yourself to try and introduce yourself to 100 different games. I will be interested in your own personal experience and reading your posts so I invite you to share your experiences with us here on the site.
• I am going to challenge myself as well to do the same but I am not going to “rush” through these games. I want to take my time with each one and savor each experience not rush through it to fill a quota; but I am going to see how far my journey can take me in 2021. I felt I was extremely active in 2020 but still only played 55 different games. I am also going to strive to create 100 blog posts in 2021 and try to do more for the patrons of the site.
• I wanted to wish each of you health and happiness for the upcoming year. Each year in our lives will always present it’s own set of challenges and it is my hope that each of us make our way through these challenges and emerge on the other side stronger for it.

Thank you for taking the time to read me.

Rogue is a turn-based dungeon crawler in which the player controls an adventurer who must explore the dangerous Dungeon of Doom. The objective is to retrieve the precious Amulet of Yendor and make it out alive.

Where do you start with a game such as this that is so iconic that it started it’s own sub-genre and whose title has now become a verb within the industry?

Rogue became immensely popular on college mainframe computers and then finally came to home computers in 1980. It is never the same game twice and you can spend hundreds of hours playing it. Rogue was created by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman. The game was inspired by text-based computer games such as the 1971 Star Trek game and Colossal Cave Adventure released in 1976. Rogue began to gain in popularity all the way through the 1980s and it introduced the subgenre of roguelike RPG procedurally generated dungeon crawlers which remain extremely popular to this very day. Epyx eventually went bankrupt in 1989 and neither Toy or Wichman profited greatly from Rogue, though they became renowned in the industry for their participation in the game. In 2009, Rogue was named #6 on the “Ten Greatest PC Games Ever” list by PC World.

The game uses ASCII characters to represent locations, items, monsters, and the protagonist himself which shows you don’t need fantastic graphics in order for a game to be great as well as addictive. There are twenty-six different types of monsters, symbolized by their initial letters (e.g. L for Leprechaun). The monsters have different abilities and modes of attack (more on that later). The dungeon and the items in it are randomly generated each time the player begins a new game. Each dungeon level contains a grid of three by three rooms and dead ends.

Levels get progressively more complex and maze-like, and monsters grow in strength the deeper the hero ventures into the dungeon. The player character can acquire better weapons and armor, gain experience points and level up. Should the protagonist perish in the dungeon, the player must restart the game anew.

The plot to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor is reminiscent of the PLATO games that I “cut my teeth on” when I started this blog. The plot may sound cool but retrieving the Amulet is certainly no easy task. The odds are definitely stacked against you and the constant threat of death is very real. You can save your game at any time and it will write your progress to a save file. When you return to the game and restore your saved game file it deletes the file. So permanent death is very real here. When you die you have to start from the very beginning. Now you could cheat, make a copy of your save game file, store it in a different directory, and restore the save game file each time you die, but I wanted to beat the game without cheating. The result? Hidden camera footage would have revealed me making horrible faces, clenching my fist, using words such as “Curses!“, shouting at the walls and stomping my foot petulantly as I died again, and again, and again and again.

Rogue is an extremely difficult game to win. One of the most difficult facets of the game is that you constantly need food. The character you play is always hungry. You replenish your rations by finding them in the dungeon levels but food is scarce and your chances of finding food are not very good. Your quest is to find the Amulet of Yendor but it is dwarfed by your quest to merely find food. The fact that you are slowly starving to death prevents you from hanging around on the lower levels to build up experience. You are instead forced to propel yourself deeper and deeper into the dungeon because you need to eat.

There are 26 different monsters in the game and they make your odds of winning extremely difficult. Aquators are a synonym for the Rust Monster from Dungeons & Dragons and each hit from an Aquator causes your armor to rust and eventually become worthless. This will reduce your Armor Class to 0. Rattlesnakes when they bite you permanently reduce your Strength by 1. The Medusa will confuse you. You start moving around randomly while they gleefully eat you. Vampires are exceedingly dangerous because each time they hit you they permanently drain some of your hit points. Dragons, Griffins, and Jabberwockys are hard to kill and they do a lot of damage.

Rogue comes with one macro. You can setup any combination of keystrokes and execute them at the touch of the button. To set the macro, hold down the Alt key and tap the F9 key. Rogue also has a Fast Play mode. You can activate this feature by pressing the Scroll Lock key. In Fast Play, hitting a direction arrow will move you in that direction until you encounter something – a wall, trap or monster. Diagonal movement is possible if you turn off the NUMLOCK. You can then use your keypad for movement and move diagonally from the number pad. You can repeat actions in the game as many times as you wish by pressing the number and then the key. For example if you press 23 and then s it will have you search a particular area 23 times.

There are a lot of magic items that you can find in the game. All of the items that you find are unidentified and are described using random letters or basically gibberish. If you put on a ring or drink a potion that is unidentified you are taking a terrible chance. There are four different categories of magic items: Rings, Potions, Sticks, and Scrolls.

Rings

Special note. Most of the rings you place on your finger will increase the rate at which you use up food. They make you get hungry more quickly. Since starvation is a constant issue in the game this creates a tactical dilemma.

Ring of Slow Digestion: One of the best, if not THE best item in the game. Many claim it is absolutely necessary to win but I did so without one (more on that later). If you wear two of these rings at the same time you become immune to starvation.

Ring of Teleportation: This is a cursed item and you will pop around randomly all over the dungeon and you’re confused a lot. Great fun.

Ring of Maintain Armor: Useful if you find a great suit of plate armor but remember this makes you hungry more quickly. Leather armor is also immune to Aquators

Ring of Regeneration: This speeds up your healing process and at first blush sounds like a great find but this ring really burns through your food.

Ring of Add Strength: This will plus or minus 1 to 2 points of Strength. If it is minus it is a cursed item.

Ring of Increase Damage: Could be a positive or negative 1 or 2. If negative it is a cursed item.

Ring of Searching: Finds traps and hidden passages. This will find the traps before you trigger them

Ring of Stealth: Monsters are very likely to ignore you unless you attack them. You are not exactly invisible but close.

Ring of Aggravate Monster: This is a cursed item. You put this on and every monster on the dungeon level comes at you like the gravitational pull of the sun. Pro tip: Avoid this one

Ring of Protection: Increases or decreases your Armor Class by 1 or 2. If decreases then it is a cursed item.

Ring of Dexterity: This will add or subtract 1 or 2 points from your Dexterity. If it decreases then it is a cursed item.

Potions

Most of the potions only provide temporary magic. Once you drink a potion it is gone from your inventory.

Potion of Poison: This reduces your strength when you drink it. So….do not drink it

Potion of Gain Strength: The increase in Strength from this potion is permanent. This becomes important because a Potion of Poison, traps, and Rattlesnakes can all lower your Strength score. In one of my many attempts to win, I kept finding so many of these Potions of Gain Strength that I was walking around super buff as if you had stuck an air hose up my ass.

Potion of Restore Strength: This potion is described as making you feel warm all over. This potion restores your current strength to whatever it’s maximum value was; no matter how low it was. This is very powerful if you’ve been walloped by Rattlesnakes, traps, or Potions of Poison.

Potion of Haste Self: This potion allows you move at double your speed. In can come in handy against powerful enemies because you can attack and then step away. The monster has to use it’s move stepping towards you again. So on your turn you attack again and step away. Warning: this potion wears off quickly.

Potion of Magic Detection: This is useful when you first enter a new level. If there is no magic to be found you get the message; “you have a strange feeling for a moment”

Potion of See Invisible: Allows you to see Phantoms which are the only invisible opponents in the game.

Potion of Blindness: This lasts for a long time. Can be counteracted by a Potion of Healing or Extra Healing

Potion of Paralysis: This, wait for it, paralyzes you. Rather than drop this as a useless item however, you can THROW it at monsters. If you hit the enemy they will be paralyzed. When you select the throw item this will not come up as a choice to throw. You will have to check your inventory (this does not count as an action) to see what letter this potion was designated, then choose that letter when asked what you are throwing. A neat trick

Potion of Extra Healing: Heals a whole lotta lumps. If you are NOT injured when you drink this, it permanently raises your maximum hit point total by 2.

Potion of Healing: This will heal some damage. But if you take it when NOT injured, this will permanently increase your hit point total by 1

Potion of Confusion: This potion confuses you and makes you move around randomly for awhile making you much easier to hit as well. Like the Paralysis Potions, you can also throw this at your enemy. True story

Potion of Detect Monster: Usually can find one or two for you at a distance. If there are no monsters on that level you will be given a message “you have a strange feeling”. Loneliness maybe?

Scrolls

Scrolls are like potions and once they are used they disappear. The magic surrounding most of these scrolls is temporary but some are permanent.

Scroll of Create Monster: Could be any kind of monster

Scroll of Teleportation: Randomly places you somewhere else in the dungeon and you are confused for a little while after teleporting.

Scroll of Scare Monster: this is an oddity and I think may be a bug. If you read this scroll the game informs you “you hear scary laughter” but nothing will happen and the scroll disappears. Do NOT read this scroll but instead drop it and step on it. While you are standing on the scroll no monster will attack you. Even if you attack and hit them they are completely unable to attack back. If you accidentally step off of the scroll and back on again however it will disintegrate – unless your inventory is completely full – then you can step on and off of it as much as you want. This is great to keep in your inventory if you get into an encounter on deeper levels that you know you can’t win.

Scroll of Sleep: This causes you to fall asleep. Pray that a monster doesn’t find you while you are sleeping.

Scroll of Hold Monster: Every monster nearby freezes and will stay frozen until you attack it.

Scroll of Agitate Monster: This really pisses the monsters off and they come after you on that level.

Scroll of Vorpalize Weaon: Enchants the weapon you’re wielding against a particular creature type. This is random and could be any one of the 26 monster types. You also gain the ability to blast one of the monsters one time only. For example if your sword becomes vorpalized against Jabberwockys, it will be easier to hit the Jabberwocky and your sword will do a lot more damage. You are also able to use the sword ONCE to ZAP a jabberwocky, vaporizing it. The weapon still remains vorpal against the creature type even though you have used the ZAP option. Warning. If a second scroll is read for the same weapon it will cause your weapon to explode and disappear.

Scroll of Enchant Armor: Improves the protection your armor gives by one point permanently. You can stack bonuses from these scrolls on the same armor. Warning. An aquator can destroy enchantments as easily as the armor itself.

Scroll of Remove Curse: Allows you to let go of cursed items (rings, weapons, armor)

Scroll of Identify: Allows you to identify one item. Very useful

Scroll of Magic Mapping: Fills in the map on the current level you’re on. This is most useful if you haven’t explored the level. Once you have found the Amulet of Yendor it is useful to have a few of these to quickly find the stairs on each level. Rooms that have not yet been entered have a highlighted effect around their entrances which lasts until you have passed through them.

Scroll of Enchant Weapon: This adds one to your chance to hit, or to your damage. They can stack as well. The condition is permanent.

Scroll of Confuse Monster: Your hands glow red, and the next monster you hit will hop around confused

Scroll of Detect Food: If there is no food, “you hear a growling noise very close to you” (yes, it’s your stomach)

Rods, Staves, Wands

Polymorph. Randomly changes the target into a different monster. This could be a much more dangerous monster, so be careful.

Haste Monster. Pro tip: this is really really bad

Light. One zap from this item lights up a dark room permanently. These usually have far more charges than other types of sticks

Lightning. Shoots a powerful lightning bolt at your enemies however much of the time the bolt bounces back and strikes you as well. Pro Tip: It hurts

Magic Missile. Shoots a magic missile at the target. On deeper levels this is the equivalent of shooting spit wads at the monsters and only serves to irritate them

Teleport Away. Teleports the targeted monster away from you but the monster will quickly try to come right back.

Slow Monster. The target moves and attacks at 1/2 speed (see Haste potion).

Fire. Shoots a bolt of flame, which does a medium amount of damage.

Striking: this does a small amount of ranged damage

Teleport To. Teleports a monster to you. Pro Tip: This also is really really bad

Drain Life. Drains some hit points from the target, AND from you. Pro Tip: This also hurts

Cancellation: This negates the affects of a trap. Useful if a trap is blocking an entrance and you’ve no choice but to set it off

I knew I was going to be spending hours on this game. I had purposefully avoided creating posts for the games I was finishing so that I had a backlog. I would be playing Rogue in the background as I was putting the finishing touches on the 1979 list.

There are obviously strategies that you can employ in an attempt to win the game but quite honestly there is simply just a lot of luck involved. I have read that most finished only by finding a Ring of Slow Digestion. This IS certainly a game changer because you can take your time with each level and build experience to better handle the deeper levels. Food is scarce and it is certainly your biggest obstacle. You will find that the difficulty level really ratchets up between levels 19-26 as well.

There were a couple of games where I found the Amulet of Yendor and then began to make my way up and I was quickly killed. What can be extremely frustrating is that in the deeper levels a monster can suddenly just run into you and still kill you almost instantly. This is particularly true of Dragons, Griffins, and Jabberwockys who deal a tremendous amount of damage.

What finally did it for me was finding a Ring of Stealth very early in the game. Many people sing the virtues of the Ring of Slow Digestion but I feel that the Ring of Stealth is absolutely necessary to win. The Ring of Stealth allowed me to very carefully avoid all of the very powerful monsters on the deeper levels. In the game that I won I also found a Ring of Dexterity which increased my Dexterity by 2 and I found that when I ran I was outpacing any monster who chased me rather than at the same speed. I was also extremely lucky in that I found a lot of food early on in the game in which I obtained the Ring of Stealth. I had enough food to get me to the Amulet of Yendor and then it was extremely stressful getting back. There were two different times where I thought I may starve as I made my way back up and then LUCKILY I found food. You can also use the Ring of Stealth to avoid the Aquators and Rattlesnakes and instead attack Ice Monsters, Leprechauns, and Nymphs (which I affectionately refer to as the “push overs”) and build your experience that way.

The ending, after so many hours, was a bit anti-climatic but it was thrilling to finally see the end screen. This is a very difficult game to beat and after many, many, many deaths you begin to feel that the game may be unbeatable. It is amazing how addictive and enjoyable the game is even today. On average, and depending on your luck, it will likely take you 12 to 96 hours to finish the game. Plan on spending hours to days to weeks with this one as you say to yourself; “just one more time”. It is now available on Steam for a little more than $3 and so you can purchase the game and enjoy it here in 2020.

We now find ourselves playing games from 1980 as 1979 is now in our rearview mirror. It took me awhile to compile this list from 1980 but what you’re looking at is a complete list of the computer role-playing games that were published in 1980 as well as all of the text adventures. We are also introduced to what would be called the Graphic Adventure category this year. There are a couple of standout offerings that I’m really looking forward to playing. Rogue is number one in my crosshairs and we also have Infocom’s very first text adventure: Zork I which I am looking forward to. G.F.S. Sorceress is another offering from Gary Bedrosian and sadly I believe it will be his last. I awarded his previous two games the 1978 and 1979 Game of the Year respectively. I am also eager to try Roberta William’s first offering: Mystery House as we embark on this new Graphic Adventure category.

This compilation is all encompassing and ambitious. My goal is to play all of these games. There are 86 total games here so I may find myself spending quite some time in 1980. My passion are the games in the CRPG category and I will be gorging myself on them first. They take top priority and I can guarantee that I will play and review each and every one of them. I worry that I may exhaust myself with all of these text adventure offerings in this year and may want to move on. I am sure that decision will be based on the quality.

I present to you the 1980 Check List of Games.

We played seven different computer role-playing games in 1979 and twenty text adventure offerings. We’ve moved away from PLATO and mainframes and are now ushering in the era of the home computers. Early programmers and game designers, much like early pioneers, are paving the way and setting the stage for later games and what Matt Barton would call The Bronze Age. In 1979 we’re starting to see a glimpse of what computer role-playing games might become as well as the rise of the interactive text adventure. Many of these early text adventures followed a particular recipe or form. There would usually be a maze or two which would have to be traversed and there was almost always a treasure hunt that involved the player finding a number of items. Some games would be scored and others would have a time limit or a move limit imposed to make things a bit harder. There were some early pioneers who would experiment with the medium and create original pieces of work that broke away from these text adventure tropes. Scott Adams, Gary Bedrosian, and Robert LaFore come to mind. If you are a fan of the medium their games are standouts and scream originality and innovation.

Each year I’d like to make it a tradition to pick a category award winner and an overall winner. Last year, in 1978, Beneath Apple Manor won in the CRPG category and Lords of Karma won in the Interactive Fiction category. The Overall Winner for 1978 was awarded to Lords of Karma.

Now for the 1979 Retrogame.com award winners:

1979 CRPG Game of the Year: Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai

This is a must play from a historical perspective. Epyx worked around the current technology limitations by creating an amazing game manual. The writing and presentation were very good which included a Brian Hammerhand short story and room and treasure descriptions for every room on every level in the game. It worked to help create an immersive experience and later the Gold Box series from SSI adopted this same format. The Temple of Apshai was a tremendous commercial success for its era.

1979 Interactive Fiction Game of the Year: Empire of the Overmind

The story, setting, and plot of this game are extraordinary. The poem that comes packaged with the game foreshadows the cloth maps that would later be packaged with epic computer role-playing games. Deciphering the cryptic clues in the poem is necessary in order to advance in the game. Spending time poring over the lines in the poem helps to create an otherworldly and immersive experience. The writing is so well done that the Overmind feels like an actual adversary that needs to be defeated. The ending was suspenseful and amazing. This is still my favorite overall text adventure through 1979.

1979 Overall Game of the Year: Empire of the Overmind.

The Temple of Apshai may have been the commercial success but it was Empire of the Overmind that I was entranced by. It was engaging like no other game has been engaging in this era and it was stunningly original. The amount of writing and the content was revolutionary. The plot was like reading an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and for the first time a game throws an adversary at you that seems threatening and real. The engagement between the player and the game is real and the coup de tat is including a poem in the documentation that the player will have to analyze again and again. This creates an additional level of immersion that takes things to an entirely different playing experience. If you love adventure & fantasy or are a fan of interactive fiction and you have not yet played Empire of the Overmind I strongly recommend that you do so. You will feel as if you are playing one of the stronger Infocom games that are still a few years away.

Last but certainly NOT least; a special Retrogames.com award has to be given to Scott Adams who game us six completely different text adventures in 1979. Scott Adams continues to be a pioneer in this medium as he continued to experiment with each successive adventure that was published. I am awarding him the special moniker of Grandfather of Interactive Fiction. It was his business acumen, courage, energy, and enthusiasm that brought eight different text adventures to home computers in this era. He would be a huge influence on future developers and games. I had a lot of fun playing through the computer role-playing games and text adventures from 1979. A large part of that fun and time allotment was spent playing through the six different Scott Adams adventures. No other personality came close to the quantity and quality of adventures published in 1979. Congratulations Scott and thank you for your artistry and for giving us something that brings joy and happiness to our lives.

In 1978 Scott Adams introduced Adventureland to the world. It would have the distinction of being possibly the very first adventure game created for the home computer and the very first in the Adventure series which would go on to span 14 games. The twelve original text adventures would be re-released with graphics as Scott Adams Graphic Adventures (SAGA) beginning in 1982. The final two games debuted with graphical versions while the first twelve were initially released purely as text adventures. Pirate Adventure was also released in 1978 and remains a fan favorite to this very day.

1979 was a busy year for Scott Adams. He formed Adventure International and over the course of that year released six additional text adventures in the Adventure series: Secret Mission, Voodoo Castle, The Count, Mystery Fun House, Strange Odyssey, and Pyramid of Doom. Scott was a pioneer in computer programming and early game design. The puzzles found in his interactive adventures would lay the groundwork for and influence many in the field. In 1990 Computer Gaming World reported a statement by a “respected designer” that it was impossible to design new and more difficult adventure puzzles, because Adams had already created them all in his early games. He was not content to copy or mimic but would constantly experiment with and push the boundaries of text adventures. You could see the growth and experimentation with each successive game produced in 1979.

Scott’s adventures first appeared on a 16 KB Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I but were subsequently released on most of the major home computers of the day such as Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore PET, VIC-20, and ZX Spectrum. Scott’s work in the field is nowhere near finished as we roll into 1980 but I thought it would be fun to rank the first eight adventures to appear in the Adventure series. I am going to share my personal list but I am really interested to hear about yours. I understand that this is subjective and it will be greatly influenced by your favorite genres and your own nostalgia with these games. I will further stipulate that each of these games are significant in their own right and would find themselves in different rankings based on the criteria or question; but I’m going to rank my list based on pure enjoyment.

I agonized over this list a bit because quite frankly the entire list comprises just about all of the best interactive fiction that 1978 and 1979 had to offer anyway. I am at this point what you might call a Scott Adams “fan boy” for a number of reasons. You could make the argument that he was the first person to create an adventure game for the personal home computer and you have to admire and respect his creation and formation of Adventure International. He was an entrepreneur and pioneer during the growth of personal home computer gaming. In those early years you would have been hard pressed to find a company that did a better job advertising their games and Scott Adams worked hard to port his games to most of the major home computers. When you add in the proliferation of games Scott created in 1979; each one advancing and experimenting with the medium how can you not be a huge fan? So by ranking these games this is not an indictment against any of them but a celebration of their creation and, once again, completely subjective. So, without further ado, here is my own ranking of the Scott Adams games up to 1980.

1. Voodoo Castle

Voodoo Castle cover art

I will forever remember this ending because it was so very different for a text adventure at the time. Maze and treasure hunting tropes had been kicked to the curb to be replaced by a game that played more like a giant puzzle box.

2. The Count

The Count cover art

This was a game that introduced the progression of time and plot where every move had to be choreographed and perfectly orchestrated. There were a small number of locations that were all tightly plotted and well thought out. I believe I had to restart this adventure more than any of them; including Strange Odyssey.

3. Pyramid of Doom

I am sucker for the Egyptian theme. There is something about exploring the dark recesses of an underground pyramid that really resonates with me. This game is more than just a treasure hunt. Like Voodoo Castle, there is a much cooler meta-plot and the heart of a dark Pharoah to destroy.

4. Pirate Adventure

The pirate theme has an irresistible allure for many and if you want to introduce someone to the Scott Adams text adventures you could make a strong argument for this one to be the place to start.

5. Mystery Fun House

This is probably in a higher position on my own list than it may find itself in other’s lists but I liked the puzzles and the quirky humor sprinkled throughout the game. While I am not a big fan of the addition of humor in my adventure games it seemed to work here. The puzzles and locations were just plain quirky, odd and unusual (pick your favorite synonym) but seemed well placed for a Mystery Fun House.

6. Secret Mission

This is not my favorite genre by any stretch however this was Adam’s first foray away from maze and treasure hunt tropes so deserves an elevated spot. There was a tight plot, a limited number of moves, and a small number of locations all densely woven together.

7. Strange Odyssey

This was Scott Adam’s first foray into the science fiction genre. It introduces teleportation and a completely disconnected map. This game was hard. It advertises itself as moderate but I’m going to respectfully disagree and is easily head & shoulders the hardest game of the first eight. Your frustration factor will be high with this one but so are the rewards when you solve the puzzles.

8. Adventureland

I imagine that many will be surprised to see this game last on the list and I am almost positive it will find itself in a different spot in other’s lists. I enjoyed this game but I saw it as a homage to Colossal Cave and the springboard by which Scott Adams would grow and progress as a game designer.

There you have it. My current ranking of the Scott Adams text adventures through 1979. It serves as both a celebration of them and a “shot across the bow”. I’d like you to share your own list and rankings and any fond memories these games may bring back. I am sure some of these games are very nostalgic for some. What is even more exciting is that as we now move into 1980 and move forward there will be even more Scott Adams offerings to experience.