Author: professor6153

The Dungeon Master was written by Graham Stafford and published by Crystal Computing in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum. Graham Stafford would go on years later to design the wildly popular Lemmings.

This is the second game I’ve played on the ZX Spectrum; the first being Ring of Darkness published in 1982. Despite the machine’s technical limitations I have to say I’ve greatly enjoyed both of these offerings for the machine.

The Dungeon Master is an interactive fiction RPG where you are tasked with finding 10 turquoise rings. The 10 rings are scattered throughout the dungeon complex and you’ll have to carefully map your progress as finding all 10 rings is a puzzle onto itself.

Your character’s skills are generated beforehand and you can increase these skills by finding various potions scattered throughout the dungeon. Survival in the game can be difficult and it took me multiple characters and several hours before I was able to complete my quest.

Strength increases your chances of opening doors in the dungeon and successfully attacking monsters.

Intelligence helps you in operating the magical artifacts that you’ll find during your exploration of the dungeon.

Wisdom helps you locate secret doors which plays a key role in the game.

Agility improves your armor class and an 18 Agility gives you a 4 point armor class bonus. It is also useful for picking locks. One interesting aspect of the game is that you can UNLOCK a door, this is nothing we haven’t seen before. However, after a door has been unlocked you can choose to LOCK the door again to minimize the risk of a wondering monster entering the room. This makes a lot of sense and it is the first time I’ve been given the option to do this in a role-playing game up to this point.

A high Health attribute gives you bonus hit points as you go up in levels.

Charisma is useful in dealing with traders you may meet on your journey.

There are two types of encounters in this game. There are fixed encounters and then there are random encounters. Encounters with wandering monsters can be quite deadly. When you encounter a dungeon denizen here are your options: FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN, WEAPON.

Fight launches you right into combat.

Magic allows you to attempt to use a magic item against your opponent.

Weapon transfers a weapon from your pack to your hand for active use. It will stay there until you drop it or choose to use a different weapon.

Run is the only way to break out of combat with a monster without killing it.

Once you enter combat the action is resolved for you in the background. Your opponent and you exchange blow after blow until only one of you is left standing.

You gain experience points for slaying these different monsters and gain different levels which serve to increase your hit points. Each new level has a moniker attached to it as well and I found the experience of “leveling up” rather enjoyable.

Navigating the dungeon is one of the puzzles of the game. Collecting 10 turqoise rings sounds like an easy affair but they are strategically placed about the dungeon and a couple of them are hard to navigate to.

I enjoyed using this graphic representation of the dungeon created by Chris Walsh. The dungeon is made up of corridors, archways, stairways, and secret passages.

There are three types of doors. Some are made of wood and can be broken down or need their locks picked while others are made of stone and even steel.

Archways can be very tricky. Some of the archways can be harmful for you to pass through serving to deplete your hit points while others can be beneficial.

Secret passages have to be actively looked for to find and some require a more difficult skill check than others. This can serve to be very frustrating and confusing as you may need to build up your attribute score before you can successfully find certain secret passages.

Magical items can be found in the different rooms scattered throughout the dungeon. Many different potions play a significant role in the game and consumption of the right kind is necessary in order to win the game. The effect of potions are as follows:

STRAWBERRY Potion – heals 1-10 hit points

RASPBERRY Potion – heals ALL hit points

GARLIC Potion – reduces Charisma by 1-4 points

CHOCOLATE Potion – inflicts 1-30 hit points of damage

LIME Potion – attracts wandering monsters

EGG Potion – Sets all attributes to 3 and hit points to 1

BLACKBERRY Potion – for the next 1 2 combat rounds after drinking you regenerate 20 hit points per round and gives a 4 point armor class bonus

CINAMMON Potion – increases Intelligence by 1-3 points

PINEAPPLE Potion – increases Agility by 1-3 points

BANANA Potion – increases Strength by 1-3 points

GRAPE Potion – increases Health by 1-3 points

LEMON Potion – regenerates 2 hit points per round

ORANGE Potion – strength is reduced by one every time you attempt to open a door

FIG Potion – reduces Strength, Intelligence, and Agility by 1-4 points

RICE Potion – gives 7 extra hit points but acts as a slow poison eventually causing death

GRITTY Potion – degrades armor class by 1-4 points

CHERRY Potion – gives 10 extra hit points increasing your maximum

Experimenting with these potions proved the death of me a couple of times and forced me to begin the game all over again. I had consumed a RICE potion with one character and could not figure out how I kept losing hit points. It eventually caused my death. In another game I consumed the LEMON potion and kept attracting a wandering monster with each step I took in the dungeon. This ended up being the death of me as well. I ended up winning with the character of Fitz whom I named after Robin Hobb’s most excellent Farseer Trilogy (my favorite series ever)

You can also find various magic items in the dungeon such as a Rod of Blasting, a Rod of Annihilation, and an Amulet of Finding.

The Rod of Blasting inflicts 1-10 points of damage on your opponent.

The Rod of Annihilation inflicts 1-50 points of damage on your opponent but rarely works.

The Amulet of Finding finds one hidden door per use.

I found that I was most successful resorting to physical combat rather than using magic. You can find magical weapons too throughout the game. I was lucky in that early on I was able to find an Axe of Destruction and then later I found a longsword which is exceedingly rare. Below is a picture of the character that I finished the game with.

I played The Dungeon Master on an emulator and it took me roughly 8 hours and three different characters to beat.

Another interesting addition to this offering is that you have the ability to design your own dungeons and then play through them. Existing dungeons can also be edited and the results printed for perusal.

I really enjoyed my time with this obscure title. This is another title that I had never heard of.

Next up on the docket is the Labyrinth of Fear.

Until next time…

The Wizard’s Castle was published as code in the July 1980 Recreational Computing magazine. It was written by Joseph R. Power and appears to be the only game ever created by this developer.

Matt Barton talks about The Wizard’s Castle in his Dungeons & Desktops book. Calling it an impressive feat that all of the game’s features are crammed into some five thousand lines of code. The full article on Wizard’s Castle can be found here at Matt Barton’s blog: The Story of the Wizard’s Castle.

In an interview Joe Power stated that he got the idea for Wizard’s Castle from an early game called the Hobbit. Here is the source code for the Hobbit released in 1979 for in CLOAD for the TRS-80.

1 ‘COPYRIGHT (C) CLOAD 1979
2 ‘K. WILLIAMS, 3250 VERMONT SW, GRANDVILLE, MI 49418
5 RANDOMIZE(348)
8 DEFINT A-Z
10 DIM H(9,9),M(9,9),A(7),D(14),AC(7),Z(4)
20 A$=”RUBY RED NORN STONEPALE PEARLOPAL EYE BLUE FLAMEPALANTIR SILMARILL “
30 D$=”SCHLOCK YNGVI GOLLUM MARDUK LOKI AZATOTH DAGON FENRIS ABRACAX SAURON CTHULHU SATAN “
40 CLS:PRINT”H O B B I T”
45 FOR Q=1 TO 3000:NEXT Q
50 CLS
100 INPUT”DO YOU WANT INSTRUCTIONS”;O$
110 IF O$=”YES” OR O$=”Y” THEN 2220
120 INPUT”WHAT RATING (1-NOVICE 9-EXPERT)”;N
130 N=INT(ABS(N)):IF N<1 OR N>9 THEN 120
140 FOR X=1 TO 9:FOR Y=1 TO 9:H(X,Y)=5:M(X,Y)=1:NEXT Y:NEXT X
190 REM PUT WARPS
200 B=20+RND*N
210 FOR Q=1 TO B
220 X=RND*9 :Y=RND*9 :R=RND*9 :S=RND*9
230 IF X=SANDY=R THEN 220
240 H(X,Y)=R*10+S:NEXT Q
260 REM PUT DEMONS
270 B=N+3
280 FOR Q=1 TO B
290 GOSUB 2440:H(X,Y)=-Q:D(Q)=1
300 NEXT Q
310 REM PUT AMULETS
320 FOR Q=1 TO 7
330 GOSUB 2440:H(X,Y)=Q*100:A(Q)=1
340 AC(Q)=3:NEXT Q
350 REM PUT RUNESTAFF
360 GOSUB 2440:H(X,Y)=-1*(RND*(N+3)):D(13)=1:Z(3)=X:Z(4)=Y
370 REM PUT ORB
380 GOSUB 2440:H(X,Y)=10*(RND*9)+(RND*9):Z(1)=X:Z(2)=Y:D(14)=1
390 REM PUT CURSES
400 FOR Q=1 TO 3:C(Q,1)=1:C(Q,2)=10:C(Q,3)=10:NEXT Q
430 IF N<7 THEN 470
440 FOR Q=1 TO N-6:GOSUB 2440:C(Q,2)=X:C(Q,3)=Y:NEXT Q
470 REM PUT FLARES AND ORACLE
480 GOSUB 2440:H(X,Y)=4:GOSUB 2440:H(X,Y)=2
490 REM PUT HOBBIT
500 GOSUB 2440:K=X:L=Y:PRINT”ALL RIGHT FUR-FOOT “
510 P=125+RND(12-N)
511 T=1:G=0:W=0:F=10:GOTO 1530
520 IF T>P THEN 2120
530 T=T+1
540 IF N<7 OR D(14)=0 THEN 650
550 IF C(1,1)=1 THEN 570
560 T=T+1
570 IF C(2,1)=1 THEN 590
580 G=G-(RND*5)
590 IF C(3,1)=1 OR A(5)=0 OR D(14)=0 THEN 610
595 PRINT:PRINT”‘YOU ARE UNDER MY POWER NOW…'”:FOR Q=1 TO 500:NEXT C
600 ON (RND*4) GOTO 810,830,850,870
610 FOR Q=1 TO 3
620 IF C(Q,2)<>K OR C(Q,3)<>L THEN 640
630 C(Q,1)=0
640 NEXT Q
650 PRINT:INPUT”YOUR MOVE”;O$
651 CLS
660 IF O$=”WAIT” OR O$=”WT” THEN 1530
670 IF O$=”NORTH” OR O$=”N” THEN 810
680 IF O$=”SOUTH” OR O$=”S” THEN 830
690 IF O$=”EAST” OR O$=”E” THEN 850
700 IF O$=”WEST” OR O$=”W” THEN 870
710 IF O$=”MAP” OR O$=”M” THEN 890
720 IF O$=”FLARE” OR O$=”F” THEN 1110
730 IF O$=”KILL” OR O$=”K” THEN 2030
740 IF O$=”LAMP” OR O$=”L” THEN 1200
750 IF O$=”QUIT” OR O$=”Q” THEN 1460
760 IF O$=”TELEPORT” OR O$=”T” THEN 1420
770 PRINT”EVEN A STUPID HOBBIT LIKE YOU”
780 PRINT”CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT”
790 GOTO 520
800 REM NORTH
810 K=K-1
811 GOSUB 2460
812 GOTO 1530
820 REM SOUTH
830 K=K+1
831 GOTO 811
840 REM EAST
850 L=L+1
851 GOTO 811
860 REM WEST
870 L=L-1
871 GOTO 811
880 REM MAP
890 CLS:PRINT ” 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9″
891 PRINT ” +—+—–+—–+—–+—–+—–+—–+—–+—–+”
892 FOR X=1 TO 9
893 PRINT X;”-| “;
900 FOR Y=1 TO 9
910 IF M(X,Y)>99 THEN 930
920 PRINT ” “;
930 PRINT M(X,Y);” “;
940 IF M(X,Y)>9 OR M(X,Y)<-9 THEN 960
950 PRINT” “;
960 NEXT Y
970 PRINT
980 NEXT X:PRINT
985 PRINT”YOU ARE AT (“;L;”,”;K;”)”:GOSUB 986:GOTO 520
986 IF G>-1 THEN 990
987 G=0
990 PRINT”YOU HAVE”;G;”GEMS”
1000 PRINT”AND THESE AMULETS:”
1010 FOR Q=1 TO 7
1020 IF A(Q)=1 THEN 1040
1030 PRINT” “;MID$(A$,Q*10-9,10),
1040 NEXT Q
1050 IF D(13)=1 THEN 1070
1060 PRINT” RUNESTAFF”,
1070 IF D(14)=1 THEN 1090
1080 PRINT” ORB OF ZOT”;
1090 RETURN
1100 REM FLARE
1110 IF F>0 THEN 1140
1120 PRINT”EVEN A SCATTER-BRAINED HOBBIT LIKE YOU”
1130 PRINT”SHOULD KNOW WHEN HE IS OUT OF FLARES”:GOTO 520
1140 F=F-1:X=K:Y=L
1150 FOR Q=-1 TO 1:FOR QQ=-1 TO 1:K=Q+X:L=QQ+Y
1151 GOSUB 2460
1159 M(K,L)=H(K,L)
1160 IF M(K,L)>99 THEN 1170:PRINT” “;
1170 PRINT M(K,L);” “;:IF M(K,L)>9 OR M(K,L)<0 THEN 1180:PRINT ” “;
1180 NEXT QQ:PRINT:NEXT Q:K=X:L=Y:GOTO 520
1190 REM LAMP
1200 INPUT”WHICH DIRECTION DO YOU SHINE THE LAMP”;O$:X=K:Y=L
1210 IF O$<>”NORTH” AND O$<>”N” THEN 1220
1211 Q=1:GOTO 1250
1220 IF O$<>”SOUTH” AND O$<>”S” THEN 1230
1221 Q=2:GOTO 1250
1230 IF O$<>”EAST” AND O$<>”E” THEN 1240
1231 Q=3:GOTO 1250
1240 IF O$<>”WEST” AND O$<>”W” THEN 770
1241 Q=4
1250 PRINT”THE MAGIC LAMP SHINES AND AT “;
1251 ON Q GOTO 1260,1270,1280,1290
1260 K=K-1:GOTO 1300
1270 K=K+1:GOTO 1300
1280 L=L+1:GOTO 1300
1290 L=L-1
1300 GOSUB 2460
1301 PRINT”(“;L;”,”;K;”) YOU SEE “;:M(K,L)=H(K,L)
1310 IF M(K,L)<0 THEN 1380
1320 IF M(K,L)>0 THEN 1330
1321 PRINT”AN EMPTY ROOM”:GOTO 1365
1330 IF M(K,L)>2 THEN 1340
1331 PRINT”THE ORACLE”:GOTO 1365
1340 IF M(K,L)>4 THEN 1350
1341 PRINT”THE SPARE FLARES”:GOTO 1365
1350 IF M(K,L)>5 THEN 1360
1351 PRINT”GEMS”:GOTO 1365
1360 IF M(K,L)>99 THEN 1370
1361 PRINT”A WARP”
1365 K=X:L=Y:GOTO 520
1370 PRINT”THE “;MID$(A$,(M(K,L)/100)*10-9,10):GOTO 1365
1380 PRINT MID$(D$,-M(K,L)*10-9,10)
1385 IF K=Z(3) AND L=Z(4) THEN 1365
1390 PRINT”AND HE IS SO ANGRY HE COMES AFTER YOU”
1400 H(X,Y)=H(K,L):M(X,Y)=M(K,L):M(K,L)=0:H(K,L)=0:K=X:L=Y:GOTO 1530
1410 REM TELEPORT
1420 IF D(13)=0 THEN 1440
1421 PRINT”LAME-BRAIN HOBBIT MUST BE SUICIDAL”
1430 PRINT”TO TRY AND TELEPORT WITHOUT THE RUNESTAFF”:GOTO 520
1440 INPUT”X-COORD “;L:IF L<0 OR L>9 THEN 1440
1441 INPUT”Y-COORD “;K:IF K<0 OR K>9 THEN 1441
1450 FOR Q=1 TO 7:A(Q)=1:NEXT Q:G=0:M(K,L)=H(K,L):GOTO 1530
1460 REM QUIT
1470 INPUT “DID YOU REALLY WANT TO QUIT”;O$:IF O$=”YES” OR O$=”Y” THEN W=1:GOTO 1481
1480 PRINT”THEN DON’T SAY YOU DO”:GOTO 520
1481 PRINT:IF D(14)=0 AND W=1 THEN PRINT”WELL, LITTLE HOBBIT, YOU WON THIS ONE” ELSE PRINT “TOO BAD YOU DIDN’T WIN, HOBBIT”
1482 PRINT:GOSUB 986
1483 PRINT:PRINT”AND YOU KILLED THESE DEMONS:”:Q=0
1484 Q=Q+1:IF D(Q)=0 THEN PRINT MID$(D$,Q*10-9,10),
1485 IF Q”YES” AND O$<>”Y” THEN 1510
1500 PRINT”SOME HOBBITS NEVER LEARN”:GOTO 100
1510 PRINT”MAYBE DUMB HOBBIT NOT SO DUMB AFTER ALL”
1520 GOTO 9999
1530 PRINT”YOU ARE AT (“;L;”,”;K;”)”:M(K,L)=H(K,L)
1540 IF M(K,L)<0 THEN 1850
1550 IF M(K,L)=0 THEN 1650
1560 IF M(K,L)=2 THEN 1660
1570 IF M(K,L)=4 THEN 1630
1580 IF M(K,L)=5 THEN 1620
1590 IF M(K,L)<100 THEN 1790
1600 PRINT”WHERE YOU FIND “;MID$(A$,M(K,L)/10-9,10):A(M(K,L)/100)=0:GOTO 1640
1620 Q=(RND*5):H(K,L)=0:M(K,L)=0:G=G+Q:IF G>=0 THEN 1622
1621 G=Q
1622 PRINT”HERE YOU FIND”;Q;”GEMS”
1623 PRINT”YOU NOW HAVE”;G;”GEMS”:GOTO 520
1630 F=F+10:PRINT”HERE YOU FIND THE SPARE FLARES”
1640 H(K,L)=0:M(K,L)=0:GOTO 520
1650 PRINT”LOTS OF HOBBIT TRACKS IN THE DUST”:GOTO 520
1660 PRINT”YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ORACLE”
1670 IF A(4)=1 THEN 1690
1680 PRINT”THE OPAL EYE COMPELS IT TO ANSWER A QUESTION”:GOTO 1720
1690 IF G>19 THEN 1700
1691 PRINT”BUT YOU ARE TOO POOR TO ASK ANYTHING”:GOTO 520
1700 INPUT”WILL YOU SPEND 20 GEMS FOR 1 QUESTION”;O$
1710 IF O$<>”YES” AND O$<>”Y” THEN 550 ELSE G=G-20
1720 PRINT”WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW THE LOCATION OF”:X=0:Y=0
1730 INPUT”(EX: TO FIND THE OPAL EYE TYPE 400)”;Q
1740 FOR R=1 TO 9:FOR S=1 TO 9:PRINT”MUMBLE “;:IF H(R,S)<>Q THEN 1760
1750 IF Q<>0 THEN M(R,S)=H(R,S):X=R:Y=S:Q=0
1760 NEXT S:NEXT R:PRINT:PRINT
1770 IF X<>0 THEN 1780 ELSE PRINT”EVEN THE ORACLE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE THAT IS”:GOTO 550
1780 PRINT”THAT WHICH YOU DESIRE WILL BE FOUND AT (“;Y;”,”;X;”)”:GOTO 550
1790 IF K<>Z(1) OR L<>Z(2) THEN 1830
1800 IF O$<>”TELEPORT” AND O$<>”T” THEN 670
1810 PRINT”OH WOW!!”:PRINT”LUCKY HOBBIT NOW HAS THE MIGHTY ORB OF ZOT!”
1820 H(K,L)=0:M(K,L)=0:D(14)=0:GOTO 520
1830 Q=INT(M(K,L)/10):K=M(K,L)-(Q*10):L=Q
1831 G=G-(RND*5):IF G>-1 THEN 1530 ELSE G=0:GOTO 1530
1840 REM DEMON
1850 IF K<>Z(3) OR L<>Z(4) THEN 1870
1860 PRINT”BOLD HOBBIT THIEF NOW HAS THE RUNESTAFF”:H(K,L)=0:M(K,L)=0:D(13)=0:GOTO 520
1870 M(K,L)=H(K,L):IF M(K,L)>-1 THEN 1530
1871 PRINT”UH OH – YOU JUST RAN INTO “;MID$(D$,ABS(M(K,L))*10-9,10):Q=0
1880 Q=Q+1:IF A(Q)=0 THEN 2010
1881 IF Q<7 THEN 1880
1890 INPUT”HOW MUCH OF A BRIBE DO YOU OFFER HIM”;B:PRINT
1900 IF B>0 THEN 1930
1901 PRINT”NORMALLY “;MID$(D$,-M(K,L)*10-9,10);” WOULD EAT YOU,”
1910 PRINT”BUT HE IS AFRAID THAT YOU ARE SICK OR SOMETHING”
1920 PRINT”SO TEARS YOU INTO SHREDS INSTEAD”:GOTO 1481
1930 IF B=INT(B) THEN 1960
1940 PRINT MID$(D$,-M(K,L)*10-9,10);” DOESN’T UNDERSTAND DECIMALS,”
1950 PRINT”SO HE EATS CONFUSING LITTLE FUR-FOOT”:GOTO 1481
1960 IF B<=G THEN 1990
1970 PRINT MID$(D$,-M(K,L)*10-9,10);” DOESN’T LIKE HOBBITS WHO OFFER MORE GEMS”
1980 PRINT”THAN THEY HAVE, SO HE EATS YOU”:GOTO 1481
1990 G=G-B:IF B>(RND*(-M(K,L))) THEN PRINT”HE TAKES YOUR BRIBE”:GOTO 550
1991 PRINT”THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, SO HE EATS YOU”:GOTO 1481
2010 PRINT”BUT THE “;MID$(A$,Q*10-9,10);” PROTECTS YOU”:GOTO 520
2020 REM KILL
2030 IF M(K,L)<0 THEN 2040
2031 PRINT”YOU HAVE TO FIND A DEMON TO KILL IT”:GOTO 520
2040 PRINT”WHICH AMULET DO YOU ATTACK WITH”
2050 INPUT”(EX: OPAL EYE = 400)”;Q:IF Q>700 THEN 2050
2051 Q=Q/100:IF A(Q)=0 THEN 2053
2052 PRINT”YOU DON’T POSSESS THAT ONE, STUPID!”:GOTO 520
2053 IF AC(Q)>0 THEN 2055
2054 PRINT “THE “;MID$(A$,Q*10-9,10);” IS RECHARGING”:GOTO 520
2055 AC(Q)=AC(Q)-1
2060 REM
2070 PRINT”THE “;MID$(A$,Q*10-9,10);” ATTACKS AND “;MID$(D$,-M(K,L)*10-9,10);
2080 IF (RND*Q)+3>(RND*-M(K,L)) THEN 2090
2081 PRINT” IS STAGGERED BUT NOT DEAD”:GOTO 520
2090 PRINT” DIES”:B=(RND*50):D(-M(K,L))=0:G=G+B:M(K,L)=0:H(K,L)=0
2100 PRINT”AND HERE IS HIS HOARD OF”;B;”GEMS”:GOTO 520
2110 REM WIZBACK
2120 IF W>0 THEN 2150
2121 PRINT”OH NO!!!”
2130 PRINT”THE WIZARD HAS RETURNED”: IF D(14)=1 THEN 2170
2140 PRINT”BUT THE ORB OF ZOT PROTECTS YOU – FOR NOW”:W=RND(9):GOTO 650
2150 W=W-1:IF W<>0 THEN 650 ELSE PRINT “SOME HOBBITS KNOW WHEN TO QUIT”
2160 PRINT “YOU DIDN’T.”
2170 PRINT “WHAT A DELICIOUS LOOKING TOAD YOU MAKE”:Q=0
2180 Q=Q+1
2181 IF D(Q)=1 THEN 2190
2182 IF Q=12 THEN 2200
2183 GOTO 2180
2190 PRINT”AND YOU GET FED TO “;MID$(D$,Q*10-9,10):GOTO 1481
2200 PRINT”AND YOU GET STEPPED ON BY THE WIZARD”
2210 PRINT” S Q U I S H ! !”:GOTO1481
2220 PRINT”IN THIS GAME YOU BECOME A HOBBIT THIEF”
2222 PRINT”TRYING TO STEAL THE ORB OF ZOT FROM”
2224 PRINT”THE CASTLE OF THE EVIL WIZARD.”
2226 INPUT”HIT ENTER TO CONTINUE”;O$:CLS
2228 PRINT”THE CASTLE IS A (9 X 9) MATRIX FILLED”
2230 PRINT”WITH MANY THINGS. AMONG THESE”
2232 PRINT”THINGS (FOLLOWED BY THEIR NUMERIC REPRESENTATION”
2234 PRINT”ON THE MAP) ARE:”
2236 PRINT”GEMS (5), WARPS (11 THRU 99), SPARE FLARES (4)”
2238 PRINT”DEMONS (-1 THRU -12), AN ORACLE (2), AND”
2240 PRINT”AMULETS (100 THRU 700).”
2242 INPUT”HIT ENTER TO CONTINUE”;O$:CLS
2244 PRINT”ALSO HIDDEN IN THE CASTLE ARE THE RUNESTAFF”
2246 PRINT”AND THE ORB OF ZOT. THE ORB IS DISGUISED “
2248 PRINT”AS A WARP AND THE ONLY WAY TO GET IT IS”
2250 PRINT”TO TELEPORT INTO ITS ROOM DIRECTLY.”
2252 PRINT”IF YOU TRY TO MOVE INTO ITS ROOM YOU WILL”
2254 PRINT”GO PAST IT IN THE SAME DIRECTION.”
2256 PRINT”TO TELEPORT YOU MUST USE THE RUNESTAFF”
2258 PRINT”WHICH IS DISGUISED AS A DEMON. BE CAREFUL”
2260 PRINT”WHEN YOU TELEPORT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE YOU LOSE”
2262 PRINT”ALL YOUR AMULETS AND GEMS (NOTE: YOU MAY ALSO”
2263 PRINT”DROP SOME GEMS EACH TIME YOU MOVE).”
2264 INPUT”HIT ENTER TO CONTINUE “;O$:CLS
2266 PRINT”FIND THE ORB AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN BECAUSE”
2268 PRINT”THE WIZARD WILL RETURN SHORTLY AND ONLY THE”
2270 PRINT”ORB CAN PREVENT HIM FROM DOING TERRIBLE THINGS”
2272 PRINT”TO YOU.”
2280 REM
2290 INPUT”HIT ENTER TO CONTINUE”;O$:CLS
2291 PRINT”THE LEGAL MOVES ARE:”
2300 PRINT”NORTH OR N”
2310 PRINT”SOUTH OR S”
2320 PRINT”EAST OR E”
2330 PRINT”WEST OR W”
2340 PRINT”WAIT OR WT”
2350 PRINT”MAP OR M”
2360 PRINT”FLARE OR F”
2370 PRINT”LAMP OR L”
2380 PRINT”TELEPORT OR T”
2390 PRINT”KILL OR K”
2400 PRINT”QUIT OR Q”
2410 INPUT”HIT ENTER TO CONTINUE”;O$:CLS
2420 GOTO 120
2430 REM A
2440 X=(RND*9):Y=(RND*9):IF H(X,Y)<>5 THEN 2440:RETURN
2450 REM B
2460 IF K>0 THEN 2470
2461 K=9
2470 IF K<10 THEN 2480
2471 K=1
2480 IF L>0 THEN 2490
2481 L=9
2490 IF L<10 THEN 2500
2491 L=1
2500 RETURN
9999 END
65399 ‘** DONE – PRESS ENTER TO RETURN TO MENU **

Powell may state that he derived the idea from the Hobbit but the 8 x 8 grid-based game actually traces it’s origins back to the mainframe Star Trek game released in 1971.

The Star Trek game (which I actually played on Plato when I first began this blog and covered the early 1975 CRPGs) consisted of 8 x 8 quadrants and each quadrant was in turn made up of 8 x 8 sectors. Each sector could contain a Klingon warship, a Federation starbase, a star, etc. The Wizard’s Castle is a similar grid-based game but with an RPG setting.

Note the name of the kingdom in the game’s background: N’dic. There is a bit of a story behind that name. Joseph Power did not have a computer of his own to program on and he ended up getting permission from the owner of an East Lansing Michigan store called New Dimensions in Computing. He wrote the lines of the program on the Exidy Sorcerer on display at the store. The kingdom title, N’dic, pays homage to the store owner’s generosity.

When the game begins you choose your race from the following: elf, dwarf, man, or hobbit. You then choose between male and female and are then given base statistics for strength, intelligence, and dexterity based on your prior choices. You then have 8 points to distribute among the three attributes. I chose an elf and also allocated all 8 of my points into strength. You are then given a starting gold total of 60 gold pieces to buy starting equipment.

You can see by the picture depicted above that you begin play on an 8 x 8 grid. I was able to get the version working that was cracked by IPCO and an unfortunate by-product of this is that you can SEE every single portion of the map. In the regular version all of the map points are hidden by a fog of war. You only uncover what they are by moving into the area. One of the pieces of equipment you can purchase are flares. When you light a flare it reveals your immediate surroundings or in gaming aspects it would allow you to see adjacent grid spaces. This makes the flares an extremely valuable commodity. One of the treasures that you can find in the game is a lamp and the lamp serves to show you your surroundings on a grander scale. Even with the entire map exposed I found the game to be fun and challenging.

Each room or spot on the grid can has as contents one of the following:

E – the entrance / exit of the Castle

U – stairs going up

D – stairs going down

P – a magic pool you can drink from

C – a chest which may be opened

B – a book which may be opened

G – from 1 to 10 gold pieces

F – from 1 to 3 flares

W – a warp which transports you to a different level or different spot on the map

M – a monster (there are 12 different monster types)

V – a vendor where you can purchase more supplies

. – a blank spot on map

The game is text-based and as you move around the consequences of your actions are displayed to you.

When in combat you have three options that are available to you. You can choose to (A)ttack, (B)ribe, or (R)etreat. You do not gain any benefits from defeating these dungeon denizens. There is no experience to be gained and thus no level increases.

Whenever your intelligence becomes higher than 15 you gain the ability to cast spells as well. There are 3 to cast:

Web – traps the monster in a sticky web

Fireball – hits the monster with a ball of flame doing 2 – 1 4 points of damage

Deathspell – a contest of wills, whoever has the lower IQ dies

There are 8 major treasures that you can find throughout the castle aside from the Orb of Zot. They are listed below:

The Ruby Red – wards off the curse of Lethargy

The Norn Stone – has no special power

The Pale Pearl – wards off the curse of the Leech

The Opal Eye – cures blindness

The Green Gem – wards off the cures of Forgetfulness

The Blue Flame – dissolves books stuck to your hands

The Palantir – has no special power

The Silmaril – has no special power

Below are the 12 different types of monsters that you can encounter in the castle:

The game can prove to be somewhat difficult but the following strategy should get you to the finish line. I took a chance in the beginning with magic pools and books and used them to raise my attributes to 18 or higher. You HAVE to combat monsters because one of the creatures is guarding the fabled Runestaff. When you use the Runestaff you are teleported to a random Warp spot within the castle. Why would you want to teleport to a random Warp spot? Because one of the Warp spots…is not really a Warp spot..it is the secret location to the Orb of Zot. So once you have your attributes high enough that you can risk combat encounters, you battle all the dungeon denizens you can find until you obtain the Runestaff. Once you have the Runestaff in hand you keep teleporting UNTIL one of the Warps does not actually act like a Warp. Instead of teleporting you’ll find yourself kicked out adjacent to a Warp. Once this happens THAT particular Warp is the secret location spot for the Orb of Zot. You then go and get it. Once obtained you then make your way back to the 1st castle level to the (E)xit. Instead of pressing (U)p you want to go (N)orth from the exit and you’ll get the following screen:

It took me about 3 hours to win the game and though some might construe the game as simple this is highly entertaining for a game from 1980.

In the 90s there was a Windows conversion created of the game. I have not played the game myself but I hear that it is quite buggy. You can find the Windows conversion HERE

I was glad to come back in time and complete another offering from 1980.

Next up on the docket is The Dungeon Master.

Until next time…

The House of Usher was developed and published by Crystalware in 1980 for the Apple II, Atari 800, Commodore PET, and Commodore 64. In the Apple II version, I would periodically find my character trapped outside the walls of whatever room was loading and unable to go anywhere. In the Atari 800 version, I would play for some time and then encounter a fatal error in which the game would dump me into code. A special shout out to Bennett for helping me with my technical difficulties with the Atari 800 version. I ended up ultimately playing the Commodore PET version and encountered no errors or glitches with that version. The game took me roughly 4 hours to beat. Each computer system sported different cover art.

All three different covers were well done and it’s hard to pick a favorite.

The game is loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, published in 1839. The short story is a work of Gothic fiction and includes themes of madness, family, isolation, and metaphysical identities. It is considered one of Poe’s more famous works.

House of Usher is not the first Crystalware title we’ve experienced. The previous titles have been quite eclectic and sporting terrific, evocative documentation reminiscent of the documentation packaged with Epyx’s Dunjonquest games. Games like Fantasyland 2041, Forgotten Island, Crypt of the Undead, The Nightmare, and Quest for Power were all original with brief moments of greatness but have since been relegated to obscurity. The documentation which accompanies the game is brief, consisting of only four pages which is a bit unusual for a Crystalware title.

The mystery alluded to in the documentation above concerns the mystery of Virginia’s death in the game. How did Virginia die? What are the sounds behind the walls of the library? Where is the red room? The game advertised a $100 cash prize to the first person able to solve the mystery.

In the Atari version lightning flashes across the screen and an image of the Usher mansion presents itself. The beginning is pretty impressive for a title from 1980.

There is more than one way to win the game. The easiest way to win is by amassing 1000 courage points. This is done by encountering and defeating the different creatures in the game. This is the way in which I won. When I obtained over 1000 courage points the game suddenly ends with a congratulatory screen. I was not allowed an attempt to solve the mystery in this fashion. It is my understanding that if you win the game by acquiring 1000 in wealth, which is difficult to do, then you will also be given an opportunity to type in the solution to the mystery.

What makes either road to victory exceedingly difficult is that you are on a time limit. You enter the Usher Mansion at 6:00 P.M. and you have until 6:00 A.M. to acquire the requisite number of courage points or accrue enough wealth. If you fail to accomplish either before the sun comes up then a screen will appear. This would appear to be a lot of time to explore however the countdown is exceedingly fast. It is impossible to explore more than half the mansion in this amount of time. Your entire clock can run down in just real-time minutes. Needless to say I died many times in my exploration of the Usher Mansion.

The Usher Mansion represents a fixed map consisting of three levels: the ground floor, basement (including catacombs), and the upper floor. The encounters appear to be randomly distributed throughout the mansion with each new playthrough.

Most of the screen is used to graphically display the room you’re exploring. The bottom of the screen displays character statistics, your location, time, and any enemies that you’re facing.

The room locations make a lot of sense and it was fun to see how each of these were graphically laid out. You can interact with the various objects in the room as well and the exploration of your surroundings is encouraged.

Your Courage has a starting value of 0 and it increases by eliminating enemies. You may also encounter friendly ghosts who bestow upon you the gift of Courage when they depart. Many of the ghosts you encounter or traps in the house serve to scare you or reduce your courage score. You begin the game with a bow and 60 arrows. You dispatch your enemies by firing arrows at them while simultaneously avoiding their attacks. The Apple II and Atari 800 versions are played using a joystick. The Commodore PET version is keyboard only.

Your Offense number can be increased by finding weapons randomly distributed throughout the mansion. In one playthrough I found a whip which increased my score. Your Defense number can be increased as well in this fashion. I found a pair of pants which increased my Defense score.

You can move about by the 2,4, 6, and 8 keys on your numeric keypad. Pressing Key 5 on the keypad will fire a projectile in the last direction your character moved. Pressing 1 allows you to Use an inventory item.

It was fun to explore and interact with various aspects of the mansion. There are secret rooms, rooms where the walls close in on you, secret passages, and special outputs from different objects you interact with.

To solve the mystery you have to find the hidden red room. Once you enter the red room you can explore it fully and interact with all of the objects in the room to receive clues. There are seven different texts or clues than you can receive. To share even one of them here would ruin the entire mystery for you. If you solve the game through courage you do not get the opportunity to solve the mystery however if you solve the game by acquiring enough wealth and surviving the night then you’ll get the opportunity to guess the mystery by typing a sentence into a blank prompt. If you got it correct in 1980 you could then send the answer in to qualify for the $100 prize.

I enjoyed Hose of Usher. There was enough meat on the bones here to keep me interested. I liked the ability to win in more than one way. There seemed to be an atmosphere to the game that was properly conveyed and the mystery aspect pushed you to interact with the environment on a grander scale.

Next up on the docket we’re doing a bit more housekeeping with Wizard’s Castle.

Until next time…

The Dunjonquest games were ported across a wide variety of late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s home computers. It was a venerated series that fueled the imaginations of an entire generation. The games were a balm for the addictive need to emulate table-top role-playing games. Unfortunately, rather than end in a blaze of glory, the series died with a quiet whimper in the dark of the night. The exquisitely made documentation, which would become a hallmark of the series, is now absent with this new offering. Gone are the creative room descriptions and dungeon dressing which would become popular again with the SSI Gold Box series. The documentation was as scantily clad as a village vagrant; consisting of only 7 pages.

Gateway to Apshai was supposed to serve as a prequel to the Temple of Apshai as the story is set before the time that the Temple of Apshai was discovered. The game consists of 8 dungeon levels with 16 dungeons each. Like so many of these other games, I had never played Gateway to Apshai and so it was that I was rubbing my hands together in anticipation of the exploration of all of these dungeons. My mind was calculating just how long I might be spending with this game with 128 different dungeon levels to explore.

My excitement turned to dismay when I began play and realized that gameplay was more like The Tomb of Drewan or The Caverns of Freitag rather than the game’s venerated predecessors. It is not my intent to disparage either of the aforementioned games as both of them are of better quality and more entertaining than the game I’m speaking of now however the arcade play makes me reminiscent of them.

Character generation is absent from this offering despite what it’s trappings proclaim. Every person who plays this game begins with the same nameless character whose attributes are the same as those depicted above.

The game uses a combination of joystick and keyboard. The F3 key will display all of the items you have picked up. Any spells and weapons that you discovered will be displayed here and you have to select them to move them from your supply bag to your hand as a useable item.

The F5 key allows you to scroll through the following option choices:

Keys – to open locked doors

Locate Trap – reveals invisible traps

Search Spell – allows you to search a room for secret doors

Drop Item – to drop any item from your supply bag

Check Supplies – brings up a list of supplies you currently carry

Check Status – brings up a status screen for you to review your health

Check Weapons – lists available weapons that you carry

Next Level – there are eight total levels and choosing this option at any time propels you to the next difficulty level

The F7 key allows you to cycle back to the FIGHT option as well as your choice of weapon to use.

The ultimate goal is to reach Level 8 and complete it. In doing so you are presumably shown the true path to the Temple of Apshai. The game manual boasts of 7,500 rooms to explore.

I cannot tell you how disappointed I was to learn, that amongst the 128 different dungeon levels and 7,500 rooms there was not one shred of descriptive text. No window dressing of any kind. There were no cool dungeon titles such as The Lair of the White Worm or The Catacombs of Kuman That. There were no room descriptions. It was a black void of creativity. You were greeted with Dungeon 1, Dungeon 2, Dungeon 3, etc. that you selected with a joystick.

What was even more shocking was that you don’t explore each of the 16 dungeons before having to move on to the next level. I chose Dungeon 1 and once I completed the dungeon I was suddenly propelled to Level 2 where I selected Dungeon 1 again. It went like this all the way to the end of the game. I suppose there is a lot of replay value in this development choice but it is hard to cling to that positive notion when there is not an impetus to continue game play. It really just wasn’t much fun nor all that exciting.

The combat is purely arcade and involves you hammering on the joystick button and waving your sword around frantically trying to hit your opponent. When your opponent comes into contact with you consider yourself as having been hit. If this happens 2 to 3 times consider yourself dead.

The area that you are currently in is revealed to you and the rest of the dungeon is shrouded in a fog of war until you explore the area. If you’re tired of exploring Level 6 then just hit F5 and choose Next Level and jump to Level 7; it is as easy as that. The entire game is action oriented and you’re on a timer to finish the dungeon level as well. This timer further deteriorated the game experience for me as I couldn’t enjoy exploring my surroundings or cycling through my supply inventory with the threat of a running clock in the background.

Once you complete Level 8 there is no congratulatory screen or message of any kind. Instead, it loops you back to the beginning of Level 8 which I guess you can play over and over and over again. It probably took me a total of 2 to 3 hours to vanquish my enemies, take their treasures as spoils of war, and complete all of Level 8. I cycled through a bland representation of 8 dungeon levels like someone who couldn’t wait to get through a bad movie experience.

I wish that this exalted series could have ended on a high note but sadly it was not the case. There was no nostalgic tie to the rest of the games in the series nor any sense of connectivity. The game was developed by the Connelly Group and Epyx remained the publisher. It was released in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and this is the version that I played. It was also released for the Atari 8-bit in the same year and for ColecoVision in 1984. I played the game on an emulator and it took me 3 hours to beat.

This last offering was the proverbial nail in the coffin for the series. It would be the last game released in the series and it’s poor reception caused a future Dunjonquest episode, Cliffs of Tyyr, to remain unreleased.

It was the first major series to usher in a number of sequels and follow-on offerings. There were 13 total games in the Dunjonquest series if you include their two science fiction titles. It began with the Temple of Apshai in August of 1979, followed by The Datestones of Ryn in November of 1979, then Morloc’s Tower in January 1980, Hellfire Warrior in September of 1980, Upper Reaches of Apshai in September of 1981, The Keys of Archeron in September of 1981, Sorcerer of Siva in December of 1981, Curse of Ra in 1982, Danger in Drindisti in 1982, and lastly Gateway to Apshai in 1983. I spent hours and hours playing them all. I feel blessed to have been able to do so.

The curtain now descends on the Dunjonquest line and I look upon the series with fond memories of the amazing documentation that accompanied the games. The room descriptions within helped to immerse the player further and foster a role-playing experience that was as close to a table-top experience as you could get in 1979. This method would later be adopted by SSI’s Gold Box series of official Dungeons & Dragons games and also Interplay’s Wasteland. I wish that Gateway to Apshai had been the crown jewel of this venerated franchise but unfortunately it served as its death knell.

Next up on the docket we’re going to go back in time and do some housekeeping by playing House of Usher.

Until next time…

Illegus Episode IV was developed and published by the ASCII Corporation in 1983 for the MSX. This is the second game that I’ve played on this system; the first being Warrior. The huge difference between these two games however is that while Warrior is a clear role-playing game, Illegus is a first person shooter.

I am not clear how or why Illegus made it’s way on to my list of role-playing games but it is very clearly NOT a role-playing game. I suspect that I acquired the title of the game from the dungeoncrawler website. It DOES sport excellent 3d maze movement but that’s about all. It is a first person shooter and NOT a role-playing game.

The premise of the game is quite simple. You make your way through a series of mazes or labyrinths on the planet Al-Mazar in an effort to find the way out. Hunting you within the maze are killer robots that are easily dispatched by pressing the space bar to fire upon them. There are also pits in some of the mazes that you have to jump over. This is a very awkward feat as you have to press the forward key and then the backward key in order to jump over the pit and it doesn’t always work.

My understanding is that there are 10 such labyrinths on the planet for you to work through. I could find no documentation on the game anywhere even from it’s japanese version.

There are items that you can find that are randomly dispersed throughout the maze. You may find night vision goggles that will let you see in the infrared spectrum when darkness falls. The game has a very impressive graphical sequence when the daylight gives way to night. You can see the darkness descending from the horizon and then very soon the entire maze becomes dark making movement virtually impossible without your night vision goggles.

You can also find gold, food, and water in the maze. These items appear to be window dressing as they do not seem to affect the stamina or gameplay in any way.

The game also has a sound mechanic or a hum that gets progressively faster and louder as the killer robots get closer and closer to you. It is reminiscent of Dungeons of Daggorath and Cloudy Mountain which make use of sound while in a dungeon or maze.

What CRPG enthusiasts might appreciate about Illegus Episode IV is another opportunity to do some graphing by hand. It was really the only pleasure for me with this one and with the lack of any fantasy or role-playing element I am going to elect not to continue. I probably have three hours into the game and I’ve mapped out the first three levels by hand and have progressed through them. The prospect of spending another 5-10 hours however on the other 7 levels with so many GENUINE role-playing games ahead of me makes this an easy decision. I spent enough time with the game and completed enough of it that I decided to do a write-up on it even though it really doesn’t belong in any role-playing category. If you can’t find enough grid-based maze games to map by hand well here is another one for you.

Here are the first three levels mapped out for your viewing pleasure:

This is another very obscure title and thus I was glad to spend some time with the game and to be able to cover it for you. It is a very fine and early example of a FPS (first person shooter) moving smoothly through a maze environment. The graphical rendering of day becoming night within the maze deserves honorable mention as well as the use of sound in the game to warn of an approaching enemy.

I think I’m justified in moving on and I felt I went above and beyond the scope of my mission here.

Next up on the docket is Gateway to Apshai.

Until next time…

Happy New Year dear reader! Our first game covered in 2023 is Karkoth’s Keep. Karkoth’s Keep was written by David Dougher and published by Indecs Services in 1983 for DOS.

The evil witch king, Karkoth, led his hordes of fell creatures over the northern border of Isgalduin in what bards have come to call The Battle of Long Defeat. In his last stand, King Quilan held out for weeks defending the massive stone keep built by Quilan’s namesake, Quilan Miningol I. As Karkoth’s hordes breached the keep, Quilan carried all of his precious relics and heirlooms of his family and hid them deep in the dungeons underneath the keep. Rings there were, magic and potent, and weapons: swords and armor, each with its own powers. The dungeon spread out far beyond the keep and delved deep into the rock. Ten levels the dungeon descended from keep to secret vaults.

Quilan was never seen again. Some say that Quilan lived and escaped through some underground way but that is only legend. Or is it?

While investigating a secret burial tomb high in the western mountains you discovered a hidden parchment supposedly penned by Quilan himself. One of the treasures hidden deep below the keep was the sword Ramdahl, otherwise known as Wizard’s Bane. Only Ramdahl can harm and defeat the undead king, Karkoth. The great sword is hidden somewhere in one of the lower levels. It is up to you to find the sword and save the realm.

I’m going to have to give David Dougher an A for the background that came with the game’s documentation. Dougher is also an author who writes under the pen name of David C. R. Nash and has his own website where you can browse his books. One of the books is entitled Tales of Isgaldin which is the world that Karkoth’s Keep is set in.

Karkoth’s Keep can be classified as a Rogue-like which is a subgenre of role-playing video games characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. It is named so after the game Rogue which was released in 1980 and covered here.

Character generation is fairly straightforward. You are given ten different sets of randomly generated attributes and asked to pick one. The six attributes are taken straight from Dungeons & Dragons: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma.

Once you have selected a set of attributes there are five different races to choose from: Greyelf, Dwarf, Human, Half-elf, and High-elf.

There are then five different classes to choose from: Ranger, Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, Gedi, or Monk.

The Gedi may use swords, shields, and armor and also has limited spell abilities.

Karkoth’s Keep reminds me a bit of The Dragon & the Princess in that there is a town to explore above the Keep’s dungeons and exploring the town is much like playing a text adventure.

It is in the town that you can purchase equipment and magical items and spells. More importantly however is that you can purchase FOOD at the Raging Bull Tavern. The game has you keep track of your food supply and the only place to obtain food is from the Raging Bull Tavern. Your food diminishes with just about each click of the keyboard so you’ll find that you have to make your way back up to restock or use a Transport spell. To get to the dungeons you do so through The Laughing Elf Inn and you talk to the proprietor, Azab.

The keyboard commands in the game are your movement keys of N, S, E, W and then you have (Q)uit, (M)agic, (W)ait, or use (Sc)roll. All character classes have some access to magical spells or scrolls. The scrolls that you can collect are: Cure Serious Wounds, Levitation, Invisibility, Strength, and Turn Undead.

The list of available spells and their users is seen below:

All characters go up in levels as they play and experience points are rewarded for the monsters slain. Experience points are also given as a one-for-one basis for gold pieces when the character exits the dungeon and enters the Laughing Elf Inn. In combat your options are to fight, run, cast a spell, or use a scroll.

There are 48 different enemies that you face and all of them stem from Dungeons & Dragons. These enemies range from goblins and gnolls to chimeras, trolls, vampires, and various dragons. Each of the dungeon denizens also come at you in varying numbers and different levels. For example on the first level you may encounter 5 Level 1 Snakes but on the 9th level you may encounter one 29th level White Dragon. The lower you delve into the keep the higher your opponent’s experience level will be.

Once again, to win the game, you have to make your way down into the lower levels and find the sword, Wizard’s Bane.

I was expecting to have to laboriously search the 10th level for the sword but I ended up finding it on the 9th level! I was surprised by a 29th level White Dragon. Once I beat the dragon I suddenly found the Sword of Karkoth in my inventory. The magical sword is a +15 sword. You can see by my character sheet up above that by the time I found the sword on the 9th dungeon level I had a +5 shield, +9 Armour, a +7 Mace, and a +8 Dagger. I also had a +7 Ring of Regeneration.

Once you have the sword in hand you have to make your way back up and out of the dungeon. Now normally, you can use a Transport scroll which will teleport you to the stairs at the start of the dungeon but once you have the Sword of Karkoth in hand the Transport spell only works up to the 8th level. Then it no longer functions. You’ll have to trudge your way up through the dungeon to the exit. The sword also attracts monsters and so you’ll have to combat a foe at almost every step on your way out of the dungeon. It was a long, grueling trek.

Once you make your way to the 1st level stairs and exit the dungeon you’ll then switch to a combat screen and immediately encounter Korkath.

I’m not quite sure what the developer was going for here; because you control both your character AND Korkoth in this battle. Now Korkoth is a 9th level Magic-User and my character, Fost, was an 11th level fighter. On each round I could have chosen to hurl a fireball or lightning bolt at Fost and made short work of him but there was no way in hell I was going to do that after all the hours I had put into the game. I also could have completely cheated and had Korkoth just cast Invisibility over and over again each round. Instead I just chose the (F)ight option for both characters and kept slamming the return key. After many rounds I finally defeated Korkoth.

I am not sure why as a player I would want to control my opponents (the big bads) actions as well – I was really scratching my head there.

Early in the game I stayed very close to the stairs on the first level. Merely by standing still I encountered many different enemies and procured magic items from them. I would then ascend the stairs, collect my experience points, purchase food, and then venture back down. Once I obtained 6th level in experience I began to get braver and explore the dungeon’s deeper levels. Permadeath is a very real threat here so you want to be very careful and grind slowly. The dungeon levels are vast and there are many different stairways or access points scattered all about. It is absolutely necessary to map the dungeon levels by hand. You may find different access points then I did; however I am providing you with the first 9 dungeon levels below. The stairs going up and down have been highlighted.

The battles become progressively harder as you begin to move lower. Once you descend a set of stairs and encounter your first foe you’ll know if you’re ready for that particular level or not right away.

I played Karkoth’s Keep using Dosbox and it took roughly 11 hours for me to beat the game. I probably could have completed it one to two hours quicker if I hadn’t been taking my time mapping the levels by hand. I enjoyed Karkoth’s Keep though I would have liked to have seen more dungeon dressing. Perhaps some fountains scattered about or special areas or encounter areas. I enjoyed my time I spent with the game.

Next up on the docket is Illigks Episode IV – The Maze of Illegus.

Until next time…

Covid took a step back out of the spotlight in 2022 but front and center was the economy as the Federal Reserve raised rates at a record breaking pace and the stock market slipped into a deep bear.

As It Was by Harry Styles was the top billboard song this year and the highest grossing moves of 2022 were Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World: Dominion, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The Houston Astros won the World Series in 2022 and Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup Final.

Throughout all of this; I managed to play and complete 63 total games. 18 of the games were text adventures, 2 of the games were graphic adventures, and the other 43 games were role-playing games. I created a blog post on each and every game that I played and here is the full chronological listing of blog posts to date.

Games that proved the most challenging this past year and chewed up a lot of playing time? Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn, Ring of Darkness, Dungeons of Daggorath, and Ultima III: Exodus.

My favorite games of the 63 games that I played are likely the same four games listed above but I’d like to add Zork II to the bunch as well as I highly enjoyed the second offering in that series.

The games that I experienced in 2022 were quite the eclectic bunch as developers still dealt with hardware limitations while striving to translate table-top role-playing into the best damn game experience that they could.

I look through the list of games to come and I want to point out that many of them become bigger in scope and will require more playing time to complete. In these early years many of these games did not have save game settings and were meant to be played in a single setting of 2 to 4 hours. That is not the case as we move forward in time and even now in 2022 open world role-playing games have become immense in size and require 100+ hours to complete. Some gamers have even complained in 2022 of burnout and asking for a mix of shorter games that don’t require so much time commitment. Oh how the industry has changed.

Moving forward I will continue to focus the majority of my time on role-playing games and striving to complete them in the order in which they were published. I am still working through the role-playing games published in 1983. I still reserve the right to go back and play text adventures and possibly even platform games from these early eras and when I do you can bet that I’ll be writing about my experience. I am currently playing Karkoth’s Keep and still incredibly stuck in Scott Adam’s Savage Island Part II. Really Scott? lol

I have also been slowly updating the site’s game database. I try to add at least four to six titles a day. I’m not trying to compete with MobyGames or any other database; this is a labor of love for me and a hobby. I will continue to add games to the database each and every day except when traveling or on vacation.

We have the holiday fast approaching now and then I’ll be taking a much needed break and spending a week in Florida after Christmas. I will be exercising, enjoying the beach, and doing a lot of reading.

Speaking of reading; I am also an avid reader. My favorite genre is fantasy which should come as no surprise. I am sure that readers of this blog; also interested in fantasy and adventure games; are probably fans of the fantasy genre as well.

I spent much of this year finishing Robert Jordan’s wonderful Wheel of Time series. It is a massive 15 book series that Robert Jordan started in 1990 and the last book was finally published in 2013. Starting this series is quite a commitment as each book runs roughly 800-1000 pages but it is worth it.

I’ve also been rereading Robin Hobbs most excellent books in the Realm of the Elderlings series. I completed the Farseer Trilogy and the Liveship Traders Trilogy. It is the second time I’ve read these books and I liked them even better the second time through. Robin Hobbs is my favorite author by far and these are my favorite books. The character of Fitz is probably my favorite literary character of all time and I can’t recommend these books enough. Assassin’s Apprentice is the first book in the series.

When I get back from vacation I plan on getting back to Karkoth’s Keep to start the new year as well as tackle Scott Adam’s Savage Island Part II again. I’m not going to place any kind of pressure on myself to finish X amount of games as this journey is a labor of love and I want to continue to enjoy the process and not place too many restrictions on myself.

I want to thank you, dear reader, for reading the blog and taking this journey with me. If I had a wish for 2023 it would be that I’d like to see more discourse and discussion on the various games that I’m blogging about. I’d like to hear your opinion and your voice. Please also don’t hesitate to spread the word. I want to wish you and your loved ones a very happy and safe holiday.

Thank you and I’ll see you next year…

Knight Quest was John Nelson’s vision to create a “super-Eamon”.

Donald Brown gave us Eamon in 1978 which has developed a huge cult following; still active to this very day. At least 279 Eamon adventures have been published. Swordthrust was then introduced in 1981 by Donald Brown which was a commercialized version of Eamon and published by CE Software. There were seven separate adventures, each sold separately, to this commercial successor.

John Nelson had been an author of almost a dozen early Eamon adventures and was also responsible for forming the National Eamon User’s Club. He also started a regular Eamon newsletter. Nelson’s first Eamon adventure which he published was Eamon #15: Heroes Castle. I am only on the 9th Eamon adventure and thus I had not previously sampled any of Nelson’s work.

John Nelson then independently published Knight Quest in 1983 which contained considerable enhancements over the standard Eamon and was an attempt to approach a true Dungeons & Dragons gaming environment

However the Apple II did not have the resources for such an ambitious enhancement. Because of an extreme shortage of memory, Knight Quest ran VERY slow and was difficult to work with. Then the IBM/PC with its 640k of RAM appeared and John moved his efforts to that platform. Only four adventures were ever published before the system was soon aborted.

When creating a character in Eamon there were no classes to choose from however Knight Quest gives you the choice of eight different classes.

You then have the choice of the following races: dwarf, elf, giant, gnome, human, orc, or troll. Your player can choose to speak one of eight possible languages too: Trollish, Orcish, Dwarfish, Elvish, Gerbish, Falconese, Latin, or Welch.

Much like its predecessor you begin play in a frontier town with a number of character choices.

Knight Quest has 17 spells in total which is a huge improvement over the four offered in Eamon. The spells are: HEAL, CHARM, BLAST, FURY, SCARE, POWER, HARDHIT, LIGHT, TELEPORT, SLEEP, RESURRECT, INVISIBILITY, FORCEFIELD, DARKSEE, ATTALL, RAGE, & PURIFY. I never did get the opportunity to experiment with any of these spells. For the introductory adventure the only items I could afford when starting out were a sword and padded armor.

There were only three adventures ever created for the Knight Quest system. Amateur Alley which is equivalent to the Beginner’s Cave in Eamon was the first offering. This is the adventure that I started with. Curse of the Hellsblade was the next full adventure and this scenario ended up getting converted to the regular Eamon system as adventure scenario #206. Quest for the Firedragon was the next full length adventure and this was also written by John Nelson.

The setup for Amateur Alley is that an old man has told you about a treasure to be found in the alley behind a tavern. I found this first initial adventure to be very underwhelming. I question the choice of an urban city adventure as a first initial introduction to a system. I was also turned off by the humor and the “flippant” encounters which took place in the game. For example in the back of the bar is a room entitled the chip room. It is where all the snacks for the bar are stored. Inside this room you encounter the Frito Bandito and do battle with him. Kind of silly right?

The game doesn’t seem to give you much in the way of role-playing choices for a system wanting to show off its enhancements over predecessors. I felt forced into combat much of the time when I would have rather preferred an alternative solution. The combat with the old hag who runs the halfway house stands out as an example.

There was quite a bit of combat in the game with several different opponents: muggers, the Frito Bandito, an old hag, an alley cat, a junkyard dog, a brown rat, a gray rat and a couple of others that don’t readily come to mind.

I played the game on an apple emulator and I can see why the Apple platform was ultimately abandoned. The game ran extremely slow and waiting for the combat and locations to load were painful. The game’s spell enhancements and artifacts I never got a chance to sample in the introductory adventure and my experience was such that I won’t be moving on. I’d rather wait and play the converted Curse of the Hellsblade in the regular Eamon system.

The introductory adventure was rather easy and the alley had several buildings to explore. I ended up finding a thieves lair and obtained a gold statuette and some jewelry.

I am a fan of the text adventure / role-playing game hybrid but this particular offering did not resonate well with me. Perhaps it didn’t help that it closely followed on the heels of Might & Magic: Lava Pits of Aznar which I was enamored with. Nevertheless, I can see why the Knight Quest series was short lived.

Up next on the docket is Karkoth’s Keep which looks pretty immense.

Until next time…

Lord of the Balrogs was developed and published by Supersoft in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and was only released on cassette.

The premise is that the party is tasked with infiltrating the ancient fortress of Zorg to find and defeat a powerful and evil Balrog. This evil entity, of course, resides on the lowest level of the fortress and is guarded by other unique examples of its kind.

Scattered throughout the fortress are 6 sacred relics that will help to defeat the evil Balrog. In actuality they will do more than help; they are absolutely necessary for your success. One of the six relics will actually slay the Balrog outright. You just have to choose the right one. I ended up cycling through four relics and watched two of my party members perish before I defeated the dread beast.

The 6 different sacred relics you must find are shown below:

Your party consists of five different character classes: an amazon, a cleric, a hobbit, a sorcerer, and a warrior. You get to name each of your five characters and then you find yourself entering the fortress of Zorg. The fortress is composed of six different levels and you’ll find each of the relics on the first five levels. One of the levels will hold two of the relics. Once you have all six relics in your possession you can make your way down to the sixth level.

The sixth level is populated by several different variations of balrog. You have a silver and platinum balrog, a red balrog, etc. and each are quite formidable.

A typical fortress room is depicted above. It is in these rooms that you’ll either find a chest to plunder or you’ll find yourself in an encounter. Most of the creatures seem ripped right out of a Dungeons & Dragons monster manual. Combat is automated and resolved rather quickly. The monsters, once defeated, can have treasures that can aid you in your quest. There is an item called a Wand of Power that has a few charges in it. When you use this item it increases the strength of your party members. The Lamp of Daybright will allow you to see where you’ve already been in the dungeon and show you the entire map you’ve explored. Otherwise without the Lamp a fog of war comes into play and previously explored areas disappear. There is also a Chalice of Life which you can use to resurrect dead party members. You want as many of your party members present as possible before your final battle with the evil balrog. The rooms are connected by passages and there are usually 2 or 3 different sets of stairs on each level as well that allow you to move up and down.

When combat ensues you choose which of the five party members are going to do battle that round. I found that the amazon and warrior were more affective in dealing with tougher opponents. When you get to levels 5 and 6 the battles become much tougher and play begins to become a little more stressful. On the lower levels you’ll have the opportunity to uncover two different spells: a spell of cold and a spell of heat. The sorcerer can use each of these once and can represent your party against some very tough opponents. There were a couple of battles where I found the amazon and warrior to be ineffective but when I chose the sorcerer I ended up victorious. The sorcerer cannot use any magic until you find these spells in the fortress.

Once you come upon the lair of the evil balrog than your screen and combat changes from you’ve experienced before.

The game is entertaining in that as you’re fighting the evil balrog he taunts you all the while and hurls insults at you. On the special combat screen you’re on, each round you’ll have the chance to “use” one of the six sacred relics. If you choose incorrectly he laughs and taunts your ineffectiveness and then both destroys the relic and instantly slays a party member. So if you have all five of your party members it guarantees that you’ll get to use five out of the six relics that you found and it is likely one of them will defeat him. If you show up to the last battle with only two or three party members you’ll have to hope that you guess correctly.

I actually had all five of my party members and cycled through four relics before I guessed correctly. I was starting to get a bit nervous.

There is no way to save the game but luckily each playthrough only lasts roughly two hours. I found the game to actually be pretty enjoyable to play. I enjoyed exploring the fortress and the way the game was setup. I initially started playing late one night with the intention of just learning the keyboard commands and that I would attack the game in earnest the next day. I ended up getting sucked into play and stayed up very late that night and actually finished the game.

This was another obscure game title that I found myself enjoying quite a bit. I had never heard of this offering before playing it and I enjoyed the experience.

Next up on the docket is Knight Quest.

Until next time…

Maze Master was the first game written by Michael Cranford who would later go on to give us The Bard’s Tale in 1985. It is obvious that Mr. Cranford was heavily influenced by the Wizardry series. The gameplay and wireframe dungeons even had me feeling as if I were playing a Wizardry “lite” scenario.

Maze Master definitely feels confined by the technical limitations of the cartridge that it came on. While the game is very good it is definitely a “watered down” version of Wizardry. There are only three characters instead of six, two different classes to choose from rather than eight, four attributes rather than six, and only 18 spells to choose from rather than 50. Your equipment choices are also very limited. Instead of 10 different dungeon levels like you find in Wizardry we have 5 and there are no chests to open nor treasure to find. There is a bit of text on each level in the form of clues which you find; which is more than we’ve found in most wireframe dungeons to date. Both Oubliette and The Standing Stones come to mind and thus Wizardry still holds the crown for providing descriptive dungeon text throughout its levels.

You do not find magic or treasure in the dungeon but you can purchase four different magic items. Below is the entire list of items available for your three characters to purchase:

The staff of light, much like the Light spell, reveals the location of all secret doors found throughout the dungeon. A Ring of Accuracy makes it 25% more likely that you’ll hit your target. The Amulet of Healing regenerates 1 CND point per turn which represent your hit points. The Hawk Blazon lowers your armor class to -10 which is 1 factor better than the Mithril Coat combined with Deflector can provide.

The screen above is the equivalent of the Castle screen in Wizardry. When you leave the dungeon and find yourself presented with this screen all of your wounds are healed. I actually appreciated this mechanic rather than taking the time to spend gold on resting and healing. It allows the dungeon exploration to remain the focus and you can quickly just dive right back in.

The premise of the game is rather simple. The characters are on a journey to find and slay the Balrog, a villainous creature bent on the destruction of the liege and his realm. The Balrog lurks in the nether regions of the dungeon which in gameplay equates to Level 5. The Balrog is protected by many different dungeon denizens and his lair on the 5th level is also protected by a magical aura. The players must solve a riddle in order to break through the magical aura.

Scattered throughout dungeon levels 2 through 4 are three different clues placed to help you solve the riddle on the 5th dungeon level. Four of the dungeon levels also work to spell a letter found in the answer when you carefully look at the dungeon configuration. I found this out AFTER I had completed the game and looking back at my maps the letters are hard to discern.

I really appreciated the fact that there was limited text found on each dungeon level as it made the mapping of each dungeon level much more enjoyable as I searched every nook and cranny looking for my next clue.

The clue on dungeon level 2 is: “I am destiny personified”

The clue on dungeon level 3 is: “Toward the NE ware the stop else magic tries to make you drop”

The clue on dungeon level 4 is: “My name is in the lower 4 maps” (I never understood this clue until afterwards however I was still able to solve the riddle – Michael Cranford seems to have an affinity for certain words as evidenced in his later Bard’s Tale games – big hint there).

There is quite a variety of dungeon denizens that you encounter and the encounters get much more difficult as you progress through the lower dungeon levels. There are fixed combat squares within the dungeon and there are random encounters as well. You can press P on your keyboard to pause the game which I suggest that you utilize because if you stop moving throughout the dungeon (to perhaps work on your hand drawn dungeon map) you will certainly invite a random encounter. On each of my hand drawn dungeon maps I also included a list of the different dungeon denizens that I encountered on each level. The asterisk next to the name indicates that they are the toughest encounter on that particular level.

So combat, much like Wizardry, is turn-based and then exploration of the dungeon and random encounters are in real-time.

I have included pictures of my hand drawn maps for dungeon levels 1 through 3. You’re on your own for the 4th and 5th dungeon level.

The first dungeon level I found to be very deadly. Compared to Wizardry, I found survival to be much harder. It is imperative that if you survive ANY encounter you get out of the dungeon quickly and save your character’s progress.

We need to address the elephant in the room – and that is that there seems to be a horrible glitch in the game that makes it very difficult to complete. This was very disappointing to encounter on the heels of having had to deal with similar issues with my last game. What happens is that when you go to leave the dungeon, instead of the message: Stairs going up – do you take them? Y/N the game instead suddenly begins to cycle through several encounters – one after the other – an unlimited number of encounters – resulting ultimately in your party’s demise. This glitch occurred randomly but seemed more likely to occur the more time you spend in the dungeon. I spent a few hours trying to work around this but as I went deeper into the 2nd level I could not escape this glitch.

Luckily I found a page on the internet with instructions on how you can create a “super character”. I didn’t quite take it that far – I reduced my experience to 10,000 but I did give my characters a rune-mace, chain mail, and the deflector shield. Surprisingly, I found that after I did this and then saved my game, I never encountered that stairway glitch again. I was able to then play the game as it was meant to be played and I then proceeded to map out each of the dungeon levels and grind my way higher. When I was able to amass enough gold I eventually upgraded my armor to a Mithril Coat for each character as well as a Wraithblade. Without using this character editor, it is impossible to finish the game as even the 2nd level stairway completely disappeared on me with the glitch in play. I am not sure what causes it – but as I said – once I used the character editor I never encountered another game error again.

HES never did publish another role-playing game after 1983 however Mchael Cranford would go on to do great things. He is credited with The Bard’s Tale in 1985, Bards Tale II in 1986, Centauri Alliance in 1990, and Dark Seed in 1992.

Once I was able to find a solution to dispel the game’s terrible glitch, I went on to really enjoy this offering. If you like dungeon exploration and mapping dungeons by hand you’ll really enjoy the experience. I liked the way that the game handles combat as well and there was enough creature variety and spell variety to keep it interesting. I did not have to worry about spinners or teleporters in the dungeon – only secret doors and one way secret doors so mapping everything out was an enjoyable and even relaxing experience.

Next up on the docket is Lord of the Balrogs as we continue to run with a Balrog theme.

Until next time…