Caverns of Freitag was developed by David Shapiro and published by MUSE Software of Castle Wolfenstein fame.
This is the first game written by David Shapiro who would later go on to work for Origin. He would contribute to Ultima V and had the moniker of Dr. Cat. He appears as an NPC innkeeper in Paws in both Ultima V and VI and the dragon Freitag’s skull is one of the exhibits in a museum in Ultima VI. He would also work on Moebius, Windwalker and Warsport for TimeSink.
The evil dragon Freitag has taken refuge in a large system of caverns on the Enchanted Islands. A Thechu warrior must explore the maze, overcome Freitag’s minions and finally slay the evil beast, so that the Islands may once again be free.
The Caverns of Freitag is an action-based RPG where the player controls the warrior on his way to kill the dragon. Action-based RPGs have been a recurring theme in 1982 as we’ve seen with Warrior of Ras Volume’s One & Two, The Valley and Sword of Fargoal.
You begin play at the Inn which is located on the far western part of the large map. Each time you return to the Inn your hit points will be restored to their full amount and you’ll be awarded experience and levels for the monsters that you’ve slain. The highest level you can attain is that of Lord or Level 10. Your ultimate goal here is to find the dragon located somewhere in the vast dungeon and slay the beast. You have two different kinds of weapons to choose from: sword and arrows. Your arrows are limited however and you can only purchase more at the Inn. The Inn however is really in an inconvenient location. You’ll find that you’ll be trying to explore the vast dungeon and then constantly have to make your way all the way back to the Inn on the wester edge of the map in order to heal and recuperate. The monsters respawn too so your forays into the dungeon early on can be a bit frustrating.
There ARE Healers, identified by the letter “H” in Modes 2 and 3 (more on this later) that are depicted with a square face. These Healers are your allies and can help you to regain valuable hit points when you land on them
Scattered throughout the dungeon are treasure chests that are filled with gold pieces and you’ll need the gold to purchase said arrows and you can also use the gold to purchase more hit points and increase your overall hit point total which in this game is an absolute necessity. You’ll want to be careful as some of the chests are actually Mimics or creatures that mimic a treasure chest. When you touch the chest you’ll stick to it and then have to slay the creature to escape. Chests can also contain a teleport trap and can teleport you to a random location within the vast maze. I also found a chest that contained arrows and another that awarded me with a +1 sword.
There are about a dozen different monsters that you’ll encounter in the dungeon and they are an odd bunch and depicted with a unique art style.
You have the mimics which “mimic” treasure chests which I wrote about earlier, electric moths that can attack you diagonally, griffins and flamebats that both have a lot of hit points and deliver a lot of damage. You also have Mad Robots, Burbleborts, thunderbugs, and Cold Crystals! There are also evil Wizards which are the most annoying. They constantly shoot lightning bolts at you from a distance and as you close to try and do battle they keep moving away from you while peppering you with lightning bolts all the while. Extremely irritating.
There is one magic spell you have learned to cast in your travels and that is The Charm of Sir Robin. I believe this is a homage to Monty Python & the Holy Grail from Shapiro. You might remember the bard singing in the background of the movie; “Brave Sir Robin ran away…” while the actual Sir Robin whines; “I did not!” You cast this spell by hitting the ESC key which promptly turns you into a long-legged chicken which allows you to move at twice your normal movement rate.
The most interesting aspect of the game for me was the three different Display Modes.
Display Mode 1, which is the default mode, shows a graphical display of the caverns and is depicted above. Only the most important display messages will flash on this screen such as “you’ve lost a lot of blood”
You can access Display Mode 2 by pressing the number 2 on your keyboard. This scene will give you a little window in the upper right hand corner. Each character is represented by a symbol or character. You are the asterisk, monsters are characters, walls are blocks etc. This page gives you all messages and useful information like how many hit points you have left, how many arrows you have left, how much gold you have, and so on. The last five display messages are also shown at the bottom of the screen.
You can access Display Mode 3 by hitting the 3 key on your keyboard. This lets you look at a Magical Map that the king loaned you from his treasure room. You won’t see any monsters or messages while examining the map but you WILL see a 24 x 40 display as opposed to the normal 9 x 9 display of the area of the Caverns you are in. The enchantment of the magical map will also reveal the location of any Healers within it’s range.
You can jump back and forth between the three display options quite quickly merely by pressing the 1, 2, and 3 keys on your keyboard and I certainly did this quite often.
The cavern complex is quite massive and it took me quite some time to explore most of it. Once you hit level 6 or 7 you’ll find that your forays into the complex can last much longer and go much deeper without having to flee back to the Inn to restore your hit points. The dragon’s lair is located in the far southeast part of the caves. You’ll notice as you get closer to the lair the colors of the map will change to a bright orange as depicted above.
The dragon’s lair is surrounded by a horde of enemies so the challenge is getting to the dragon with at least half of your hit points intact. The immense dragon isn’t very mobile but getting close to him is tricky because he keeps breathing fire. You’ll have to time things just right but I found I always took at least one breath weapon of damage in order to get close. It’s breath weapon usually deals 120 to 200 hit points of damage so it is quite deadly. Once you do get close to the dragon and can begin to exchange blows it doesn’t get any easier as the dragon packs a powerful wallop. It was difficult but I was finally able to defeat the dragon.
Once you defeat the dragon you have to make your way back to the Inn and any monsters remaining now chase you as you make your way back across the map. To make matters worse, there is suddenly a proliferation of more evil wizards which are the hardest and most irritating of all of the foes. In other words, once you have defeated the dragon getting back to the Inn is not easy.
I did make it back to the Inn and complete the game. You are awarded with a fireworks show at the end and then asked if you’d like to play again. Admittedly, I am not very proficient at these arcade portions and I was leery that I might not be able to beat or conquer this particular game. I persevered however and finally won out.
I played Caverns of Freitag on an Apple emulator and it took me roughly 5 hours to beat. I enjoyed my time with the game and there were two things that resonated with me that I wanted to highlight. The first was I found the three different Display Modes in the game to be very unique and highly enjoyable. Secondly I was entertained by the fact that Dave Shapiro of Ultima V and VI fame got his start with MUSE and that I got to play the first game he ever created.
Next up on my docket is Theseus & the Minotaur.