Dungeon of Danger was published as code in Howard Berenbon’s second Book of Mostly BASIC. It was presented as 12 pages of code that an individual could type in and then play. Depending on which version of the source code you purchased; there was code available for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, and TRS-80. I played the TRS-80 version on an emulator and spent roughly two hours with the game.
When the game begins you get to choose a difficulty level and then you are teleported into the Dungeon of Danger. The dungeon consists of two levels and there are 64 rooms on each level. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to collect as much treasure as possible and then get the hell out.
There is no character creation other than that you get to choose a name for your character. There is no inventory management nor any items that you find that you can use to your advantage.
The game is text-based and combat completely random. There are however 38 different creatures that you can encounter in the game which is a tremendous amount of variety for the time.
The above list are all of the different monsters that you can encounter with their hit points and maximum damage that they can cause.
The only graphic in the game is a special encounter with a good wizard. He gave me additional hit points and 105 gold pieces. Nice guy! There are also trap doors that drop you to the second level and pools of water that have magical effects.
The dungeon is presented in an 8 x 8 grid with enclosed edges. The M represents one of the thirty-eight monsters you might encounter. Once you vanquish the dungeon denizen then that square becomes empty. EW represents an east-west corridor. You can only exit or move to the east or west. NS represents a north-south corridor and the same movement rules apply. UP represents a stairway and C represents a Cavern. When you enter a cavern you may find a random potion, a pool, a dark wizard, or a friendly wizard. Each of these random encounters will either be beneficial or threatening. The ? may represent a thief or a trap door. The checkered square represents the character’s location.
You move about the map with the N, S, E, W keys on the keyboard. The U key represents UP and it is how you move from dungeon level one to two or from the first dungeon level to the exit outside.
The H key will display your current hit points.
The G key will display your current gold.
The M key will display the map for you.
Combat is done in the background and blows are exchanged randomly. You have no input other than to choose to (F)ight or (R)un. Once you choose to fight you and your opponent keep exchanging blows until one of you is defeated.
You can only move between dungeon levels by finding enchanted keys. A key is found in each level and will only be rewarded to you after you have defeated a random number of monsters on each level. The key will then suddenly become part of the spoils after you’ve vanquished one of the random creatures. You’ll need a key to escape dungeon level 2 back to dungeon level 1 and you’ll need an enchanted key to be able to use the exit out of the dungeon. When you climb from level two back up to level one you will also regenerate any lost hit points.
If you cannot find a copy of the game to play you can play the Commodore 64 version RIGHT HERE
I was able to survive both dungeon levels and escape with my life intact.
Next up on the docket is Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz.
Until next time…