Dragon Quest was written by 17-year old Matt Pritchard and published by Midwest Computing for the Atari 800.
Dragon Quest is a dungeon crawler that has you exploring 90+ rooms in search of treasure. There is supposedly supposed to be a princess to rescue but alas I was unable to find the princess after much exploration. I probably spent more time with this game than I should have but the completist in me would not let it go.
Character generation involves rolling for your attributes, creating a name for the character and then choosing between dwarf, elf, and human for race.
I chose Fitz as the name of my character in honor of Robin Hobb’s outstanding Farseer Trilogy.
The game is very reminiscent of Super Quest however it adds a couple of very unique features. The most unique aspect of Dragon Quest is how it handles secret doors and their unique nature. Intelligence is the statistic that determines how successful you are in your search. The higher your intelligence the more likely you’re going to find a secret door if one exists. My character had a high intelligence of 17 but searching for secret doors was still a difficult task. You search for secret doors by hitting the (L)ook on the keyboard. Even if a secret door exists in the area it doesn’t automatically appear. You’ll find that you may have to hit the L key several times before one appears. A wandering monster was more likely to appear, much to my dismay, much faster than a secret door.
The secret doors are more like teleportation areas or warp zones that appear. They don’t necessarily have to be embedded in a wall. You may find that they appear in the middle of a room. When you go through a secret door most of them transport you to an area that is disconnected from the rest of the dungeon and only accessible by secret door or teleportation. These areas usually contain greater treasures or magical scrolls. You have to find another secret door to exit the area or leave via the way you came in. Other secret doors may take you to special areas within the dungeon that normally can’t be accessed. Like the room depicted above. There appears to be no way into the center of the room which contains a monster guarding a treasure. Later you’ll find a secret door that teleports you within the square where you’ll then be able to defeat the monster and take the treasure. Looking for a secret door within that square will allow you to escape its confines and return to the dungeon. There are two different areas like this in the dungeon. I spent a good 2-3 hours slamming the L key and going over every inch of the dungeon looking for the princess. I suspect I still missed something because I never did find the princess nor magical scroll #5.
Amad’s market is where you can purchase equipment which includes: regular arrows, magical arrows, healing potions, and holy water. The holy water acts much like an arrow or missile weapon. You press (T)hrow on the keyboard to hurl the holy water at an opponent. It is devastating to even the most powerful of undead creatures. A vampire that might take several magical arrows to slay can be bested by one or two vials of holy water. Amad’s market can be found at the beginning of the game however to access the market you have to (L)ook for a secret door and access it. If your character has a low intelligence score you may never find MANY of these secret doors. A high intelligence is an imperative.
The other unique feature of this game is its spell system. There are five magical scrolls that you can find numbered #1 through #5. Once you use the spell on the scroll it disappears so each spell is a one and done affair. I only found magical scrolls #1 through #4 and never did find the last scroll. The magical scrolls have the following properties:
Magical Scroll #1 – this is a kill spell. It immediately eliminates an enemy
Magical Scroll #2 – teleports you to your starting location in the dungeon
Magical Scroll #3 – an imprisonment spell that forms a block around your enemy
Magical Scroll #4 – this is an interesting spell. It creates a magical square around you that blasts a hole through a wall in four different compass directions. The dungeon location I teleported to and retrieved this scroll from had no exits nor secret doors I could find. I had to use this magic scroll to escape that area. When I blasted a hole in the wall and walked through it I wound up in Amad’s Market. My working theory is that if I were to restart the game over entirely; find the Magic Scroll #2 first (which teleports me back to the starting spot in the dungeon) and then obtain Magic Scroll #4, I would not have to use it to escape that area but would use the #2 instead. I have a hunch if I then took the time to wander all about that dungeon casting Magical Scroll #4 that it might take me to an area where I can find the princess. Or perhaps it leads me to Magical Scroll #5 which then leads me directly to the princess. I am relatively sure I did not miss any other secret doors or obvious solutions. What it boiled down to was choice. I had already spent probably way more time than I should have to this game; but I was enjoying myself. It didn’t seem practical to take the time to test my theory with such a daunting list ahead of me still. I am hoping that perhaps someone else will find the princess where I failed and then get back to us here with the solution. I definitely want to know the answer.
Now let’s get to the real star of this game. The map itself.
I’ll try to explain the map depicted above as best I can. Each numbered S is a secret door that teleports you to it’s match. For example S1 teleports you to the S1 location and so forth. You can see that most of these secret doors teleport you to isolated locations. These locations contain the greater treasures to find and the tougher monsters. The M on the map stands for monster and the T for treasure and these are at fixed locations on the map. You also have wandering monsters to deal with.
The graphics and movement through the game were quite smooth and seemed more fluid than many of the Dunjonquest games. I make that comparison because the gameplay and graphics are comparative to those previous games.
The game is one of economy because you’ll have to amass enough gold to purchase arrows, magical arrows, healing potions, and holy water. When I decided to end my search for the princess and move on, I was at a point where money no longer mattered as much. I had about 1200 gold pieces on me and was well stocked with all market items.
Combat involves melee with creatures that seem pulled from the Dungeons & Dragons game. There were giant rats, orcs, goblins, vampires, mummies, and others. Dragon Quest is a game in which you do not want to stand toe to toe with your opponent and hit the (F)ight key. You will end up getting decimated by even the weakest of creatures because you have no armor and there is none to find in the game. You want to stay as far away from your opponent as you can and rely on missile weapons to dispatch them. It will take MORE normal arrows to dispatch an opponent than what would be required of magical arrows but magical arrows are also 5x more expensive. There does not seem to be any experience or levels to be gained in the game. The goal here is one of exploration and to survive doing so.
I really enjoyed this game much more than I would have imagined and I probably have a good 8-10 hours invested in into it. I am very annoyed that I was not able to find the princess but felt that it was time to move on. There was no evidence anywhere of any kind of solution nor did I find evidence of anyone who was successful in finding the princess so I had to wonder and worry if this was not an emulation or “bug” issue.
Next up on the docket is Wizard’s City.
Until next time…