Game #214: Caverns of Zoarre (1984)

Greetings fellow dungeon crawlers and computer adventure game enthusiasts. When I sit down with my current role-playing game du jour, I wanted to share with you the mug that sits beside me filled with my favorite coffee.

Caverns of Zoarre certainly requires you to do some graphing by hand. It was developed by Thomas Hanlin III and published as shareware. Back in the day, for a $25 fee, you could write Mr. Hanlin who would then send you the manual. I searched high and low and could not find any evidence of the manual online. Fortunately, the game comes with a built in HELP page and is somewhat easy to figure out. What is not as obvious is the premise for playing the game nor do I know what the overall goal here is.

The character creation process is easy and routine. The computer rolls randomly for five attributes and then you decide whether or not you want to keep those scores. You then name your character and then choose between two classes: a fighter or sorcerer. I chose to go with a sorcerer and gave myself the name of Houdini – I was feeling a little whimsical. There is an odd moment during character creation where you are asked if you want to begin the game with a Freen. Not knowing what the hell a Freen was, I responded with a YES. As you can see down below, you seem to wear the Freen. One of the spells you achieve as you gain levels as a Sorcerer is Summon Freen. So, I am now assuming that maybe it is some kind of living pelt or familiar. I later discovered, during combat, that when you are attacked by something that has poison as a special attack ability, the Freen absorbs the poison damage. So thus far, it seems completely advantageous to equip yourself with a Freen.

You can see the full character sheet above and each time you exit the dungeon and return to the surface you’re able to get a full glimpse of your character statistics.

You can get a listing of the commands available to you by hitting the ? once you are in the dungeon.

The view here is reminiscent of the Temple of Apshai and all of the sequels which followed. I moved about using my numeric keypad with 8 for north, 2 for south, 4 for west, and 6 for east. On the 1st dungeon level I encountered the following creatures:

• a goblin warrior
• a wraith
• a Uruk-Hai orc
• a white wraith
• a forest wight
• a Uruk-Hai troll
• and lastly a giant spider

When you encounter a dungeon denizen you have the choice to (F)ight, (S)pell, or (B)ribe. I always choose to sling a spell, but I have had a couple of instances where the creatures have begged for their life, and they then offer you gold in exchange for their life.

It has been a real treat playing a sorcerer. There is quite a spell selection to choose from and I seem to have more interesting options than your run-of-the-mill fighter variety.

The many spells to choose from, as well as the variety, has made this a very enjoyable experience so far. One of the more interesting spells when you’re NOT in combat, is Melt Wall. This completely changes the complexity of the game and I’ll have to now go back to the first level and explore all of the areas that I artistically shaded in. I’ve since learned that whenever there is a space in your map, it can be explored via that spell.

It appears that obtain experience through combat and I’m trying to determine if your gold counts as experience as well. I’ll report more on this in my next blog post. There is a higher-level spell entitled Glyph of Recall and when I cast that it immediately transports me out of the dungeon. An extremely valuable spell to have but I also lost 1000 experience points and a level when I used it so I am choosing to only use it in case of an emergency.

I still have no idea how many dungeon levels there are in this game, or what my end goal is, but I am currently enjoying myself. I had mapped out much of levels 1 & 2 but then fell through a trap door and now find myself on the 3rd dungeon level. I am currently 4th level, have 40 hit poins, and 250 magical points. Each spell that you cast has a casting cost. When you walk around the dungeon your spell points regenerate. You have at your disposal the spells Cure Wounds and Cure Serious Wounds so it is a simple matter of healing yourself magically.

Here are the first two dungeon levels for Caverns of Zoarre but be aware they are both still a work in progress and in no way finished.

I am going to go and refill my favorite coffee mug now and then settle down to continue to map the 3rd dungeon level. Wish me luck.

Until next time…