Dunjonquest: Morloc’s Tower was played emulating an Apple II platform. It took me 2 hours to beat the game though I am sure others could do so in considerably less time. Morloc’s Tower is another Microquest from Jonathan Freeman and Jeffrey A. Johnson. The Microquest designation means that there is no choice of character type or generation of attributes. You once again take on the role of Brian Hammerhand who was the main protagonist in Datestones of Ryn and whose short story in Temple of Apshai served to introduce readers to that fantasy world. The game manual packaged with this game contains another Brian Hammerhand short story and it is equally entertaining and serves to properly setup the scenario.
The overall arching plot here is to enter Morloc’s tower and slay the mad wizard before he destroys the peaceful town of Hagedorn.
Morloc’s tower is comprised of 6 floors containing a total of 30 rooms. The structure of the tower and the treasures found within the tower remain constant. The traps within the tower and where some of the monsters may be encountered in the game are random each time you play.
The graphical representation, movement and keyboard controls should look and feel familiar to those who have already played Temple of Apshai or Datestones of Ryn. The one significant difference, which in my opinion elevates the potential of the series going forward, is the addition of the U command which allows the player to USE a treasure or item which has been found. This is the key feature that makes Morloc’s Tower unique and caused me to fall in love with this little game.
It would be very easy for me to complain about the slow movement speed of the character icon or to roll my eyes at the simple graphics (ROGUE would come along later to show us that you do not need great graphics to deliver an outstanding game) represented here. I could also lament about the lack of any character generation or the absence of room descriptions(remember the Microquest designation). I believe though that you have to put on your CRPG historian cap here and realize that it IS only 1979. Automated Simulatons, Inc. published three CRPG’s in the same year and they realized they had a bonafide hit on their hands with the Dunjonquest series. They were experimenting with different iterations in the series and the addition of the USE command added an entirely new level of depth to the game.
On the most basic level, players could spend time mapping out the tower “dungeon”, battle monsters, and acquire treasures. However if you enjoy solving puzzles there is an entirely new wrinkle added to Dunjonquest. When you find treasures scattered throughout the tower you have to deduce their function and learn to use them properly in your quest. If you want to track down and slay Morloc you’re going to have to use your wits to learn the functions or benefits of each of the treasures you find.
The following items represent the treasures you can find within Morloc’s Tower and what they will do ( SPOILER ) If you intend to play Morloc’s Tower skip this listing of treasures as spoilers are provided:
- A gold ring (serves no function)
- A small pyramid with a dull black base and softly glowing blue sides (this prevents Morloc from teleporting out of any room that he is in)
- A polished circlet of gold adorned with two large diamonds (this item when picked up actually works AGAINST the pyramid and will force you to have to chase Morloc all over the tower)
- A brass ring (protects you from fire damage)
- A statuette of a lovely nymph. This affects your encumbrance a great deal and has no useful function
- A black metal egg ( a giant grenade that deals a significant amount of fire damage to everyone in the room )
- A large boxlike device. Most of one face is opaque glass; below this are several knobs. (this allows you to see where Morloc is within the tower at all times. This device greatly affects your encumbrance and movement)
- A copper ring (there are two of these within the tower – they gradually heal all of your wounds)
- A brass amulet (protects you from fire)
- A sword with a gleaming silver blade, finely wrought and well balanced. ( a magical sword)
- A pouch filled with strong smelling herbs and other unidentifiable substances (this has no useful function)
- A hunting horn (this has no magical properties however if you use it you may attract wandering monsters)
The guardians that you’ll encounter in the tower are varied and creative. The magical suits of armor that animate can deal tremendous damage to you but are extremely vulnerable to a (T)hrust whether than all out (A)ttack. Wolf hounds and dire wolves are common wandering monsters on each of the six levels. You will also encounter Golems, Ogres, and Vampire Bats. There are three “bosses” or stand out encounters that are difficult. The creeping crud that resembles a giant amoeba is extremely deadly. You’ll have to dispatch this adversary because the treasure it guards is important. There is also a fire breathing lizard (dragon) on the third level that you can spend a lot of time and resources defeating but it is not necessary because the treasure this small dragon guards is always useless.
Morloc represents the “big bad” and defeating him is your ultimate goal. If you use three of the items you find in conjunction with one another slaying this mad wizard becomes a simple affair. Sometimes Morloc will fling a fireball at you or he may conjure a creature for you to fight. Once you defeat Morloc you’ll jump to a screen where you are given a score based on how much time it took you to defeat Morloc, the number of creatures you killed, and treasures you found. This represents the third facet of the game. You can play the game again to try to improve your score or to compare to others.
Mapping the six levels of Morloc’s Tower is a simple affair. The stairs to each level are always located in the bottom right corner of the map. Each tower level perfectly fits your monitor view so there are no vast, sprawling levels. Each level consists of five rooms.
I greatly enjoyed Morloc’s Tower. The premise of storming a mad wizard’s tower, surviving deadly traps and monsters and puzzling out enchanted artifacts all to track down and slay an evil wizard checks a lot of boxes for me. The overall plot as well as the addition of getting to (U)se and puzzle through the artifacts you find is a big series improvement for me. This 2nd Microquest installment from Freeman and Johnson really resonated with me.
Jon Freeman, cofounder of Automated Simulations would later marry Anne Westfall. In 1981, Freeman and Westfall would leave Epyx to create Free Fall Associates along with game designer Paul Reiche III. Free Fall went on to develop two highly acclaimed games published by Electronic Arts: Archon and Archon II. Freeman is recently credited with some recent development with Square Enix. Jeff Johnson took a position with SSI and worked on games such as Phatasie III, Eternal Dagger, and Wizards Crown.