Deadly Dungeon was written by Don and Freda Boner. Don is also an award winning wine maker and the author of a beer making manual. He also has produced numerous independent films and won an award in 2004 for Loser’s Lounge at the Bare Bones Independent Film Festival. Loser’s Lounge was a murder-noir mystery. Before his film career, Don had become the director for Adman Software and besides Deadly Dungeon he also developed and published Thunder Road in 1980. Don and Freda would go on develop Revenge of Balrog and the Fortress at Times-End in 1981.
Deadly Dungeon is yet another attempt at a text/RPG hybrid. We played quite a few of these in 1980 as the genre was feeling it’s way around in the dark with home computer technology. I thought that Doom Cavern, also from 1980, wins top honors for getting the text/RPG hybrid just right.
Deadly Dungeon is loosely based on the Dungeons & Dragons game and it plays as if you’re sitting down with your friends creating random rooms to explore.
The game has a couple of unique features. The first is that it consists of three different dungeon levels to explore. You begin in a deadly temple and it is here you have to drop the treasures that you find. You are awarded points for what you find and a score is kept. The highest possible score you can achieve is 500. The second unique feature of Deadly Dungeon is that you can encounter random creatures and combat is handled much like the combat in the Eamon scenarios.
When you begin play the game randomly generates a character for you and you are assigned a combat rating of 1-6 with 6 being the best. You begin play with a sword and a randomly assigned number of arrows.
Once you exit the deadly temple you find yourself deposited somewhere on the 1st dungeon level. Each time you enter the 1st dungeon level you begin in a random room so your starting place is never the same. The treasures to be found on the first level included a diamond ring, a diamond, a deed to a castle, and a painting. Once you reached the Council Room you could then make your way back into the deadly temple and you could leave your treasures. My score at the end of the first level was 150/500.
Navigation and the locations made very little sense. You might move from a Victorian Sitting Room into a Graveyard and then from there you might find yourself in a Hall of Mirrors or in a Mine Shaft. There really are no puzzles on the 1st level other than exploring and manipulating your surroundings. There is an instant death scenario on this level depending on the choices you make.
Once you complete that first level and enter the deadly temple; the next time you leave the temple you will find yourself on the 2nd level of the dungeon. I had a random encounter on this level with a giant grasshopper. If you do not bring one of the treasures from the 1st level with you into this level you are not going to be able to advance into the castle. You’re going to find a rope on this level which is going to prove useful in the dungeon’s 3rd level.
I found the rope and a copper lamp on this short level. When I returned to the deadly temple my score was 250 out of 500.
On the 3rd level of the dungeon I encountered a vampire bat. This combat was especially treacherous but I was able to defeat the beast. I found a silver candlestick holder on this level as well as a king’s crown. There is a dark pit on this level that you’re going to inevitably find yourself in. If you do not have the rope with you, you will have “softlocked” yourself from finishing and will have to begin again. When I go to the end of level 3 and entered the deadly temple and deposited my treasures I found that I had achieved 500 out of 500 points.
Don and Freda Boner’s Deadly Dungeon was just interesting enough to keep me playing until the very end. I have to admit to being a sucker for these text/RPG hybrid attempts. This offering was done just well enough that I am going to play this duo’s second offering from 1980: Thunder Road next.