Dr. Goodcode’s Cavern

Dr. Goodcode is occupied with new and grand pursuits. Thus, he has commissioned you with cleaning out the monster infestation in the basement of his mansion because since moving into the mansion one year ago, they have continued to interfere with his research. The basement of the mansion was once of grand design, with each room painted a different color, and designed by some of the greatest architects of the age. Home of the great wizard Johnny, the wizard did not trust banks, so had created a menagerie of monsters to protect his significant wealth. You have answered Dr. Goodcode’s call for an exterminator, and must plumb the depths of the dungeon to destroy all the monsters within.

Dr. Goodcode’s Cavern is a text-based RPG, where the player must explore a number of rooms with differing text descriptions. The player can find gold and other items as they explore. Each room is numbered, and a compass shows which room lies in which direction. They will intermittently encounter monsters, which can be either bribed, attacked, fled from, or zapped. Bribing uses up gold. In combat, the player and monster take turns striking each other, where damage is determined by your character’s strength and equipment. The character levels up as they are victorious in combat. The zap ability can only be used 3 times per game, but will instantly kill any monster. The goal is to hunt down and destroy all monsters within the dungeon.

You can read about my experience with the game HERE


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Year: 1982

Themes: Interactive fiction / text adventure, Turn-based strategy

Genere: Role-Playing (RPG)

Platform: Atari 8-bit

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