My exploration of the Plato system and what it had to offer gamers in 1975 leads me to Orthanc; an expansive dungeon crawl.
Orthanc improves upon Rutherford’s Dungeon on several fronts except one that possibly matters the most: a reason to play.
Perhaps I was spoiled by the Game of Dungeons because it actually had a plot. I don’t know about you but going on a quest to slay a dragon and obtain the orb it is guarding checks off quite a few fantasy tropes for me. So forgive me if the sole purpose of braving 10 dungeon levels is so that I can retire with honor near the seat of the king seems like a bit of a let down.
Let’s take a closer look at the game itself and concentrate on the improvements that it has to offer. There is a much greater variety of monster types that you have to deal with. This adds layers of complexity to the game because some of the different monster types have special abilities and you’ll have to think and experiment about how best to deal with each of the monster types.
These are just two of the eight pages of monsters that you encounter in the game. Many of them have special abilities, are only affected by certain spells, may have set locations on a particular level, or may appear as wandering monsters.
Your spell selection is much greater as a result. Instead of 2 levels of spells you now have 4 levels of spells to choose from.
A 1st level spell costs you 1 spell point to cast whereas a 4th level spell costs you 4 spell points. Your character gains additional spell points as he or she gains levels of experience.
You gain experience one of three ways: 1) by defeating monsters 2) by obtaining treasure and 3) by acquiring magical items.
The other vast improvement to the game is the graphical layout of your character and other pertinent information. Below is a screenshot:
I found this graphical interface to be extremely exciting when I first started play. Characteristics and Stats were very clear. You could easily see which area of effect spells were in play and there was a clear area for Magical Items. The layout was crisp, clean and clear and hinted at a larger character focus. I was excited to begin play. However this served to heighten the disappointment I had with the game.
Your character begins play with no name at all. You only get to assign a name to your character should you make it into the game’s Hall of Fame. So as the setting suggests your goal is to, pun intended, make a name for yourself. However I found this served to create a sort of detachment for me. The game mentions that a third way you can gain experience is by finding magical items albeit this way is rarer. A better descriptive might have been non-existent. In mapping out 3 of the 10 levels and spending hours with the game; I never encountered any magical items or equipment upgrades at all! Not one! Quite surprising for a rogue-like dungeon crawler. So while this graphical interface served to feed any character “buffing” fetishes I may have had; it was an ultimate disappointment in that I never found or accrued anything interesting or useful. I thought surely this will change when I get to the 2nd level of the dungeon. Nope. Nada. Then I thought when I map out the 3rd level I’ll find something – at LEAST a banana peel – but again nothing. You do acquire copper, silver, gold and if you’re lucky gems and jewelry. The jewelry can be quite a boost to your experience if your lucky enough to find a trinket.
There are 10 total dungeon levels in Orthanc and the levels are very large. Each of the levels are on a 24 x 20 grid. There are chutes and pits scattered about each level as well. If you’re on level two and you fall down a chute to level five you’re pretty much done for at lower levels. The dungeon levels are static; they do not change. There is an automapping feature in the game that you can access at anytime. However the map window is so small and each level is so large that it makes the automapping almost useless. I actually like that the dungeon levels are static and I like mapping them out. I don’t mind pulling out the graph paper and putting in the work. After all, that’s one of the challenges of these older dungeon crawler games. Here is my problem however: there is no driving reason to map out all ten of the levels other than to be a completist. There is no text or fixed areas yet in these older games and in this particular game any magic items or armor upgrades you may find are extremely rare. So, much like an arcade game, your only reason to continue to map out the levels is to keep increasing in experience and obtain a higher score. Below are the maps of the levels that I did complete in case you may find them to be of some help.
Now if in order to win the game you had to map out all 10 of the levels than I would have certainly given it my best shot. However all you need to do to WIN at Orthanc is to obtain a high enough score to get into their Hall of Fame. I was able to do so without having to map out the entire third level so in my mind I accomplished what I needed to do to win the game. Below you can see my character actually earning a name for himself, in this case I chose Fost, and making the Hall of Fame.
Orthanc features permadeath as well which means dead is dead. If you die in the dungeon then you must start all over at the beginning. This definitely causes increased anxiety as you move deeper and deeper into the dungeon. A new feature in this game that is not found in the others is that it is possible to encounter another player in the game. You can chat with them or supposedly fight them. Now I never encountered other players in the game. As a matter of fact, much of the time I was the only player on the server during my sessions. However, this would still make Orthanc the very first MMORPG – which is an online role-playing video game in which a large number of people participate simultaneously. This is a pretty amazing feature for 1975 if you think about it!
My overall experience here was a positive one. The technical improvements in Orthanc compared to Dungeon are huge. This is about as true as one could get to a table top Dungeons & Dragons experience in 1975. The monsters, spells, and exploration are obviously greatly influenced by the D&D game which was released the year before. It is not difficult to imagine players sitting at a Plato system in 1975 spending hours and hours on this game in an attempt to increase their scores. The Hall of Fame page, much like arcade machines, has a highly addictive draw for many. However even though I was impressed with the improvements and had a positive experience, I did not feel the need to try to map out all 10 of the dungeon levels. I was content to retire my character into the Hall of Fame, after finally making a name for himself. I am calling this a WIN and moving on to my next challenge.
Our next game we’re going to be taking a look at is Moria which is also found on the Plato network.