Dungeon of Death

Dungeon of Death was written by Gordon Walton and released on the Commodore PET in 1979. It’s based on the PLATO game dnd, that Gordon had played while serving in the army. Like dnd it’s a top-down, turned-based dungeon crawler but instead of dnd’s line based graphics it uses the ASCII-like characters available on the PET. Gordon wrote this game in his early 20s.

First game I ever wrote (and the 2nd published) […] I did not have access to any source code on PLATO, so it was not port of the dnd there, just inspired by it. I wrote a much better dungeon crawler called MicroWarrior on the platform in assembler ~2 years later, which was accepted for publication but I don’t think it made it out before Instant Software folded (at least I never got a copy or any money for it!). Lots of people played it at Texas A & M, where it was responsible for several worn out keyboards on the computer club PETs. I’d have certainly started on Apple II if it hadn’t cost 50% more to get one at the time!

“Yes, it was a clone. I played a few hundred hours of DND on Plato in 1977 (in a bomb shelter in the Army no less) and when I got my first microcomputer in 1978 I wrote an 8k version of it. Also wrote a version of Empire (single player) called Trek-X the same year for the Pet. Both were published by Instant Software. So began the insanity. :)”

Setting

The game is top-down monochrome dungeon crawler using simple ASCII-like graphics. Based on PLATO’s dnd, Dungeon of Death attempts to implement a similar game on the much more restrictive hardware of the Commodore PET. Movement is grid-based, with simple turn based combat and you can fight monsters, find loot and must return to the surface to level up.

Goal

In PLATO’s dnd the goal was retrieve an orb, here you must retrieve the Holy Grail. The choice of the grail as the goal may have been chosen because Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released a few years a prior and put it in back in the popular consciousness.

You must descend through the twelve levels of the Dungeon of Death, find the Holy Grail, and return to the surface with it. The Holy Grail is guarded by Smaug,

Dungeon of Death has a boss monster, Smaug the Dragon, who appears after you collect the grail. Smaug’s name comes from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

Character Creation

The game entry flow prompts the player to enter their name and then the rest of the character creation process occurs automatically. The character is randomly assigned stats and a fantasy race chosen from: human, dwarf, elf or hobbit. There is no class system.

The manual describes the reason for the limited character generation as:

Due to byte restrictions, you are not offered a variety of characters to choose from. If you don’t like the random character the computer supplies, just stop the game and type RUN again

Stats

The stats are similar to dnd though agility replaces dexterity and intelligence is dropped.

• Strength - used for the combat calculation.
• Agility - used to see if you can avoid being attacked.
• Wisdom - used when casting spells.
• Experience Points - initially zero. Experience points are obtained by eliminating monsters.
• Level - Initially 1. Increases if you have enough experience points when exiting the dungeon, increasing the character’s initial magic points and power points.
• Magic Points - Initially 3. 1 is spent for each spell cast. You get 3 for each level of experience. They recover little by little when spending turns in the dungeon or completely when leaving it.
• Power points - they work like the maximum hit points, although probably due to a “bug” they are recalculated every time you leave the dungeon.
• Beginning Power Points - Work like current hit points. They are recovered to the value of the initial power points when leaving the dungeon. If the character loses all its power points, it will die and you will have to start with a new one (type “RUN” again in the emulator command line).
• Gold - Initially 0. Converts to experience points upon exiting the dungeon

The game uses power points instead of hit points which is an unusual deviation from both previous and later games.

Input

The game is controlled with Commodore PET’s number pad for general movement around the dungeon. Other interactions are performed by choosing from a list of numbered actions when a certain game event occurs such as combat, finding a chest, finding a potion etc.

Exploration

The game has a top down view and shows a radius of 2 grid squares around the player. It’s an extremely limited view and while dnd showed even less, at least it had graphics rather symbols from the Commodore PET’s character set. Levels are not randomly generated, each of the twelve levels is the same each time.

You start in the middle of the screen and can explore the dungeon a tile at a time. There are monsters, chest, potions, pits and staircases.

Inventory

There’s no inventory management system, instead you get the option to occasionally pick up items if you discover them. These are not items you can browse or drop as the player, instead they’re prescene is indicated on screen near the map. If you have found certain items then depending on the item combat calculations may be affected.

Items

A section in the manual is titled “Items in Chests” and lists the following:

• Explosion - depletes you and can kill you.
• It’s Empty - just a disappointment.
• Blindness - your character is blinded for an indeterminate number of moves. You cannot evade monsters.
• Curse - you’re deposited on an unknown level of the dungeon and cannot tell what monster you are fighting.
• Shield - helps you fight.
• Armor Suit - helps you fight.
• Magic Mace - helps you fight.
• Cube of Power - helps you fight.
• Lucky Ring - gets rid of a curse and·helps you fight.
• Lots of Gold - just that.

Some of these aren’t really items but traps that you may trigger upon opening a chest.

Combat

Apart from Smaug, there are ten additional monsters wandering the dungeon:

• Death - almost as bad as Smaug, but you can cast a spell on him.
• Vampire - he never sleeps in the darkness of the dungeon.
• Dragon - related to Smaug, breathes fire, and loves gold. He’s also very lazy.
• Rust Monster - he destroys all your metal items the first time you fight him. The second time he takes your sword.
• Balrog - similar to the Dragon, but dumber.
• Rock Troll - big but very dumb.
• Black Wizard - it’s hard to cast a spell on him.
• Evil man - also not a good target for spells, but his evil nature makes him an easy victim for your sword.
• Ringwraith - easy to cast a magic spell on or fight.
• Demon - a real push over.

A game written in an age before IP rights were readily enforced for computer games.

Magic

There are six spells

1. Eye of Newt
2. Mind Blast
3. Fireball
4. Dispell
5. Charm
6. Sleep

The name might suggest status effects and a relatively complicated combat system but there’s only ever round of combat. That said each enemy has different resistances to each of these spells and that recorded in the instruction manual. They all cost 1 magic point to cast.

Eye of Newt is a spell in dnd but not the 1974 version of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game.

You also get the option to use magic when you encounter a potion or chest. There’s no named spell used but the menu option invites you to cast a spell for the cost of 1 magic point to help determine if the potion or chest is harmful.

Advancement

The most effective strategy that you can use is to first explore a level, accumulate as much wealth and experience as you can, and then return to the surface. The computer will then cal- culate your new experience level, and you will be given more spells to cast, as well as increased power levels for your next descent into the dungeon.

Chests and Potions

When a treasure chest is found the player is prompted to choose from a numbered list:

1. Open it - the contents of the chest are obtained or the trap is triggered.
2. Open it carefully - you get the contents of the chest or have a chance to avoid the trap. Turns pass and monsters may appear.
3. Cast a Spell - A magic point is spent to try to find out if the chest has any traps. You can continue to act on the chest on the next turn.
4. Leave it - the chest is lost.

The chest contents are discussed earlier on but it can be something useful or a harmful trap. Interacting with potions works in a similar way:

1. Drink it - its effects are received.
2. Try it - if it is not harmful, it will be identified and you can act on it in the next turn, if it is harmful, its effect will be suffered.
3. Cast a Spell - A magic point is spent to try to find out if the potion is harmful. You can continue to act on it on the next turn.
4. Leave it - the potion is lost.

The potion system in PLATO’s dnd is similar but there’s no option for using magic to see if it’s harmful. Here are the potion types as described by the manual:

• Poison - kills almost immediately. There’s no cure.
• Love Potion - causes you to fall in love with some monster and be defeated.
• Degeneration - ·you lose power with every move. It can be canceled by getting out of the dungeon or finding a strength potion.
• Astral Form - the most powerful and dangerous potion. It helps you fight monsters, gives you magic spells, allows you to move through walls, and will revive you if you are killed. Initially, you are stripped of all metal items.
• Spell Storing - unlimited magic spells, helps you fight.
• Monster Control - helps you fight.
• Rust Proof - you can fight the Rust Monster without losing your metal items.
• Brilliance - gives you a permanent point of wisdom and helps in casting spells.

Despite the description the Astral Form potion does not grant any new spells but increases the character’s magic points.

Dating

I’ve taken the date for this game as 1st August 1979.

Dungeon of Death was published by Instant Software which was owned by Kilobaud magazine. All Kilobaud magazines have an Instant Software advert that includes a catalogue of software. The 1979 August edition of Kilobaud, released on the 1st on the month, is the first magazine that lists Dungeon of Death with a big “NEW” stamped across it. It’s likely the game was ready to go even earlier but this was the earliest evidenced date I could find. I place it before Temple of Apshai.

Legacy

Dungeon of Death is a copy of dnd but on a less powerful platform, this means there was little opportunity for innovation. It is one of the earliest commercial computer RPGs and had a larger potential audience that may have played and been influenced in turn.

The instruction manual includes a piracy warning that shows with Dungeons of Death we’re starting to enter the commercial sphere for computer games. Though we haven’t entered it so much that IP isn’t freely borrowed from other places such as the Dungeon and Dragon’s manuals, PLATO’s dnd itself or the works of Tolkien.

By modern standards the game isn’t very playable, the view area is tiny, it’s slow to take any action and it’s not always clear what’s happening.