The Dungeon

In the 1960s at The University of Illinois was PLATO; an operating system and proto-internet all rolled into one. This, of course, is insane. The name is an acronym that expands to Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations. These were the early days of computing. Alan Turing had died only 6 years earlier and if he was still alive he’d be a young 47 year old. Yet PLATO had a networked, multiuser system where people could remotely join message boards and work on projects, it was way ahead of it’s time.

PLATO proved very popular. By the the mid-70s nearly 1000 PLATO terminals were in use in and around the university. At the same time, the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons was released and was a big hit with the local PLATO crowd. Making a version of Dungeons and Dragons for PLATO was irresistible and multiple programmers started coding their own versions. Rusty Rutherford was one such PLATO programmer and at 35 years old, he created a game called “The Dungeon”; now widely held to be the first computer role-playing game.

Gameplay Screenshots

You can see some gameplay screenshots in the gallery below.

During this period, the program DND was reputedly in development, but never seemed likely to appear on the system. So I decided to try my hand at it. I had to compromise a lot. First of all, the multiplayer feature was often promised but never implemented, so I wrote a solitaire game.

The available storage space only allowed for a single-level dungeon with 40-50 rooms. The dungeon design was the same for every user, but the monsters and treasures were random – created at the same time as a new character, and stored with the character record. Only about 20 characters could be stored; when the game became popular, this turned out to be a real hassle.

The release of D&D in 1974 and the environment of the PLATO system are reason Illinois became the birthplace of the CRPG. As mentioned in the quote above another CRPG “DND” was being worked on in parallel to Rusty’s own efforts and that would only be one of many.

Traits present in The Dungeon survive and are present in even the most recent CRPG titles half a century later. Some of these traits come directly from Dungeon and Dragons and the wider war-gaming heritage but how they were first expressed in a digital medium is soley down to those early PLATO programmers.

Systems

The Dungeon is inspired by Dungeon and Dragons but it’s not a 1:1 translation. It cannot be. You cannot change the medium of a game without changing the game itself. PLATO was powerful but it was still one of the very earliest computer systems and therefore relatively limited. To get a Dungeon and Dragons experience on the computer it needed to be slimmed down into a shape that would fit. The result is a smaller more concentrated game that delivers an intense experience. It cuts away narrative, mutiplayer, complicated character creation, inventory management and many other superfluous systems. What is left is a game that invites a single player to explore an authored dungeon turn by turn finding treasure and fighting monsters.

I used the basic features of D&D as much as possible: hit points, monster levels, experience and treasure awards, and so on; the character was a combined fighter / magic user / cleric; in a monster encounter, the character had a choice of fight (F), cast a spell (S) or run (R); after that, if the monster was not defeated or avoided, it was a fight to the finish run entirely by the computer.

This was a simple game but it defined many of core the CRPG traits including:

• Simple character generation
• Naming your character
• Exploration
• Basic equipment
• Magic system
• Stats and Levelling
• Combat simulation
• Fantasy setting
• Simple graphics

It also includes traits that are less common in RPGs today such as a highscore table and extensive, useful in-game documentation.

In-Game Documentation Screenshots

Mini Adventures

The Dungeon game flow is unconventional. The game invites you to delve into a dungeon looking for treasure. If your character dies, the game ends. However, while exploring the Dungeon you can find an exit or return to the entrance and leave. When you leave, your game is saved, your spells points are refreshed, levels awarded and you, the player, can get up and leave. When you return later you can resume your game and explore a little deeper. This allows a player to play a game over several days, each time delving a little deeper into the dungeon to bring back treasures.

The Dungeon’s central game loop is where you explore the same dungeon map over a series of expeditions. Consider that in 70s the way these games were played differs from today. The Dungeon was a stowaway program, it’s name on PLATO was pedit5 an area that officially belonged to the Population and Energy Group and was not intended for hosting games. Space on PLATO was at a premium and admins would delete unsanctioned programs. In the 70s games were played late at night when terminals were freely available. Games would be played in semi-public labs, often with an audience familiar with the game, giving advice and opinions on how you’re doing. The situ of where games are played is one of many things that always changes; starting in computer labs, to bedrooms then to everywhere from the queue at a shop to lan-parties in a conference hall.

New Game Flow

On booting up the game you’re presented with a “Welcome Screen” introducing the game and once you advance pass this you come to the character screen.

This character screen is quite novel, it’s a mix between a list of every other player’s save game and a highscore table. There’s a numbered list of character names, each with a gold and experience count. Each name is like the “save game” of another player! PLATO is a centralised, multi-user system, so the fact the you have some exposure to other people playing the game is a property of the environment.

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At this point you can choose any one of these characters and take them on another dungeon delve, however every character is protected by a password. If you don’t know any of the passwords your only choice is start a new game.

A new game begins with character creation where the player is assigned some generated stats and may choose a name. The stat list is straight from D&D, dropping both Wisdom and Charisma, to leave the following:

• Strength
• Intelligence
• Constitution
• Dexterity
• Hits

Once you name your character, you advance into the inner game and start exploring the dungeon. There is no way to edit or reroll the stats you are given without starting over.

Exploration

During exploration the player is given a topdown view of the world. Dungeon walls are simple lines but the player character is a sprite of a person holding a sword and shield. The Dungeon is grid based. The arrow keys move the character one grid space in the pressed direction. The character jumps to the next grid position in a single frame; there’s no fancy animation here!

There’s also an odd line of sight system that was probably implemented for efficency reasons. The tiles directly adjacent to the player are the only ones rendered on the screen. Tiles diagonally adjacent are not shown. The limited view distance combined with the instant movement can make the game a little hard follow when watching unless you know how it works. You can check out a playthrough below:

Grid positions in the game are divded into two types Corridor and Room. You start in a corridor and can access rooms by breaking down doors. Doors are visible on the map but pressing an arrow key to move in the direction of the door does nothing. Instead you need to press B for breakthrough. This is the case for all doors, even doors you’ve just broken through; a legacy of Dungeons of Dragons. There are secret doors, if the character notices them then they are drawn in a slightly different way on the map. Because the map is fixed and not generated, if you remember where the secret doors are you can break them down even if your character fails to perceive them. The breakthrough action can also fail but all this costs is a little time.

By walking down corridors and breaking into rooms you can explore the dungeon bit by bit finding treasure and monsters on the way. Treasure is only found in rooms but monsters can be encountered anywhere.

Treasure is converted into gold on successfully exiting the dungeon.

Magic System

The magic system is based on spells divided into mage spells and cleric spells. The character has a number of mage points and cleric points that can be used to cast one spell of each type. The points are refreshed on leaving the dungeon and the character’s maximum number is improved by leveling up. To begin with the player only has 1 mage spell point and 0 cleric ones.

Additionally spells are divided into 1st and 2nd level. Apart from the multi-classing, this kind of magic system is straight from first edition D&D, which in turn was inspired by the magic system in the Dying Earth novels by Jack Vance.

Magic isn’t just for combat the player can also cast spells during the exploration state and a mix of martial and utilty spells are available.

Combat System

The combat state presents the player with a list of actions such as running, fighting or casting a spell. If the player chooses to fight combat proceeds automatically with the monster and player trading blows until one dies. When an enemy dies, the player is awarded experience points as well as loot. The character’s hit points and other stats are fed into the combat simulation but the only choice the player makes is to fight or not.

The player starts with a sword and can find a +1 or +2 sword that’s automatically equipped.

Monsters are not totally generic and have some simple differences such as undead enemies being resistant to sleep or charm spells.

Permadeath

If the characters dies they’re gone for good i.e. permadeath, there’s no going back to the last time you left the dungeon, instead you must start again with a new character. The risk of losing all your progress is punishing but adds a certain tension to the dungeon exploration.

Advancement

When you escape the dungeon your gold is turned into experience points. This is another mechanic that comes from the original version of Dungeons and Dragons.

Experience points allow you to level up and this increases the number of spell points and hit points the character has, making them more powerful. This is the classic CRPG treadmill; kill enemies, get XP, gain a level, kill bigger enemies get more XP and so on.

The Dungeon has a fixed dungeon layout which means you, the player, learn the layout over many adventures. This can give an advantage in knowing where the exits are.

Win Condition

Notably the Dungeon is winnable. The goal is to escape the Dungeon with a score of 20,000 experience points. Early video games generally didn’t do win conditions instead they’d repeat the game loop over and over until the player dies or quits.