Author: professor6153

Music is a wonderful art which I greatly appreciate in all its’ myriad forms. Music certainly has it’s place in all the different types of computer games across multiple platform formats. It is obvious from reading the reviews of any top selling game that music is an important piece of the overall experience for many players. It is not uncommon now to see game soundtracks sold separately and they do very well. Many of your epic fantasy games now have amazing soundtracks and a lot of time, money, and energy goes into the creation and development of that soundtrack. There are many of you that very likely have a favorite game soundtrack that holds a special place in your heart. Except when it doesn’t.

The personal quest that I have embarked on has taken me on a journey back to 1975. In 1975 the cost of a gallon of gas was only 44 cents. The average cost of a new car was $4000.00 “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille was #1 on the Billboard magazines top 100 hot songs in 1975. However in the games that I am currently playing, there is no music at all. As a matter of fact there are no sound effects either. Not even a single beep.

I am currently mapping Level 14 in Game of Dungeons. It is imperative that while you explore you collect gold and slay monsters to gain experience. You must build your character up in preparation for the encounter with the game’s big boss: a dreaded dragon!

When these older games become tedious and you have to spend time building your character up might I suggest listening to music. It can help to set the mood and also serve to fuel your imagination; something which is sorely needed in these older dungeon crawl games. So in much the same way that a GM may use music to help create atmosphere during a gaming session; you can do the same with a good set of headphones and a play list.

Now here everyone’s musical tastes may vary. One person might prefer to listen to current hits or his or her favorite artist. There are many who seem to prefer a heavy metal soundtrack playing in the background while they explore a dark dungeon. Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son comes to mind. There are many wonderful movie soundtracks that would work very well to set the mood. The Conan the Barbarian original soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is excellent and the Dracula soundtrack is very good as well. There are a large number of game soundtracks as well that you might want to check out like the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim soundtrack.

Spotify is a free app that allows you to create an account and create your own playlists. I suggest you experiment with different movie and game soundtracks to create your own ultimate playlist. Here is a great Exploration playlist that is almost 6 hours long that you can listen to and save in your own library.

Exploration Playlist

and here is another 6 hour playlist filled with heroic ballads and powerful combat music

Heroic Music

Tabletop Audio is a cool free website that lets you play background music with different themes like: Dungeon, Tavern, Combat, Future, etc. Downside: You need active internet connection.

Nerdsourced also has an article with some good Youtube playlists if you want to use that. The specific play lists found there have themes you can choose from.

Reddit: DnD Playlist is a subreddit that always has new content for Dungeons & Dragons Playlists

Midnight Syndicate and Hawkwind are examples of artists who are fan favorites in creating music that heightens any role-playing experience.

I know that in just a little bit as I continue to map out Level 14 in Game of Dungeons I will do so with Thorin Oakenshield from the wonderful Misty Mountains album.

Where do you stand on music in games? Have you ever tried any of these suggestions to heighten overall atmosphere and mood when mapping out one of these older dungeoncrawlers?

Do you have a favorite playlist or soundtrack for just such an occasion that you’d like to share?

My breath comes in ragged gasps now as I wipe the sweat out of my eyes. The gold pieces I had found in these stale, forgotten rooms were beginning to feel very heavy. I held my magical lantern aloft; hoping desperately to find the secret door to take me back to the surface. The undead were coming for me now; hungry for my life force. The guardians of this dungeon were not about to let me take this gold without a fight and I worry that I’ve stayed down here too long. I wipe the sweat stinging my eyes and straighten my back as my muscles start to cramp. ‘Where was that damn door?’

If you have an active imagination then this is how your constant forays in Game of Dungeons are likely to turn out. Once again we have been told that there are 20 levels in this dungeon. The goal is to find the dragon lurking somewhere on levels 17-20, slay the beast, and take the orb that it is guarding. In order to take on this terrifying monstrosity you need to build up your strength and experience. You accomplish this by slaying dungeon denizens and more importantly acquiring gold pieces. This involves careful mapping of the complex, collecting as much gold as you can in the process, and getting back up to the surface so that the gold you found and monsters you have slain can convert to experience and hit points.

In my last Game of Dungeons update I had successfully mapped out levels 1 – 5 and provided you with the maps. I am now presenting to you the maps for levels 6 – 11.

Game of Dungeon Levels 6 – 11

When you reach the surface it is the only way to save your character. Once you venture forth into the dungeon again your character runs the risk of permadeath. This means that dead is dead. There is no save feature or safety net of any kind. If you are killed in your latest dungeon delve than your character is completely wiped from the system and you have to start all over again. Now that I am exploring the deeper levels I have to remain cognizant of how many spells I have left to combat the things which shamble out of the darkness. The more gold that I pick up the more powerful are the guardians that try to stop me from leaving. So the key to winning this game is to possess patience and not let the emotion of greed overwhelm you. This involves abstaining from any books you may find, and most of the chests you find unless you discover that they are harmless.

Now that I have come this far; I cannot afford to make a mistake and I must tread carefully. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must find that secret door…….

I always get a little irritated when I am driving in my car and a certain commercial comes on the radio. It goes a little something like this; “A scientific study was conducted, 100 people were blind-folded, given samples of Coke vs Pepsi, and asked which one they like better” …….

First of all; THAT is not a scientific study. You’re merely asking 100 random people which they like better; Coke or Pepsi. It is ACTUALLY an example of a subjective observation. A subjective observation is one with a bias or prejudice. There is no right or wrong answer; each of those individuals are entitled to their own opinion. We use subjective observations all of the time. A person that you might find really attractive, might not be as attractive to others. The expression that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ carries a lot of weight. We use subjective observations with the clothes we wear, the foods we eat, and the games that we play.

Why use rating systems or lists at all? Ratings and lists appeal to most people. Life is full of tons of data, and people are always looking for ways to narrow down that data. Lists and rankings help in that regard and help us to make decisions; and psychological studies have shown that the shorter the list the more people are likely to believe the list and/or rankings. They help in making comparisons; which can be especially helpful for consumers.

I woke up early this morning very excited to create a ranking system that I would use for each of the games that I play to share with you here on the blog. I spent an inordinate amount of time reviewing other rating systems that are out there in order to help me form my own. I started mapping out what I wanted to rate; and how my scores would add up; and then the voice in my head started to speak. If you’re asking yourself; ‘What voice?’ then YES! that’s exactly the voice I’m talking about. My internal voice started pointing out potential red flags and problem areas and the more that I thought about it the less excited I became about a ratings system.

There a couple of conflicts in play here:

The first conflict is that reviews are biased because those reviews are made with subjective observations. The same bias comes into play regarding the computer games you play just as it does when you’re making a choice between Coke & Pepsi. I began to realize I’m not exactly a game aficionado. I have the passion and enthusiasm but part of the reason for my journey is that it is simply one that I have never taken before. So, you dear reader, will be experiencing things for the first time through my eyes. You might appreciate my opinion but you don’t necessarily have to agree with it.

Understanding THAT led to my second conflict which is this: I wondered if a rating system is so subjective, could I instead use objective observations and use a point rubric then total it up? I could certainly do that. Where game mechanics are concerned, for example, I could get into character creation and development, how much choice you have, interactivity with the game, immersion and so on. I could get into comparisons of graphics & sound……..and then I completely put on the brakes. I put down my pen and I realized that this was suddenly looking like an awful amount of work. Would I find it to be entertaining still or would I burn out? Would the readers find it useful and entertaining? Which led to more conflicts.

My purpose here is to take a trip through time and go back and play computer role-playing games in chronological order. It is a quest I will likely never finish because the list of these games is exceedingly long. The greater the list becomes; the murkier the rankings become as the list grows and grows. It should become harder to make comparisons and for readers to interpret when the list becomes too long. The larger conflict is that my journey begins in 1975. Technology in 1975 was vastly different than it is now. The hardware and technology constraints defined the games that were played from 1975 to 1985. So we’re really not comparing apples to oranges here. A game that might have been a crowning achievement in 1975 pales in comparison to Elder Scrolls Online as an example. My journey has started with programs that were played on the Plato system. These games used ascii characters for graphics and there were no sounds at all; not even a single beep. So any ranking numbers we used would be skewed; so it didn’t seem coherent to me to compare a game from 1982 with one from 2020.

I believe if I am doing a good job communicating my experience with the game to you; sharing screen shots; talking about the story & setting, presentation, mechanics (game play & character creation), difficulty level, and the overall enjoyment I personally had with that game, that YOU are the best judge as to whether you want to spend time experiencing the game yourself. I want to share my passion and enthusiasm and love for games with you, not muddy the waters with a subjective rating system which may or may not make sense to you.

I will share with you whether or not my experience with the game was a positive one, the difficulty involved, and how much time I spent with the game, and how you can play the game as well. I think that is information which you may find useful. Perhaps someone will come along with a cognitive argument and change my opinion on the matter; but for now I’ll use my free time to play and experience these games and share that experience with you.

I’d love to hear your own thoughts on this matter.

Have you ever owned a Ninja blender or food processor? The Game of Dungeons is quite like that. I am now currently on my 22nd character. The first 21 characters have been “chewed up” and turned into a puree.

Game of Dungeons is unforgiving but the complexities of this hidden gem from 1975 are amazing. There is a definite learning curve with the game. One wrong move and your character is suddenly a new smoothie.

The character depicted above is Ryshad the 22nd (Ryshad 1 through 21 having experienced a variety of agonizing deaths). I have painstakingly taken my time in building him up and making sure that he has all of the magic items that the game has available. You can see them listed above.

I have learned a few things since my first Game of Dungeons review:

1. Never, I mean never, no really, NEVER attempt to open a chest unless after examining it you are told that it appears harmless. If you attempt to open a chest after being told that it is “too dark to tell” or that it “appears dangerous” you will blown into tiny bits.

2. The same advice above goes for picking up magic items as well. It took quite a long time to finally acquire the above magic items that were not trapped or rigged to blow.

3. A couple of the magic items really make a huge difference. The amulet is a must have magic item as it helps to acknowledge when you are near a square that teleports you to a different level of the dungeon. It also rates how difficult your combat is likely to be when you encounter dungeon denizens. If it tells you that your foe is a pushover you can go ahead and fight the creature confidently. If you get a message like “good luck” or “warning” then hold your breath as you cast a spell.

4. The Ring of Levitation is another must have item because this allows you to walk right over the top of a pit without falling into it. When you fall into a pit it can drop you multiple levels and that likely ends in disaster. So possessing this ring is a game changer as it allows you to map out the levels without the fear of falling to much deeper levels.

5. The bag of holding is a must have item as well though it is both a blessing and a curse. The bag of holding allows you to pick up and carry more gold out of the dungeon than you would normally be allowed to carry. The downside of this is that the more gold you’re carrying the more monsters you attract AND the more powerful they are. So when you start to acquire “quite a haul” the wandering monsters you encounter can be of significantly higher levels.

6. I have finally gotten use to mapping this particular dungeon complex and dealing with the teleporter squares. There are usually two on every level. One that will teleport you one level lower and one that will teleport you one level higher. Mapping each level is tedious because you have to ultimately make your way back up to the 1st level and the exit. You cannot over-extend yourself on a lower level then make your way up or once again you’re going to fall victim to this giant Ninja character processor.

You can also elect, if you find yourself in trouble, to hit Shift-T on your keyboard. This will instantly teleport you one level higher than the level you’re on. WARNING: There is a 10% chance of failure and it instead teleports you one level lower. I, much to my chagrin, found this out the very first time I attempted to try it. There is some strategy involved in this decision as doing so costs you 2 magic-user spell slots PLUS a clerical spell slot so choose wisely.

I am enjoying this game quite a bit but it is a tedious experience. I have successfully mapped out the first six levels of the dungeon. Levels 1-5 are depicted below. They are accurate and I hope they are a help if you choose to try and play this game. Remember that our goal is to find the dragon guarding the Orb on levels 17-20, defeat the dragon, take the Orb, then climb all the way back up to the 1st level. I obviously have a lot of grinding and mapping to do to prepare myself for the coming battle.

In most computer role-playing games you’re either controlling one character or a party of 4-6 characters. I have often wondered, dear reader, how YOU go about choosing a name for your characters.

In the first game that I played, Dungeon, I chose the name of Mordred for my character. I chose this name because this is a character variously portrayed in Arthurian legend.

In the current game I am playing, Game of Dungeons, my character’s name is Ryshad. I chose this particular name because I am currently reading Juliet E. McKenna’s excellent Tales of Einarinn series in which Ryshad is a featured character.

When I choose character names I tend to use the names of memorable characters from either books that I’ve previously read or books that I’m currently reading. In the past I’ve also used names from my group of friends for larger parties and on a bad day I even admit to using my mother-in-laws name for the meat shield of the party.

My favorite method remains choosing the names from memorable characters from books that I have read or am reading.

I would love to hear how YOU go about choosing names for your characters in your games or what are some of your most memorable character names that you’ve created.

I am also curious; do you have particular names that are staples from game to game or do you constantly change things up?

I look forward to hearing from you and happy gaming!

Here is a little bit of history taken right from the PLATO network

The Game of Dungeons was also written in 1975 and the next challenge in my quest to play all CPRGs in chronological order. Character generation in the Game of Dungeons is slightly different than in Dungeon. You have four key attributes: strength, intelligence, wisdom, and dexterity. When you press a key and roll for these four attributes you are basically creating a character that is a combination fighter, magic-user, and cleric.

The character, upon creation, begins play with all of his or her magic-user and cleric spells. These spells increase in power as the character gains levels. There is a little bit of humor or snark in play here as evidenced by the names of these spells.

Your intelligence helps you in wielding magic-user spells and your wisdom helps you to cast clerical spells. Your fighting skills in Game of Dungeons plays a more prominent role than it did in the previous game; but your spells are still your principal weapons here. Sleep, Charm, Hold, and Dispell are all or nothing spells and they are quite affective. Sleep works automatically on all creatures that are Level 4 and under.

The number of spells that you can cast increases as you gain power. You gain power and more hit points by collecting gold and slaying monsters. You gain a hit point for every 4,000 gold pieces that you find and for every 10,000 gold pieces you find you gain an extra magic-user spell slot and for every 16,000 gold pieces you find you gain an extra clerical spell slot. Your level is the amount of experience you have divided by 10,000. If you have 24,000 in experience points then you are a level 2 character. Your level also determines the amount of damage your spells do to monsters.

There is a lot more complexity and moving pieces here than in the previous Dungeon game. For instance, each spell that you select has much greater chance of success against certain foes. Ahab has done exhaustive research into the spells and their affect on the monster types here which I’ll share.

In the previous Dungeon game there was only one level on a 30 x 30 grid. In Game of Dungeons there are 20 different levels to map out in a 9 x 9 grid. So the dungeon complex is much larger than in the previous game.

There are a number of obstacles or problems that makes this a much more difficult game and a tremendous grind:

Scattered throughout each level are secret doors, teleport squares, and pits that can drop you into the lower levels of the dungeon. Careful mapping is a must!

Any chests or magic items that you find are booby trapped to quite likely explode; instantly killing you. Your chance of instantly dying early on from an exploding chest or item is so hit & miss that you are better off avoiding chests and magic items early on. This creates a grinding dilemma because random gold that you find scattered throughout the dungeon is much less than you’d find in chests. However I went though 20 characters, yes that is correct, 20 characters taking my chances opening chests and picking up magic items. By completely avoiding them early on I have been able to slowly build up my character.

This is the first game (1975) that has introduced the idea of a big boss. The object of the game is to defeat a dragon located somewhere between levels 17-20, obtain an orb, and then bring it back up to the surface.

I have so far almost successfully mapped out the first two levels as shown below. I am currently on my 21st character and trying to get the character strong enough to venture down into the 3rd level (assuming I’m not teleported or fall down a pit and end up dead)

I will have more to say about this game as I continue to explore it’s nuances and grind away. As always, thank you for reading me.

The earliest known dungeon crawl computer games appeared on the PLATO System. Launched in 1960 at the University of Illinois and initially running on the ILLIAC I computer, PLATO was the first generalized computer assisted instruction system. By 1971, PLATO ran on CDC mainframes, which were considered super computers at the time. PLATO was accessible from 150 remote terminals by 1975. Its TUTOR authoring programming language allowed anyone to create new lessons, which ranged widely in academic subject and scope.

PLATO was a shared system and access and resources were limited. The earliest surviving role-playing game on the PLATO is pedit5, alternately called The Dungeon, written in 1975 by Rusty Rutherford. Rutherford worked for the Population and Energy Group at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and his group was assigned pedit1 through pedit5.Pedit1 through pedit3 were programs for the Population and Energy Group, which left two surplus spots for additional usage. The game was frequently deleted, as the system administrators determined that gameplay was an inappropriate use of this space. An earlier game, m199h, appears in some PLATO lesson lists, but descriptions of this program sound more like a text-based Adventure type game than a dungeon crawl.

You can still play these old mainframe games by going to cyber1.org. Cyber1 is a group of people dedicated to the preservation of the world’s first computer based community. I greatly appreciate and respect the work they do there otherwise I would not have been able to experience this little bit of history. From there, you request a sign in and password and usually within 3 days a site administrator will send you an email with a set of instructions on how to begin. There is a little bit of a learning curve setting up the terminal emulator program and finding your way around but it is not too difficult.

It was in 1973 that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson collaborated on drafts of Dungeons & Dragons. In 1974 Dungeons & Dragons was first published in January as three booklets shipping in a woodgrain-colored cardboard box and all 1,000 units sold out. It was not hard to imagine that once a few savvy computer programmers got ahold of this material that you would soon see some electronic incarnation of it.

As outlined above; it is the Year of the Beast and your quest is to explore the dungeons beneath the Castle Ramething. “Mersad,” “Caer Omn,” and “Ramething” are anagrams of, respectively, “Dreams,” “Romance,” and “Nightmare. They might be a reference to the book Something about Eve by James Branch Cabell in which there is a magic “Mirror of Caer Omn” that is found in the “land of Dersam.”

The program then rolls randomly and numbers are assigned to attributes of Strength, Intelligence, Constitution, and Dexterity. You want a high strength if swordplay is your primary focus and a high intelligence will increase the damage of your spells. You then have to choose a name for your character and I decided on Mordred for our first foray.

The monsters that you’ll encounter in the dungeon come in five different categories. Each creature type can range in levels from 1-6 in terms of difficulty.

There are 16 total spells available to you as your character progresses in levels. 8 magic-user spells and 8 cleric spells.

So how did I fare? Mordred embarked on his quest to explore the dungeon underneath the castle and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the dungeon is actually static. It is not random and can be mapped out. The dungeon is in a 30 x 30 grid however I beat the game before I could finish mapping out the entire complex. In order to win the game, you have to accrue 20,000 experience points. Once you beat the game; you’re shown a victory screen and then placed in a Hall of Fame and you no longer have access to the character. In order to finish mapping out the complex; I would have had to start with another character but I was content to move on to the next challenge.

Trying to get to 20,000 experience points is no easy task. When you hear gamers describe some role playing games as a “grind” this is certainly the epitome of that. The encounters are very quick and the rolls are random. You could begin in the dungeon and suddenly find yourself facing a 6th level ogre. It is at that point that the dungeon walls receive a new paint job; with you being the paint. I must have gone through at least a dozen characters before I realized that spell casting was much more important in this game than swordsmanship. Each combat; even if you should luck upon a +1 magical sword, are subject to the whims of fate. There were a couple of times where I had over 10,000 experience points and thought I was on a roll when something appeared in the corridor and promptly beat me to a pulp.

In this game dead is dead. You can save your character and then come back at a later time to play but if your character dies in the dungeon that is it. You must start completely over again. What this does is create quite a bit of anxiety as you realize that any and every encounter can completely do you in. It was beginning to get exasperating starting all over again after a crushing defeat. You gain experience by slaying monsters and finding treasure. The treasure that you find is randomized throughout the dungeon. You might uncover a few silver pieces or gold but what you really want to hope for is that you luck upon pieces of valuable jewelry or gems. These items really give you an experience point boost.

Because you have to rely on your spells so much; you need to be very careful to keep track of how many spell slots you have left the farther away from the dungeon entrance you get. Unfortunately you DO have to continue further and further away from the entrance because while wandering monsters can continue to appear at any time in rooms or corridors; the game remembers what rooms you explored and where you have found chests of treasure. So if you want to find chests of treasure and get experience point boosts that means you have to find new, unexplored rooms you have not mapped out yet.

There are no text descriptions in any of the rooms. There are simply the monster encounters and the quest for treasure. This reminds me very much of an early Wizardry since the dungeon is static and can be mapped out. You will have to actively search for secret doors (yes they do exist) or if you want to cast a clerical Continual Light spell they will highlight the secret doors for you. A word of warning however; you want to economize your spell slots for offensive spells to stay alive. If you rely only on your sword you could die in any encounter. You will have to map the dungeon out if you want to be successful so have some graph paper and a pencil handy. There are some “mappers” who will thrill to this task and others who think an auto-mapping feature is the greatest invention since the light bulb.

I mentioned economizing your spells for offensive purposes and I need to be more explicit. It is the casting of spells that will give you any chance of winning this game. The Sleep spell is wonderful for any humanoids under 4th level for example whereas undead monsters are unaffected by Sleep and Charm spells so you’ll have to resort to a Magic Missile or Blastbolt spell to do the trick. And the spells are remarkably efficient resulting in an almost guaranteed kill. So keeping careful track of your available spell slots, monitoring how far you are from the dungeon entrance as you map deeper and deeper into the complex is a high priority.

I have to say for as rudimentary as this is; I marvel at how well it played and how spectacular it must have been for folks in 1975. In my opinion it runs better than some later commercial programs. It is very grindy and tedious and requires patience and a passion for the medium. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am very grateful to the folks at Cyber1 that I was able to travel back through time and play through this moment of history.

I did end up beating the game. It was so grindy and there was so much anxiety with each encounter that I actually pumped a fist into the air when I was shown the screen below.

And here is another screen shot showing Mordred at the top of the Hall of Fame List.

The % of kills is the amount of the 20,000 experience points which came from slaying monsters. Depending on the gold and treasure that you acquire and whether you choose to run away from an encounter can greatly affect these percentages. You will note that I actually had a greater percentage of kills than anyone on that list and that’s because I was grinding it out and mapping carefully and not taking too many chances with my spell slots. Remember: dead is dead.

The game is moderately difficult. You are the subject of random encounters and random rolls and you must map out the dungeon to be successful. Many will find that they go through several characters if not a dozen or more until they find enough treasure to build up their hit points and spells. There really is no story or background apart from the screen shot that I provided above so a generous dose of your imagination as you wander the halls and explore rooms is recommended. There is no music or sound.

Below is the map that I made of the Dungeon. Remember that it is incomplete but if you abhor mapping than you can certainly make good use of this as a start

I really enjoyed the experience and I now look forward to my next challenge: The Game of Dungeons which was also created in 1975 and found on the Plato system as well.