Author: professor6153

Monster’s Lair was written by Allen G. Mehr and Jimmy D. Jones and published by Soft Sector Marketing. It was released for the TRS-80 in 1980. I played Monster’s Lair on a TRS-80 emulator.

Monster’s Lair features an overhead view and it plays very much like one of the Microquests from the Dunjonquest line. I’m specifically reminded of Morloc’s Tower.

What I found to be surprising was the speed of play and execution. The Microquests from the Dunjonquest line have not aged well where movement and speed are concerned. The games can be a bit slow and waiting for the graphical environment to refresh can become tiresome. However moving about the map in Monster’s Lair was a relatively simple affair and I was amazed at the speed of the game. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move around to quicky explore the rooms.

The dungeon consists of 28 rooms and is a fixed map. The game is real-time and not turn based. The goal here is to explore the 28 rooms and the monsters that are located within each room. Once you’ve defeated the monster in it’s lair you are then awarded treasure which affects your overall score. Once you have explored the dungeon level you make your way back to the entrance and you are then awarded an overall score and asked if you want to play again.

The game begins by asking you whether you want to enter a character by hand or have it generated for you. This is also reminiscent of the Dunjonquest games which offer you the same option. If you choose automatic generation the character begins with an armor class of 5 and 10 hit points. The character’s attributes will be given random values between 10 and 18. If you choose to enter the character by hand then you can enter the attribute values yourself up to a maximum of 18. The six character attributes are strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma.

The armor class score can be a range from 0 -9. The lower the score the harder it is for monster’s to hit you. The game sports a magic armor bonus ranging from 0-5 as well based on magic items and armor which affect your armor class. Your character’s experience level can range from 1 to 5. The higher your experience point level the greater your proficiency in combat. Your health or stamina is measured in hit points which can range from 1 to 99. Each of these hit points are then converted into 4 vitality points. So if you have 50 hit points your vitality score would be 200. Each time a monster strikes you the damage is subtracted from your vitality. If your vitality score reaches 0 you die.

Your character icon is represented by a square on the overland map. As you move about the map and enter a room the graphical interface changes from the overhead dungeon view to depict the room that you are in. Each of the room locations are decorated with items scattered about the room. These items may consist of a table, chair, bed, chest, desk, or trash. Some of the rooms have closets as well. Each room you enter contains a monster that you’ll have to fight. The monster is also represented by a square item and when you enter the room the monster will begin to move towards you quickly in real-time. When the two icons converge then combat ensues.

The different monsters that I encountered included beetles, bugbears, stocky dwarfs, a strange cat-like creature, a large black jelly-like mass, a pointy eared elf, and a demon.

Combat is done for you and is automatic. You do not have much control over combat and in combat you and your opponent keep exchanging blows until one of you perishes. There are text descriptions which accompany each round of combat and some of the descriptions are rather humorous like the one above: “so close you felt the breeze” to describe an opponent barely missing you. Other description examples are: “you clobbered him” or “you gave him a glancing blow.”

One unique feature which involves combat is that your character begins the game with a wand. The wand contains three charges and is activated by hitting the Space key on the keyboard. If your character’s vitality is dangerously low and the battle is not going well, hitting the spacebar automatically kills the creature. One of the rooms contains a powerful demon that is head and shoulders tougher than the other dungeon denizens encountered so be sure to save a charge for the dastardly demon.

Once you’ve cleared out the 28 rooms on the dungeon level you make your way back to the starting room and then you’ll get the following message up above. Your experience points will be generated and you’ll be asked if you want to play again. Again I am reminded of the Dunjonquest series because the game does not keep track of your attributes and experience between sessions. You’ll want to write them down and then type them in by hand in order to see character progression.

It took me roughly two hours to clear out the entire dungeon level and make my way back to the starting room. I did choose to play again just to see if there were any significant divergences from my original play through and it merely seemed like I was repeating the initial dungeon exploration experience. There doesn’t seem to be much of a “replayability” factor here but you have to remember that there were not a lot of role-playing game offerings to choose from in 1980 either so I could see those that were hungry for this kind of stuff continuing with the game and building their characters.

Next up on the docket is Sword & Sorcery II.

Until next time…

The Mines of Mordor was written and developed by Scott Cunningham for the TRS-80 and published by Electronic Imaginations in 1979.

Mines of Mordor is a surprisingly addictive turn-based dungeon crawler. The game is completely text-based and uses ascii characters to depict the dungeon. There are no class or character choices other than coming up with a name for your character. Once you choose a name your character is automatically generated. You begin play with a health rating of 6 and this health rating increases as you slay opponents. You also begin the game with a knife, sword, and rope in your inventory.

Once your character is complete you are then deposited on the first level of the dungeon. The dungeons are randomly generated each game and consist of six levels. When you begin play the stairs exiting the dungeon are in the space that you start in.

The double asterisk depicted above is your character. Each dungeon level consists of 5×5 squares. A single I allows passage between columns going from left to right. You can move north and south in each of the five rows unless they are blocked by a wall which is depicted by several “I”‘s together ( IIIII ) . The + sign’s strewn all over the first level represent monsters or encounters. The game will inform you if there are stairs going up or down when you land upon the space.

There are a couple of features in Mines of Mordor that I found to be quite interesting and unique. The game constantly lets you know how much total treasure is in the dungeon as well as how much treasure you’ve acquired through weight.

In the picture shown above Fost had just survived an encounter. He found 2 gold pieces and 15 silvers pieces as well as a sword. Note how the game details that Fost now has .21 kilos of treasure. When you exit the dungeon periodically to purchase supplies the game will also tell you how many kilos of treasure are remaining in the dungeon. This is the first time, in all of the games I’ve played & covered, that we’ve seen a feature like this. While there is no overarching plot or goal other than to explore the dungeon and collect as much treasure as you can, I find that this feature creates a lot of replay value. Each new game you can constantly compete against your prior weight score by attempting to haul out even more treasure than last time.

Your health rating goes up with each opponent that you vanquish however you do not acquire this benefit or experience until you exit the dungeon. When you exit the first level your health rating is then adjusted to reflect your experience gain and then you also have the opportunity to purchase supplies and magic items. You must have a minimum of 50 silver to exit the dungeon and you must also have a minimum of 50 silver to re-enter the dungeon so keep careful track of your finances. I was astounded by the number and variety of items you could possibly purchase. I found this feature to be very unique in 1979 and the only game that was truly comparable in this regard was the Temple of Apshai. Notice at the top of the screen that the game informs you that there are 138.59 kilo’s remaining in the dungeon and that number changes as you continue to find more and more treasure.

Food supplies are very important and affect your health. Each time you are wounded you consume food in order to heal yourself. Your food supply dwindles quickly and thus you constantly have to exit the dungeon to purchase more. I found the variety of magic items available to purchase quite exciting. On one dungeon run I was able to purchase Gauntlets of Strength and they definitely made a difference or impact in combat. The Teleport Ring was very cool too. When you use the ring it teleports you to a random square in the dungeon however you did get to choose the target dungeon level which is helpful if you’re on one of the lower levels and find yourself in trouble.

Combat is automatically done for you. Your only choices are to either move or what type of weapon or magic you want to attack with. Once your choice is made each turn the game then determines the outcome of each round with hidden rolls.

During combat there are a number of unique states that you or your opponent can find themselves in. You can be standing upright, lying down against the wall, or weaponless due to a fumble and dropped weapon. Most of your enemies tend to be goblins and orcs on the first two levels. If you choose to fight you can choose each turn which object that you want to use. Choosing M for (M)ove is the equivalent of attempting to flee. When I reached the fourth level of the dungeon I began to encounter Wights which were extremely difficult to kill.

I found Mines of Mordor to be an addicting little game and I found myself constantly saying “just one more game” as I tried to beat the weight of my previous treasure haul. It was also fun to purchase the different magical items and experiment with them. I was surprised and impressed by this game given that it was released in 1979.

You can try out Mines of Mordor for yourself by playing it right here online. Click on AUTORUN to play

Mines of Mordor Online

Next up on the docket is more housekeeping from 1980 with an oldie entitled Monster’s Lair.

Until next time…

Demons was written and developed by Mike Schelhorn and published as code in 1979 in the book 80 Programs for the TRS-80 by Jim Perry.

The book was published in 1979 and given to subscribers of 80 Microcomputing magazine in 1980.

If you wanted to play Demons you had to diligently sit and type in the code line by line and pray that you didn’t make any mistakes doing so.

Demons begins by having you choose a character class. The amazing thing is that there are 14 different character classes to choose from. In seven of the classes the gender is male and in the other seven female. I personally played as an Enchantress, then a Woodcutter, and lastly as a Songstress (where I surprisingly did very well). I tried to select varied classes to experiment with.

The strength score acts much like hit points or hardiness. The higher your combat rating the more you’re likely going to come out on top of any physical combat.

Magic points apply towards the casting of spells and the use of the teleporters found on the overland map.

The higher the charisma the higher the liklihood of singing monsters to sleep with a lyre. The last character I ran I chose the Sonstress class and she had a high charisma. This might possibly be pointing out a bit of a game imbalance but I found this class/attribute combination more potent than any of the spellcasting classes. My Songstress would often sing the tougher opponents to sleep and I never suffered a single scratch.

Intelligence seems to affect random encounters and combat and seems more like a luck attribute. I would have thought it might have impacted magic and spells in the game. Speaking of which:

The spells with which you have to choose from during combat are many, varied, and extremely impressive. I greatly enjoyed playing an Enchantress in my first run at the game and experimenting with the different spells however I did not last very long against the tougher opponents.

Demons is turn based and the objective is to traverse an overland map and acquire as much treasure as possible within 150 days. The overland map is ascii based and you can see it depicted above. The H on the map represents your character’s house or home base and this is the spot on the map where you begin the game. The ? on the map represent castles. There are always three castles on the map in each game and it is the castle where the greatest repository of treasure can be found. You’ll often find a magic item to aid you and which also has great value or you’ll find a hoard of gold coins. You’ll want to be sure that you visit all three castles as the payout there is much better than in harrowing random encounters.

The + on the map represents teleporters. There are five of them scattered about the map. They require magical points to operate and you can choose which teleporter you want to transport to. In this way you can avoid some random encounters while trying to get to the castles and you avoid days of overland travel as well.

The [, #, and $ characters represent different types of terrain and where you may experience random encounters while traversing them. The lower your intelligence score the more random encounters you seem to have. Moving over these characters on the map can take a day or days.

There are some graphics in the game. Your wandering monsters that you encounter are depicted by graphics and you can see an example of this by the demon depicted above. The demon always made short work of my Enchantress characters but my Songstress character with high charisma was able to sing a demon to sleep with her lyre.

The three castles are also depicted with graphics as shown above.

Here you can see a glimpse of the battle my Enchantress had with a demon.

The game will declare you a winner if your gold piece totals from your travels land anywhere near 4000 or over 4000. If your gold piece totals are below 2000 the game will cheekily let you know.

You move about the overland map using the numerical keys on your keyboard.

0 – rest which will recover 2 points of strength or 3 points of magic. If you have a Magic Jar in your possession you can recover all of your points with rest. Resting may also cause a random encounter to occur so be wary. Resting will take a day or days depending on the extent of your injuries.

1 – move east

2 – move northeast

3 – move north

4 – move northwest

5 – move west

6 – move southwest

7 – move south

8 – move southeast

9 – status of your character

Sure – in order to play or experience this game you’d have to type the entire thing in line by line from a magazine. But this was the norm for quite a few years and we’ve played many that originated this way. The game and what it offers a home computer user in 1979 makes it even more impressive. It’s not an Akalabeth or Temple of Apshai or even Clardy’s Wilderness Campaign of that year, but in an age where you didn’t have a lot of fantasy offerings in your collection or library yet, I find it quite surprising. I could see a young 1979 me spending some time with this one.

Next up on the docket is another uncovered find from 1979 entitled Mines of Mordor.

Until next time…

The Dragon & the Princess has been touted as the first ever fantasy JRPG. I was aware of the game and had it on my 1982 “to do” list but I had reservations that I’d ever get to experience it. The big hurdle here is the language barrier; an english version was never released here in the West. A translation patch is now available but applying the patch incorrectly can cause the game to be unplayable. The game disk itself is also a “hard to find” item. The CRPG Addict graciously provided me with a copy of the game however application of the translation patch caused all combat to be non-existent. It was William Hern who was able to successfully apply the translation patch and who provided me with a good working copy of the game. So once again I want to publicly thank William for his help and support. I would have felt it a derelict of duty if I had not been able to experience this game.

The Dragon & the Princess was released in 1982 for the PC-88 and in 1983 for the FM-7. The PC-88 was an 8-bit home computer released by NEC in 1981 and it sold primarily in Japan. It sold extremely well and become one of the three major Japanese home computers of the 1980s along with the FM-7 and Sharp X1.

The game was developed and published by Koei, a Japanese video game company founded in 1978. The company is now best known for it’s Dynasty Warriors games as well as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series of games. In 2009 Koei merged with Tecmo to form Tecmo Koei Games. I stressed in my opening paragraph that The Dragon & the Princess was the first Western fantasy RPG as it was not the only RPG that Koei released in 1982. Seduction of the Condominium Wife was another early role-playing adventure game however it was an erotic title. It became a hit and helped Koei to become a major software company. Koei also released Underground Exploration in 1982, which may predate The Dragon & the Princess publication date, but it might be hard to qualify it as a true RPG. Mission Impossible was also released in 1982 but it was a spy-themed adventure RPG.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this game. While characteristics of JRPG’s have changed over the years I was wondering if I’d see any precursors of the distinctive traits that you see today. Many of today’s JRPGs are criticized for their linearity and cartoon-like imagery. Fans and supporters of JRPGs argue that non-linearity is the sacrifice for strong characterization that you fail to see in many Western CRPGs.

The Dragon & the Princess is particularly interesting because at its core it is a text-adventure game. When combat ensues however it transforms into a party-based, top down, tactical turn-based role-playing game.

There was no accompanying documentation nor any backstory that I could find. You begin the game by creating a part of five characters.

You can name the players as you see fit but you cannot customize them in any way. The statistics are fixed. The power statistic is affected by the type of weapon that you’re wieldling. In the above example, Bilbo is fighting with bare fists, Cadderly and Red Sonja are using shortswords, while both Fost and Bruenor are wielding longswords. Many different sites have claimed that Sp is an abbreviation for Spellcasting but I believe this to be incorrect. There are no spell casting options in this game and I believe that Sp represents speed. Whatever Sp does represent it has little tactical impact. The party always gets to go first in combat and they always go in the order that you have the party composed. Both hits and hit points will slowly increase with experience which slowly increases each time you hit in combat or are hit in combat. Experience points are NOT split evenly among your party. Party members only gain experience on a successful attack in combat or upon getting struck in combat.

When the game begins the newly formed party finds itself in the king’s throne room. The king’s treasure has been stolen by bandits and it is up to this band of heroes to recover it.

Outside of combat the party moves from location to location in the style of a text adventure.

There are about 70 different map locations ranging from forested areas and mountain locations to areas within the town of Ross-Blue. In each location you can choose to (S)earch, (L)ook, or (R)ead. Locations are unique in that some areas will not be revealed nor can you access them until you are made aware of them through clues or conversation. For example, there is a bandit hideout and monk’s hut in the mountains, both of them extremely important locations, that are not revealed to you unless you happen to (R)ead a stone slab in the Stone Road location on the map. The text on the stone slab will inform you how to get to the bandit’s hideout as well as the monk’s hut. Once you read that, the locations are then suddenly accessible on the map.

The tactical party-based combat here is historically of extreme interest. It predates Ultima III which sports this type of tactical combat and unless the programmers played Tunnels of Doom for the TI-99 then this is some of the first of it’s kind. Each character takes a turn moving and attacking and then each of the opponents get a turn.

The game itself is surprisingly short. It only took me about 3 – 4 hours to complete. There are three main tasks to perform:

1) the first is to uncover the bandit’s hideout in the mountains.

I suggest you have the party spread out here and (S)earch the huts and also the wells because those are where the bandits have stashed the treasure. If you do not do this; while combat ensues; the bandits begin to burn the huts and any treasure within will be lost. If you lose too much of the treasure it will “softlock” you from being able to win the game.

Once you’ve recovered the treasure and disposed of the bandits you’re going to want to find the monk in his hidden mountain hut. He will tell you that the bandits have a secret hideout in town.

The only town in this game is that of Ross-Blue. There are four important locations located within the town otherwise mapping the town is almost akin to mapping that of a maze. The first of the four locations is a weapons shop where you can purchase longswords and shortswords. The longswords are upgrades and quite expensive at 100k apiece. The second important location in town is a food store where you can purchase packets of food. Each packet is 10k apiece and 15 packets should take care of your food requirements for the entirety of the game. The third important location happens to be the Koei Pub which is named after the company that developed and published the game. When you walk into the pub the entire floor turns into a trap door and drops you into a pit. You can pay 300k to the owner who will then let you out. If you do not yet have 300k you had best not walk into this pub.

When you pay the 300k you spot a suspicious stranger leaving the bar. If you follow him out and then (A)ttack him he pleads for his life and then reveals the location of the bandit’s secret hideout in town. The hideout location will remain inaccessible until you’ve had the pub encounter with this stranger.

The bandits in their secret hideout are even easier to beat then the bandits that you encountered in the mountains. Once you’ve beaten the bandits you have to conduct a (S)earch in order to find the rest of the king’s missing treasure.

When you return to the king he is quite pleased and offers his daughter’s hand in marriage.

There is not time for a honeymoon however because it is not long after the wedding that a dragon suddenly kidnaps the princess.

Once this happens the other four membes of your party are dropped and you suddenly find yourself on a solo mission to save the princess. It is a good idea to head back to the monk and he will then give you a Magic Sword to help you in your pursuit. You can easily find the dragon on Mt. Lu-fey.

I found the battle with the dragon to be anti-climatic. I quickly vanquished him in three short rounds and took minimal damage. Once I defeated the dragon I lived happily ever after.

A dragon kidnapping the princess theme would appear again in Dragonquest and also be a strong motif in Japan’s Dragonslayer series.

I was relieved to be able to cross The Dragon & the Princess off of my bucket list. The game was not quite what I expected but I did enjoy my time with it. Researching early JRPGs is quite the “rabbithole” though an enjoyable one.

Next up on the docket is a little housekeeping as I travel back in time to a newly discovered CRPG oldie: Demons.

Until next time…

There were many nights while playing Dungeons of Daggorath that my fingers would cramp up from furiously typing the same keyboard combinations over and over again as quickly as I could. I felt like I was auditioning for a medical transcriptionist position.

A keyboard mistake, and there were many, always resulted in a grisly death causing me to shout colorful adjectives that echoed throughout the room. My wife would ask with mock concern if I was all right and remind me that it is just a game.

I found that if I played the game late at night that it would elevate my heartrate and that I would have trouble sleeping afterwards. It would sometimes be an hour before I calmed down as the adrenaline left my system. It was then that I finally avoided playing the game too late at night otherwise I’d wake bleary-eyed and tired the following morning.

The night that I finally beat the game I had a massive headache and my eyes burned terribly. I stood up and paced around in an effort to calm myself as I pumped a fist into the air as if my team had just scored a touchdown.

Does this sound like a computer role-playing game to you? You were probably thinking that my visceral reactions seemed more attuned to an arcade or platform game. This is because Dungeons of Daggorath was to 1982 what Dark Souls was to 2011.

The game was developed by Douglas J. Morgan and Keith S. Kiyohara with sounds by Phil Landmeier in 1982 for the Tandy (Radioshack) TRS-80 Color Computer. It featured wireframe graphics to portray a three-dimensional space in a real-time environment. The player moves around a dungeon, issuing commands by means of typing – for example, typing USE LEFT TORCH or PULL RIGH SWORD (or abbreviations such as U L T or P R SW), gathering strength and ever more powerful weapons as the game progresses.

There are a couple of unique features in the game that created a large fan base that still exists to this day and that catapulted the game into classic CRPG stardom. Many have fond memories of the game or at least remember their experience with it. It has been widely written about and was also featured in the book Ready Player One, where the protagonist has to solve the game, emulated within a simulated universe. This plot point does not appear in the film adaptation.

One of the unique features of the game is a heartbeat which rises as you move throughout the dungeon. Any actions you take also serve to increase your heartrate. The damage from various dungeon denizens causes the greatest increase to your heartrate and opponents often kill you with only one blow. If you move too quickly throughout the dungeon in an effort to evade your pursuers (yes – the creatures chase you throughout the dungeon) you can actually faint from overexertion. You are then defenseless and when you awaken an enemy is usually standing over you to deliver a death blow. This heartbeat is a direct precursor to a “health” indicator that would appear in later games such as Legend of Zelda and many others.

The second unique feature were the sounds created by Phil Landmeier. Each of the dungeon denizens have a unique sound associated with them. Whether it is the hissing of snakes or the clanking and clomping of fully armored knights these sounds become louder as your adversaries get closer to you. We’ve seen sounds used to great effect in previous games such as Sword of Fargoal and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cloudy Mountain but Dungeons of Daggorath makes masterful use of them. It took several months of recording to achieve what were advanced sound effects for the time. The combination of these masterful sounds with the heartbeat monitor serves to immerse the player in a quagmire of tension and anxiety.

The heartbeat-like sound, instead of using numerical statistics such as hit points like previous games have done, was inspired by arcade games, specifically 1978’s Space Invaders. In Space Invaders a hearbeat-like sound gradually increases pace as enemies advance towards the player. In many ways Dungeons of Daggorath is the very first Action RPG – hybridizing arcade skills with a computer role-playing game. THIS is the root of my love/hate relationship with the game. While I love and appreciate arcade and platform games I am admittedly not very good at them. Dungeons of Daggorath requires speed and precision with the keyboard. You could almost say it was the predecessor to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. It requires you to hit a combination of keys in a rapid staccato clip.

The game is exceedingly difficult. I had recently spent an exorbitant amount of time with a previous game: Ring of Darkness and it might shock you to learn I spent even MORE time with Dungeons of Daggorath. I even thought at one point that this blog might come to a grinding halt as I thought I might never finish this game. I am now 168 games into this journey and there were only two other times that I felt this way: with Moria and again with Rogue. Some rarified company indeed.

The premise of the game is fairly straightforward RPG canon. An evil wizard has taken up residence within the Dungeons of Daggorath and the shadows of those mountains cast a pall over the town of Rivenshire. Crops are wilting and cattle are dying and to make matters worse it is rumored that the wizard has obtained the magical Ring of Endings which greatly increases his power. Your job is to venture into the dungeons beneath Daggorath and find and defeat this wizard. The dungeons consist of 5 levels which are filled with dangerous denizens including a “fake wizard” on level 3 to deal with.

The creatures that you encounter include spiders, snakes, stone giants, blobs, two-eyed evil knights, one-eyed evil knights, scorpions, galdrogs, a fake wizard, and lastly the real wizard himself.

The game was very hard to get used to at first. Many of the early computer role-playing games we’ve encountered thus far have been turn based. Even when you had real-time combat as experienced in Ultima I and Ring of Darkness it was nowhere near as frenetic as what you encounter here. The keyboard commands and being able to use abbreviations of those commands took some getting used to as well. Most of the commands apply to the RIGHT and LEFT hands. When the game begins you have to remove your sword from your backpack and hold it in your right hand so you type PULL RIGHT WOODEN SWORD. You can abbreviate this to P R SW and get the same effect. To use the sword to attack a creature you have to type ATTACK RIGHT or you can use the abbreviation A R. You’ll find yourself beating the A – Space Bar – R keys in a rapid staccato fashion in a coordinated attempt to defeat the tougher monsters on the lower levels. One mistake in the execution of these keyboard combinations spells your doom.

A torch is necessary in order to illuminate your surroundings. In the beginning of the game you’ll type; PULL LEFT TORCH or P L T in order to retrieve a torch from your backpack with your left hand. In order to light or use the torch you then have to type USE LEFT or U L and then your surroundings are illuminated. The torches wear out and are thus a valuable commodity.

There are a couple of tactics which are absolutely necessary in order to win the game that I discovered by dying repeatedly and often. The first tactic is to hoard inventory items. You even want to keep your dead/used torches. You’ll want to find a spot in the dungeon level where there is a dead end or alcove. Then you want to drop all of your items except your sword and torch; littering the ground with all of them. The more you have the better. Why? When a monster appears adjacent to you it spends round after round picking up all of the gear off the floor. You can use this respite to attack repeatedly. It is the only method that allows you to slay very tough opponents that require 6 to 20 hits to vanquish.

The other method I used, particularly on the 4th dungeon level, was a hit and run tactic. I would attack one or two times and then flee; moving throughout the dungeon away from my opponents and scrambling to stop and make a new stand and then repeat the process all over again. I spent several nights and hours stuck on the 4th level and if I am being honest I was on the verge of throwing my hands up in the air and giving up but then I started to play a game of “tag” with a demon that was stalking me. I would hit it once and then run and once I was a safe distance away (and wasn’t killed by a different wandering monster) I would quickly save my game. I would then possibly have to load the game ten more times, dying each time unsuccessfully, until I was able to land another successful blow and save again. I spent probably three total evenings doing nothing but this until I finally killed the demon – which took about 20 hits to kill. The defeated demon dropped an Elvish Sword which made my life much easier. Now creatures that would take 6 to 12 hits to vanquish could be killed in 3 blows. But at a cost. When you attack with the Elvish sword it greatly increases your heartrate and so you have to use it in moderation. If your heartrate begins to get too fast you’ll have to withdraw and move about until it slows down again.

There are item upgrades that you find as you head deeper into the dungeon. These items are dropped after you defeat the monster holding it. The tougher the opponent usually the more powerful the item it is holding. Most of the items are non-descript and so you have to type REVEAL in order to have the item type revealed to you. There are 3 types of swords: you begin the game with a wooden sword but on Level 1 can find and upgrade to an iron sword. On the 4th level you obtain an elvish sword which is an extremely powerful upgrade.

There are two types of shields: a normal shield which you can find on Level 1 and then a Mithril shield which you can find on Level 4. It took me quite awhile to realize that these shields really do not block any damage from the monsters and they serve as poor weapons. By the time I was fighting for survival on Level 3 I wasn’t even carrying a shield any longer.

You can find two different kinds of scrolls: a Vision scroll which shows you the entire dungeon level and it’s exits, and then a Seer scroll which not only shows you the level and exits but you can also see the movement of all of your enemies and where they are located on the level.

There are three different kinds of flasks that you can find: an Abye flask which weakens you and causes your heartrate to climb. DO NOT use these. Then there are the Hale flasks which don’t affect your strength but they do bring your heart rate down. Lastly there is the Thews flask which lowers your heart rate and also makes you 1000 points stronger. You find many of these on Level 4 and you want to use them as often as you can.

This brings us to the rings. You cannot win the game without the rings. The rings were also different from the other items and introduce a new aspect to the game because you need to guess a code word in order to activate them. There is a Vulcan ring that you find on Level 1, a Rhime ring on Level 2, a Joule ring on Level 4, and lastly a Supreme ring on Level 5. In order to activate the rings you have to INCANT them with this mysterious command word. Once activated you then use them as weapons by typing in ATTACK RIGHT or ATTACK LEFT. To activate the Vulcan Ring the word is FIRE as Vulcan was a God of fire. So you would type INCANT FIRE and suddenly the description of the ring changes to Fire Ring. There are 3 charges in the ring. Using the ring causes a blast of fire. The word to activate the Rhime ring is ICE. This was the easiest ring for me to guess because ice is a synonym for Rhime. There are 3 charges in this ring as well. Using it creates a blast or ray of cold. You will need both the Fire ring and the Ice ring to defeat the “fake wizard” on Level 3 so do not waste your ring charges on other dungeon denizens.

The Joule ring is activated by the word ENERGY so INCANT ENERGY reveals an Energy Ring. You’ll need all 3 charges to help you defeat the wizard on the 5th level and even then you’ll also need to strike him a few times with the Elvish sword.

When you FINALLY defeat the wizard on Level 5 he drops a ring. Picking it up shows it to be called The Supreme Ring. The Supreme ring when you type REVEAL shows itself to be the Ring of Endings. Time freezes once you find this ring and you then need to decipher its code word in order to win the game. I had to Google synonyms for Supreme and then had to resort to a Thesaurus until I finally hit on the right word. I think it took me 30+ different tries until I hit the correct word. Once you guess correctly you get an end sequence which shows you as the new wizard of Daggorath. Your robes have stars upon them rather than a crescent moon.

Daggorath in the title of the game comes from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Dagor Dagorath, also called The Final Battle, is an apocalyptic era detailed in the Silmarillion. Dagor Dagorath is a Sindarin term meaning “Battle of Battles. The authors of the game probably took the word but added a “g” because of copyright issues. They made a game entitled Dungeons of Daggorath, which means, if you use Tolkien’s interpretation, Dungeons of Battle, which is extremely fitting.

Dungeons of Daggorath became one of the most popular TRS-80 CoCo games ever; so Tandy produced a sequel in 1988 called Castle of Tharoggad. It was made without the participation of the Daggorath team and was very poorly received.

In 2001, Douglas J. Morgan noticed that the exclusive copyright had fallen back to him from Radioshack which had done nothing with it. He released the game to the public and also offered the source code for a small fee. It has since been ported to Microsoft Windows, Linux, RISC OS, and PSP. A free, open source version can also be found on the web.

I played the Microsoft Windows version which can be found HERE. You can configure the settings using the ESC key so that they mimic the TRS-80 CoCo. If you instead choose custom settings, you will be amazed at how fast the monsters move because of current processing speeds. I recommend using the CoCo settings which are the standard settings.

My journey thus far has taken me through 168 games; all of them published in years spanning 1975 – 1983. Dungeons of Daggorath is one of the more unique and memorable games. The sound effects and heartrate monitor combine to make it an extremely immersive and harrowing experience. It is the first game to give me a heightened state of anxiety, headaches, and burning eyes. The arcade like reflexes required for this particular CRPG caused a love/hate relationship to form. Even if they did possess the time and patience required, for some players they may find Dungeons of Daggorath physically impossible. It is one of the very few games so far that I considered not finished and merely moving on. It is experiences like this that continue to reward and fuel my endeavors. I never played this game as a young man and now I feel like I truly experienced a piece of gaming history. I strongly encourage you to give this insane game a try. Warning: if you’re a completionist or stubborn like I am; be prepared to invest hours and hours of your life into it.

Next up on the docket is a game that I’ve been eagerly awaiting to play: The Dragon & the Princess from 1982. Until next time…

The Wizard’s Tower was published in 1982 for the TRS-80 Coco and a year later ported to the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. I played the Commodore 64 version using an emulator and it took me four hours to complete.

When the game begins you get to choose between three classes: elf, warrior, or wizard. The wizard has the ability to use spells but has limited combat options whereas the warrior is skilled at physical combat but has limited spell use. The elf is a mixture of the two. I chose the wizard option as depicted above. You begin play with a magic amulet and not much else.

When you enter C on the map which represents (C)ity you’ll then have the option to upgrade your armor as well as purchase magical weapons, spells, and rations. Better armor and more magical options present themselves as your character grows in skill and power.

Each time you defeat your opponent in battle you receive more hit points and your experience grows. The more experience you have the more powerful your character becomes.

The outdoor map is extremely simplified for a game released in 1982. It was especially shocking to experience a map of such minimal scale after having just completed Ring of Darkness. The woods are depicted at the bottom of the screen and the letter G which you see randomly scattered about represents (G)oblins. The goblins are quite challenging in the beginning of the game but as you gain experience and find yourself grinding in order to defeat the ‘big bad’ they are nothing more than cannon fodder. You will also encounter (T)rolls in the mountains above which, surprisingly, are even easier to beat than the goblins.

When you defeat an opponent, besides experience and hit points, you’ll also find gold pieces. The gold pieces are necessary to upgrade your equipment and to purchase magic items. The most expensive magic weapon I could purchase was the Axe of Aaron and it greatly improved my combat prowess.

This is a game where once again food is necessary for survival. Each step that you take subtracts from your supply of food so you’ll want to make sure that your rations are well stocked. Surviving in the beginning of the game was harder but nowhere near as challenging as it was in the previous Ring of Darkness.

Once you enter the castle icon on the overland map you enter a castle dungeon as depicted above. You move about and like in the overland map the letters represent either opponents or treasure. The letter T represents (T)reasure or chests which contain gold pieces. The letter G represents (G)oblins and these are the easiest creatures to beat. The letter B represents a Balrog and while it is possible to defeat these creatures at lower levels they can prove to be very deadly encounters. The letter W represents evil (W)izards and these dungeon denizens are extremely hard to beat. You will most likely lose your life and have to start all over again if you attempt to take them on too early. Once you gain in experience and hit points you can eventually beat them.

During combat each player can choose to (A)ttack, (R)un away, or (C)ast a spell. The player and opponent exchange blows until one of them has perished. When you choose to attack you will be given a choice of weapon or magic item that you would like to use. You can experiment with the different items to see which are more effective against certain creatures.

The # character represents stairs going down. The second level of the castle is a much smaller dungeon map but there are two dragons on the second level that you’ll have to defeat before you can continue lower.

In combat it is your experience points and level which help to decide the outcome in these battles and not so much the number of hit points that you have. If your opponent’s experience is higher than yours you’re likely to get walloped.

Once you defeat the two dragons you can continue down to the last level. Once you choose to take the stairs to this last level you cannot return from whence you came. You are trapped down there in this last level with the Mightly Maggdar and his minions. You’ll do battle with both a Goblin and a Wizard down here and the letter M represents the (M)ighty Maggdar. When you encounter Maggdar you’ll also see this message displayed:

The Mighty Maggdar is extremely difficult to beat. He deals a great amount of damage and is almost impossible to hit until you’ve effectively built your experience up higher than his. This required a lot of grinding and resulted in me having to begin the game all over again after I was killed by Maggdar in our first encounter. It took me four hours to beat the game and much of that time was grinding and gaining experience so that I could finally vanquish Maggdar.

In the screen depicted above I was yet no match for Maggdar despite my hit point total because his experience total was much greater than mine.

In the screen depicted above I was finally able to build up my experience point total so that it was greater than Maggdar’s total. This took me almost three additional hours of grinding to build up this amount. Completionism does have its faults. Once you defeat the Mighty Maggdar you receive the following message:

I struggled to find any kind of box art or manual which may have accompanied this game. You can find it advertised in Aardvark’s Catalog and in computer gaming magazines of the era but I found evidence of nothing else. It looks like Aardvark released it just before their Dungeons of Death release. I looked all about and was hoping to be able to uncover something more for you before I wrote this article but alas I’ve come up empty handed.

Another mystery is that in various accounts there are three talismans that you are supposed to find and bring back to the City in order to win the game: a Scepter of Speed, a Ring of Strength, and a Crown of Wisdom. However I encountered none of these items and in the game I played the end game or victory resulted in me being the new wizard of the tower after defeating Maggdar. I could find no official documentation to corroborate my version I played vs. any other descriptions. Perhaps the Commodore 64 version varied slightly from the TRS-80 CoCo version. I feel justified at this point at having played the game in its entirety and I am moving on.

This game seemed rather short compared to the epic Ring of Darkness which I just finished but it still took me four hours to beat. The game played like it was released in one of the type in magazines of the time but all evidence points to it begin published by Aardvark for the TRS-80 CoCo in 1982.

I started Dungeons of Daggorath after defeating The Wizard’s Tower and I am mightily stuck on the third level of the game. I will make a constitution check here and then get right back at it (takes a deep breath and readies himself). Until next time…

The Ring of Darkness was written by J. F. Humphreys & D. A. Briskham and published by a company out of the United Kingdom known as Wintersoft. It was released first in 1982 for the Dragon 32 and then a year later it would be released for the ZX Spectrum. In 1985 the Amstrad CPC also enjoyed a version of the game. I played the ZX Spectrum version using an emulator known as the Spectaculator. It took me roughly 25 hours to beat.

I wanted to send out a special thank you to William Hern who dealt with the technical details involved in getting the game up and running. William is a regular reader and contributor and if it were not for his efforts I would not have been able to experience this game. I may be able to successfully map out dungeon labyrinths, vanquish mighty foes, and solve riddles and puzzles, but dealing with the technical hurdles involved in getting some of these older games to run is another matter entirely. Thanks again William.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery. If this is true then Richard Garriott should feel truly flattered. To say that Ring of Darkness is a blatant rip off of Ultima I is an understatement. This is apparent the very first time you walk into a town.

This screen of the town replete with graphics looks exactly like a town you’d encounter in Ultima I. This town has all of the same features as Ultima such as counters for buying and selling armor, food, spells, transport and weapons as well as a pub where you can buy drinks and information. When you visit the king you have the choice of a gold tithe or accepting a quest. You even have the jester in each town proclaiming “I’ve got the key!” as shown in the picture above.

It is very clear that this is indeed an Ultima clone and that the designers used a “cookie cutter” like recipe when creating the overall plot. What isn’t clear is if the developers were “fan boys” and paying homage to Garriott and his Ultima series or if they simply felt that Ultima was THE CRPG industry standard that they needed to exactly replicate for success. Whatever the reason; I’m sure Garriott was less than thrilled at seeing so many game details “borrowed” from Akalabeth, Ultima I, and even Ultima II.

Yes there is no doubt this game is an Ultima Clone and a blatant rip off of game details and mechanics. BUT it does a marvelous job doing so and pulls everything off exceedingly well. The crisp graphics, vibrant colors depicted in the overland map, the choreography of the overland map itself, the creative labeling of towns and dungeons, and even the streamlining of the “cookie cutter-like” plot were all excellent. Gone are many of the science fiction elements and the developers stayed closer to fantasy trappings. While I wanted to roll my eyes and shake my fist at such a blatant rip off I found myself enjoying the game immensely.

This game has the same character attributes, character classes, and races as Ultima. Modifications are made to your attributes based on the class and race that you select.

I chose to create a Dwarven Warrior with a focus towards strength. I figured I’d hack n slash and bludgeon my way to victory.

Your presented with this screen just before being bodily deposited into the overland map with a couple of daggers, leather armor, and 150 hit points. It looks like we’re questing for four rings.

I decided to do the entire overland map by hand. In for a penny, in for a pound right? A huge undertaking but I really enjoyed doing so. It was a difficult task to get right because the entirety of the map is not only quite large but areas of the map also overlap one another. Once you’ve reached the eastern edge of the map, for example, you simply begin again on the western most edge of the map. The north and south boundaries of the map are like this as well. So it took me some time to determine where new areas of the map ended and old ones appeared again. Below is a photograph I took of my work. The entire map is accurate and include numbered locations of all the map’s secrets.

Once I completed the game I could have gone back and filled in the empty hexes with the appropriately missing terrain but the as yet un-played games on my list were beckoning to me. The areas shaded in red all over the continent are important locations such as dungeons, signs, and towns. Here are some close up shots of different portions of the map which is almost four feet in length by three feet in width.

I found this game to be much harder than Akalabeth or Ultima I. In the beginning just trying to survive is a monumental task. You have to constantly replenish your food supply and thus much of your gold that you accrue has to be used to purchase food. Wilderness travel is very unforgiving for a large percentage of the game. There are many outdoor enemies that assail you and they serve to whittle down your precious hit points. The monetary award for outdoor encounters is paltry indeed and you’re going to find yourself in an extremely weakened state if you don’t get yourself to a dungeon. Like Ultima I, you are awarded hit points when you exit a dungeon based on the number of enemies that you’ve killed. Once you find a dungeon you’re going to find yourself in a slow grind to build your character up so that you can begin to travel and explore.

The dungeons, towns, and signs all have the same icon on the overland map which looks like a castle. In order to discover which of the three you’re dealing with you’re going to have to move your character over the icon and then press E on the keyboard for Enter.

If it is a dungeon that you’ve discovered the game will ask you if you’re sure you want to enter. You can always say no. The dungeons consist of 10 levels. Below is my map of the first dungeon level of Death’s Reach.

The interesting thing about the map is that it can represent every single dungeon level of any dungeon that you enter. The map for every level of every dungeon is exactly the same. The highlighted portions of the map represent either a pit or a ladder up or down. What’s different with each level and each dungeon is placement of the ladders and the pits. You’ll have to create a legend or notational system that helps you keep track of your entrances and exits for each level. What I did was map where all of the ladders were in the Death’s Reach dungeon. Then when I was given a quest in which I had to hunt down and slay a particular monster I would travel back to Death’s Reach since I was familiar with the dungeon and I would then use that as my hunting grounds.

When you present yourself before the King in each town you can accept a quest from them. When you complete the quest you are either awarded with gold or given one of the four rings which you seek. The quest for the four rings constitutes much of the game. Below are the names of the town (as well as the location # on the map) and the quest which you are assigned as well as the reward if you prove successful in your task.

• Borderton ( #1 on the map ) – find the Sinclair Sign – your reward for completion is 300 gold pieces
• Entwood Castle ( #4 on the map ) – slay an Incubus – your reward is the Ring of Gold
• Port Stillwater ( #5 on the map ) – slay a Jelly Cube – your reward is the Ring of Bronze
• Ocean Town ( #8 on the map ) – find Gondor’s Monument – your reward is 300 gold pieces
• Wilderton ( #13 on the map ) – slay a Seeker – your reward is the Ring of Silver
• Castle Pepper ( #16 on the map ) – find the Northern Sign – your reward is 300 gold pieces
• Briskham Harbour ( #17 on the map – slay a Balrog – your reward is the Ring of Copper
• City of Eagles (#20 on the map ) – find the Tower of Alcheron – your reward is 300 gold pieces

The wireframe graphics of the creatures are very good. The Jelly Cube is the easiest creature to slay and it is based off the Gelatinous Cube which originated with the Dungeons & Dragons game. They probably changed the name of the creature to avoid copyright infringement though they haven’t seemed to have an issue with that so far.

Level 1 of the dungeons you’ll encounter bats, rates, skeletons and thieves.

The Jelly Cubes are especially dangerous because they can destroy your metal armor with a successful hit. It does no good to carry extra suits of armor with you because you are not allowed to equip in the dungeon. Below is a screenshot of the Jelly Cube quest being successfully completed.

Level Two introduces the Etin and it was on Level 3 that you begin to encounter Jelly Cubes as well as Griffins.

Level Four of the dungeons is where you’ll begin to encounter Mimics which appear as chests or ladders before they attack. They are pretty tough adversaries.

Level Five introduces the Gorgon.

Level Six of the dungeons introduces Gremlins which are easy to kill but they steal your food from you. You’ll also encounter the Incubus on this level which you need to slay in order to complete a quest.

Level Seven introduces Invisible Slayers and Level Eight is where you’ll find a Seeker. When I was given the quest to slay a Seeker I wasn’t sure what I was looking for or what I would find. The graphic of the Seeker is absolutely cool.

Just underneath the Seeker is a picture of the Invisible Slayer. (giggle)

Level 9 introduces the Mind Drainer. This beast is deadly. It delivers massive damage and it sucks intelligence points from you each time it hits. You need to be very wary of these creatures. You can have 1600 hit points but if they drain your intelligence to zero you’re instantly killed or you have to begin a career in politics. One or the other.

Level 10 introduces the deadliest of the dungeon denizens: the Balrog, Gorn, and Wanderer.

I though the Balrog would be the hardest creature to slay but what shocked me was encountering a Gorn on this level. The Gorn was delivering 300+ hit points of damage and was tremendously hard to kill. When I vanquished the Gorn there was a special chiming sound effect and when I looked at my character sheet I saw I was awarded the designation of Gorn Slayer.

I stumbled across the realization of this accidentally but I believe that you have to encounter and slay one of these creatures before you rescue the princess from her jail cell.

Once you have all four rings in your possession and the designation of Gorn Slayer it is time to extricate the key from the jester and free the captive princess.

I chose the City of Eagles to obtain the key and free the princess. Once I freed her from her captivity she told me to seek the dungeon known as Xandra’s Quest in order to complete my quest.

It should be noted that the items that you can purchase change as you gain experience and levels. A raft, ship or hovercraft is not available to you until you’ve reached a certain level. A couple of the final towns and special locations can only be reached by hovercraft as you have to use it to hover over a river through a mountain pass. There are also a couple of towns and special locations in the middle of the game that can only be reached by boat or raft.

The best weapon that you can obtain is a blaster and the best armor is a reflective suit and these items are reminiscent of Ultima I as well. There is no journey through space or time in this game however; these science fiction trappings were as far as the developers were willing to go.

Once you find the hidden dungeon and enter you receive this screen:

Followed by:

And lastly:

What follows next is a combat to the finish with the evil Gron who is guarding the evil, one ring known as SHEDIR.

The graphic on the far right represents the one ring sitting upon a pedestal. The battle with Gron is brutal and Gron deals almost 300 points of damage with each blow. Once you think Gron is defeated he rises from the ashes again much like your final showdown in Ultima I. The key here is once Gron appears to be defeated you need to make your way over to the pedestal and obtain the ring by pressing G for (G)et on your keyboard.

Once you obtain the ring you are rewarded with the following message:

I was pretty stoked to discover that there is a sequel to this game. I can’t wait to get to it.

I really had a lot of fun playing this game. To date, it appears to be the best CRPG the ZX Spectrum has produced so far. (I know, it’s early). I spent over 25 hours with the game; probably closer to 27 hours. Did I spend too much time with this game? The answer is whether I enjoyed the experience with it and my answer is an emphatic yes.

I am currently playing Dungeons of Daggorath in the background and I am at this point completely caught up with my backlog of write ups. I am embarking on a much needed vacation as of tomorrow and I will be off the grid for the next eleven days. When I return I will continue my battle with Dungeons of Daggorath. Until next time…

Eamon remains a very unique game and a stand out in this early era of home computing. It is a computer role-playing game (CRPG) presented to the user as a text adventure. You saved your character in the Main Hall and you could go on numerous adventures as they were published. Certain items in the form of weapons were able to be retained and used in subsequent adventures. The more that you use an item your ability score with that item increases and thus you become more proficient with it. There were also four different spells that you could learn over time once you had enough gold to pay for them. It was absolutely revolutionary in this period. There was a massive fascination with the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons and it was taking the world by storm.

Many of these early CRPG authors were Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts and we’re doing their best to attempt to recreate that tabletop role-playing experience. The Eamon system and it’s scenarios come very close to recreating the feeling of sitting down across from a Gamemaster. There is a thrill to return to the Main Hall victorious with yet another adventure under your belt. The quest to constantly try and improve your character AND experience new adventures with the same character is both addicting and extremely fun.

I find the games to still be addictive even to this day. Yes the adventures are a bit uneven from one adventure to the next but this is to be expected given the numerous different contributors on this shareware stage. Amazingly there are 279 different adventures that exist and are available to play even today.

Now let’s take a look at the character of Fost Longstrider.

This is what Fost looked like when he was a green-eyed adventurer thirsting for his first adventure.

Fost and I are now veterans of a series of adventures thus far:

• The Beginner’s Cave
• The Lair of the Minotaur
• Cave of the Mind
• The Zyphur Riverventure
• Castle of Doom

My experience with each of the scenarios can be read in the links provided above. Fost can now be considered a campaign veteran and his statistics now look like this:

You can see his proficiency with the sword has increased dramatically and that he now knows all four of the available spells: blast, heal, speed, and power.

The Blast spell sends a magical blast at your opponent. Armor will absorb the damage from it, but if the spell is successfully cast it will always hit its target, regardless of the range. The blast will do 1d6 worth of damage

The Heal spell removes hits from the body of the person casting it. It will cure up to 10 hit points, up to but never beyond perfect health.

Speed will double the character’s agility for a random number of turns. You will know when you have cast the spell successfully, however you will not be told when it wears off. You cannot stack speed bonuses by casting the spell numerous times on yourself. All it does is reset the random time period. When you cast Speed your chance of hitting goes up accordingly.

The Power spell is the most powerful spell available. It is also the most uncertain. It has no set effect but is a call to the Gods saying “Hey, do something!” What they will do certainly differs from adventure to adventure and author to author. It could kill all of your enemies, teleport you randomly somewhere else, cause an earthquake in an area you’re exploring and kill you, or do other unpredictable things. Power is a last resort kind of spell to be used when all else fails.

Eamon #6: The Death Star

This particular scenario was another written by Donald Brown the esteemed creator of Eamon. He wrote the Beginner’s Cave, Lair of the Minotaur, and Castle of Doom which we previously played.

The scenario begins with this description:

As you left the Main Hall, you suddenly felt a queer wrench in your stomach, as if you had been turned inside-out, then right again. When things became clear again, you found yourself at the helm of a spaceship! You realize that you have gone through a reality shift!

This scenario differs from the others in that anything that you find and pick up you cannot take back with you because you HAVE gone through a reality shift. It is unfortunate because I really would have liked to experience other adventures wielding a light-sabre! You don’t get to take the light-sabre with you however you’ll find your sword proficiency does go up a bit for having used it in this alternate reality. One other downside is that none of your spells will function in this scenario. Not having your HEAL spell makes survival in this one a bit difficult.

Nearly every single room in this scenario had from 1 to 10 soldiers who had to be killed. This made the game quite long and it became rather tedious to have to deal with each new group as you moved from room to room.

There were also four different instant death traps that you could wander into.

Some of the members of the cast of Star Wars can be found throughout the scenario. You’ll have the opportunity to rescue Leia, Chewie, C3PO, and R2D2. Unfortunately Leia and both ‘droids were slain and destroyed in my attempt to destroy and escape from the Death Star.

I was able to kill Darth Vader and find and destroy the necessary equipment.

Once I destroyed the equipment producing the tractor beam I was able to escape with Chewie in the Millenium Falcon.

Once I escaped the Death Star I was returned back to my own reality and the Main Hall.

Eamon #7: The Devil’s Tomb

The Devil’s Tomb was written by Jim Jacobson. Jacobson was the author of Cave of the Mind and the Zyphur Riverventure which we previously played.

The scenario begins with:

Sure you’re trying to escape hell but the map is actually small and pretty easy to navigate.

There were a couple of very tough puzzles in this particular scenario. One of the toughest puzzles in an Eamon adventure to date involved the start of this scenario. You begin the scenario locked in a cell with only your sword. No matter what you try you are unable to open the door and there is nothing in the cell to assist you. The only way out of this cell is to cast the Power spell. If it fails the first time you’re going to have to keep casting it until the door vanishes! If your character does not have the Power spell you will not be able to progress any further into this particular adventure.

The second puzzle involved a door as well and you’re going to need a lot of strength to open this door. If you find you cannot open the door try dropping all of your items and this should allow you to open the door. You can then retrieve your items before venturing through.

There were several different instant death traps scattered about the tomb so beware!

One very unique feature was the existence of a casino where you could water a portion of your Hardiness, Agility, and Charisma on the spin of a wheel. If you had the daring you could attempt to build up a super character here however you can easily kill yourself in the attempt. I was able to build up my Hardiness ; almost killed myself losing most of my Agility and then luckily got it back. I decided to then quit while I was still ahead.

There is also a unique spell that you find called TREZORE. I experimented with it twice and it killed me both times so I am not sure if there was any benefit to the spell at all. If you do decide to cast the spell and try it yourself be aware of the high risk.

There were some very interesting opponents that I encountered in this scenario. I encountered a zombie, a blob, a wildman, a torturer, an infant, a tiger, and a witch doctor. In a final knock down drag out confrontation near the exit I had to battle a red gargoyle, a blue gargoyle, a green demon, and an orange demon.

Once you defeat these opponents you can then leave through the exit which gets you back to the Main Hall.

Now let’s take a look at the character of Fost again after having completed both The Death Star & The Devil’s Tomb.

Note the significant increase in Hardiness after having spent some time in the casino within the Devil’s Tomb. I’ve upgraded the four weapons that I’m now carrying. You can only carry four weapons at a time in Eamon. I now have Robin Hood’s Magic Bow and a large Magic Club as well as a new Headsman’s Axe. I am still carrying Trollsfire which I “acquired” from the pirate on the beach of Beginner’s Cave. I am equipped with Plate and Shield and now have over 5,000 in gold on hand which I will deposit in the bank.

I am still greatly enjoy these Eamon adventures to this day. I suspect that many ended their experience with the game after playing Beginner’s Cave and Lair of the Minotaur.

Next up on the docket will be my coverage of Ring of Darkness. I was able to finish the game after 25 hours of play. I admittedly probably spent too much time with the game but I was really enjoying myself. I’ve finished the game but not the write up and I’ll get that out to you this week. I am currently struggling with Dungeons of Daggorath in the background. Until next time…

The Nightmare was developed by Marc Russell Benioff and his own label Liberty Software. Benioff was the principal programmer for Crystalware and was responsible for most of their past titles. Crystalware sold it’s catalog of games to Epyx who then repackaged them and in some cases retitled them and it looks like Liberty Software did the same with The Nightmare. I covered all of this in more detail when I covered Crypt of the Undead.

Epyx knows how to create an atmospheric game manual as evidenced by the documentation that accompanies the game.

Like it’s predecessor, Crypt of the Undead, there are numerous quotes scattered throughout the game manual that helps to provide atmosphere.

The premise of the game is that you’re trapped in your own nightmare and need to escape from it. Your own mind has conjured a castle setting and you need to find a way to escape before your nightmare becomes a reality; trapping you within forever. The game gives you eight hours to escape the castle which contains four levels.

The four levels of the castle are not very big and I found the map to be smaller and less confusing than the previous Crypt of the Undead. I started to map out the first level of the castle and then realized that it wasn’t really necessary. The game can be played with a joystick and keyboard combination and that is exactly what I did. You can also use the joystick button to pull up a menu if you want to completely avoid using the keyboard.

The puzzles are object oriented. Once you find a particular object; whether it be a key or a holy cross; having the object in your possession is enough to get you through a locked door or a guardian.

One of the objects that you’ll need to complete the game and get past one of the final guardians is Moriu’s decapitated head. In typical dark humor fashion you can find this gruesome object in the Headsman’s Room. There is a lot of creativity that shines through in the various castle locations and I enjoyed my exploration of the four levels just to see what the room labels and map would look like.

There are not as many adversaries to worry about in this game compared to previous Benioff entries. There is a pack of rats on the first floor which are very hard to kill. I died multiple times trying to kill them but once you do your power is increased significantly and then the other combats do not seem as tough. There is a “bride of frankenstein” like mistress on the second floor of the castle and on the third floor there is a ghost which stalks you.

Your ultimate goal is to successfully navigate what the game calls the Tunnel of Death and find and pick up your Mind’s Eye. You then carry the Mind’s Eye back to the entrance of the castle and this will free you from your nightmare. The Mind’s Eye is pictured below.

There are many different objects to find and by finding these objects they usually allow entrance into a new area of the map where you’ll find another object and that pattern repeats itself. Objects you’ll want to find are:

• Moriu’s Head
• Key to the Royal Chambers
• Umbrella
• Key to the Chapel
• Cross
• Dagger
• Key to the Wizard’s Keep
• Quarterstaff
• Key to Rorgon’s Room
• Key to the Gatehouses
• Can of mace
• Magic lantern
• Ring of Protection

The Ring of Protection will get you through the force field that surrounds the Mind’s Eye once you’ve made it past all of the guardians.

Once you obtain the Mind’s Eye and carry it all the way back to the castle entrance on the first floor you’ll get the winning message above.

It took about 2.5 hours to beat The Nightmare. It was creative enough and short enough that it kept my interest and I enjoyed the playthrough. I played it on an Atari emulator with no problems.

Next up on the docket will see the return of the wonderful world of Eamon. I will be taking the character of Fost Longstrider through Eamon #6: The Death Star and Eamon #7: The Devil’s Tower – both from 1980. I had been playing The Ring of Darkness and put quite a bit of time into it -probably 26 hours – and just finished so I’ll be working on a detailed write up for that as well. I’m currently playing Dungeons of Daggorath in the background right now. Normally I’m playing slightly ahead of my blog posts. Luckily I had a backlog of write-ups to complete while I worked on the challenging Ring of Darkness. I also strive to add a few games to the website’s database each and every day. Until next time….

Ulysses & the Golden Fleece is another fine example of amazing artwork used to display these early games. The collage on the box is reminiscent of the Jason & the Argonauts film by Ray Harryhausen or Clash of the Titans. It promises a grand quest and epic adventures.

I remember this box calling to me in my youth like a siren’s song (see what I did there?) but I never purchased the game or played it. This was a game on my list that I had really been looking forward to playing. Unfortunately, I ended up disappointed with the experience.

The biggest frustration for me were the puzzle designs. I am all for the creation of a difficult game or a game that is given a difficult or expert rating but I expect the puzzles to follow fair play rules. I believe I had to resort to “cheating” and obtaining a hint five different times in this particular game which is a record for me. The solutions didn’t cause me to berate myself but instead left me shaking my head. Perhaps the developers set out to create an extremely difficult game but what they did instead was alienate a large part of their audience with ridiculous puzzles.

I mentioned in my opening paragraph how the collage on the box cover reminded me of Jason & the Argonauts by Ray Harryhausen. Let’s be clear o’ Greek aficionados! It was Jason, son of the King of Iolcus, who assembled a pack of heroes, known as the Argonauts, and set sail to retrieve the Golden Fleece (the fleece of a winged holy ram of Zeus). Ulysses, also known as Odysseus – they are one and the same, is the hero of Homer’s Odyssey. I am sure that Sierra was avoiding copyright infringement and thus must have decided to create a Greek Mythology mishmash. There are a couple of instances in the game where having some familiarity with Greek Mythology will help you realize what you need to do. Alas if only the puzzle design didn’t negate that particular advantage – more on this later. Many key sequences will closely parallel the Jason & the Argonauts story albeit with Ulysses at the helm.

In this first opening sequence you’ll discover your quest, buy equipment at a store, and assemble your crew. I spent quite a bit of time mapping out all of the locations and it seemed that I had hit a dead end. There was one area, the entry hall of the King’s Castle, in which a guard would not let me in to see the King. I felt that this was the area that I needed to explore further. I found that by typing TALK GUARD he would then ask if I was Ulysses to which I replied YES. I was then granted audience to the King. If you explore and find daylight turn into evening and return to the area the guard will be gone from this location and the gates and doors locked and you will not get an audience with the King. This audience is necessary to move the game forward and you will have Softlocked the game. A Softlock in gaming is a situation where the player becomes stuck inside the game, unable to move forward or go back, unable to do anything about it, and thus will have to begin the game all over again. While I am not a fan of these situations this is certainly not the first time we’ve encountered something like this so I felt it was fair.

Once you have an audience with the King he tasks you with finding the Golden Fleece. He gives you a ship with which to do so and a bag of gold to purchase supplies and a crew.

This brings us to the second Softlock you’ll likely encounter in the game. I found this particular “puzzle” to be frustrating. Let me explain.

You have a bag of silver the King gave you to spend on supplies. Your only option at the store is to mix or match any 7 from this list of 8 items. You’re going to have to correctly guess which of the items to leave behind or you’ll be Softlocked from being able to finish the game. You only discover which items were necessary MUCH later in the game. In which case, you’ll have to begin the game all over again. I found myself restarting THREE different times because I incorrectly guessed which item to leave behind. While this was not one of the puzzles which violated fair play rules, I still found it to be extremely irritating. The first time I left behind the wood – WRONG! The second time I left behind the wine – WRONG! Which item do you leave behind? I refuse to shed any further light on the issue.

In this phase of the game, before you set sail, you’re going to want to find a chest in a wooded area and take it. The chest has an intricate lock that you can’t seem to open yet. Heavy sigh. More on this later. You’re also going to want to find a bottle floating in the water by the dock.

It is then time to set sail? Or is it?

Once you set sail you’ll have an albatross drop a bag into your ship at a certain location at sea. You’ll want to GET BAG and then in another location a CONDOR drops into the boat, dead, and you’ll want to pick up the CONDOR. The CONDOR is the epicenter of what is probably the worst puzzle I’ve encountered thus far. I feel that is really saying something as I’m 162 games into this journey. More on this frustrating puzzle later. Let’s instead focus on what would be yet another frustrating puzzle sequence. However before we delve into that, while mapping the ocean, there is an instant death area that you can discover. You perish merely by sailing into that location and will have to begin the game end. This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered something like this. While I’m not a fan instant death areas exist in these early games – I shrugged my shoulders – and started the game all over again.

You’ll soon sail into a hurricane where you can see an island in the distance. I knew it the island in the distance was my destination but no matter what I tried I kept getting killed by the hurricane.

Remember the guard back at the dock?

Yes that one. You needed to type GIVE COIN after which the game will ask you if you were trying to bribe a guard? When you answer YES he hands you a map and it has the complicated directions to move past the hurricane to the island. This was one of the times I had to resort to getting a hint and I berated myself a bit for this one though to be fair you can easily walk by the guard to get to the King’s Dock where the boat is docked. You were not able to access the King’s Dock until you visited the King. The King gives you gold and silver and after you visit the king you can then walk right past the guard; so bribing the guard never occurred to me. This had me grimacing a bit; but I blamed myself for this one even though I didn’t agree with the logic.

The medium has moved from an interactive text adventure to a graphic adventure but that doesn’t mean we’ll leave some of the classic early tropes behind. Ulysses & the Golden Fleece features a forest maze in the beginning, the ocean voyage itself is a maze to be conquered, an island maze, then an underground maze of caverns which have to be mapped. This seems like such standard fare for me that I just willingly go along for the ride but I know it was a frustration for several players.

On the island you’re going to want to find a Bridle and you’re also going to want to procure some Dust that you find in a hole in a tree. You are then ready to venture into the caves.

Once inside the cavern complex you’re going to want to fill the bottle in your possession with water from a spring. Then you’ll come to the first of a progression of puzzles. You’re going to come upon a deep fjord that you have to cross and this is where the Leather you purchased from the store comes in to play. If you left the Leather behind, you are now Softlocked and must begin the game all over again.

This took a lot of experimentation but this was a puzzle I was able to work out on my own but it involves using the leather you purchased.

Once past the deep fjord you’ll find yourself confronted by a dragon. To get past this obstacle you’ll have to ask yourself what is it that dragon’s covet. Getting by this particular obstacle was one of the easier puzzles.

This is the particular puzzle that really rankled me.

I found myself standing before a great canyon with seemingly no way to get across or move on.

My first thought was that since I found a bridle on the island I must find a Pegasus and that I must have missed a location so I backtracked and combed over every location over and over again. Then I thought perhaps the dust I found in the tree is magical and I have to sprinkle it on myself somehow and it will give me the power of flight. Nope.

Finally after about another hour of trying various things; I resorted to a hint or a “push” so that I could continue on. What I found was rather surprising and silly all rolled into one. Remember how I related that during your ocean voyage a Condor will drop dead into your boat? Before I continue I want to show you the graphic of the dead Condor lying in the boat.

There is your graphic. Now when this happened I DID pick up the Condor and did examine the Condor; which revealed nothing. There were no adjectives or sentences that described the Condor to you.

So…how do you get across the deep canyon? Well OBVIOUSLY you pluck the feathers from the Condor and then you type in MAKE WINGS. The game will ask you with what? You answer WITH FEATHERS. The game queries again with what else? You type in AND WAX. You then fly across the canyon to the other side. Really? This has got to be one of the most ridiculous puzzle solutions I’ve come across after reviewing 162 games. I know this is a fantasy game; but you couldn’t pay me to fashion some make-shift wings from a dead bird using wax and then leap off the side of a canyon cliff. Come on now. I found this entire puzzle falling within the unfair play rules. I did not feel badly looking up the hint for this because I would have NEVER gotten this given even many more hours of play.

Once you’re on the other side of the canyon you’ll encounter Pluto, the God of the Underworld.

This is where the dust you found in the tree comes in handy. You have to THROW DUST at Pluto and he will leave.

Once you move beyond Pluto you will soon encounter a wall of fire within the caverns. I tried to pour the water from the bottle over the fire and then over myself but I died each time. Once again you might have the opportunity to Softlock the game at this point if you chose to leave the wine behind in the store. If you left the wine behind you’re going to have to start the game all over again. Why? Because you obviously should pour an alcoholic beverage over yourself before attempting to walk through a wall of fire. I never even considered the wine even though it’s a liquid because I didn’t have a death wish. Really though – the solution is to POUR WINE – where? – ON SELF – then you can walk through the fire. I needed a hint to move beyond this wall of fire because I never considered pouring alcohol over myself and walking through. Silly me. Now at this point I was getting very perturbed with this particular game.

Once beyond the wall of fire you make your way back to the ship and you leave the island. Or attempt to leave the island. Your attempt at escaping the island by sea is blocked by Neptune; again reminiscent of the Ray Harryhausen film.

How do you deal with a God? Simple. Remember filling your bottle with water from that spring in the cavern? Here you type in POUR WATER and when asked where you enter IN OCEAN. This will cause Neptune to leave. It makes no sense, however amazingly, I did not need a hint for this one because a voice while exploring the forest in the beginning of the game whispered a hint that I would need a potion from the island to get by Neptune.

Your next obstacle has you sailing past Siren’s Island. I knew two things because I’m pretty versed in mythology: I knew I’d have to tie myself to the mast and I knew I’d be using the wax again to stopper the ears of my crew and myself. I just needed to wrestle with the parser to get this done. Unfortunately; I failed in that endeavor and once more I had to look at a walkthrough. When I read what I needed to do I was moving from perturbed to just ready to be done with this game. No matter what I tried with the wax I couldn’t figure out how to block the song of the Siren’s. The solution? I needed to enter HOLD WAX and the warmth of my hand must soften it. Couldn’t we have pretended that it was warm from my pocket? After you HOLD WAX you can then type in PLUG EARS (which I had already typed numerous times). Then you can TIE SELF to the MAST. The siren’s will then sing a rhyme and let you sail past the island.

The Island of the Cyclops took the last of my patience. You need to say the password SEVENSEAS to get the harpies to leave so that you can then open a cage.

Once you open the cage you can then retrieve the mallet inside. You’ll then make your way to the lair of the Cyclops. You’re going to GIVE WINE to the Cyclops and he will then ask what is needed to make wine? You respond with GRAPES and he then leaves for awhile. There is a tree TRUNK in the cave lair and you can pick it up. You then need to figure out that you have to SHARPEN TRUNK – with what? – WITH SWORD. In two more turns the cyclops returns and you have to type USE TRUNK – where? – IN EYE. Once you stab the Cyclops in the eye he leaves the cave. You can then make a fire using both the FLINT and WOOD from the store – if you left either of those items behind – then surprise – once again you have Softlocked the game and you must start all over again. You’ll then kill the sheep the Cyclops was herding and feed your crew.

Once past the lair of the Cyclops you’ll make your way to a clearing and suddenly encounter a group of skeletons. This is probably my favorite scene from Jason & the Argonauts. I love the stop motion technology that was Harryhausen’s trademark.

How do you get past this band of skeletons? This particular puzzle solution also enters the realm of absurdity. Remember the chest that we found in the forest back in the beginning of the game? It had an intricate lock that we couldn’t figure out. Remember the bottle we found near the docks? We used that bottle to fill it with water from the cave spring and then used it to vanquish Neptune. Well inside that bottle was a note. When you read the note you see this: ECEELF Fleece spelled backwards. Well here we go. ONLY in this particular location and at this particular time; if you now say ECEELF the chest suddenly opens. If you LOOK CHEST you will see a sword. If you GET SWORD and USE SWORD it will kill the entire group of skeletons. Did I need a hint to figure out to say ECEELF and open that chest up then? You betcha!

You’ll then move to a cliff wall where you’ll have to use yet another magical password: SUPPELTUEL which was in the Siren’s Rhyme. A door in the cliff wall will then open and you will find yourself in a valley with a chained Pegasus. You USE MALLET to break the chain holding the Pegasus.

You then finally use the bridle and you can RIDE PEGASUS who will jump over a wall of thorns and allow you to GET FLEECE hanging from a tree. You can then continue to ride the Pegasus back to the King. Once you give the fleece to the king it completes the game.

I didn’t feel very victorious after having completed the game. It felt more like I endured the game or persevered through the game. I think I had to resort to a walkthrough five different times which is something I am loathe to do. Admittedly had I not done so; I’d have never completed the game as my mind wouldn’t bend to those solutions no matter how many hours I put into it.

I played the game on an Apple emulator and the disk image is quite easy to track down. I spend a good ten hours with the game because I gave each puzzle my best effort and went through particular routines before resorting to a hint. The game map was quite large with many locations.

I am still very glad that I finally experienced the game and was able to complete it however I wouldn’t say the experience was very palatable. It is not often that this happens. Ironically the next game on my list is called Nightmare. Until next time…