The Dungeon Master was written by Graham Stafford and published by Crystal Computing in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum. Graham Stafford would go on years later to design the wildly popular Lemmings.
This is the second game I’ve played on the ZX Spectrum; the first being Ring of Darkness published in 1982. Despite the machine’s technical limitations I have to say I’ve greatly enjoyed both of these offerings for the machine.
The Dungeon Master is an interactive fiction RPG where you are tasked with finding 10 turquoise rings. The 10 rings are scattered throughout the dungeon complex and you’ll have to carefully map your progress as finding all 10 rings is a puzzle onto itself.
Your character’s skills are generated beforehand and you can increase these skills by finding various potions scattered throughout the dungeon. Survival in the game can be difficult and it took me multiple characters and several hours before I was able to complete my quest.
Strength increases your chances of opening doors in the dungeon and successfully attacking monsters.
Intelligence helps you in operating the magical artifacts that you’ll find during your exploration of the dungeon.
Wisdom helps you locate secret doors which plays a key role in the game.
Agility improves your armor class and an 18 Agility gives you a 4 point armor class bonus. It is also useful for picking locks. One interesting aspect of the game is that you can UNLOCK a door, this is nothing we haven’t seen before. However, after a door has been unlocked you can choose to LOCK the door again to minimize the risk of a wondering monster entering the room. This makes a lot of sense and it is the first time I’ve been given the option to do this in a role-playing game up to this point.
A high Health attribute gives you bonus hit points as you go up in levels.
Charisma is useful in dealing with traders you may meet on your journey.
There are two types of encounters in this game. There are fixed encounters and then there are random encounters. Encounters with wandering monsters can be quite deadly. When you encounter a dungeon denizen here are your options: FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN, WEAPON.
Fight launches you right into combat.
Magic allows you to attempt to use a magic item against your opponent.
Weapon transfers a weapon from your pack to your hand for active use. It will stay there until you drop it or choose to use a different weapon.
Run is the only way to break out of combat with a monster without killing it.
Once you enter combat the action is resolved for you in the background. Your opponent and you exchange blow after blow until only one of you is left standing.
You gain experience points for slaying these different monsters and gain different levels which serve to increase your hit points. Each new level has a moniker attached to it as well and I found the experience of “leveling up” rather enjoyable.
Navigating the dungeon is one of the puzzles of the game. Collecting 10 turqoise rings sounds like an easy affair but they are strategically placed about the dungeon and a couple of them are hard to navigate to.
I enjoyed using this graphic representation of the dungeon created by Chris Walsh. The dungeon is made up of corridors, archways, stairways, and secret passages.
There are three types of doors. Some are made of wood and can be broken down or need their locks picked while others are made of stone and even steel.
Archways can be very tricky. Some of the archways can be harmful for you to pass through serving to deplete your hit points while others can be beneficial.
Secret passages have to be actively looked for to find and some require a more difficult skill check than others. This can serve to be very frustrating and confusing as you may need to build up your attribute score before you can successfully find certain secret passages.
Magical items can be found in the different rooms scattered throughout the dungeon. Many different potions play a significant role in the game and consumption of the right kind is necessary in order to win the game. The effect of potions are as follows:
STRAWBERRY Potion – heals 1-10 hit points
RASPBERRY Potion – heals ALL hit points
GARLIC Potion – reduces Charisma by 1-4 points
CHOCOLATE Potion – inflicts 1-30 hit points of damage
LIME Potion – attracts wandering monsters
EGG Potion – Sets all attributes to 3 and hit points to 1
BLACKBERRY Potion – for the next 1 2 combat rounds after drinking you regenerate 20 hit points per round and gives a 4 point armor class bonus
CINAMMON Potion – increases Intelligence by 1-3 points
PINEAPPLE Potion – increases Agility by 1-3 points
BANANA Potion – increases Strength by 1-3 points
GRAPE Potion – increases Health by 1-3 points
LEMON Potion – regenerates 2 hit points per round
ORANGE Potion – strength is reduced by one every time you attempt to open a door
FIG Potion – reduces Strength, Intelligence, and Agility by 1-4 points
RICE Potion – gives 7 extra hit points but acts as a slow poison eventually causing death
GRITTY Potion – degrades armor class by 1-4 points
CHERRY Potion – gives 10 extra hit points increasing your maximum
Experimenting with these potions proved the death of me a couple of times and forced me to begin the game all over again. I had consumed a RICE potion with one character and could not figure out how I kept losing hit points. It eventually caused my death. In another game I consumed the LEMON potion and kept attracting a wandering monster with each step I took in the dungeon. This ended up being the death of me as well. I ended up winning with the character of Fitz whom I named after Robin Hobb’s most excellent Farseer Trilogy (my favorite series ever)
You can also find various magic items in the dungeon such as a Rod of Blasting, a Rod of Annihilation, and an Amulet of Finding.
The Rod of Blasting inflicts 1-10 points of damage on your opponent.
The Rod of Annihilation inflicts 1-50 points of damage on your opponent but rarely works.
The Amulet of Finding finds one hidden door per use.
I found that I was most successful resorting to physical combat rather than using magic. You can find magical weapons too throughout the game. I was lucky in that early on I was able to find an Axe of Destruction and then later I found a longsword which is exceedingly rare. Below is a picture of the character that I finished the game with.
I played The Dungeon Master on an emulator and it took me roughly 8 hours and three different characters to beat.
Another interesting addition to this offering is that you have the ability to design your own dungeons and then play through them. Existing dungeons can also be edited and the results printed for perusal.
I really enjoyed my time with this obscure title. This is another title that I had never heard of.
Next up on the docket is the Labyrinth of Fear.
Until next time…