Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin was released in 1983 for the Intellivision. It was developed by APh Consulting and published by Mattel Electronics. It was Mattel’s second game under the Dungeons & Dragons license; the first being their Cloudy Mountain game. Mattel would go on to lose the license after the release of this game and we would not see another game use the license until 1988 with the release of the Pool of Radiance.
The object of the game is simple in scope. You’re to make your way into a deep web of endless rooms and corridors to defeat the dreaded Minotaur and recover the Treasure of Tarmin. Now remember that in 1983 we were graced with the likes of Wizardry III: The Legacy of Llylgamyn and Exodus: Ultima III however the Treasure of Tarmin offers a depth and complexity of gameplay that I did not think was possible for a home console of that period.
Graphically Treasure of Tarmin looks much different than it’s Cloudy Mountain predecessor. The action is a first-person point of view as the character traverses a maze of tunnels underneath the Island of Tarmin.
There are two different levels of play to choose from. There is an Easy mode and a Hard mode.
The Easy mode consists of 4 levels. You’re likely to find both the minotaur and treasure on the 4th level.
The Hard mode consists of 12 levels and they remove the option of retreating back to a prior level – so all of the UP ladders are now gone. Teleportation gates have also been added to the mix which sap your spiritual strength score. It is my understanding that you can continue lower after you defeat the minotaur and that the game supports 256 levels however I never tested this. Once you pick up the Treasure of Tarmin the game immediately ends so if you want to continue with a deeper foray into the labyrinth then you want to delay picking up the Treasure.
Movement through the dungeon is smooth and quite impressive on this early home console.
There is a lot of information on your map screen. In the lower left-hand corner is your compass which tells you the direction you’re traveling in. Rotating around your compass are the objects that are in your pack. Manipulating objects in the game took some getting used to so bear with me a moment as I walk you through it. The number in the bottom center of the screen shown above is the current dungeon level that you are on. You can see that I am on the 12th dungeon level. The icon to the left of that number shows what is in my left hand and the icon to the right of the number depicts what I’m carrying in my right hand. When you PICK UP or DROP objects it relates to your right hand only. Your right hand must be empty in order to pick an object up. To swap objects from one hand to another you can press SWAP HANDS. To swap an object in your pack with an object in your right hand you press SWAP PACK. Whichever object is in the 3 o’clock position will suddenly appear in your right hand. Your pack can hold objects in the 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 o’clock positions.
Obviously figuring all of this out took a little getting used but once you have the nuance of managing inventory down the game is actually quite fun.
In this screenshot I have a bow in my right hand. The numbers in the lower right-hand corner represent your character statistics. The top numbers represent your hit points or health. The second set of numbers represent your armor and defenses. The last set of numbers represent war weapon and spiritual weapon scores.
The minotaur itself is extremely hard to beat and you may find that when you first encounter it you’re not able to defeat it. It is best to retreat and look to face it another time.
There are numerous foes to face within the dungeon complex such as giants, skeletons, giant ants, giant snakes, alligators, giant scorpions, dragons (difficult encounters), ghouls, and wraiths. Monsters straight out of the AD&D Monster Manual.
There are two different types of damage: War and Spiritual and the different foes you encounter will deal different types of damage. The undead foes will sap your spiritual strength as will magic spells hurled at you. When either one of your War or Spiritual scores falls to 0 you perish. Characters can be reincarnated. You appear in a different part of the dungeon and lose most of your gear. Damage can be healed by consuming food and by drinking health potions. Both of these items can be found by exploring the different dungeon levels.
Some of the doors in the game that you go through will teleport you to a different part of the maze which adds even more depth and complexity to this home console offering. Most of the time an enemy or foe can be found behind a door and in rare instances going through a door can increase or decrease your health. So going through any doorway is a precarious affair. There are also many secret doors in the game that you can only discover by “bumping” into the walls to see how solid they really are.
The various weapons that you find throughout the game sport different colors which is representative of their power level. A tan axe or spear represents a normal weapon whereas an orange or blue axe or spear are more powerful. If you should find a white weapon it represents the highest possible power ranking.
There are scrolls to find which contain magical spells that you can hurl at your opponents. Fireballs and Lightning Bolts are the weapons of choice. Much like the physical weapons there are different colored scrolls as well which represent different power levels for these offensive spells. There are magical rings you can find which will increase your Spiritual score or spell casting power. You can find multi-colored keys to unlock chests and doors as well.
There are treasures to find such as coins, necklaces, gold ingots, lamps, chalices and crowns which award you points for finding them.
I was very surprised to discover that this console game had so much depth to it and was equally surprised that I found myself having such a fun time with the game. The game took me about six hours to beat and probably a good 45 minutes of that was me trying to acclimate myself to the inventory management system and numerous action buttons. Luckily combat is turn-based and so you can rotate through your pack and clumsily swap items without pressure of being attacked while you’re doing so.
You’ll notice that in the beginning of the game when you’re choosing your difficulty level that the castle is displayed against a starry background with a moon high in the sky.
Once you defeat the Minotaur you’ll find that the Treasure of Tarmin is directly behind him. When you pick up the Treasure it immediately ends the game and you are shown a screenshot of the castle with the sun shining in the background.
This juxtaposition of light vs dark has obvious good vs evil connotations.
I played the game using an emulator and if you’re wanting to experience this game for yourself it’s rather easy to install an emulator and then find the game rom and install that as well.
Next up on the docket is Baldor’s Castle.
Until next time…
Another game that I had completely forgotten about … Well done for unearthing it!
ToT does sound like an impressive technical achievement, particularly when considering the limitations of home consoles of that era. The Intellivision was equipped with only 1K of RAM, so keeping track of inventory, stats and all the internal states for the game must have been challenging!
Thank you William and it was actually addictive and fun