Dungeons, Dragons, and Other Perils was developed by James Hurd and published by XLent Software. It was released in 1984 for the Atari 8-bit. It is an attempt at a remake of Brian Reynold’s Quest I from 1981. Quest I also inspired Jeff Hurlburt’s Super Quest in 1983 – which I enjoyed quite a bit.
I have always gone out of my way to avoid negative comments towards an artist or author. I greatly appreciate all creative output. I also think it is not fair to judge ANY of these early games against what is being created today with today’s technology. I always strive to approach each game using a “lens” of whatever current year the game originated in. I believe you’ll find that most of my writings have a positive bent to them and I’ve always appreciated the historical “archaeology” in finding them. However, that will not be the case with this particular game. This particular game seems like nothing more than a crash grab by the author and in almost all ways is inferior to the original that it is trying to “remake”.
My impression after having completed the game is that this isn’t really a game, but the appearance of one. Have you ever heard the expression “putting lipstick on a pig?”. It certainly seems applicable here. The game seems to look and play fast and seamless, but it’s all really smoke and mirrors and what you have here is a product that is not only inferior to the game that it’s trying to remake but to other games released in the same year (1984).
Character creation SEEMS exciting with multiple character options but in reality, it doesn’t matter what class you select or what rolls you receive. None of the attribute scores seem to matter at all. When the screen switched my strength score swapped with my dexterity score. I, at first blush, thought it was a programming error and that the two scores got flipped. Once I started playing the game however, I realized that the scores were irrelevant. I’ll have more to say about this later.
There is no store in which you’re able to purchase items. In a bizarre twist, after the ridiculous character creation process, you’re find yourself at a screen entitled; The 9 Doors of Death. You choose a door randomly to see what you might be offered for purchase behind it. It’s sort of like playing Let’s Make A Deal. I was offered the opportunity to purchase regular arrows, magical arrows, a glow stone that is supposed to show trap doors, healing potions, etc. Once you choose a door, whether you make a purchase or not, you are then flung into the dungeon. You can use what is called a teleportation crystal which will bring you back to the 9 Doors of Death screen and you can make a choice all over again. I used what little gold I first found to purchase glow stones and guess what? They don’t work. You’ll find this happens often in the game. I found that the holy water never really worked either which was truly a shame because only Clerics and Paladins can (T)hrow holy water. So, while the class options may sound pretty cool, they are all for show. Wizards are the only class that can cast (S)pells, but all you have at your disposal is one all-purpose offensive spell which is much like a sword strike.
I chose a Fighter to explore the dungeon. The combat is relatively easy. You dispatch most everything quite easily – including dragons. Wraiths require magic arrows in order to destroy them – this seems to be the only game mechanic that works properly.
There is no quest or storyline associated with the game. Experience levels and hit point increases are non-existent. Yet another oddity is that after defeating monsters your Wisdom score keeps increasing. Wisdom is a useless attribute in this game – my thought process here is that the author should have been assigning an increasing value to experience points instead but was confused. The manual states that Charisma is a useless attribute but that they included it anyway. The same could have been said for ALL of the attributes.
The game does end when you clear the dungeon level of all of it’s monsters. You then get the following screen:
The only “other perils” that the game title alludes to are the attempts to make any sense out of the games several oddities. I’ve successfully completed this game because it was on my list and I’m glad I am now aware of its existence, but I can’t in good conscience recommend that you spend any time with it. Quest I and Super Quest are both much better games in my opinion. I played Dungeons, Dragons, and Other Perils on an Atari emulator and spent four hours with the game.
Next up on the docket is Fame Quest.
Until next time…