Dragons was created in 1980 by Bruce Nesmith. If you’re a huge Dungeons & Dragons fan this name might sound familiar to you. He was the author of a dozen different Adventure Modules as well as contributing to the Book of Lairs II. He is best known for expanding the original Ravenloft adventure into the full Ravenloft: Realm of Terror campaign setting (1990 boxed set, with Andria Hayday), though that is a setting rather than a single adventure module.
Nesmith created Dragons on the HP 3000 when he was attending Beloit College. The game turned out to be popular with TSR Hobbies who hired Nesmith as soon as he finished college. Nesmith created the only video game that TSR published: Theseus & the Minotaur. Following his stint at TSR, Nesmith went to work for Bethesda Game Studios and retired in 2021 after more than 20 years of service. He has since focused on writing which includes his Loki Redeemed Trilogy.
Dragons is a turn-based dungeon crawler, and the map uses ascii characters like many of these earlier CRPGs. When the game begins, you’re asked if you want to start with an old or new character. You have the ability to save your character between sessions. Once you leave the dungeon and enter the shop you can choose to quit the game which saves your character. Permadeath is a very serious threat as it is difficult to stay alive. The character that you are creating is a fighter, there are no spells nor magic system in the game.
If you choose to keep the randomly rolled attributes you then choose a name for you character. When you’re generating a name, the game asks you for a secret password. If you leave this blank and then hit ENTER then the game allows you to skip this step. It also asks you for three characters that you want to use to represent yourself on the ascii dungeon map. I chose to use the name of Fost Longstrider and used FOS to represent the character on the map. It is now time for you to go shopping.
When you purchase your equipment there are six different materials to choose from which affect the cost of the item as well as the bonuses associated with each item. It required a lot of exploring and much gold merely to upgrade to S Steel or M Steel.
The dungeon is fixed and comprised of 10 50 x 50 levels consisting of rooms and corridors.
There are four different entrances into the dungeon: the North Entrance, South Entrance, West Entrance, and East Entrance. Each time you enter the dungeon the entrance that you start from is random. When you begin a new session with a saved character you get to choose which entrance you’d like to start at. You can see the ascii dungeon map depicted above. The walls of the dungeon occupy squares for the sake of properly mapping. In the above picture, Fost Longstrider is mauled by a Bear. The Bear is one of the toughest opponents on the first two levels because it gets two attacks per round and is a killing machine. I was slain by a Bear on three different occasions.
The picture above shows me at 3rd level with 32 hit points. I was actually able to achieve 4th level and had 34 hit points. I had about 2/3 of the 2nd level mapped out when I was jumped and quickly slain by a 4th level Ghoul in one round.
The following is a list of all of the creatures that I encountered on the first two dungeon levels: Anklyosaurus, Panther, Triffid, Torpedo, Clinger, Blog, Warg, Bear, White Worm, Great Weasel, Tritero, Triclops, Walking Stick, Giant Ant, Rust Lizard, Venus Trap, Giant Centipede, Flying Snake, Giant Bat, Indigon, Warg, and Stag Beetle. Each of these creatures that I battled had a different experience level attached to them as well ranging from 1st through 4th. I had encountered 1st and 2nd level Ghouls and had no problem dispatching them but was absolutely crushed by a 4th level Ghoul.
There were a lot of secret doors to uncover on the map. Most of the rooms contained an encounter and I never had a random encounter occur in the corridors. When you slay a monster there is usually also a treasure chest occupying the room that you can attempt to unlock. Gold, silver, copper, and jewels are what you can expect. The game uses encumbrance as well so once you are heavily encumbered with treasure it’s time to exit the dungeon where you can store your wealth in the shop.
The following commands are also available:
- T – (T)reasure – displays the current treasure that you are carrying and it’s value
- I – (I)nventory – displays your current equipment
- C – Heal – only works outside of the dungeon and in the shop. It is the equivalent of a rest and heals all of your wounds
- U – Opens treasure chests that you find in the dungeon
- G – Picks up the treasure found in the chests
- L (L)ook – this is a very cool and unique feature of the game that Nesmith definitely put a lot of time into. If you enter a room and encounter a dungeon denizen you can hit L and it will describe the creature for you. All of the descriptions are very cool I wish that Nesmith would have put just a quarter of this effort into detailing a room or two on each dungeon level much like you see in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. I am already extremely impressed with this game in 1980. If Nesmith had added an overall plot point or a specific way to WIN the game, this might have rivaled Rogue for the best CRPG of 1980. Below are a couple of examples of the LOOK feature:
You move about the dungeon by using the N, S, E, W keys. If you encounter a stairway the letter A climbs up and the letter D climbs down. The stairs remain fixed on each level grid which gives you a fixed point to map from. I mapped the entire 1st level and will provide you with the map and I was able to map 2/3 of the 2nd level but it remains unfinished due to my untimely demise.
Because there is no winning condition associated with this game nor any true end, I am content to end my exploration with the 2nd dungeon level. Make no mistake, I spent hours with the game merely to achieve as much as I did. Permadeath is very real with no way to save your game unless you make your way out of the dungeon. I don’t see the sense in taking the time to map out all 10 dungeon levels with so many more games awaiting to be played and discovered.
I was very impressed with this game, despite the fact that there is no winning condition nor magic system. It was very addictive and I was thrilled at having to map out the dungeon levels. The difficulty level of the game is high and permadeath is a constant threat. The LOOK feature and the verbose descriptions of the creatures was very cool and unique. The different material choices for both weapons and armor was also a unique feature. If there had been a winning condition you had better believe I would have made the attempt to map out all 10 levels. If I am hungry for any kind of computer role-playing game experience in 1980, I could have seen myself spending an inordinate amount of time with this one.
New games are always discovered and then archived, so I found myself returning to the 1980 list of CRPGs with both Dungeon of Doom and now Dragons. I can now boast, that for the time being, I have now completed every single CRPG that was produced in 1980.
Thank you for taking this journey with me. Until next time…….