The Dungeon (1975)

Look: 9/10 I mean I can't claim to have been lost in the horizons and whatnot, but considering when this was released... and how much I did indeed enjoy these wireframe visions... yea, it may even be a 10 eventually. Just wasn't sure, with for instance just a handful of NPC sprites based on the monster class, and other obvious limitations for the time, if I could award a full 10. Graphics were enjoyable through and through, and the notesfile, Help, and Data functions were all valuable and well-done.

Sound: I can't rate this for it's sound, but I suggest listening to dungeon synth music while playing it ha.

Play: 9/10 Wow, what a journey. There really is danger around every corner, so be ready for that. Death comes swiftly, unfairly, and purely by chance. Some of my thoughts throughout my lengthy playthrough (especially considering its release year): I love this "fill in the map" basically approach, thankfully with a set map albeit different layout of npcs and items. Basically -- get to a new area, map it as much as possible or find a treasure, and book it back to the entrance: it always felt nervewracking, edge of seat, not sure what will come, without being tacky about it ha. I have a bad feeling a lot of these plato games will be faves, and I will be stuck in this era for a while. Imma be doing this chronology project the rest of my life at this point. Anyway, with how much I love this game, I can't deny it winds up very frustrating... that rng... Definitely glad I realized to start actually using run in the corridors. Oh, and the breakin failures/failure rate are kinda blah. Otherwise damn near a perfect game. Frustrating, sure.. and an intense, petty, rng-based grind (after all, that's how I like my rpg, especially with a hiscore table ha..) There were times I thought the frustrations might be too much and I wouldn't try to officially beat the game ("retire" by hitting, was it, 20k or so? 21k), but I kept pushing through. You die again and again and again, even after a great account that gets deeper. I had like 4 5 or 6 excellent accounts (e.g., over 14k or so) that should have been able to finish--but one rng-based conondrum after another. After all, when you have a good streak you feel soooo good. I was so torn on this, but I finally beat it! It, sure enough, felt so good to do so. Me as "i" on the hiscores for likely a brief moment heh.

P.S. There are secret doors the currently online complete map doesn’t have on it. (Unless those secret doors were added later?)

Hot tip: abuse the "money this trip" feature of the DATA (F9) function, because it's hard to tell what's worth what--sometimes a jewel is worth a lot a lot, sometimes not as much. Maybe there is more of a system of worth to the jewels and gems that I just don't know about. Comment if you know more!

Feel: 10/10 The hi scores, the limited amount of characters with people vying for spots (at least back in the day). Just brilliant. Best game of the chronology so far. And so incredibly early. Super excited for the other PLATO releases. This game is turn-based but feels real-time in the moment. Once you know what to do, it's an undeniably great game, especially if you aren't solely focused on retirement points but rather, say, exploring, or killing as many monsters as possible, or not leaving the dungeon till you get a super valuable item, etc. When it came to truly beating the game (retiring at about 20k experience), because all i needed was a map to fill in, and the rest was intuitive, and because of the style of map, i got very resident evil vibes. It's just a nostalgia thing (I'd sit and stare at the resident evil magazine walkthroughs' maps). And in pedit5, when you fully get used to the map and knowing how to escape back to the entrance/exit heh, it's such a nice feeling--no need for the map heh. Hilarious that the game says to you when you leave, basically, "wow amazed you survived!" (valid). Some other scribbles I had: that feeling when you map a huge part of the map. Really just pray your best playthroughs don't run into a dragon and otherwise you should be set once you know the game, and use resources like crpgadventures , crpgaddict , and data driven gamer -- all of whom have detailed helpful posts to understanding the point of the game first of all, the monster classes and what to use against them, and a map to download and fill in with paint or what have you. Gah. I love that there is a variety of experiences with this game, in how you can play it experience it even simply engage with it in the first place. A game for me to remember forever!

Attachment: 9/10 I definitely will be replaying this. Perhaps not to beat it again anytime soon (though I probly will get sucked into it, lets be honest), but mostly to do different things, different limitations on myself, and perhaps intentionally pushing deeper into the map and doing one continuous mapping of the game. Who knows. Just a fun, albeit frustrating when wanting to technically beat it, game; otherwise, just enjoy, fight, and run through the essence of dungeon and rpg.