Journal

Dungeon Master - 18 years on…

  • Posted on: February 18, 2005
  • In: Personal
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{title}A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across the Dungeon Master Encyclopedia site whilst randomly surfing. It brought back some good memories of being completely hooked on this game when I was about 15 (16 years ago now). Whilst having a look through this site I noticed, to my delight, there was an OS X download. With great anticipation, tinged with “am I going to regret this?”, I downloaded the app.

i’m now hooked. Again.

{title}Dungeon Master is just such a classic. If you’ve not played it before you probably won’t fully comprehend when i’m so enthusiastic about the game. It is pretty much perfect, in the same way Pacman is perfect - the gameplay is everything. Even when this was released, in 1987, the graphics weren’t all that great at all.

I had an Amiga, so my Atari ST owning friends were goign about this game for a couple of years before I could get my hands on it. When I did, I pretty much kissed goodbye to a couple of months of my life. Even now, when playing the game, I still remember the UI really well, or is it because the UI is so incredibly intuitive? The only stumbling block for me at the moment is the spells - I can only rememebr Health potion, Light and Fireball (note to self: print out spell list)

{title}So, maybe it’s just me, but discovering and enjoying this game after soooo many years is really refreshing.

Who else played this? Was is really the most talked about computer game for a while?

Comments

I went to a newly-married friend’s house this year, and his wife couldn’t wait to show me this new game that she’d excitedly discovered and couldn’t stop playing. It was Dungeon Master.

Alas, I just can’t get into things with spells, potions and the like. Using computer hacks sci-fi/cyberpunk-stylee, now that’s a different thing!

badly dubbed boy's Gravatar

badly dubbed boy
Sat 19th Feb 2005
at 2:30 pm

wow
you reminded me of this classic I have also played for many months and was really living in the dungeon world of its own

it was great times of my childhood, along with eyes of beholder, wizardry and others

but the DM1 was the king, the gameplay is really the best

hmmm i am checking the DM encyclopedia now and it seems i am hooked again, omg i am going to play this night :))

thanks very much for sharing

btw try to play with 1 person only, quite hard at the beginning, but he will get all the experience points and will boost very quickly and will be expert in all the professions, quite funny than :)

and there’s also the java version of Chaos Strikes Back, hard as hell for me, never beaten even the first worms :))

neon's Gravatar

neon
Mon 21st Feb 2005
at 7:03 pm

I know what you mean about those worms in Chaos Strikes Back, and those massive rats! Nice rat meat though - fills you right up!

Mark Boulton's Gravatar

Mark Boulton
Mon 28th Feb 2005
at 9:46 pm

i downloaded this game a week ago and my girlfriend hates me playing it !!!

i used 2 play this all the time when i was younger
definetely the best game of its time

i even remembered the old 144 fireballs
!!!
scary stuff! but need 2 find map sites!!

andy miles's Gravatar

andy miles
Fri 1st Apr 2005
at 5:13 pm

Dude, this was the main game on my Atari that I played for YEARS!

I have that sinking feeling im about to fall backward in time and get swallowed up by it.

Wasnt Gothmog the best character name?

<sinks slowly into the abyss of DM>

Adam's Gravatar

Adam
Mon 4th Apr 2005
at 10:47 am

I played this on my ST and Amiga when i was about 11/12 in 1987/88 and i was hooked but i never got passed level 9 as it was the giant rat level and just around the corner of the start of that level was a rat breeding room and i got scared togo round there and get eaten late at night lol but having just got the game again im now gonna batter ‘em good...i never got to play chaos strikes back so am looking forward to playing that and see how it matches up

andy29x's Gravatar

andy29x
Fri 13th Jan 2006
at 2:52 pm

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A picture of Mark BoultonI'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.

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