DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

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cindysilver4
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DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by cindysilver4 »

In 1993 or so, my grandmother gave me her old computer. It was DOS only, black-screen-white-text, no mouse, etc. There was a game, which I keep thinking was called "Castles of Doom" or something similar. You were a mobile character, seen from above, exploring dungeons or castles, picking up items and killing bad guys, moving with the arrows and shooting with space bar. There were potions to pick up, other items, and some sort of goal at the end of the exploring, like killing a king or something (I can't remember more because I was only a child). I have been trying to remember the name of this game (so I can play it again!!) for 10 years and it's driving me crazy! Can anyone help me out?
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DOSGuy
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by DOSGuy »

If you were shooting stuff and exploring dungeons, my guess is that it was ZZT. It could also have been Super ZZT, but it wasn't as popular. Kroz features a little guy who goes around whipping bad guys while he explores, and Castle Adventure features a castle and bad guys, but no shooting.
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leilei
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by leilei »

Could also have been Megazeux (Zeux II) as well
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by cindysilver4 »

Thanks for your help! It's not either of those though, sadly. In my searches since the first post, I found a site that talks about "Rogue" -- which is very similar to the game I'm talking about. It was like a more graphic-intense version of Rogue. I recall potions that had different effects, and wands, etc. I definitely remember drinking one potion that gave text saying "You feel better" or "You feel strange". There were scrolls to pick up as well. I really think the name was something like "Dungeons of Doom", but I can't find it anywhere on the net. Any help?
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by DOSGuy »

One of the problems here is that we don't know much about the graphics. You described the screen as black and white, but computers with monochrome monitors could still play color games. Most monochrome monitors from the early days of the PC were "black and orange", and some earlier monitors were "black and green", so if your monitor actually displayed white text, there's a possibility that you had a color monitor with a monochrome video card (MDA or Hercules), in which case you may have played a color game and not known it, or the game might be monochrome. Did you ever play a game that had color on that computer?

Assuming that the game is monochrome, you could be describing DND or the sequel, Dungeons of the Necromancer's Domain. Those are "dungeon crawl" games, but combat was direct and turn-based, so there was no shooting. There are a lot of "Rogue-like" games out there, and that's not my area of expertise. Perhaps we have some adventure gamers who could help.
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leilei
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by leilei »

could be nethack too, that game's loaded
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by Legalmumbojumbo »

Moraff's Revenge?
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by DOSGuy »

I don't think so. I played the shareware version of Moraff's Revenge to completion several times, and it remains one of my favorite games. The part that doesn't match is pressing the space bar to shoot. You choose whether to fight, cast a spell, etc, with the letter keys.
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by Legalmumbojumbo »

I liked Dungeons of The Unforgiven best out of the games Steve Moraff made , I actually bought the full version. Well, that and Moraff Stones, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by DOSGuy »

I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. You were playing Caves of Thor. It's actually ASCII color (CGA), but you had a monochrome monitor or an MDA graphics card (your grandmother's computer might have been old IBM PC or XT). In Caves of Thor, you navigate the dungeon with the arrow keys and shoot with the space bar.
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by cindysilver4 »

Thank you all so much! You've all been so helpful! I played the "Caves of Thor" to see if it was the right game, and unfortunately, it's much simpler than the game I remember.

Some more details: It's possible I'm mis-remembering the potions & wands part of it (we also had a very old Apple Classic and it had Dungeons & Dragons on it, which would have had the potions and wands, right?). I definitely remember arrows to move, space-bar to shoot. The graphics were much more advanced than "Caves of Thor" in that the main guy was a fully-established man wearing an army uniform, only seen from above. You could see his arms/legs moving as he ran through hallways. There were elevators to each "floor", you'd exit the elevator & shoot the bad guys. Sort of like very basic DOOM... Then you'd explore the whole floor, find things (I can't remember what the goal of finding things was), and then take the next elevator to the next floor.

The part I remember most is that at after playing hundreds of times, and always losing before getting to the last floor, finally -- I got all the way to the top, beat the final bad guy, and thought I had beat the game -- was so excited. And then it said -- "Next castle!" and I started over in a brand new base-floor with a whole new layout ... and was so disappointed that I hadn't won!

Does any of this help out? I know it may be a further-advanced game than it seems most of your expertise is about, being that the graphics were more advanced.

Thanks again for all your help!!
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leilei
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

Post by leilei »

Sounds like Castle Wolfenstein from MUSE Software. (Dont' confuse this with id Software's Wolfenstein 3D, which is completely different)

Though there was no potions and staffs in it iirc.
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Re: DOS game, late 80s? first person exploring a castle/dungeon

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