Game 508: Legend of the Red Dragon (1989)

 

       

Legend of the Red Dragon

United States

Robinson Technologies (developer and host)

Released 1989 for Amiga, 1992 for DOS

Date Started: 30 March 2024

           

Legend of the Red Dragon, or LoRD as most fans abbreviate it, is probably the most famous game from the "BBS door" era. It is a subgenre from which I have tried only one other offering, Dustin Nuff's Operation: Overkill (1990). MobyGames catalogs nine total BBS door RPGs (and 31 total BBS door games), although there were almost certainly more, between 1980 and 1997. Dragon is second on this list, after Land of Spur (1987).

   

Although I lived through the era and was the right age, I missed out on BBSes (bulletin board systems) in their heyday. As a kind of proto-Internet, they allowed users to dial in with modems and leave messages or download software. The BBS host was typically a computer in the owner's home, often connected to only one telephone line, and thus allowing only one user to access it at a time. Even BBSes that offered multiple phone lines had such limited capacity that users had daily limits on access time. The way I understand it, BBS door games installed a host application on the user's computer and kept the amount of data exchanged during connections to a minimum [Ed. As per the comments, I was apparently incorrect about this last part]. 

      

Creating a new character.

      

Because of the online aspect, it's tempting to think of BBS door games as precursors to MMOs, but as HunterZ commented almost a decade ago, BBS door games were more like Facebook games: "You play in your own bubble, and interactions with other players are extremely limited." These interactions consisted primarily of chats and messages, with the occasional multi-character interaction such as player-versus-player combat. For the most part, you did not form adventuring parties, you didn't have dozens of people online at the same time, and you did not engage in any sort of prolonged collaboration.

   

Dragon was created by Seth Able Robinson, a Los Angeles teenager (he was only 14 when he offered the first version of the game) dissatisfied with BBS offerings for his Amiga. He allowed free access to the game (another factor that made BBS door games attractive) up to Level 7, then charged for further levels. He followed with a 1992 release for DOS and a sequel, Legend of the Red Dragon II: New World, the same year. By then, he had offered the game to other BBS hosts who customized the game for their own users. In 1998, he sold the franchise to Metropolis Gameport, a Kansas-based BBS provider, which continued to run in various forms until at least 2009. 

        

The town square menu.

      

I'm thus not sure of the legal provenance of the version that I've been playing, a browser-based rewrite that is supposed to be "as close to the original 4.00a experience as possible." (Thanks to Harland for pointing me to this site over 4 years ago. I do eventually get to things.) Version 4.00a was Robinson's last version before selling it, and thus a 1997 game. It's likely not possible to recreate the 1989 or 1992 versions of the game. The site hosts five instances of the game, referred to as "realms": Eternal, River, Forest, Fire, and Mist. Supposedly, the Eternal Realm and the River Realm replicate the original game best; the others have other rules that increase or decrease the challenge. I've been playing in the River Realm.

          

For all of Dragon's renown, it's a relatively simple game. You create a character who focuses on "Death Knight skills," "Mystical skills," or "Thieving skills" (i.e., fighter, mage, thief). Your inventory is limited to one weapon and one item of armor. From a central town, you head out into the forest and start looking for enemies to kill. The battles you face are scaled to your level and relatively easy. You gain experience and gold for each kill. If your health gets too low, you visit a healer and pay to get it restored. You periodically return to town to level up (by fighting a combat against an arena master) and pay for better equipment. When you reach Level 12, you have the chance to fight the titular red dragon.

    

A lot of the game is spent hanging around the forest.

    

The entire enterprise would take only a couple of hours if the game didn't limit your time and number of actions per day. The modern incarnation limits you to 45 minutes per day of game time, but more importantly limits the number of forest battles that you can fight to around 25. It thus likely takes a couple of weeks of daily play to get a chance to fight the dragon.

       

Weapons escalate in damage and cost.

    

The combats are with a variety of oddly-named denizens specific to your level. At Level 1, I faced small thieves, wild boars, large mosquitos, old men, evil wretches, large green rats, and Bran the Warrior. It took me about 34 battles to rise to Level 2, so I had to do it in two sessions. In combat, your only options are to attack, run, and use an ability specific to your class--in my case, a "Death Knight attack." This special ability has limited charges.

     

Trading blows with an old man.

        

If this was all there was to the game, it wouldn't be so fondly remembered. There are two other factors that enhance the gameplay experience: random encounters and social interaction. Random encounters come along as you transition between areas or roam the forest looking for fights. My understanding is that they can be swapped in and out by the host so that users always have fresh encounters when they play. A few that I got in my sessions included:

    

• A "strange wailing noise" brought me to a cave, where I literally stumbled over the disembodied head of a beautiful young woman named Olivia. I started to learn her story over multiple repeated encounters, all of which (annoyingly) ended with my character declaring he was bored with her story and leaving. At first, I thought her story would continue from one encounter to the next, but instead it seems that each encounter just has her starting the story again, accusing a different person each time.

         

I wasn't bored at all.

     

• I met a confused old man who asked if I would help him go back to the inn. I agreed. He gave me 500 gold and my "Charm" ability went up by 1 point. 

• An old man ran up and whacked me with a "pretty stick," somehow giving me 5 "Charm." Later, the same old man would appear, hit me, and cause me to lose charm.

       

I mean, I'll take it. But why?

        

• My journey was interrupted by the sound of fairies squealing in delight. I followed their voices and found them bathing. I had options to ask for a blessing or try to catch one. I chose the former, and they gave me a horse. With the horse, I was able to ride to a second tavern, deep in the woods. Later, an evil hobbit threw a "death crystal" at me during a combat, and the horse jumped in the way, taking the hit and vaporizing. A few encounters later, I got a white stallion from another group of fairies, but it was also killed by a death crystal. I've never had an enemy throw a death crystal at me when I didn't have a horse to save me, so I assume that's just a way of periodically depriving you of your horse.

• My horse stumbled over a dead bird. The bird had a scroll case tied to its leg, with a  note from a princess locked up in a castle. She didn't say what castle, so I had to choose from a list of five possibilities: Castle Coldrake, Fortress Liddux, Gannon Keep, Penyon Manor, and Dema's Lair. (This is the same list that populates Olivia's stories about her background.) I chose one at random, stormed it, fought my way through the guards (this is all relayed by text), and found a half-troll locked in a chest. The half troll proceeded to sexually violate me. Later, in the exact same type of encounter, the process was repeated, only this time the final room of the castle had two sisters who were not at all being held against their will, and I had just slain their father in my efforts to reach them.

     

Oops.

     

• I found the castle of the Black Knights. They said they'd teach me a lesson, but only if I passed a test. They presented me with a man kneeling with a head on a chopping block and asked if he was innocent or guilty. With nothing else to go on, I choose "innocent." They said I was wise and increased my attack ability. Later, though, I got the same encounter and was apparently wrong ("That man raped 6 women. And you defend him?"), so it must just be random.

• I followed the voices of angels singing and found two gems. Sometimes encounters ask you to pay in gems. For instance, there's a hag that occasionally shows up in the forest asking for gems for healing.

• Wandering through the forest, I found a "Hammer Stone." My attack strength increased.

The other memorable aspect is supposedly the social interaction, which has been limited for me because there haven't been many people around while I was playing. Multiplayer options occur in a variety of ways:

    

• The inn's bar serves as a kind of chat room where you can exchange one-line messages with other players.

       

A chat log from the bar.

     

• There's a built-in email system by which you can send longer messages to players.

• You can check the "Daily Happenings," which recounts all of the PvP battles and their outcomes. There are a lot of these per day despite no one ever being around when I was playing, so I suspect some group of users has a particular time that they meet. You can also make announcements that appear in this log.

        

In this game, "got laid by" could mean a couple of things.

     

• There are supposedly ways that you can have your characters flirt with, have sex with, and marry other player's characters, for various bonuses or negatives (including a possibility of STDs), but I'm not sure where that takes place or how.

      

The inn also has a couple of single-player features. The first is the ability to listen to a song by the bard, Seth Able. You can do this once per day and get some benefits, such as extra maximum hit points or extra forest fights for the day. The second is to flirt with the waitress, Violet. Success gives you experience points. The third is to rent a room, which costs a lot of money but (supposedly) protects you from PvP battles while you're offline. I learned to my detriment that the room costs money every time you access it, not every day you play the game, so you really want to get everything done in one session. If you log in a second time, you have to pay for the room again with no ability to make more money.

Listening to the song. I wonder if it's autobiographical.

       

The most important player interaction is probably the ability to fight each other in the game. If I understand things right, you can fight "real-time" duels with players online at the same time or you can "slaughter" characters whose players are offline but have neglected to store the characters safely in the inn (which admittedly costs money) before signing off. During my first two days with the game, I was too nervous to do such a thing, but on the third day, I decided to give it a try. When I chose the option, the only two characters "in the field" were myself and a fellow Level 3 character with the classy name of "futtbucker." He was armed only with a stick to my short sword, so I figured I had a good chance.

   

I killed him in a couple of combat rounds. When you slay another character, you get to make a pithy statement. I wanted to go with "That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, Bingo," but that exceeded the character limit. As I noted in my real message, that was the first time I've ever killed a stranger's character in any online game. 

       

I have a taste for it now.

      

I experienced the other type of combat on Day 4, when a user named "Killer Bunz" challenged me to a duel while I was looking for enemies in the forest. She had the same level and weapon that I did, so I hesitated, but ultimately accepted, thinking it would be funny if I bookended my first online kill with my first online death. Alas, the first two rounds went poorly for her, and she ran away, leaving the server before I could even initiate a chat.

      

My first round with Killer Bunz, before she fled.

     

Other notes:

    

• You can deposit money in the bank for 10% per day interest. That's a pretty good deal.

• Graphics are minimal, but as you can see, the game makes good use of fonts, color, and emphasis.

       

A rare graphic.

      

As I prepared this entry for publication, I had played four sessions. On my first, I just learned the interface and made enough gold to trade my starting stick for a dagger. On my second, I reached Level 2, bought a heavy coat to replace my regular coat and a short sword to replace my dagger.

       

Leveling up by defeating the arena master.

       

Day 3 was momentous. I got most of the special encounters above on this day, killed "futtbucker," leveled up twice, and bought Level 3 weapons and armor. On Day 4, after fighting the forest battles, I was able to upgrade to Level 4 weapons and armor (long sword and bronze armor), got to third base with Violet, and fought off the cowardly Killer Bunz.

   

I ended Day 4 with 2.711 experience points at Level 4, making me one of the lowest-ranked players on the server. The top player, "HannibalLecher," has 220,376,608 experience points, although he's dead. The top living player, "Snort," has 189,790,778. The lowest Level 12 player has over 2 million. So I had a long way to go. Alas, just as I was about to schedule this entry for publication, I checked in one last time and found that someone named "MischiefTMaker" had broken into my room at the inn and killed me. I don't even know how that's possible.

           

Player rankings. I have a long way to go.

     

When I logged in in Day 5, however, I learned that death is not permanent. I guess it just takes you out of the game for that day. Logging in again resurrected the character, and I was able to get up to character Level 5 and buy Level 5 weapons and armor.

      

I'll keep working at it, hoping to kill the dragon. In the meantime, I'd appreciate your advice in getting the most out of the game. I admit I don't hate the idea of enforced time limits; they actually keep a relatively basic game from getting too boring. Maybe I should self-enforce 45 minute limits for some of the other games that I play.

     

Time so far: 4 hours