Game 412: DragonMaze (1993)

 

Golden, Colorado is where Lookout Mountain is--easily one of the top 10 most beautiful places I've ever visited. Man, it's been too long since I've traveled.

        

DragonMaze

United States

. . . by Design (developer and publisher)

Released as shareware in 1993 for Macintosh

Date Started: 4 May 2021
Date Ended: 4 May 2021

Total Hours: 5
Difficulty: User-customizable; moderate (3/5) on average
Final Rating: 25
Ranking at Time of Posting: 192/412 (47%)

 

The best I can figure, the only versions of DragonMaze available online are demo versions. If you wanted the full versions, you had to send $19.95 to the oddly-punctuated company, with the checks made out to the dots and everything.

    

Originally, I could only find version 1.1. Because of a number of problems, I wrote this up (the part labeled "1.1" below) as a BRIEF. I then made one last scan of various sites and managed to turn up 2.2, which is also a demo, but has a fully-winnable scenario. Version 2.2 is so much different than 1.1 that some time must have elapsed between the two. There is no indication in the game files what year they were created or released, so 1993 is at best a guess.

1.1

   

DragonMaze 1.1 is a graphical "roguelite." It has far fewer features than the typical roguelike, and it doesn't enforce permadeath. When you start a new game, you can even set the number of levels you have to explore, the number of items on each level, the number of items you start with in your pack, and the number of monsters.

        

Starting a new game. There are more weapons in the game, so I don't know why these are the only three you can choose among.

      

During character creation, your name and weapon skill (sword, hammer, or bow) are the only options you get. A randomly-created dungeon of corridors is seeded with items and monsters. Items included the usual roguelike staples--melee and missile weapons, armor, shields, helms, wands, scrolls, books, keys, gems, gold, and potions--as well as odd items like bombs. There are only a few types of each, but the title screen promises more if you pay for the game. Some items are mysteries, like gold and gems (there's no place to use them) and keys (there are no doors).

         

A book offers some information on an enemy.

         

There are a couple of things I like about the game. It offers clear statistics for weapons and armor. You can find books that have information about the games' enemies. A "Display" menu lets you cycle through a number of zoom levels, which is helpful because it's tough to see what enemies are at small-scale zooms but tough to navigate at large-scale. Combat is automatic; when an enemy is an adjacent square, the game automatically has you trade blows with him even if you're simultaneously doing something else, like walking in a different direction.

      

At a 50% zoom level. This might be the ugliest random dungeon I've ever seen.

      

On the negative side, the interface is tough to use without a mouse, which I never like. The keyboard cluster for movement is the unintuitive I-J-L-comma. There are only a few regular commands: info/inventory, pick up, use, drop, and fire. There's no key to escape from the inventory menu; you have to click the "close" box. There appears to be no experience-based character development or leveling. You can improve your one attribute--strength/hit points--by drinking certain potions, but killing enemies doesn't seem to do anything for you except get them out of your way. 

     

The information-and-inventory screen. Note that it depicts what I have equipped and shows my armor stats.

       

The main quest requires you to find a crystal and return it to the starting square. There are a number of problems with this demo version, however:

   

• The game doesn't seem to generate a crystal. I've started multiple games with only one level and have not found a crystal once.

• Even if you specify multiple levels, the game doesn't generate any stairways down.

• If you use a scroll of "Down Stairway," the character just gets stuck.

• The level randomization process creates some areas detached from others. Maybe there's a secret door mechanic that I'm missing, but I don't think so because there aren't any commands to search, bash, dig, open, or what-have-you.

• You can save a game, but the game doesn't recognize the game file if you try to "open" it.

• There's an "about" text file in the game folder that has nothing in it. The in-game instructions are extremely scant.

• If I play more than about 30 minutes, the game crashes with a message that says "FormatArmy Army" and then two numbers separated by a slash. This doesn't seem to be a Mac OS message, so I don't know if it's a game-specific message or a Basilisk-specific message. Either way, it crashes the OS so bad that I have to kill the emulator.  

This is an ominous error.

     

Fortunately, 2.2 fixes all of these problems.

 

2.2

     

Version 2.2 is clearly from 1.1's lineage, but it has been so upgraded as to be a fundamentally new game. At the same time, it removed enough roguelike elements that I would say it's no longer within that sub-genre. I groaned when I realized it was playable and I would have to extend this entry. But I soon found myself enjoying it.

    

The setup for the demo level is that a kingdom is being menaced by a red dragon. The kingdom used to have artifacts (the Golden Armor of Zoth and the Fire Sword of Abrial) to defend against dragons, but these have been stolen and hidden in the same large dungeon that contains the dragon. The hero enters on a mission to find the objects and slay the dragon.

         

Finding the Golden Armor--and leggings--of Zoth.

      

Character creation has a couple new features. You can specify an enemy against which you are particularly skilled, in addition to your preferred weapon. You can also choose your icon. Starting life force, gold, and arrows are rolled randomly, but within a fairly tight range.

       

The new character creation options.

     

The dungeon level is fixed rather than randomized, and it has new features like doors, lava, switches that open walls and bridges, and signs, all of which you activate by simply walking on or next to them. Commands are the same as the original, but the inventory and character screen remains active, and you can use it to activate items and switch between equipped items. Movement has been remapped to the numberpad. The zoom options are gone, but there's a "map" command that shows the entire level.

         

I check the map as I walk near some lava.

         

The huge dungeon level can be explored in almost any order; secret doors (found by simply bumping into the wall) and teleporters keep it from being too linear. Monsters include giant spiders, goblins, orcs, trolls, nagas, giants, slimes, and lizard men, and killing them does increase an invisible experience statistic. You periodically gain levels, which increases your maximum health, your hit accuracy, and your damage. There are also potions that increase maximum health and necklaces that increase accuracy and damage. Weapons and armor can take damage and break, so you frequently need backups.

       

This was a surprise when it happened.

       

There's no more roguelike use of random descriptors or colors on potions and scrolls; you mostly know exactly what everything is. There are a few colored potions that you have to learn through trial and error, but their colors don't change between games.

 

One cool feature is that you can enlist allies. There are about a dozen elves in the level who will follow you if you rescue them from their cells; they'll fight alongside you until they die. There are also a couple of scrolls that summon allies. 

      

A sign tells me what I already know. I have three elf allies with me.

     

You find the Golden Armor of Zoth with some orcs. A series of signs fleshes out the backstory: apparently, the king's evil brother was the one who stole the artifacts. He's in the dungeon--a black wizard--and he has the Fire Sword of Abrial nearby.

   

The overall goal is to get the two artifacts while also getting strong enough to defeat the dragon. It helps to bring a stock of healing potions to the final battle, including the full-healing purple potion (I think there is only one of these). It took me several tries to defeat the dragon, although I left about one-fifth of the dungeon unexplored and may have found more advantages. I started by emptying my crossbow at him, then blasted him with five charges of a magic wand, then used a "Summon Demon" scroll to bring an ally into combat. I then whacked at him with the Fire Sword, healing as necessary, until he died. 

  

Fighting the dragon. It's too bad those piles of gold have no use.

        

The title screen promises 10 more scenario levels if you pay for the full version of the game, and if they're all about this length and complexity, I could see it being a lot of fun to dip into DragonMaze now and then. In a GIMLET, I give the demo scenario:

    

• 2 points for the game world, including a backstory with a twist.

           

A sign delivers a plot twist.

     

• 2 points for somewhat limited character creation and development.

• 1 point for NPCs. That's for those that will fight with you. There's otherwise no interaction.

• 2 points for encounters and foes. They're fantasy standards, but reasonably well programmed. Snakes can poison you; dragons breathe fire; ghosts must be hit with a magical weapon.

      

A wall switch opens a bridge across the lava.

     

• 2 points for magic and combat. There aren't many options, but I do like some of the scrolls.

• 4 points for equipment. A decent system that could benefit from roguelike randomization. I love that you can see exactly how the items compare.

• 0 points for the economy. You can collect gold and gems, but for no reason in the scenario level.

• 2 points for a main quest.

         

It seemed like a lot more than 125.

     

• 4 points for graphics, sound, and interface. The graphics are nice enough, featuring a rare (for the era) paperdoll inventory screen; there are a few sound effects; the revised key commands work well.

• 6 points for gameplay. It has a little nonlinearity and replayability (at higher difficulty levels); the difficulty is pitched just right; and the length is perfect for its size and complexity.

    

That gives a final score of 25, a decent rating for a shareware game. I wouldn't mind checking out the other levels. The author, Owen Gwynne (who moved from Colorado to Wisconsin after the game was released), found a career as an artist. I don't believe that he or his company ever produced any other games. [Ed. I was very wrong about this. He published a reasonable catalogue of shareware war games through at least 2008.] I wrote to him but had not received a reply by the time I was ready to publish this entry.

   

DragonMaze is the second 1993 game to require only a single entry, but alas I suspect we will not be as lucky with Abandoned Places 2. Before we go there, I think I have enough breathing room now to try to finish Mission: Thunderbolt.

   

***

    

Speaking of Abandoned Places 2---goddamned Amiga emulation. I've tried two versions of the disk version, including one available from the developer's official site, but it crashes between "Create a Party" and "Start a New Game" with a "Guru Meditation" error every single time, no matter what configuration I use.

   

Years ago, someone made a custom WinUAE configuration for WHDLoad for me that has a drive mounted as the hard drive. He included a bunch of games with it, but I'm pretty sure I've added games to it in the past. My recollection was I just extracted the files and then stuck the .info file into the main directory while leaving the other files in a folder with the game's name. If I do this here, though, then load the WHDLoad configuration, it clearly isn't seeing it as the same type of game file, because all the others have "Drawer" next to the names. 

        

     

If I try to load it anyway, I get an "object not found" message. I would appreciate if:

   

• Someone who's ever gotten the disk version working can go through his settings with me; or

• Someone who knows more about WHDLoad can tell me what I've done wrong installing the file.

   

Thanks.