Dungeon (computer game)
| Dungeon | |
|---|---|
| Senior Developer | Don Daglow |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1975/1976 |
| platform | PDP-10 |
| genre | Computer role playing game |
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | keyboard |
| language | English |
Dungeon was one of the earliest computer role-playing games in the mid-1970s and at the same time one of the earliest software adaptations of the role-playing game rules Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ). It was from the US game designer Don Daglow in the university environment for mainframe -type PDP-10 from Digital Equipment Corporation developed.
description
The information on the release period of Dungeon is contradicting itself. It was written in either 1975 or 1976 by Don Daglow, then a student at Claremont University Center (now Claremont Graduate University ). During this period, the earliest edition of the role-playing game rulebook Dungeons & Dragons began to spread at US universities. But by 1975 many of Daglow's friends had graduated and it was getting harder to organize a game of games. Daglow therefore tried to transfer the game principle to the computer so that one person could play alone. The software implementation of the set of rules took place without a license from the manufacturer TSR , but was true to detail. It was about the progressive exploration of a dungeon populated with monsters by a group of six heroes. The player determined the positions and actions of the characters in battle, which is why the flow of the game was rather slow. The characters gained experience points and, as in D&D, learned new talents with each new level .
Daglow himself wrote in 1988: "In the mid-seventies I had a fully functional fantasy role-playing game on the PDP-10, with both ranged and close combat, lines of sight, automapping and NPCs with their own AI ." Although the game is nominally in text form was played, it was also the first game to use line-of-sight graphics. The group of heroes could therefore only see the areas that were in their field of vision. This was visualized in the form of an overview map of the dungeon, which only showed the visible sections of the playing field. The system also calculated light and darkness for the reproduction, as well as the different dark vision abilities ( infravision) of the various D&D races (elves, dwarfs).
This progress was made possible by the fact that many universities switched to CRT screens for their computer terminals in the mid-1970s , on which the displayed text could be refreshed after a few seconds instead of a minute or more. Earlier games, on the other hand, printed the game score for players on teletype or a line printer , with a high level of noise and at speeds of 10 to 30 characters per second.
distribution
Although Dungeon about the user group Digital Equipment Computer Users' Society ( DECUS was nationally available), there was much less frequently taken up by universities and systems as Daglows earlier game Star Trek from 1971. The main reason was the for his time significantly higher memory consumption of 36K, versus the 32K program limit in many schools since the early 1970s and Star Trek adhered to it. Educational institutions saw games primarily as a gimmick to get students interested in computers. However, they just wanted small, quick-play sample programs to limit the time spent on games and instead leave more time for math, research, and student use. Some institutions had therefore lowered the upper limit to just 16K in the meantime.
Games with the same name
Around 1980 DECUS distributed another game called Dungeon , which was a version of Zork , a text adventure that later became the model for the early multi-user dungeons .
A third game called Dungeon was released on the PLATO in 1975 by John Daleske, Gary Fritz, Jan Good, Bill Gammel and Mark Nakada .
Web links
- Matt Barton: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980-1983) ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . February 23, 2007. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alistair Wallis: Playing Catch Up: Stormfront Studios' Don Daglow ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . October 19, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2009.
- ^ Don L. Daglow : The Changing Role of Computer Game Designers . In: Computer Gaming World , August 1988, p. 18. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
- ↑ a b Nich Maragos: Talking: Don Daglow ( English ) In: 1UP . July 26, 2004. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
- ↑ Ian Lance Taylor: Dungeon README ( English ) 11 March 1991. Accessed December 10, 2012th
- ↑ Brad King, John M. Borland: Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic . McGraw-Hill / Osborne , 2003, ISBN 0-07-222888-1 ( Accessed September 25, 2010).
- ↑ Matt Barton: Fun with PLATO ( English ) In: Armchair Arcade . July 3, 2007. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
