I marked one year on YouTube by pulling out one of my favorite Color Computer games, Dungeons of Daggorath. I also tied it into #SepTandy, even if I was a little late getting it out. The game still stands out for me because it changed what I thought a home computer game could be, and it still feels very different from the sports, arcade, and text adventure titles that were common on the CoCo.
I went over some of the background first. Dungeons of Daggorath was released for the TRS-80 Color Computer in the early 1980s and was created by Douglas Morgan and Keith Kiyohara, with sound by Phil Landmeier and graphics by April Landmeier. It is a first-person 3D dungeon crawler with a real-time command system, a heartbeat-based health mechanic, directional sound, and character progression through combat. I also mentioned its Tolkien-flavored manual and backstory, its appearance in Ready Player One, and the later sequel Castle of Tharoggad, which never had the same feel as the original.
For the gameplay, I used a CoCo 3 with the matching RGB monitor and captured footage through an RGB2HDMI setup. I showed my original cartridge and mentioned that I had reattached the label with Ad Tech Crafters Tape, which is what I use on old cartridge labels, floppy labels, and similar paper-on-plastic repairs. Since the game is on cartridge, it loaded immediately, and the built-in attract mode gave a quick look at the split-screen layout, the command line, and the beating heart display.
Once I started a game, I walked through the basic commands and inventory system. I pulled out the pine torch, equipped the wooden sword, and showed how the game accepts abbreviated commands so you can actually survive in real time. The command buffer is a big part of how the game works, and the lower screen keeps track of what is in each hand while the upper screen redraws the dungeon view in steps as you move.
Level 1 covered most of the core mechanics. I fought snakes, blobs, and spiders, showed one of the hidden walls, and explained how weaker monsters can be used as shields while stronger monsters line up behind them. I also demonstrated item handling, including generic item names until they are revealed, torch wear, and the way rings can be enchanted once you know what they are. I picked up a ring, later revealed it as a Vulcan ring, and turned it into a fire ring with the proper incantation.
I spent some time on the save feature too, since this game lets you save your exact state to cassette. I used the ZSAVE command and showed the machine pausing while it wrote the game out. Going deeper into the dungeon, I explained the difference between plain holes and ladder holes, then worked through Level 2 and into Level 3, where things got much tougher. On the lower levels I dealt with stronger knights, scorpions that ignore dropped loot, better torches, flasks that either slow your heartbeat or increase your power, and the first wizard encounter that sends you down to Level 4.
Level 4 was rough. I died there, tried restoring from a saved tape, and found that my Radio Shack CCR-81 cassette recorder didn’t load the save back correctly. I switched over to a Panasonic RQ-2102, which worked much better, and after several save-and-restore attempts I finally cleared the floor. From there I went down to Level 5, set up behind a spider again, worked through the remaining monsters, and saved my rings and flasks for the final wizard fight.
I killed the last wizard, revealed the Supreme Ring, and reached the ending screen where the game handed over the role of wizard to the player.
— Aaron
Links
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
02:11 – History And Overview
08:00 – Setup
10:50 – Rules And Level 1
32:54 – Level 2
36:26 – Level 3
44:21 – Level 4
47:33 – Level 5
55:16 – Wrap Up