Dungeon Master was developed on Atari ST and released on December 15, 1987. It was then ported to many other platforms, starting with the Apple II GS and then the Amiga (see Don Jordan page at mobygames.com). Other ports were also made for PC, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, X68000, PC-9801 and FM-Towns. Endless RPG is a random dungeon and adventure generator for 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. The Random Dungeon Generator is not a game. It is is a tool for playing pen-and-paper role-playing games alone, in a small group without a dungeon master, or with a dungeon master as either a standalone adventure or an easy way to get into the game.
Dungeon Master Java is an amazing one-man remake of FTL dungeon crawl classic Dungeon Master. Although based on the FTL classic, DM Java actually sports many improvements over its spiritual predecessor, and new levels. Here is a more detailed description from the official site:
'[The game] is written entirely in Java, and is designed to run as a stand-alone application rather than an applet in a web browser. It has high-resolution graphics that simulate a 3D environment. Most of the graphics are rendered in the free ray-tracer Pov-Ray. Item graphics and character portraits are done by hand with a paint program, though many are simply taken from the original and its sequels and touched-up.
Gameplay is very similar to the original, with real-time action, 90-degree turns, and step-by-step movement. One major change from the original is that monsters are not 'stuck' in groups: they are completely free to wander, sometimes occupying a square with other monsters and sometimes not.'
There are actually more noteworthy changes, such as the ability of monsters to follow you up and down the stairs-- no more attack-and-go-upstairs tactic of the original game. Monsters also seem to be more intelligent, and their ability to wander separately from their group makes combat much more challenging and fun. Best of all, the fact that the game is coded entirely in Java means that the game will now be truly immortal, since Java can run on any hardware. With excellent ray-traced graphics, faithful recreation of solid gameplay, and numerous enhancements, Dungeon Master Java is a must-have for every RPG fan, whether or not you have played the original. Oh, and be sure to grab Sun's Java 2 Runtime Library - you'll need that to run the game :)
Note: This download includes patch 2 already incorporated.
Dungeon Master Java is a remake of the classic FTL game Dungeon Master. It is written entirely in Java, and is designed to run as a stand-alone application rather than an applet in a web browser. It has high-resolution graphics that simulate a 3D environment. Most of the graphics are rendered in the free ray-tracer Pov-Ray. Item graphics and character portraits are done by hand with a paint program, though many are simply taken from the original and its sequels and touched-up.
Gameplay is very similar to the original, with real-time action, 90-degree turns, and step-by-step movement. One major change from the original is that monsters are not 'stuck' in groups: they are completely free to wander, sometimes occupying a square with other monsters and sometimes not.
There are several other new things including like a better intelligence of the monsters so you can't just escape them by walking a bit away from them or down some stairs. Overall it is very impressive that a single developer has made a remade of the popular dungeon crawler in Java and overall a very nice idea as well.
People who downloaded Dungeon Master Java have also downloaded:
Dungeon Master, Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of the Skullkeep, Eye of The Beholder 3, Dungeon Hack, Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun, Chaos Strikes Back
I have fond memories of playing Dungeon Master in the late 80's on my trusty Apple IIGS. The game interface was so different than the cRPG's that preceded it like Ultima, Wizardry, and Bard's Tale. It was the first to fully utilized the mouse to grab things, throw things, cast spells, open doors, solve puzzles, eat food, drink potions, and fight beasties. And unlike those earlier games the monsters would follow you down hallways if you tried to run away, giving the combat a far more realistic and threatening feel. The dungeon levels were also immense; far larger than I anticipated. I distinctly remember around level 4 thinking that I had played for so many hours that I must be near the end of the game, but there were in fact several levels and many more hours of adventuring to go.Dungeon Master was a huge hit for FTL/Software Heaven on several platforms: first the Atari ST,followed by the Commodore Amiga, IBM PC, Apple IIGS and others (not Mac though). It was followed by the sequels Chaos Strikes Back! and Dungeon Master 2 (which was released for Mac but not IIGS). I never purchased or played CSB, but by the time Dungeon Master 2 came out I had a Macintosh and so I bought the Mac version, there being no IIGS version. The Mac version of DM2 is a Power PC application and cannot run on Mac OS X unless you use the Classic OS 9 mode. Since Apple dropped Classic with Mac OS X 10.5 the only Mac I have that can play DM2 natively now is in a box in my garage.
When I started experimenting with Wineskin a couple of weeks ago, my intent was to use it to allow me to play the Windows versions of games since the Mac versions now no longer work because of Classic and Rosetta being dropped by Apple in OS X 10.5 and 10.7 respectively. It didn't take long to get Wineskins working with the Windows versions of DM and CSB, but I was unable to get a working Wineskin for DM2. My attempts only resulted in the Wineskin log reporting that I should try DOSBox.
So, today I downloaded DOSBox and set that up to work with Dungeon Master 2 as well as a couple of older AD&D based cRPGs: Eye of the Beholder and Eye of the Beholder 2.
This got me thinking though about all of the emulation technologies I have set up now, each with their own pros and cons.
| My Apple IIGS desktop using Sweet 16 |
| Dungeon Master IIGS using Sweet 16 |
| Dungeon Master 2 using DOSBox |
| Dungeon Master 2 Mac using Sheepshaver |
Using Wineskin Winery, which is free, to create Wineskins worked well with Windows versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back!, but did not work at all with Dungeon Master 2. DOSBox, also free, can run Dungeon Master 2 but not Dungeon Master or Chaos Strikes Back! (at least not the versions I have) and DOSBox requires far less disk storage than Wineskin ports do.
| My Mac OS 9 desktop using Sheepshaver |
And there is also a free Java version of Dungeon Master that should work on any system that supports Java. At this time anyway that includes Mac OS X 10.7 but I suspect future versions of Mac OS X may not include Java.
Frankly I find the range of options to be a little staggering. But it is nice to know that so many people have developed free technologies that allow abandoned software like Dungeon Master to continue to be used many years after its development.