The Temple of Apshai

Also known as: Dunjonquest: The Temple of Apshai

Developer: Automated Simulations

Back in 1979, a company named Automated Simulations started a series of games named Dunjonquest…because they didn't know how to spell dungeon, I guess? Anyway, The Temple of Apshai is the first game in this series. When you begin this game, you need to build a character…or if you don't want to deal with that, you can let the computer generate a character for you. Once your character is generated, you need to purchase equipment and items for your journey. Once all of that is completed, you'll start out in the labyrinth-like dungeon. The dungeon has four different levels and two hundred rooms to explore. As you wander through it all, your goal is to find and collect the treasures that you find. They're located in treasure chests, which basically look like red lines. As you attempt to collect the eighty different treasure types, you'll also randomly come across various enemies like ant men, mosquitos, sewer rats, zombies, skeletons, and ghouls. The combat (and overall gameplay) is turn-based, so each time you take a turn, the enemies also take a turn. Moving, grabbing treasure, and attacking all count as turns. There are also traps to try to avoid, like daggers, flames, and bottomless pits. While a pretty crude game by today's standards, it can still be a pretty fun experience, albeit, a very slow experience as well. This game does move at a very slow pace, between slow movements and actions and slow loading times as you move from room to room. But, if you had patience, in 1979 you were rewarded with a pretty solid RPG and a good start to the franchise that intentionally spelled the word dungeon incorrectly.

Review added: 12/07/2025

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Also known as: Tuesday Night Football (Initial release)

Developer: ShoeString Software

Tuesday Morning Quarterback (also known as Tuesday Night Football) is a solid strategy game for folks that love football, but would rather be the coach than the player. Basically, aside from some very minor animations, like crude cutscenes of the ball being punted or kicked for a field goal, and a display of the field and the players (represented by X's and O's) this is mostly just a game where you call a play, then read how it plays out at the bottom of the screen. It's kind of neat, actually, as you'll get play-by-play at the bottom of the screen, so if someone catches a pass and starts making a run for the endzone, it will tell you when they hit the 25, the 20, the 15, and so on. I'm not a football fan, but I found myself cheering on my player in hopes that they'd make it all the way for a touchdown. When on offense or defense, you've got plenty of options and plays to tell your team to go for…for someone like me, that knows absolutely nothing about football, it feels like you've put a blindfold on and started throwing darts at a dartboard. However, if you're a fan of the sport, you probably know the names of the plays and you'll be a bit more at home here. Later football games would have visual aids for us non-football folks, so we knew what we were picking. Maybe if the crude punt/kick animations were removed and arrows were put up on the field as you selected a play to help you learn, that may have been a better use of the storage for this game. Overall, if you like football, but would rather play a more strategic game and not have to control players on the field, then Tuesday Morning Quarterback is a solid choice. It makes up for its lack of graphics with some pretty deep, strategic selections, that I bet most fans of the sport will appreciate.

Review added: 12/10/2025