Dungeon of Death

Also known as: N/A

Developer: C. Gordon Walton

I enjoyed playing Dungeon on the Commodore PET a bit more than I had expected, so when I saw another game called Dungeon of Death, I thought to myself, "When you add 'of death' to the end of anything, it makes it cooler….like granola bar of death or baby rattle or death….or orangutan cowboy of death riding an armored ostrich of death…that's double the cool right there." But Dungeon of Death does not have any orangutan cowboys or armored ostriches, I'm sad to say, but it's not a terrible RPG for the time. Before I continue, I'll just say that while I've got a good imagination, I'm always better at solving stuff when I have a visual in front of me and I'm not going off of descriptions or memory. I mention this because while to do have a small box in the lower portion of the screen that shows you your immediate surroundings, that's all you ever see - your immediate surroundings. So, as you traverse the dungeon, unless you've got graph paper handy and are making your own map as you go, it's not hard to get lost and find yourself wandering aimlessly. In fact, I made it to the second floor because I fell into a pit trap, not because I found an exit. Anyway, the goal here is to reach the master of the Dungeon of Death….Smaug. If you think that Smaug is evil for ruling a place called the Dungeon of Death, think of how evil his parents were to name him "Smaug." Along the way to battle the unfortunately-named boss, you'll fight a decent assortment of monsters (listed in the upper left when the battle begins) and you can fight, evade, use a magic spell, or run…running results in you dropping some of the precious gold that you've picked up along the way, though. There's an option to "give up," too...I never tried it, but I assume that just means that the monster that you're fighting kills you and the game ends. Aside from monsters, you'll find chests to open and random potions to drink - opening or drinking these things could benefit you greatly, but they could also result in you unintentionally giving yourself a handicap. I, personally, wound up making my character go blind for a while, which was a minor handicap - it simply removed all view of obstacles from the viewport…so I just imagined my character walking face-first into walls at random. Overall, Dungeon of Death isn't a bad game…and in some ways, it seems a bit more sophisticated than other video game RPGs of the time, but a few things like a larger viewport or automated mapping, may have gone a long way towards making me want to come back for more.

Review added: 12/29/2025