Dungeon - Atari 2600/VCS [HOMEBREW]

Dungeon is a nice little homebrew game from 2008 I believe and it's basically a turn based dungeon crawling RPG...on the Atari 2600. Yeah.

Honestly a fun little game too, it actually tries to be an interesting game instead of a novelty like I thought it was going to be.

From the AtariAge store page: "The princess has been kidnapped and you must rescue her! Kill the demon who commands the forces of darkness and his legions that dwell in the sprawling Dungeon beneath the mountaintop castle. To aid you in your quest you will be equipped with a sword, shield and the tattered remains of an old map left behind by other brave adventurers...those who have never returned from the Dungeon to tell their tales."

The gameplay is simple enough: you're a little knight dude and you can move in four directions along a dungeon maze with multiple floors. Randomly you will come across enemies who hate you and will try to escort you off this mortal coil. You need to use your trusty sword like an UNO reverse card and take care of them. This is done in turn based fashion - you attack, cast or run, and then your enemy, if still standing, takes their turn, repeat until one of you has kicked the bucket.

The enemies include:

  • Zombie, who poisons on hit
  • Skeleton, who is VERY spooky and scary, but nothing special mechanically
  • Lizard guy, who can attack twice and as far as I know is the only enemy who can drop a chest on death
  • Ghost (I think), who is frankly the WORST and will drain your SP and has something like a googol health
  • Weird...blob...thing...maybe? He seems to dodge every melee attack so I think he's only dispatchable via magic
  • Black knight, there's only one of him and he blocks your way. None shall pass!
  • Dragon, who hides away behind a fake wall you have no way of knowing is fake
  • Demon, the final big guy who actually is a mega pushover (at least on the difficulty I was on)

Along your adventure through the many floors of the dungeon you will find items to help you, such as a sword in a stone or the holy grail. These really do well in making the game feel more engaging and interesting!

The visuals of the game are very cool, even though your view is limited to a small square that doesn't cover much of the screen. The sprites are memorable and pop out, and I love the princess sprite! The various torches contribute nicely and the colours are very nice. I couldn't really tell what the slime blob was supposed to be at first until I consulted a manual! But everything fits together so well, everything is clear and I can't wait until I can get a physical copy to try on a CRT!

My main issue with this game is also it's main draw - it's turn based combat. It's rather RNG and I've spent 2 minutes fighting a ghost where both our attack kept missing, and I've also died to a lizard as my first enemy when his attacks hit for their maximum both times, TWICE. These moments are slightly rare but they do leave a sour taste in my mouth. They by no means ruin the game though!

What does, a little, in my opinion, is the hunt for the dragon. You're required to find him in a hidden cave behind a fake wall but there is no way of knowing when a wall's fake, so I ended up just pushing my joystick against every solid wall on every floor, which was not really fun at all. And when I did find hidden caves (there are multiple), he wasn't there! It was the wrong cave! Aaaargh!

Those are my only criticisms of this otherwise solid and impressive game. Can't wait to try the sequel!













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