Comments on: Old game, half-remembered, maze of rooms and corridors.

Question: Old game, half-remembered, maze of rooms and corridors.

sleevener — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:01:08 -0800

Need help with an old computer game, possibly Apple II.

My wife is trying to remember an old computer game, from 1982-85, she believes. It could have been on an old Apple II. She remembers the monitor being green and black, maybe yellow and black, not full color.

In the game itself, the view was top-down. You moved a blinking square cursor around inside a maze-like series of rooms and passages. When you entered a room, you could see the whole room. The rooms were squarish or rectangular. The walls were represented by simple lines. Sometimes you would find objects, such as keys, and sometimes the rooms may have had inhabitants, possibly ghosts or bats or other monsters, but it seems to have more of a puzzle/adventure game rather than action. There were different levels, ie, you were able to go up and down stairs. She can't remember if there were text descriptions of the rooms or not. She describes the levels as quite extensive, in that each had at least forty rooms, possibly many more. It wasn't an RPG, because the game didn't have all the stats and numbers and everything.

I know this information could apply to a lot of games, but we're hoping at least to narrow our search. Also, I don't think the game was probably a very obscure one: the only other game her dad had for this computer was "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?".

Links to screenshots, emulators/roms, descriptions, or other rescources will all be very helpful. Thanks!

By: scblackman

scblackman — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:05:38 -0800

Sounds like Wizardry, to me.

By: scblackman

scblackman — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:07:13 -0800

More about it here. Also, there's an emulator for it.

By: These Premises Are Alarmed

These Premises Are Alarmed — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:08:24 -0800

Could be Temple of or Gateway to Apshai.

By: anaelith

anaelith — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:14:51 -0800

Rogue! Nethack! Angband! There's about a million of these, Rogue is generally considered to be the oldest, though. Wiki article.

By: blueberry

blueberry — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:01:36 -0800

I don't know if it had stairs, but might it have been an Apple ][ version of Venture?

By: Malor

Malor — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:27:44 -0800

In that timeframe, given that description, I wonder if she's wrong about the kind of computer. Ask her if it's possible that they were terminals on minicomputers?

The reason I ask is because that sounds almost like Rogue, but I don't think Rogue ever ran on Apple 2s. It's not that complex a game, but I don't remember seeing it ported.

To see if this is right, download and fire up Nethack, which looks quite similar, and see if it looks roughly correct. Rogue was (much!) simpler, but the overall look was pretty similar. You can download it here. There's also a screenshot on that page, which might be enough to rule it in or out before downloading.

There are variants of Nethack with graphics, but you want just the pure text version.

By: chairface

chairface — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:28:27 -0800

Sounds like the 2600 version of Adventure. I don't recall any Apple II games with a square avatar. Even Apshai had a little figure.

Wizardry was not top down. It was the first 3d maze explorer I ever played, plus it was a real RPG.

By: chairface

chairface — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:33:17 -0800

Wait a second. There was part of Odyssey that was in lo-res graphics where you went into a dungeon. I think. While Odyssey was an RPG it was one of the most popular Apple II games so it's quite likely she played it.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:18:38 -0800

it shouldn't be nethack if the description given is accurate. nethack and its ilk have stats and numbers.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:33:07 -0800

So do the Apshai games. This sounds older.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:21:08 -0800

I remember a game called House of Usher that sounds somewhat like what you describe. I played it on an Apple IIc, so it was definitely monochrome. Weird game, and very difficult. It's listed on this page, from which you can apparently download the game and many others.

By: sleevener

sleevener — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:36:23 -0800

Thanks for the effort so far, but it's none of the above. I thought of roguelikes too, but she's seen me play Adom and I'm sure that would've seemed similar enough to trigger something for her. I should've specified that in the original question. (Wasn't Rogue included with Unix back in those days? I'm pretty sure an Apple was much more her Dad's style. The Carmen Sandiego makes me think that too.)

So, after looking through all the screenshots with her, I've got new information. We still think it's top down, but there was only one or maybe two rooms visible at a time, as in this screen from Gateway to Apshai (which isn't our game). Also, the avatar may not have been a blinking square, it may have been a little guy. I get the impression that the game involved very little combat -- my wife's never been a gamer, and doesn't remember much or any combat, and yet she somehow managed to stay alive long enough to map out pages and pages the dungeon/castle/house on paper. She describes going as far as she could in one direction, to get to the boundary, or the end, and being unable to (which sounds like randomly generated levels, but, who knows).

Oh, and she says the overworld map from Odyssey looks familiar, but that probably wasn't the game. So add to the recipe a slim chance of an overworld map.

Thanks for the help thus far. Keep it coming, please.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:53:56 -0800

Was it one of the Ultima games?

Also, did you check out Virtual Apple 2 and the Apple II madness post from last year? You may just have to go through all the games, trial and error like.

By: sleevener

sleevener — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:53:05 -0800

This just in! She remembers having to solve riddles and puzzles in the game, frequently enough that she began keeping track of those on paper too.

Thanks for the Virtual Apple pointer, it may yet be useful, but it's like the proverbial needle/haystack there at the moment.

By: ipe

ipe — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:46:32 -0800

Saracen? Top-down, many rooms, puzzle but not RPG.

By: atom128

atom128 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:09:44 -0800

it reminds me of zzt but as far as i know it was never ported to apple. great game tho

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:25:07 -0800

Before you mentioned riddles, I was all set to toss out Think Quick as a possibility, just for a different angle. It was more of a logic game set in a castle, than a castle/dungeon game with logic puzzles.

I can't remember if it had riddles or not. I think it was simpler than that, more visual. Addictive as heck, though; I do remember that.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:32:55 -0800

Puzzles immediately brings to mind the Fool's Errand; 1987 might be too late and I can't remember if there's a maze in a building.

Wikipedia has a pretty good list ing of computer games by year that you can run through with her to see if anything rings a bell, if nobody figures it out here.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:56:23 -0800

Not an arcade game, for sure? Tower of Druaga is a many-levelled tower of top-down mazes with puzzles.

Realm of Impossibility had weird, hard mazes and combat.

Another probably-not, but maybe Bard's Tale? It had much more D&D style stats and combat, but oh did I make maps of the mazes.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:43:02 -0800

If mobygames has it listed & categorized properly, it should be pretty easy to suss out. This drill down gives only 47 possibilities and many are rpgs which can be dismissed if that part of the info is accurate.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:47:07 -0800

reading your other post with the noted similarity to that one screen...maybe this game? screen here.

By: sherlockt

sherlockt — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:14:01 -0800

Sounds a little like Haunted House for the Atari. I shuddered the first time the screen flashed, heard thunder, and the ghosts came around. Of course, I was only 7 at the time. . .

By: sherlockt

sherlockt — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:16:17 -0800

Here's another link to Haunted House

By: sleevener

sleevener — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:36:52 -0800

Well, uh...

...so, after emailing various and sundry extended family members, my wife has found out that it was an IBM rather than an Apple. Thanks for the mobygames link, juv3nal, I think I can re-drill over there and get some useful results, or at least some results. If the game turns out to be called anything other than Wild Goose Chase, I'll let you all know. Thanks for the help, everyone.

By: sleevener

sleevener — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:13:25 -0800

My wife found it at mobygames: Castle Adventure. Thanks again for the help(s).