DoctorSpuds Reviews Things

We played the Atari 8-bit computer version in the HSC last October. While I generally like dungeon crawlers/rogue games, others like Sword of Fargoal (also Epyx, but only for VIC-20 and C64) suit me better.

 

Note that Epyx used to be called Automated Simulations and starting from 1979 released 10 games in their Dunjonquest RPG series, of which the triology Temple of Apshai, Upper Reaches of Apshai and Curse of Ra are the best known, available for PET, TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, VIC-20, C64 and MS-DOS. The Dunjonquest series ended with Gateway to Apshai in 1983, which then is action oriented rather than turn based as the older games were.

Quite the lineage to be sure. But I must admit to not being very fond of turn based RPG's, yes all of them, I tend to lean more toward the action RPG's, like Y's, and Gauntlet come to mind. That's why I found this game to be so disappointing in particular. But I really should have curbed my expectations considering the age of this particular game.

I think Gateway To Apshai is basically pretty cool on the Coleco, but it's definitely very rigid, swordfighting is a crapshoot of "hit, run, repeat," and the constant stopping and searching for booby traps and secret doors really bogs down the gameplay. That, and the tediousness of it--there's something like, what, a hundred dungeons with a hundred levels each, and they're all basically the same except for tougher monsters and better items. There's nothing that really gives a palpable sense of progression or that you're "going" somewhere, and that's actually the biggest problem for me for what is ostensibly an "adventure" game. (In reality, it's an "adventure-style" arcade game.)

 

The scoring is nice, though--the goal isn't to actually "finish" dungeons, but to stay alive as long as you can to score as high as you can, by killing monsters and finding treasure. It's that perpetual quest for that big number at the end that drives you onward. Being able to start on any level from the start is very nice, as well.

 

Overall it's an interesting enough concept, and playable enough, but I can usually only get about five or six levels in before I've had enough.

 

(FWIW I play Coleco titles primarily on a DINA system; using the keyboard on that console isn't appreciably worse for this game than the Coleco keypad IMO, since you're still doing a lot of stopping and hunting for the key you want. )

 

Speaking of cart variants, I have both an original Epyx cartridge, and the Telegames release with the plain white label and CBS shell.

and the constant stopping and searching for booby traps and secret doors really bogs down the gameplay.

Oh crap! I forgot to talk about that in the review! Well... It's pretty self explanatory, also it sucks and I hate it, that sound effect is the worst. I know I'm being harsh, but If the floor had texture It would be more challenging, hiding the traps in the textures so that only the truly observant would notice, and getting rid of that 'search for traps spell' entirely, same goes for the hidden doors, Instead of just running around spamming the locate spells you have to feel your way around the dungeon, relying on your eyes, not a spell. I'm pretty sure the Colecovision could handle it, If they'd only used a larger ROM they could have put so much more into the game

I haven't played this in forever, but I bought this, new, and even "on sale" back in the day, and we Loved it!

 

I might not agree, but you've written a good review. I understand your thoughts being the way they are...I consider it almost a "trap", if you will, of reviewing classic games in modern times. It's too easy to compare this to what's available now, as opposed to being in the context of what was available then.

 

I'll tell you what I remember: This was a favorite of the day, because unlike Venture, where I wanted Even More rooms, this seemed to go on and on. And Unlike Dragon Stomper or Adventure, you had an actual character that looked like a man;... a sword fighting man!, not a square with an arrow.

 

I think it's fair to say I, too, wished there was some more progression, or different rooms (I mean different looking rooms), or maybe special areas in certain rooms...I guess I chalked it up to limitations of the times.

 

And although my memory is hazy, I remember when my friend came up with the idea of blowing through the levels until you got to the levels with the Death Spells...Then there was some way to collect those over and over again. Then you could go take on the toughest enemies and just annihilate them with those spells. Fun Times! Sorry, I can't remember the details of how to do it now...At the moment I'm a little, a lot tired...

I might not agree, but you've written a good review. I understand your thoughts being the way they are...I consider it almost a "trap", if you will, of reviewing classic games in modern times. It's too easy to compare this to what's available now, as opposed to being in the context of what was available then.

 

This one was especially difficult to review because I like this genre of action based dungeon crawler so much, so I will admit to a large amount of bias when it came to writing the review. I have been VERY spoiled when it comes to this genre of game, especially with the Indie Revolution, it seems every other game is a dungeon crawler these days. I'd say this 'review' turned out to be more of an opinion piece than an actual review.