Thanks for having this up on Armchair Arcade, I didn't want to miss one of these videos.
This is one of the few games you've done that I hadn't heard of before watching your videos. It looks like it's a pretty difficult game with the needing to eat and all that. Modern RPGs tend to not have that feature anymore
Nice classical music. Is this one of those games where someone was claiming "copyright infringment"? I remember watching this in the past with your narration instead of the music.
Dungeon Master really got you involved with the characters in your party and the way they developed as the game progressed. Each character seemed to have his own flaws and quirks almost like a personality and you became emotionally invested in them or grew to hate them! Halk was strong as an ox but came with 0 mana. But by using an amulet and potions, I actually developed him into a fireball caster by the end of the game! Tiggy was the opposite, a powerful mage but a total wimp.
Dungeon Master was the first game I ever played that gave me a real adrenaline shiver of fear! That was back in the days of the Atari ST and it still ranks right up there among the best computer games I've ever played. Now I hear someone is working on an Android port.
I played this on the Amiga and since on the PC. Awesome game for its time.
Some of the things that stick in my mind: The %$£& bloody thieves who nicked all your stuff and ran off, the screamer slices (yum!) and of course the ability to kill oneself by mistiming one's direction commands and head-butting a wall to death xD
I remember this looking so swish in the eighties, and yet the Atari XE conversion, Dungeon Monsters, looks almost identical. Apart from the sound, that's shaping up to be way better. And to think I packed way my XE when I got my 520STM!
You definitely need to do video about Eye Of The Beholder series. One of my favorite RPGs. Played on Amiga in 93/94. I'm playing it again now on DOSBox :)
I used to mess around with the Java-based Dungeon Master where you could build your own dungeons. Was remarkably full featured too.
Sadly, I never hopped on the Dungeon Master bandwagon until Theron's Quest on the TG-16, then later the Sega CD version of Dungeon Master 2 skullkeep. Played the originals on DOS years later and wished I had never missed them.
I don't know why but there's just something about all these awesome old games that affects a part of my brain in a way modern games never can.I don't know what part,but it's a part that gets great satisfaction from these games.
Actually,I think Aleister Crowley described it best when he explained how people watching a stage play would get more into it if the stage set was as minimal as possible,as opposed to a stage production with a lavish set,where a lot of the audience would be bored.I think old games are like that,allowing you to use your imagination to fill in the gaps.
Cool.I think it's great that modern games can have so much detail graphics-wise,but the unfortunate side effect is that the game play in many of today's games suffers as a result.Too many games are made catering to what I like to call "graphics whores."
Where indeed? You're lucky to still have one! There aren't many games I care to dig out and replay every 6/7 years, but Dungeon Master is certainly one of them.
I loved that game too! I remember about half way through there was a hidden "pressure pad" on the floor you stepped on and you could see a distant wall disappear, but stepping off it closed the wall again. Does anyone else remember this? I finished the game without solving this one, but it still puzzles me.
Anyway I stll probably have more good memories of this game than any other, and I started in the early 80s with the ZX Spectrum.
I know of several pressure plates in the game, so you may need to consult a walkthrough or perhaps a play-through video to see the solution. They usually involved either stepping on them in sequence or dropping an object on top of them.
I finished it in 1991 so my memory is definitely on shaky ground. But there was an area, roughly halfway through the game where if you stood on a piece of the floor you could hear a click and a far wall opened up. There wasn't actually any *visible* pressure plate around. I tried placing many items on the ground where the plate was, but it never helped. It wasn't neccessary to complete this, but I sure remember it. I always thought it was a "red herring" put in to tease the player.
Wasn't there a skeleton in that room? If so, you should freeze the skeleton on that platform in order to proceed. I think it was the single monster-activated platform in the original DM, but there were a lot more in the CSB.
Do a search for "dungeon master encyclopedia" and you'll find the best site in existence for this game. On there, they have the official hintbook scanned in to PDF format. That would be your best bet for finding out what that plate did.
I played many games like this, but not this specific one. As I was watching you play, I began to wonder if there is game has a screen that shows a map and where you are or something like that--or were you expected to map your progress on paper? Thanks for the great review, Matt.
I'm trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't. There is a magic compass you can find to help you navigate, though. There are also plenty of websites that provide great maps. Part of the fun of these old ones, though, was taking out graph paper and doing it yourself.
I tried it a few times but never was any good at it. I still have some graph paper around in case I get the desire, though. The temptation just to use a map off the internet is just too great these days.
@RichardEllwood The weird thing about this game was that even without mapping, if you played it long enough you developed a sort of underground directional sense. This was the first time a virtual reality actually took hold in my brain and it felt quite spooky at the time, but I guess today that's commonplace.
Have you noticed how design elements in the game seem to be "ahead of their time"?
For once there are the floppy disk icon for saving, and that "X" which looks very much like what we have on Windows PCs today... Also the display of all the characters on the top with the bars and the whole layout of the inventory screen. It's amazing to see stuff like that, which ist still used in modern games, in a game from 87, I would've thought some of these were "invented" not before somewhere into the 90s.
It's hard to deny that this game was forward thinking. It spawned a whole subgenre of real-time first person CRPGs such as Eye of the Beholder and later Might & Magics.
I never really got into Dungeon Master, but i did have a copy, back at the young age of about 12! I did get more into a similar game called Bloodwych because my friend brought it over and it had a two player split screen mode.
It was the Ultima series however, and also Daggerfall that really got me into RPG's :)
Ah, Bloodwych. That was apparently very popular in Europe, though I didn't play it until I was researching for my Dungeons & Desktop book. I believe it inspired Hired Guns later on.
Thanks Matt, I really enjoyed this review! Dungeon Master's appeal really is timeless. I introduced some of the kids (11/12 year olds) I work with to the DOS version and they are hooked! They also get much further in the game than I was ever able too, which is really annoying XD More Atari ST reviews please!
It's great to know that 11/12 year old kids can appreciate a game like this (i.e. one without all the modern bells and whistles). There IS hope for humanity! Perhaps the next generation will become known as the Retro Gen!
yeah, about 2 years after dungeon master II was put in market, I was really little and I saw my dad play it. Every time he played the game, i would sit on his lap, just watching him play the game. about a few months later, i became addicted to playing games like dungeon master 1 and 2, stonekeep, and lands of lore. it was awesomeness.
I've always felt a little torn about the advent of real time and speedy player reaction in CRPGs. On the one hand, it is somewhat contrary to the thoughtful and considered decision-making spirit of trad RPGs. On the other, if one were really confronted by, say, Orcs in a dungeon, the experience would undoubtedly more closely resemble Dungeon Master than Pool of Radiance or Bard's Tale! Keep up the good work Matt of Matt Chat!
Well said, Marcus. I remember my first ever DM game when I was about 9 years old. The first encounter with a mummy had my heart racing. Role Playing Games would never be the same again!
I came for videogames - I stayed for the music
Muffincakeswithsugar 2 weeks ago
Hey, love your video - I'd like to watch it, but the link doesnt lead to it, please link to correct version!
kohan69 6 months ago
@kohan69 The link is under the embedded video for Matt Chat 100. :)
AmethystLunitari 1 month ago
Thanks for having this up on Armchair Arcade, I didn't want to miss one of these videos.
This is one of the few games you've done that I hadn't heard of before watching your videos. It looks like it's a pretty difficult game with the needing to eat and all that. Modern RPGs tend to not have that feature anymore
TinyTank2 8 months ago
Nice classical music. Is this one of those games where someone was claiming "copyright infringment"? I remember watching this in the past with your narration instead of the music.
DOSBoxMom 1 year ago
Dungeon Master really got you involved with the characters in your party and the way they developed as the game progressed. Each character seemed to have his own flaws and quirks almost like a personality and you became emotionally invested in them or grew to hate them! Halk was strong as an ox but came with 0 mana. But by using an amulet and potions, I actually developed him into a fireball caster by the end of the game! Tiggy was the opposite, a powerful mage but a total wimp.
jazmaan 1 year ago
Dungeon Master was the first game I ever played that gave me a real adrenaline shiver of fear! That was back in the days of the Atari ST and it still ranks right up there among the best computer games I've ever played. Now I hear someone is working on an Android port.
jazmaan 1 year ago
You look like a nice guy!
TheBlackStar999 1 year ago
I played this on the Amiga and since on the PC. Awesome game for its time.
Some of the things that stick in my mind: The %$£& bloody thieves who nicked all your stuff and ran off, the screamer slices (yum!) and of course the ability to kill oneself by mistiming one's direction commands and head-butting a wall to death xD
banedon88 1 year ago
I remember this looking so swish in the eighties, and yet the Atari XE conversion, Dungeon Monsters, looks almost identical. Apart from the sound, that's shaping up to be way better. And to think I packed way my XE when I got my 520STM!
gamein60seconds 1 year ago
Nostalgia. Wonderful. Amazing gameplay quality.
EnzoScifo 1 year ago
I have this for the snes :D
whitstable11 1 year ago
for the lose games
thizzboy99 1 year ago
It was great game !
tdc6502 1 year ago
I just realized that you should redub this video with the montage song from Team America : D
1unusedname 1 year ago
You definitely need to do video about Eye Of The Beholder series. One of my favorite RPGs. Played on Amiga in 93/94. I'm playing it again now on DOSBox :)
Emrendil 1 year ago
I used to mess around with the Java-based Dungeon Master where you could build your own dungeons. Was remarkably full featured too.
Sadly, I never hopped on the Dungeon Master bandwagon until Theron's Quest on the TG-16, then later the Sega CD version of Dungeon Master 2 skullkeep. Played the originals on DOS years later and wished I had never missed them.
TwelveFortySix 2 years ago
Oh and I'm going to start DM soon.Any tips for a noob?
1unusedname 2 years ago
There are some good websites out there to get you started. If you plan to make your own maps, be sure to get some graph paper.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Thanks : D And hope you are having a good Christmas.
1unusedname 2 years ago
I don't know why but there's just something about all these awesome old games that affects a part of my brain in a way modern games never can.I don't know what part,but it's a part that gets great satisfaction from these games.
1unusedname 2 years ago
Actually,I think Aleister Crowley described it best when he explained how people watching a stage play would get more into it if the stage set was as minimal as possible,as opposed to a stage production with a lavish set,where a lot of the audience would be bored.I think old games are like that,allowing you to use your imagination to fill in the gaps.
1unusedname 2 years ago 4
That's a fascinating hypothesis, and sounds quite reasonable to me.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Cool.I think it's great that modern games can have so much detail graphics-wise,but the unfortunate side effect is that the game play in many of today's games suffers as a result.Too many games are made catering to what I like to call "graphics whores."
1unusedname 2 years ago
@1unusedname It's the same underlying reason why the eye can view a series of lines and see a picture.
NinjaRunningWild 1 year ago
@NinjaRunningWild Does a series of cocaine lines on a mirror count as a picture?
1unusedname 1 year ago
@1unusedname Sure, why not? Especially what you draw *after* that goes up your nose!
NinjaRunningWild 1 year ago
Me again - do you rate Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2 highly?
stuartkerrigan 2 years ago
Very, especially 1.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Another fine review Matt. So what's the payoff? What happens at the end?
vintagevideogamegeek 2 years ago
I've never experienced it myself, but there's an epic boss battle.
blacklily8 2 years ago
In fact since its release on the ST I have dusted it down probably every 6/7 years and played through it again.
In fact where is that ST now?! :P
idiotzrule 2 years ago
Where indeed? You're lucky to still have one! There aren't many games I care to dig out and replay every 6/7 years, but Dungeon Master is certainly one of them.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Best game of all time.....
idiotzrule 2 years ago
I loved that game too! I remember about half way through there was a hidden "pressure pad" on the floor you stepped on and you could see a distant wall disappear, but stepping off it closed the wall again. Does anyone else remember this? I finished the game without solving this one, but it still puzzles me.
Anyway I stll probably have more good memories of this game than any other, and I started in the early 80s with the ZX Spectrum.
eightninchpianist 2 years ago
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I know of several pressure plates in the game, so you may need to consult a walkthrough or perhaps a play-through video to see the solution. They usually involved either stepping on them in sequence or dropping an object on top of them.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I finished it in 1991 so my memory is definitely on shaky ground. But there was an area, roughly halfway through the game where if you stood on a piece of the floor you could hear a click and a far wall opened up. There wasn't actually any *visible* pressure plate around. I tried placing many items on the ground where the plate was, but it never helped. It wasn't neccessary to complete this, but I sure remember it. I always thought it was a "red herring" put in to tease the player.
eightninchpianist 2 years ago
Wasn't there a skeleton in that room? If so, you should freeze the skeleton on that platform in order to proceed. I think it was the single monster-activated platform in the original DM, but there were a lot more in the CSB.
homokladin 2 years ago
Do a search for "dungeon master encyclopedia" and you'll find the best site in existence for this game. On there, they have the official hintbook scanned in to PDF format. That would be your best bet for finding out what that plate did.
NinjaRunningWild 2 years ago
Awesome game indeed.
I guess that you were a fan of Eye of the beholder, Black Crypt etc. as well?
Oh yeah, did you ever play Moria?
DrapskunstUlf 2 years ago
Moria - are you talking about the MUD or the PLATO game? I've played it at some point, I'm pretty sure, though not an expert by any means.
I missed EotB and Black Crypt when they came out, but have looked at them since. By all accounts, well worth checking out.
blacklily8 2 years ago
thank you very much for this video! all those wonderful memorys...
TaruTaru76 2 years ago
You're very welcome! I'm uploading #20 now, on Worms.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I played many games like this, but not this specific one. As I was watching you play, I began to wonder if there is game has a screen that shows a map and where you are or something like that--or were you expected to map your progress on paper? Thanks for the great review, Matt.
RichardEllwood 2 years ago
I'm trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't. There is a magic compass you can find to help you navigate, though. There are also plenty of websites that provide great maps. Part of the fun of these old ones, though, was taking out graph paper and doing it yourself.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I used to love mapping out my progress on many games, especially text adventures--I spent many happy hours playing those.
RichardEllwood 2 years ago
I tried it a few times but never was any good at it. I still have some graph paper around in case I get the desire, though. The temptation just to use a map off the internet is just too great these days.
blacklily8 2 years ago
@RichardEllwood The weird thing about this game was that even without mapping, if you played it long enough you developed a sort of underground directional sense. This was the first time a virtual reality actually took hold in my brain and it felt quite spooky at the time, but I guess today that's commonplace.
jazmaan 1 year ago
nostalgia
sentimoko 2 years ago
How's the Super Nintendo port of this game??
dave4shmups 2 years ago
I have no idea. Check it out and let me know!
blacklily8 2 years ago
Great job, Matt! Has anyone here played the Super Nintendo port of this game? I don't have an Atari ST, but I do have a Super Nintendo!
dave4shmups 2 years ago
Have you noticed how design elements in the game seem to be "ahead of their time"?
For once there are the floppy disk icon for saving, and that "X" which looks very much like what we have on Windows PCs today... Also the display of all the characters on the top with the bars and the whole layout of the inventory screen. It's amazing to see stuff like that, which ist still used in modern games, in a game from 87, I would've thought some of these were "invented" not before somewhere into the 90s.
Herbarius 2 years ago
It's hard to deny that this game was forward thinking. It spawned a whole subgenre of real-time first person CRPGs such as Eye of the Beholder and later Might & Magics.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I never really got into Dungeon Master, but i did have a copy, back at the young age of about 12! I did get more into a similar game called Bloodwych because my friend brought it over and it had a two player split screen mode.
It was the Ultima series however, and also Daggerfall that really got me into RPG's :)
BVargas78 2 years ago
Ah, Bloodwych. That was apparently very popular in Europe, though I didn't play it until I was researching for my Dungeons & Desktop book. I believe it inspired Hired Guns later on.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Thanks Matt, I really enjoyed this review! Dungeon Master's appeal really is timeless. I introduced some of the kids (11/12 year olds) I work with to the DOS version and they are hooked! They also get much further in the game than I was ever able too, which is really annoying XD More Atari ST reviews please!
thejoyofsticks 2 years ago
It's great to know that 11/12 year old kids can appreciate a game like this (i.e. one without all the modern bells and whistles). There IS hope for humanity! Perhaps the next generation will become known as the Retro Gen!
marcusmalone 2 years ago
indeed! it is great when you see kids appreciate what we appreciated as youngsters....aaah the expectations of a nostalgic human :)
Konuvis 2 years ago
yeah, about 2 years after dungeon master II was put in market, I was really little and I saw my dad play it. Every time he played the game, i would sit on his lap, just watching him play the game. about a few months later, i became addicted to playing games like dungeon master 1 and 2, stonekeep, and lands of lore. it was awesomeness.
GuitarDeity 2 years ago
Wow, what an awesome story. I love how these games can bring families together and provide some wonderful memories.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Keep it up Matt, great videos.
alyinsanfran 2 years ago
I know exactly what you mean, Marcus. I think either can be fun, but it's definitely a different kind of experience.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I've always felt a little torn about the advent of real time and speedy player reaction in CRPGs. On the one hand, it is somewhat contrary to the thoughtful and considered decision-making spirit of trad RPGs. On the other, if one were really confronted by, say, Orcs in a dungeon, the experience would undoubtedly more closely resemble Dungeon Master than Pool of Radiance or Bard's Tale! Keep up the good work Matt of Matt Chat!
marcusmalone 2 years ago 8
Well said, Marcus. I remember my first ever DM game when I was about 9 years old. The first encounter with a mummy had my heart racing. Role Playing Games would never be the same again!
thejoyofsticks 2 years ago 4