Dunjonquest

Dunjonquest
Logo used to identify games belonging to the series on manuals and sides of packaging
Genres	Dungeon crawl RPG
Developers	Epyx
Publishers	Epyx
Creators	Jon Freeman Jim Connelley Jeff Johnson
Platforms	TRS-80, Commodore PET, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, IBM PC, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh, Amstrad CPC
Platform of origin	TRS-80
First release	Temple of Apshai August 1979
Latest release	Temple of Apshai Trilogy (16-bit) 1986

Dunjonquest is a series of single-player, single-character fantasy computer role-playing games by Automated Simulations (later known as Epyx). Temple of Apshai was the most successful and most widely ported game in the series. The games relied on strategy and pen & paper RPG style rules and statistics.

There were two basic types of Dunjonquest games:

The Dunjonquest games were ported across a wide variety of late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s home computers.

All Dunjonquest titles were advertised as "real time" RPGs, but actually use a hybrid between a real time and turn-based system. Monsters move and take turns on their own periodic timetable, whose pace can be chosen from three options at the start of the game. Even if the player remains idle, the monsters keep advancing and attacking.

The player character is controlled with the use of keystrokes. Walking is possible in speeds from 1-9, but faster walking speeds, cause more fatigue. If the "fatigue" value sinks below 0, the character cannot move anymore and has to rest, even in combat. Most actions decrease the character's stamina, but some can replenish it gradually.

Some of the games had unique keyboard commands, but the most common commands are:

Dunjonquest introduced the concept of having room descriptions presented as detailed text printed in the game's manuals, similar to role-playing solitaire adventures. Each room in Temple of Apshai has a room number attached to it, displayed in the UI. By checking the corresponding room number listed in the "Chambers of the Dunjon" section in the manual, the player can get detailed descriptions of the atmosphere and objects in the rooms, like dust on the floor, particular smells in the air or peculiarities of the architecture. The descriptions warrant guesses at traps, treasures, hidden passages and lurking enemies within the room. The printed room descriptions were used as a means of overcoming the limitations of the simple black-on-white graphics and limited memory for displaying text on screen. They also serve as an early form of copyright protection. Only the larger titles in the series feature room descriptions.