Temple of Apshai

Temple of Apshai
Cover art by Karen Gerving
Developer(s)	Automated Simulations
Publisher(s)	Automated Simulations
Designer(s)	Jon Freeman Jeff Johnson
Programmer(s)	Jim Connelley (TRS-80, Commodore PET, IBM PC) Michael Farren (Apple II) Aric Wilmunder (Atari 8-bit) Steve Bryson (Commodore 64) Stephen Landrum (Trilogy)
Series	Dunjonquest
Platform(s)	TRS-80, Commodore PET, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, IBM PC, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh, Amstrad CPC
Release	August 1979
Genre(s)	Dungeon crawl RPG
Mode(s)	Single-player

Temple of Apshai is a dungeon crawl role-playing video game developed and published by Automated Simulations (later renamed to Epyx) in 1979. Originating on the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, it was followed by several updated versions for other computers between 1980 and 1986.

Temple of Apshai is considered one of the first graphical role-playing games for home computers, predating even the commercial release of Richard Garriott's Akalabeth: World of Doom. It was an enormous success for its era, selling 20,000 copies by the end of 1981, and 30,000 copies by 30 June 1982 and remaining a best-seller for at least four years.

It was followed by several sequels and two expansions. The latter were bundled with the main game into the remake Temple of Apshai Trilogy in 1985. Games using the Apshai engine were collectively known as the Dunjonquest series.

The player in Temple of Apshai assumes the role of an adventurer who explores the mysterious ruins of the Temple of Apshai. This player character investigates room after room of this dungeon setting while seeking treasure and combatting monsters. Along the way, the player discovers powerful weapons and armor with which to overcome the Temple's inhabitants. The game consists of four dungeons with over 200 rooms in total and features 30 monster types.

Temple of Apshai consists of two programs; the Innkeeper and the Dunjonmaster. The game starts with the Inkeeper and the choice to either generate a new character or input an existing one. The game uses six base values taken from Dungeons & Dragons Early tape versions of the game had no means to save progress, and thus the player was prompted to note down all statistics when quitting the game, and had to type them in again manually at the start of the next game. Later floppy versions fixed this by allowing to save the status on the disk. Weapons and armor are purchased in a shop, where it is possible to haggle with the shopkeeper for a discount. Character stats determine which items can be worn. Finally, the player chooses between four dungeons of increasing difficulty to enter the Dunjonmaster part.