C64 Dungeon

LOADSTAR was a disk magazine for Commodore 64 computers that ran from about 1984 to 1999, and beyond. It eventually ran for nearly 250 issues. On issue 74 they published Dungeon, a fantasy RPG creation and playing system by David Caruso II and IFC Systems. It is CRPG adventuring much as was common in its early days.

Using the Dungeon software, creators can use the system to create a dungeon disk with an adventure to play; players can use the Dungeon utility system create a character, then take it through adventures others have written. Five adventure disks are included.Each is a perilous journey full of monsters and treasure. Find the goal item and escape alive to potentially gain an experience level, a boost in power that will remain with the character for the rest of their life. Fail, and your character may die. Characters get a total of three lives. If a character doesn't make it back to town (maybe you turned off the game), it'll be marked as "GONE." It'll eventually make it back to the Guild on its own, as other characters go on their own adventures.

In play, the player's character explores a rectangular dungeon a single screen in size, with its terrain mapped around them as they pass through it. It's very simple in appearance, an abstract maze of blocks using the Commodore 64's graphics character set, but effective. There are no random encounters. All monster encounters are set in place; it's up to the dungeon creator whether they're visible ahead of time or not. Monster are fought one at a time. Items can be found, possibly weapons, armor, shields or items bearing magic spells that can be used, but items cannot be taken out of a dungeon; all long-term character advancement is through experience.

Here is video of Dungeon in play:

While simple in appearance, Dungeon was intended to be a complete game system, using player-made adventure modules. In concept it's similar to Eamon, an adventure creation and playing system that once saw a horde of enthusiasts creating for it. Dungeon does have a way for the game to generate adventures by itself, randomly scattering pre-made monsters and items around a map it calls a "Lost World."

The issues of LOADSTAR presented Dungeon more than once, and several adventures that David Caruso and the magazine's other subscribers created. This package currently Dungeon as it was presented on LOADSTAR #74, plus all the adventures that LOADSTAR published for it. It also has a stock copy of the Commodore 64 emulator GTKVice for Windows.

With Dungeon comes a PDF explaining how to play the game and create your own modules for it. You can download that separately, for free, here. if you want to know more about it, without taking even that minuscule plunge. It also comes with a player's guide document, and a couple of data disks with monsters and items to use in your own dungeon scenarios, or for use in generating Lost Worlds.

We have permission from the rights-holder of LOADSTAR, former managing editor Fender Tucker, to present this version of Dungeon. If you wish to play as (or delete) the powerful King Alegris character included on the roster, its password is "crown", but Dungeon is all about creating your own character, seeing how long they can survive, and how powerful they can become.

Feel free to distribute adventures you've made with Dungeon, although I can't just offer the main disk for free. (I have permission to make Dungeon available, but the game isn't mine.) Please respect Fender's ownership. He's a good guy, and he's been involved with LOADSTAR for over four decades.

PS: We have no idea where David Caruso II is now. If you have any information on what happened to him, we'd appreciate it if you'd get in touch! My email is johnwh at gmail.com, on Mastodon I'm @rodneylives@mefi.social.