Returning to DM: a series of blog posts you guys might enjoy

[Paul Stevens]

main dungeon is 2/3 of the game

OK....You say 4/6 and I say 3/6. Not a lot to
argue about there.

You and I know what needs doing.

But when you don't know the ropes, the top FulYa
level itself is quite a biggie. And most will agree
that the DDD is the most complex piece of the game
until you have a great deal of experience in it.
Much of the DDD is compulsory.....no shortcuts.
And a lot of dead ends.

Spoiler

I remember fighting those
silly flames and figuring out how they regenerate.

[Gambit37]

Yep, true, the top level is a beast and takes a fair bit of cautious playtime the first time you play the game. In fact, I can't even remember how long it took me to finish CSB the first time I played it back in 1990. It would have been unimaginable back then to be told CSB can be completed in under 15 minutes...!

[Jan]

I'm not sure I can exactly say I've done the game up until now without help as I have consulted the hint oracle

The Hint Oracle was a genuine part of the game so using it is no "cheating" nor using any "external" help. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone finishing the game without at least the Hint Oracle. You also seem to be lucky to be playing it under CSBWin - other people recently suggested that the Hint Oracle in RTC doesn't work properly - i.e. doesn't give the proper advices in proper places.

The ease with which games can be reloaded now also probably makes the dungeon slightly more manageable than FTL intended

Good point. Reloading your game or using the Hint Oracle used to be a painful business in the old days. I guess that also nowadays almost nobody uses the VI altars because it's so easy to save / load your game any time.

now I've repeatedly died while attempting to do, well, anything in the DDD

[seebs]

Hint oracle?

I get the feeling that I missed something when I played CSB. I think I just thought it was like DM, only you could click on walls to test whether they were solid instead of running into them. Oh, and I had inventory crashes occasionally with my giant collection of chests.

[beowuuf]

The utility disk let you load your saved game to gets hints on your current position.

[seebs]

The utility disk let you load your saved game to gets hints on your current position.

Wow, I am either an idiot or super hard-core. Or both!