Dungeon Master and my dad. Late 80s
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:53 pm
Back in the late 80s my dad bought our first 16bit computer from A.S Wootton and Sons in Crewe: An Atari ST with the single-sided floppy drive :O(
About two years later, he bought a second one from the same store. This time the later 520STFM that had the 'Rainbow TOS' operating system and *hurrah* a double-sided disk drive!
Atari ST nostalgia aside, the first game i recall playing was 'Test Drive' by Accolade. We bought that the same day we bought the first ST. It cost £24.95 but the store in Crewe offered discounts on all software - i think 15% or so. I thought the game was amazing. Such a departure from the older Atari 2600 system that we had. I thought the graphics and gameplay were wonderful.
I was 11 years old. Dad was in his early forties and quite a tall, lanky chap.
Not long into our ownership of that first Atari, my dad purchased a game that would transform both our videogaming lives: Dungeon Master. Purchased from A.S. Wootton and Sons in Crewe, I can vividly recall the day we bought it. The screenshots on the back of the box looked....stunning!
Rather like the 1st-person viewpoint of 'Test Drive', the interface and style of DM completely stunned us both. It was nothing short of a revelation.
Dad had played a lot of the old 2600 games with me/against me: Combat, Breakout, Super Breakout, Defender etc. But it was Dungeon Master that would cement our videogaming bond. Despite it being firmly single-player, i was always happy to watch dad play. And when he wasn't playing, he was happy for me to take over (just so long as i didn't get the party killed of course!)
Dad's style of play on DM was..... glacial compared to mine. I would run around like an idiot, repeatedly failing to remember my way; getting lost; getting killed; falling down pits. I wasn't playing like a fool - i was just *so* desperate to see what was around the next corner. The game had me captivated in such a way as i don’t think i have ever been since!
Compared to me, dad would play the game slowly. Methodically. Mapping out each level on some grid-like maths paper. Noting all the spells down. Noting weapon attributes etc. Dad even spent hours in the 'Hall of Champions' mapping that AND listing out all the stats and equipment that each character had :O)
Our band of misfits was typically re-incarnated (but we re-used the names): Tiggy Tamal. Wuuf the Bika. Boris Wizard of Baldor. Halk the Barbarian.
Dad was stronger with the spells: Anti Fire. Anti Magic.
I used to pick the biggest weapon that we had found up to that point and smash things with Halk (Does the weapon have a melee option? If yes, use it! lol)
Between us we slowly encroached into the lower dungeons. Screamers came and went. Gigglers annoyed the hell out of us (especially dad - not an ideal combo when you are mapping stuff out slowly!). The worm level was a godsend. More free food! Water became a scarce resource - if we found a container it invariably got filled with water. The Golems presented a big challenge to us later on. The deth knights were a pain if you got cornered. I loved the spirit-type enemies that could only be injured with a vorpal blade or magic (the Witcher series of games continues this theme with double-swords to handle spirits/physical foes).
The game seemed to just keep on giving - different monsters, traps, puzzles. And all from one lowly single-sided disk (at least i think it was single sided?)
The Atari ST was setup in my parents bedroom on a computer table in the corner. So access to it was limited to times they weren't sleeping.... slightly annoying when i woke at 7am on a Saturday and had to wait for mum and dad to get up before i could play Test Drive, OIDS or DM.
Later into the evenings, dad could often be found having a “quick go” on Dungeon Master. That would typically escalate into a 3-4 hour session which ended only when my mum wanted to go to bed.
Dad was often quite vocal while playing DM: shouts of anger or surprise when confronted by an unexpected monster or trap were common place. The biggest such shout occurred the first time we ever faced the Dragon. This was a mythical beast – I’m not even certain if walkthroughs/reviews had really mentioned the appearance of the Dragon, or more precisely *where* it appeared in the game. (I think the review in ST Action mentioned it?). So I guess we knew it was there….but when dad first encountered it: “Oh bloody hell!!!” [ROAR] [BANG] [4x characters saying “AHHHH”] Game Over.
Trying to meticulously map level 14 wasn’t easy with the big Dragon fella lumbering about :O)
As the years progressed, dad turned his hand to PC gaming: Oblivion, Skyrim, World of WarCraft. He kept his hand in, again trying to map and record info in Oblivion (glass armour stats etc). He was even part of a WOW Guild that myself and some mates ran . . . listening to my dad over voice comms when trying to get him to orchestrate a planned attack on an end-of-raid boss was pretty funny! Folks in their late 60s aren’t as quick with the mouse and keyboard as us younger folks!
But of all the video games dad played, it was Dungeon Master that stood out for him. That was the game that reeled him in like no other before or since ever has.
He even spent a lot of time mapping out the DM Java remake in the early 2000s :O)
Dad died in November 2017. He suffered a massive stroke while being treated in hospital for a heart infection that had badly infected one of his arteries.
Myself and close family were with him as his slowly slipped away. His pupils were fully dilated. He had no pain response. There was no response at all from his brain. His body, lungs and heart were hanging on in there… but slowly as the hours passed they got weaker and weaker until eventually…. with me holding one of his hands and my sister the other….dad gave one final small breath and then his heart gave one final, small pulse. He was gone . . .
Part of me likes to think that, at the exact moment dad died, somewhere in Africa a lanky giraffe was born whose first living thought was: “Why do I know so much about Dungeon Master…!?”
I’ve since re-discovered dad’s maps and notes for WOW, Oblivion, Skyrim and (notably) extensive written notes and maps for DM Java. Somewhere (I hope in either my garage or my parents) are dads original Dungeon Master notes and maps. I haven’t seen them in over a decade but I’m hopeful that I never threw them out and that (somewhere) in the back of my garage or my parents those extensive set of notes still exist.
If I find them, I’ll have to upload a few pictures here.
Thanks for buying Dungeon Master all those years ago dad. It made such a massive impression on my life which still holds true today.
RIP fella.
About two years later, he bought a second one from the same store. This time the later 520STFM that had the 'Rainbow TOS' operating system and *hurrah* a double-sided disk drive!
Atari ST nostalgia aside, the first game i recall playing was 'Test Drive' by Accolade. We bought that the same day we bought the first ST. It cost £24.95 but the store in Crewe offered discounts on all software - i think 15% or so. I thought the game was amazing. Such a departure from the older Atari 2600 system that we had. I thought the graphics and gameplay were wonderful.
I was 11 years old. Dad was in his early forties and quite a tall, lanky chap.
Not long into our ownership of that first Atari, my dad purchased a game that would transform both our videogaming lives: Dungeon Master. Purchased from A.S. Wootton and Sons in Crewe, I can vividly recall the day we bought it. The screenshots on the back of the box looked....stunning!
Rather like the 1st-person viewpoint of 'Test Drive', the interface and style of DM completely stunned us both. It was nothing short of a revelation.
Dad had played a lot of the old 2600 games with me/against me: Combat, Breakout, Super Breakout, Defender etc. But it was Dungeon Master that would cement our videogaming bond. Despite it being firmly single-player, i was always happy to watch dad play. And when he wasn't playing, he was happy for me to take over (just so long as i didn't get the party killed of course!)
Dad's style of play on DM was..... glacial compared to mine. I would run around like an idiot, repeatedly failing to remember my way; getting lost; getting killed; falling down pits. I wasn't playing like a fool - i was just *so* desperate to see what was around the next corner. The game had me captivated in such a way as i don’t think i have ever been since!
Compared to me, dad would play the game slowly. Methodically. Mapping out each level on some grid-like maths paper. Noting all the spells down. Noting weapon attributes etc. Dad even spent hours in the 'Hall of Champions' mapping that AND listing out all the stats and equipment that each character had :O)
Our band of misfits was typically re-incarnated (but we re-used the names): Tiggy Tamal. Wuuf the Bika. Boris Wizard of Baldor. Halk the Barbarian.
Dad was stronger with the spells: Anti Fire. Anti Magic.
I used to pick the biggest weapon that we had found up to that point and smash things with Halk (Does the weapon have a melee option? If yes, use it! lol)
Between us we slowly encroached into the lower dungeons. Screamers came and went. Gigglers annoyed the hell out of us (especially dad - not an ideal combo when you are mapping stuff out slowly!). The worm level was a godsend. More free food! Water became a scarce resource - if we found a container it invariably got filled with water. The Golems presented a big challenge to us later on. The deth knights were a pain if you got cornered. I loved the spirit-type enemies that could only be injured with a vorpal blade or magic (the Witcher series of games continues this theme with double-swords to handle spirits/physical foes).
The game seemed to just keep on giving - different monsters, traps, puzzles. And all from one lowly single-sided disk (at least i think it was single sided?)
The Atari ST was setup in my parents bedroom on a computer table in the corner. So access to it was limited to times they weren't sleeping.... slightly annoying when i woke at 7am on a Saturday and had to wait for mum and dad to get up before i could play Test Drive, OIDS or DM.
Later into the evenings, dad could often be found having a “quick go” on Dungeon Master. That would typically escalate into a 3-4 hour session which ended only when my mum wanted to go to bed.
Dad was often quite vocal while playing DM: shouts of anger or surprise when confronted by an unexpected monster or trap were common place. The biggest such shout occurred the first time we ever faced the Dragon. This was a mythical beast – I’m not even certain if walkthroughs/reviews had really mentioned the appearance of the Dragon, or more precisely *where* it appeared in the game. (I think the review in ST Action mentioned it?). So I guess we knew it was there….but when dad first encountered it: “Oh bloody hell!!!” [ROAR] [BANG] [4x characters saying “AHHHH”] Game Over.
Trying to meticulously map level 14 wasn’t easy with the big Dragon fella lumbering about :O)
As the years progressed, dad turned his hand to PC gaming: Oblivion, Skyrim, World of WarCraft. He kept his hand in, again trying to map and record info in Oblivion (glass armour stats etc). He was even part of a WOW Guild that myself and some mates ran . . . listening to my dad over voice comms when trying to get him to orchestrate a planned attack on an end-of-raid boss was pretty funny! Folks in their late 60s aren’t as quick with the mouse and keyboard as us younger folks!
But of all the video games dad played, it was Dungeon Master that stood out for him. That was the game that reeled him in like no other before or since ever has.
He even spent a lot of time mapping out the DM Java remake in the early 2000s :O)
Dad died in November 2017. He suffered a massive stroke while being treated in hospital for a heart infection that had badly infected one of his arteries.
Myself and close family were with him as his slowly slipped away. His pupils were fully dilated. He had no pain response. There was no response at all from his brain. His body, lungs and heart were hanging on in there… but slowly as the hours passed they got weaker and weaker until eventually…. with me holding one of his hands and my sister the other….dad gave one final small breath and then his heart gave one final, small pulse. He was gone . . .
Part of me likes to think that, at the exact moment dad died, somewhere in Africa a lanky giraffe was born whose first living thought was: “Why do I know so much about Dungeon Master…!?”
I’ve since re-discovered dad’s maps and notes for WOW, Oblivion, Skyrim and (notably) extensive written notes and maps for DM Java. Somewhere (I hope in either my garage or my parents) are dads original Dungeon Master notes and maps. I haven’t seen them in over a decade but I’m hopeful that I never threw them out and that (somewhere) in the back of my garage or my parents those extensive set of notes still exist.
If I find them, I’ll have to upload a few pictures here.
Thanks for buying Dungeon Master all those years ago dad. It made such a massive impression on my life which still holds true today.
RIP fella.