I'm 40 and first discovered DM back in the late 80s I guess, and I would say it's probably the most influential game I've ever played. Still, to this day, nothing really matches all the complex nuances that made it what it is. How many games make your characters suffer if you don't eat or drink? How many games cause your characters to move slower if they're overloaded with items? How many games have such a simple yet effective magic system?
I think it was the magic system that really made DM for me. I'm embarassed to say I didn't have a manual when I first played it, probably because it was a copy a friend had done for me. (I can't get told off for that after 22 years, can I?) So playing the game for the first time, I didn't know the rune names. I remember progression being quite slow, and my characters' Warrior and Ninja skills rising, but my Mana skills being quite static. A Scroll might say, "Cast Ful to create light", but I didn't know what that rune was.
So one day, (probably several days in fact), I decided to learn all the spells. And I mean properly. There was no World Wide Web back then. I couldn't just go online and "cheat". I had to truly learn the magic spells, just like my characters. I remember, near a large room on about level 5 or 6, where there are loads of Worms, there was a safe area where I could practise my spells and rest for long periods without fear of attack, but with a plentiful supply of food to keep me going. For hours and hours I would practise casting spells to see if they wuold fizzle and die, or if something would happen. For any positive result I'd note down the spell, (using numbers to represent the runes - 1,6,6 for example), and any effect.
I soon realised the first rune was the spell power, so I would always hit 1 to start with to save Mana. But that still meant 6 x 6 x 6 combinations to try. 216 combinations, out of which, what, about 30 (?) did something. But it still took ages to finally realise what all the spells did. The one to open doors looked the same as the one to kill ethereal monsters. I can't tell you how many times I fired the door-opening spell at a monster, with no effect of course! But it took even longer to realise what the very last spell I learned was. For ages I would cast it, and simply nothing would happen. I was infuriated. Until the time I happened to walk up to a door after casting the spell, and I realised I could see through the door! That moment, of having learned and noted down every single spell, was a real achievement I thought.
Anyway, I'm babbling. I'm glad to have found these forums, and I've already downloaded and started DM again. I'm looking forward to trying some of the new maps that people have created, and you never know, I might have a go at making my own one day. (Was always into mapping games like DM and Bloodwych, and I even had some published in an Amiga Magazine once.)
Bye for now.
Tim.
. I live in the southest of England - whereabouts are you if I may ask?
i thought i was going to get out of there, but nope, tried to kill him for days.
. Fortunately Beholders are only found on two levels. From the sonuds of it you're on Level 9 (Rat level) unless you've finished that since your last post. Yay for the end of that level - fountain and Rat Room right near central stairway 
.
)My fave game on the C64 was The Last Ninja.
Where are my years going?