What are the runes above the entrance?

[boyflea]

Personally, I think it reads 'Dave, you are going nuts!'
Never, never start thinking about old games and lore: you end up going a bit mad.

[Chaos-Shaman]

Chaos mumbles some sort of incantation, sounding more like a slur, in a blink of an eye a portal opens before him and he slips away.

[JETENGINE]

It reads: "Do not stand in door, or else. . . ."

[Misskarna]

For my story I mentioned the Runes, on top of the door, but I used the idea Lord Chaos created them, I didn't use the actual game world, but created my own world for when I finish it, as wanted something of my own but creating what a journey would be like to go through the dungeon XD

[terkio]

It means:
No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted.

[slickrcbd]

More like
"No trespassing. Violators will be perforated."

[JETENGINE]

I think you mean perforated and/or poisoned and/or zapped and/or fried.

[Mike51]

Back then each profession had its own distinctive sign. Lord Chaos used it to lure in hungry travellers. It reads - Freshly baked Bread Donuts and Pastries.

[Chaos-Shaman]

XXX ZZZ, mature content

[slickrcbd]

I'm surprised nobody has suggested "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". Well, that, or "Arbeit macht frei", but that might invoke Godwin's Law.

[boyflea]

Could it be a set of Mason's Marks? I always wonder how dungeons are built, so ended up here on the web:
http://www.masonandforster.co.uk/our-in ... -heritage/

[How do you go about building a Dungeon anyway? Imagine the paperwork!]

[Erik Bauer]

I made myself the idea that those are corrupted runes carved here by Lord Chaos to prevent Lord Order stepping into de Dungeon and getting the Power Gem by himself. There is no other reason he sent all those champions to do the dirty job, seen them fail one after another just to summon Theron's ghost with a spell so powerful he could rise back four Champions and control them trough the Dungeon.
That's also coherent with the fact that lord Order stands there to the entrance waiting for us if we backtrack with the Firestaff+Powergem combo

[JETENGINE]

Unless I recall incorrectly, the way out closes as soon as you snatch the Powergem and try to leave. That and the actuator doesn't work with the weapon (The Firestaff+), only (The Firestaff).

Jay.

[Ameena]

It's not the act of taking the Power Gem that closes the entrance, but stepping on a specific square whilst carrying the completed Firestaff...I think it's the space by the door that leads out of the small room containing the Power Gem, but I read somewhere that (in at least one version/clone of the game) the trigger is only activated by the Firestaff when it lands on the square or is carried by a party member who steps on it, and that if you can just chuck it hard enough, you can lob it over the triggering square without activating it .

[terkio]

Yes, and of course i checked on this.
You are supposed to be trapped at the Dragon and Lord Chaos levels, when you have succeeded owning a fully functional firestaf.
You are trapped to die from starvation or finish with fusing Chaos.
Who knows, whether avoiding being trapped, using the trick throwing the firestaff over at the right place, is intentional, is a bug, is a forgotten test feature, is an Easter egg ?

[JETENGINE]

It's not the act of taking the Power Gem that closes the entrance, but stepping on a specific square whilst carrying the completed Firestaff...I think it's the space by the door that leads out of the small room containing the Power Gem, but I read somewhere that (in at least one version/clone of the game) the trigger is only activated by the Firestaff when it lands on the square or is carried by a party member who steps on it, and that if you can just chuck it hard enough, you can lob it over the triggering square without activating it .

Yes, I was aware of that... quirk... when I last posted, but I ignored it for simplicity's sake. If everything goes according to the script, though, you do get trapped for all eternity/until you re-fuse Chaos. No pun intended. As for the quirk itself, I think that it was an oversight by the programmers. They likely didn't consider that someone would consider throwing the Gemmed 'Staff over the actuator. In the unlikely event that they did, then it would be to give a clever player a break, in all likelihood.

[Ameena]

To be fair, back when the game was made I don't think it was particularly simple to hack the game and see all the files and stuff in order to even know there was a trigger there in the first place .

[terkio]

After I noticed I was trapped, it took me some time to understand what was going on.
With savegames and or replays, I figured this had to do with obtaining the power gem.
However, I did investigate any further.
I don't remember where I found the trick published. Who knows wether it was found, from analysing the code.
Sure, guys had disassembled the code, firstly to unlock the code protects, and source from dissasembly has been available, I think, as soon as DM got released.
I first played DM with the hacked version where all are dying from sudden death in the middle of the mummy floor. Then I moved to a legitimate version.

[JETENGINE]

Must have been the copy guard. They were extremely strict with that, as you now know.
Speaking of copy guard, perhaps the runes read, "This dungeon is copyrighted to FTL."

Trying to think outside the box,
Jay.

[slickrcbd]

Must have been the copy guard. They were extremely strict with that, as you now know.
Speaking of copy guard, perhaps the runes read, "This dungeon is copyrighted to FTL."

Trying to think outside the box,
Jay.

More like breaking the 4th wall.

[Chaos-Shaman]

How about a universal term

F U

[boyflea]

Must have been the copy guard. ..."

Absolutely correct! You needed to view these via a special device called 'Lenslok' and enter the code, otherwise your characters die very quickly of starvation: though this system was only for the Atari ST version.
Proof: http://www.c64copyprotection.com/wp-con ... nslok1.jpg

[Saumun]

I bloody hated Lenslok. First came across it as a kid with Elite for the Spectrum.
It was flawed in that the on screen lines had to be a certain size for it to work, so if your tv was the wrong size... tough! You couldn’t play.
Thankfully people hacked a way around it.

[boyflea]

I bloody hated Lenslok....

Aw come on: it could have been worse
http://www.oldgames.sk/docs/Dial-A-Pirate/

[Ameena]

Ha, I know what that is without even looking. We still have ours - it's here in my room. Ahh, love the original Monkey Island .

[JETENGINE]

Lenslok was before my time. I probably should be thankful for that, judging from the above reviews.

Jay.