| Volcanic Dungeon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publisher(s) | Carnell Software Mastervision |
| Designer(s) | Roy Carnell Stuart A. Galloway |
| Platform(s) | Dragon 32/64, ZX Spectrum, ZX81 |
| Release | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
Volcanic Dungeon is a role-playing video game designed by Roy Carnell and Stuart A. Galloway and released by Carnell Software for the ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32/64 and ZX81 computers in 1983. It is a follow-up to 1982's Black Crystal.
A war between the forces of good and evil has been won by the light and the dark goddess Methzar and the Snow Queen were both defeated. But the witch Magra has managed to escape with some of her army into the titular volcanic dungeon, taking with her a captive elfin princess named Edora. The task of a hero known as the Knight of Star Jewel is to hunt down and kill Magra, and to rescue Edora from her glass coffin.
According to a Sinclair User ZX-81 retrospective in 1985, "Volcanic deserves recognition as the first graphics adventure for the ZX-81, and therefore one of the first of all adventures. Unfortunately, the game mechanics are rather crude and it is frequently a matter of good fortune." [1] In a "Favourites of Yesteryear" article that same year, Sinclair User rated it 5/10, complaining of the game's slowness and how "death is always too swift. It is as if the computer is playing the player and not the other way around." [2]
Volcanic Dungeon was the second part of the 'Third Continent Trilogy'; [3] See also Black Crystal , 1982 and, The Wrath of Magra , 1984.
The BASIC source code listing of Volcanic Dungeon is available online. [4]
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The Quill is a game creation system for text adventures. Written by Graeme Yeandle, it was published on the ZX Spectrum by Gilsoft in December 1983. Although available to the general public, it was used by several games companies to create best-selling titles; over 450 commercially published titles for the ZX Spectrum were written using The Quill.
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