I still remember getting my dad out of bed early on Boxing Day morning so he could boot it up for us to play!

I played Gauntlet a few years later (it was a "killer app"), and never connected the two. I never got as much satisfaction from it as Dandy.

Here's a great tip. John may've removed the ability to directly kill your partner, but that doesn't mean you can't screw around with them. If they die, try and find a bunch of hearts. Shoot out one to resurrect your chum, and them shoot out the others which will turn into monsters to promptly kill them again.

I know you don't remember me but I have the following photo of you back at Netscape around December of 1996. I was so happy go finally meet the true creator of Gauntlet.

http://tinypic.com/r/nb6rep/3

gauntlet-fan-of-jack@dummyaddress.com

Another similar series of games in the genre I like to call "Huge Scrolling Map Real Time Adventure Game" came from Marc Russell Benioff and Epyx / Automated Simulations. "Crypt of the Undead" and "Escape from Vulcan Isle" are the two that I had.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Exidy arcade game "Venture" and Warren Robinette's classic 2600 game "Adventure". While these weren't "Scrolling Map" games, they were "Large World Action Adventure" games and really blazed the way for the others.

I really enjoyed reading your childhood interpretation of Dandy Dungeon. It seems to fit the graphics quite nicely to me, and of course makes the game seem like it makes more sense in general. Heck, it might even make me enjoy the game better now!

Thanks again.

I played the Atari 800 quite a bit when I was a kid. Dandy, MULE, Seven Cities of Gold, and Return of Heracles were all fantastic examples of how much can with so little in video games.

Regarding Dandy, I thought you might be interested in a theory about the game that we developed around the neighborhood: The four main characters (#1-4) in the game were actually inmates in an insane asylum. This interpretation made the game more interesting and understandable (at least for us). Some of the monsters were just group hallucinations, and others (the white burly figures as I recall, but it's been a long time) were orderlies who were trying to get control. The monster generating machines make some sense in this light.

Wow - it's been 22 years since I've really even thought about this game, but I happened to seach for it today and found your article. Great memories - thanks for the write up.

Steve

Just a point of correction — I did not write Dark Chambers. I don't know anything about Dark Chambers — I'll have to go look at it.