Demon Venture: Reign of the Red Dragon is an early TRS-80 RPG featuring black and white graphics.
At the beginning of each dungeon crawl, the player creates a party of 1 - 5 characters. Character races include: hobbit, dwarf, elf, and human. Starting classes include: warrior, magician, cleric, and thief. On character creation, player’s statistics are randomly generated, and the player must purchase their starting equipment prior to entering the dungeon. Dungeon exploration is performed via an overhead view, with the player represented by an asterisk. Dungeon layout is randomized each adventure. The player randomly encounters chests and wandering monsters as they explore. The goal of the game is to descend to lower levels, and gather the eight pieces of the magic scepter. This will enrage the titular Red Dragon, and cause it to attack the player. Victory is achieved by slaying the fiend.
Gameplay is turn-based, but has a timed component. If a player sits idle, they will be attacked by wandering monsters. In combat, the player has a limited time to input combat commands, or they will not act during that round. The player is armed with throwing weapons, which must be aimed at creatures in combat using cross-hairs. Players will randomly encounter traps and chests, which can damage the player. When all available characters are deceased, it is game over.
