Dungeon Escape is a 1-player role playing game for the TRS-80.
The player’s goal is to escape from a series of dungeons by navigating progressively more difficult levels. The goal on each level is to collect the required number of stones, and return to the starting point of the level, allowing access to the next challenge.
The player can choose from 3 different classes: fighter, thief, or mage. The fighter has unparalleled combat strength, but can not cast spells. The mage starts with a number of spells, but is weak. The thief can cast spells, but starts with none, and has moderate combat strength. The player can set the game speed, and can also choose to have ghosts, which will chase the player through the dungeon and end their lives instantly if they come in contact with the player.
Each level consists of a series of rooms connected by corridors. Within each room, the player may find a trap, a combat encounter, or a stone. The player may also find items in each room, including gold, magic spells, improved armor and weapons, healing elixirs, or magic maps. The player may also encounter leprechauns, which can steal the player’s map, making them move blind until they discover a new map. Gold serves to increase the player’s score. Magic spells consist of teleport, which moves the player randomly about the map, fireball, which causes massive damage to an enemy, and locate stone, which shows the location of all stones on the level. The player also has the ability to save their game for a later outing, and to commit harakiri if they are unhappy with their game.
During combat, the player can encounter 1 to several enemies, all of whom attack the player one at a time. One enemy and the player take turns swinging at each other. The player can attack, parry, or thrust each round, and can also utilize magic spells and heal. Combat is timed, and if the player attempts a command during the enemy’s turn, they will lose the proceeding turn allowing the monster an additional strike.
