LoginRegisterContact

Dungeon Master [Model SHVC-V2]

Nintendo Super Famicom cart. published 33 years ago by Victor Musical Industries, Inc.

Listed in MAME

Dungeon Master [Model SHVC-V2] screenshot

Dungeon Master © 1991 Victor Musical Industries, Incorporated.

Dungeon Master is a real time 3-D dungeon crawler originally released for home computers. The immensely popular game tells the story of an apprentice wizard named Theron. His master, Grey Lord, has turned evil in his quest of power, and his demon side, the Dark Lord (or Chaos), now haunts the depths of his treacherous dungeon. Moreover, Theron was separated from his body during a transportation spell accident. In this ghastly form, he must now resurrect up to four deceased heroes from the Hall of Champions, and lead them through the dreadful lair to find the Firestaff, only weapon capable of defeating the Dark Lord. Dungeon Master is viewed through Theron's eyes, and most of the actions are in real time and based on point-and-click interactions. If an item is on the floor, the player can just click on it, pick it up and drop it in one of the character's inventory. Each champion has different sets of skills and abilities described as 'classes' (Warrior, Ninja, Magician and Priest) - Dungeon Master doesn't feature traditional experience points, and training is at the core of the gameplay. Fighting and magic both require practice, and the more an ability is used, the more it improves. The magic system is also one of the features that differs from other games of the time - spells are cast by using runes, and these powerful magic symbols need to be combined into words to trigger the desired incantation, such as fireballs, magic potions or armful gas clouds. Finally, fighting is completely integrated and done, like the rest of the game, in real time. Monsters wander around the dungeon as the player moves about, and only attack the team when in range (or in sight). Enemies can attack from any direction, and the party can run away, as long as the player has planned an escape route.

TECHNICAL

Cartridge ID: SHVC-V2

TRIVIA

Released on December 20, 1991 in Japan for 9800 Yen.

The original Dungeon Master was first released in 1987 for the Atari ST. It was developed and published by FTL (Faster Than Light). The game became instantly popular and started an entire genre on its own. This Super Famicom version slightly differs from the original game in three regards - first, musics and sound effects are now played during the exploration, some monsters also look slightly different and, finally, controls have been redesigned to accommodate the use of a D-Pad controller instead of a mouse.

Export releases:
[US] "Dungeon Master [Model SNS-V2-USA]"
[UK] "Dungeon Master [Model SNSP-V2-UKV]"

STAFF

Executive Producer: Satoshi Honda
Producer: Harunobu Komori
Director: Toshiyuki Nagai, Hisaki Yokoi
Assistant Director: Kazuya Tominaga
Chief Programmer: Tenuhito yamaki
Programmer: Yoshiaki Iwasawa, Hiroshi Nakajima, Kensuke Kobayashi (NCS)
Music: Tsukasa Tawada, Hiroski Hashimoto
Sound Effects: Tsukasa Tawada
Graphics: Akatsuki Honda
Manual: Etsuko Matsuoka
Package and manual design: Comix Brand
Test Player: Takayuki Ando, Nobuaki Horie, Teruyuki Yoneyama, Kenji Kikuchi

SOURCES

Game's ROM.
Game's description by Laurent Kermel; http://www.videogameden.com