Beneath Apple Manor (1978, 83)

Beneath Apple Manor (1978, re-released 1983) by Don Worth and published by The Software Factory, re-released by Quality Software for Apple II. Would you believe that this was a roguelike game made two years before Rogue? I guess BAM-like doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well. It carries all the hallmarks of the genre, however, randomly generated dungeons (one of the first to do so), fighting monsters, collecting treasure, even searching for hidden passageways. It’s all implemented well enough for the time, although it would be helpful to pull up the manual with the full list of controls, because you actually use the N, W, E, and S keys to move North, West, East, and South. Once you get into it, it’s an enjoyable enough early roguelike with a punishing difficulty; you’ll need to rest between every fight and often, fleeing is a better strategy. Health regenerates by waiting around, so none of the stress of finding food like in Rogue, but it does leave a bit of a mechanical hole where you just skip forward a few turns and get back adventuring. The ultimate goal is to reach the bottom of the dungeon and fight the dragon to retrieve the “fabled golden apple.” It will take some work to get there, though, because as with any good roguelikes, getting a good run is a process. I prefer the genre’s namesake to this game, if just for being a little easier to jump into, but this is a cool early attempt at an innovative genre. Bonus fun fact: Neither the creator of this game nor Rogue knew about the other, it was just parallel thinking.