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Wonderful news for all dungeon crawlers, as the ScummVM team has announced that FTL Games' genre-defining adventure Dungeon Master is now supported by everybody's favourite Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine.
Released in 1987 for the Atari ST, before being ported to myriad computer and console platforms, Dungeon Master is considered one of, if not the defining title of the dungeon-crawler RPG sub-genre. While adventure games themselves were nothing new, Dungeon Master offered 3D, first-person environments, glossed with ambitious lighting effects, impressive pixel art, and (somewhat) spatial sound.
FTL also eschewed traditional, D&D-style elements such as turn-based battles and point-spending for real-time combat and bespoke character skills that levelled up through their very use.
While Dungeon Master wasn't the first game to incorporate all these elements, it is typically recognised as the title that popularised them, optimising their efficiency for immersive, party-based adventuring matched with smooth, exciting gameplay.
Dungeon Master still holds a special place in the hearts and memories of those who remember its debut - a legitimately pioneering release whose effects, whether immediately recognisable or not, are still felt in the RPG/dungeon crawler genre today, almost 40 years on from the first raising of the portcullis.
The ScummVM team has opened ScummVM Dungeon Master for public testing. The utility currently supports the Amiga (v.2.0) and DOS (v.3.4 U.S.) editions of the game. Players need only grab the latest build of ScummVM, add their Dungeon Master game directory, and they'll be swingin' swords and slingin' spells in no time at all.
Lead on, adventurer. The Grey Lord's firestaff awaits...