DND has a confusing history. A game called "dnd" was written in the TUTOR programming language for the PLATO system by Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood in 1974 and 1975, based on Gygax and Arneson's Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games. Another dungeon crawl, called "DND", was written in BASIC for the DECsystem-10 mainframe computer's TOPS-10 operating system in 1976. The games were similar, but Lawrence's game didn't contain any of Whisenhunt and Wood's source code. Lawrence eventually ported DND to home computer systems, whose limited RAM required dropping two of the dungeons and reducing the character to a single class. The game was sold commercially under the name of the surviving dungeon, Telengard. The source code for the mainframe version of DND was ported to other computer systems without Lawrence's knowledge or permission. Bill Knight discovered one of these unauthorized ports and created a DOS port, adding two new dungeons – The Cavern and The Warren. Knight wouldn't learn who the original author of the game was until many years later.

There are three character types: fighter, magician, and cleric. Your character has attributes such as strength, intelligence, and agility, which can change throughout the game. The dungeons are rendered in ASCII text, and form a 20×20×20 maze. You can pick up magical items, fight monsters, cast magic, and find treasure. Hit points and skill at casting magic increase as you gain experience points and level up. Your goal is to find an ORB that grants immortality, hidden somewhere in each dungeon. If one dungeon proves too challenging, your character can leave via the entrance and enter a different dungeon. One of the most addictive games ever, DND is a classic. There are 5 dungeons in this game.

The Cavern
Lamorte
Shvenk's Lair
Telengard
Warren

Added by DOSGuy

Screenshots

MCGA Mode 03h
80×25×16c 8×16 font

Downloads

DND v1.2:1 Shareware (79,323 bytes)	1987-02-22	DOS	Play online
DND v1.2 Shareware (78,575 bytes)	1986-11-18	DOS
DND v1.12 Shareware (75,562 bytes)	1986-03-22	DOS
DND v1.11 Shareware (Still searching)	1984-10-16	DOS
DND v1.1 Shareware (88,538 bytes)	1984-04-05	DOS
DND v1.0 Shareware (76,056 bytes)	xxxx	DOS

Extras

Availability

I have found no ordering information for this game.