''Dunzhin'' (fully titled, but not shown on the box cover, as ''Warrior of Ras: Volume I - Dunzhin'') is a fantasy

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed by

Med Systems Software Med Systems Software was a company that produced video games for home computers in the early 1980s. In 1983, the company name was changed to Screenplay. History Med Systems Software was headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Games *''Labyri ...

. It was released on the TRS-80 in 1982, then ported to the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

. An

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

port, as a

self-booting disk A self-booting disk is a floppy disk for home or personal computers that loads directly into a standalone application when the system is turned on, bypassing the operating system. This was common, even standard, on some computers in the late 1970 ...

, added digitized speech.

Gameplay

''Dunzhin'' is a game in which the player explores a new, randomly generated dungeon each time the game is played. The fighter player character encounters monsters and human enemies, and the character earns experience points based on the disparity comparing their statistics with those of the monster. The player is in search of a well-guarded treasure located on the deepest level of the dungeon.

Development

The IBM PC port performs all disk access via IN/OUT instructions to the floppy

controller Controller may refer to: Occupations * Controller or financial controller, or in government accounting comptroller, a senior accounting position * Controller, someone who performs agent handling in espionage * Air traffic controller, a person ...

instead of using the

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

(this was done both to improve performance and as a copy protection). It also was not completely rewritten from the ground up, but instead contained the original Z80 code from the TRS-80 with an interpreter to convert it to x86

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

Reception

''Dunzhin'' was reviewed in ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' magazine #71 by John Warren. The reviewer noted that while this game was able to accept more complex commands than other games of its time, the extra typing involved slowed the game down. Describing ''Warriors of Ras'' as "yet another ''Dungeons-and-Dragons'' style game series", ''The Commodore 64 Home Companion'' wrote that ''Dunzhin'' "is the first—and easiest—in the series".

References

Family Computing ''Family Computing'' was a U.S. computer magazine published during the 1980s by Scholastic Corporation, Scholastic It covered all the major home computer platforms of the day including the Apple II, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, as we ...

'' 1982 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit computer games Commodore 64 games Med Systems Software games Role-playing video games Single-player video games TRS-80 games Video games developed in the United States

Gameplay

Development

Reception

References

External links