At the time, what really irked me about Treasure of Tarmin was that, despite its being called a D&D game -- indeed an Advanced D&D game -- was how little it actually had to do with my favorite RPG. Most of the monsters are pretty generic, consisting of giant insects, dragons, and a few random undead. Likewise, the game didn't use any rules derived from D&D, not even hit points. Instead, your character has two pools of points, called "war" and "spiritual" and, no, I don't remember what each of them did. There were no classes, races, or ability scores, let alone spells or magic items associated with D&D. In short, it was a "Dungeons & Dragons" game in name only.
That annoyed me in 1983 and I don't feel much more well inclined toward it now.
Never had an Intellivision either, just an Atari (and don't get me started on those Coleco-users!), so I missed this game.
ReplyDeleteInteresting page that collects images and sprites from the game. Here's the enemies page, giving a rather large list of potential foes, many found in D&D but most are pretty generic:
http://www.zebeth.com/playplanet/enemies.html
I will say without a doubt those dwarves look even less like Tolkien's vision...
Swords and Serpents was an excellent top-down dungeon crawler for the Intellivision. It was meant for two player co-op, with one player as the wizard and the other as a knight.
ReplyDeleteThis is one that went right past me, even though I had a subscription.
ReplyDeleteI had an Intellivision and the first AD&D game, a top down, is still to this day one of the scariest games I've ever played. Yes it was just a cheesy two-bit game, but it was nerve-wracking! The map only unveiled as you walked along, there were monster sounds to hint what was close. If you tried to blindly fire an arrow at the noise, sometimes it rebounded back at you! The dragons were FAST and all the critters were relentless. Worst of all, the spiders stole your arrows. AUGH!
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with mortellan. The "dragon breath" sound you heard when you were approaching the dragon lair was... scary to say the least.
ReplyDeleteAnd the game was so grim. If you succeeded killing the three headed dragon, all you had was the outland map with the final destination, the misty mountain, blinking. Nothing more. I remember this scared me more than the rest :-)
For it's era it was a fairly entertaining game. It was certainly much more involved than a great number of games of the time.
ReplyDeleteI had both Intellivision D&D games. I also had the Intellivision "computer", which was a horrid product that plugged into the game console. One of the few plusses was that if you plugged in a game cartridge, you could access the sprites in the game, and I suppose in theory use them in your own program.
ReplyDeleteI loved Treasure of Tarmin, I never expected a full on D&D game from a console back then, but Tarmin was close enough for me! I spent hours and hours playing this.
ReplyDeleteI never took a liking to the Intellivision as a platform... I think the controls were a hindrance to my enjoyment... so I never even saw this game.
ReplyDeleteThe Atari VCS/2600, Colecovision, Vectrex... those were more my speed.
I loved the original D&D game, as un-D&D as it was. I agree that they were able to generate a surprising amount of tension with the dragons.
ReplyDeleteI remember you could bank shot the arrows, and hit yourself if you were not careful. That was fun.
It was hard to find a game that really gave me the D&D feel. Then I discovered Ultima III. That was the game that hooked me on the Ultima series. I, III, IV, V, and VII were my favorites. The Bard's Tale series was fun too, but got old after the first one. Plus, you didn't get the cool cloth maps from Bard's Tale.
I remember the day my parents bought this for me. Once I started playing, I think I played it continuously through the night and into the next day. Eventually, you reach a point where you have the best possible weapons and you defeat the minotaur guarding the Treasure of Tarmin. There is no conclusion, though. You are free to wander about, essentially invincible, and you begin to encounter minotaurs and Treasures of Tarmin in every other room. I never played it again after that.
ReplyDeleteI always really liked the artwork in that particular ad. I think that's a really super piece.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing they worked on the game well before the D&D license was guaranteed. Probably why most monsters were generic - in case they had to go without the brand name.
ReplyDeleteTwo thoughts:
ReplyDelete1) Remember when video games were advertised with illustrations that were so explicitly not from the game? Man.
2) Anyone ever played Tunnels of Doom on the Texas Instruments platform? That was actually closer to pen and paper RPG than many of the early "D&D games were. Great fun.
Tunnels of Doom was the best D&D game of its era. My brother and I played it incessantly.
ReplyDeleteWas Tunnels of Doom the one based on Tunnels & Trolls?
ReplyDelete"Was Tunnels of Doom the one based on Tunnels & Trolls?"
ReplyDeleteNah... you're thinking of "Crusaders of Khazan."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusaders_of_Khazan
I had both D&D games for Intellivision too. I had forgotten all about the sound the dragon made until Marco brought it up. It was evil! Now I'm trying to remember it. And like mortellan said, Arrows don't ricochet! I spent many, many nights playing those games. That's probably why my grades were so bad in junior-high. Thanks for bringing back those memories.
ReplyDeleteI bought that game with my birthday money. I distinctly remember paying a whopping $17 dollars for that cartridge and it was the most costly one at the time.
ReplyDelete