Dungeon Hack

Dungeon Hack
DOS cover art
Developer(s)	DreamForge Intertainment
Publisher(s)	Strategic Simulations Inc
Platforms	DOS, NEC PC-9801
Release date(s)	1993
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single player

Dungeon Hack is a role-playing video game developed by DreamForge Intertainment and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) for the PC DOS and NEC PC-9801 in 1993. The game is based in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons world of Forgotten Realms.

Gameplay

File:SSI-DungeonHack-Combat.jpg

Gameplay screenshot

Dungeon Hack features a three-dimensional, randomly generated dungeon. The game features a pseudo-3D game screen based on SSI's own Eye of the Beholder series. Like Rogue, dungeons are randomly generated whenever a new game is started. As a result, virtually no two dungeons generated by the game are identical. SSI claimed that billions of different games are possible. That said, players can play identical dungeons by sharing "dungeon seed" codes that are generated by the game.

Dungeon Hack uses the rules mechanics of AD&D 2nd Edition. Most notable about this game is the option to have "real character death", unlike other such graphical AD&D games (such as Pool of Radiance). When this option is turned on, restored saves are erased upon character death, just as with traditional roguelike games.

Plot

An adventurer (the player's character of choice) is sent by an evil sorceress on a mission to find and retrieve a mysterious magical orb located within an ancient dungeon.

Reception

Dungeon Hack won Computer Game Review's "Most Replay Value of 1994" award. The game got 3 out of 5 stars in Dragon. According to GameSpy's Allen Rausch, if "random creatures and meaningless hallways are your thing, you'll love Dungeon Hack -- the rest of us like at least a little story to justify our monster butchery."

External links

• Dungeon Hack at MobyGames
• Hardcore Gaming 101: Dungeon Hack