Very early dungeon-crawler, it is the first known roguelike pre-dating Rogue itself though no link between the two games exists.
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If you bear with it, you can see why it's instrumental in developing this genre, but that doesn't keep it from being a painfully slow experience with a 2D map interface that barely qualifies as visuals.
Very much respect this for it's innovations, but Christ is it absolutely brutal on the sensibility of the modern casual gamer. Many of these kinds of titles were made by and made for D&D players, and boy do I feel I would absolutely suck at that game.
It is difficult to discuss games that predate the modern computer era without being too biased: nevertheless, Beneath Apple Manor is one of those historical titles that allowed the growth and development of a genre commonly called 'roguelike'. If the tradition has remembered the name of Rogue (1980), this is due to its popularity and accessibility. Beneath Apple Manor, indeed, was only distributed by post or directly by Don Worth. Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to assume that Rogue drew its inspiration from Beneath Apple Manor – and its creator considers the two titles to be purely independent from one another.
The version I tried was actually the 1982-1983 re-release, with improved graphics and the ability to create multiple saves. The essence of the title remains unchanged: the game creates procedural floors, in which enemies are to be found. The bestiary is limited: the player will encounter only slimes, ghosts, trolls, vampires, purple worms and dragons, each with their own characteristics. There is a heavy reliance on D&D (1974), which was very much in fashion at the time. The main feature of Beneath Apple Manor is its versatility, as it is possible to customise one's run by picking the number of rooms per floor and the difficulty factor. Exploring is built around a set of four characteristics: Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity and Body. These are not so much fixed characteristics as modern role-playing games are accustomed to, but rather energy reserves, allocated to a particular action. Fighting requires spending Strength points, while moving will use up Dexterity. Casting spells consumes Intelligence, and life points are represented by Body.
To increase these statistics, the player has to spend experience points accumulated in combat, but also by bringing back gold to the central staircase. Gold is furthermore used to improve one's equipment, but above all to buy a brain scan, equivalent to a save, thus fostering resource tension. If a death should occur, the character is called back to the staircase, with the – reduced – characteristics of their last scan. This approach allows for a clever balance of difficulty: the title is never unforgiving, but it does require some caution in exploration. It is typical to eavesdrop to gauge the rooms and to flee when the fighting is too intense. Resting is more easily done between doors to avoid monsters, and a few strategies will be learned as exploration progresses. The goal of the game is to find a Golden Apple in one of the chests in this huge underground. The manual explains that the Apple family has exercised tyranny over the region and that the source of their power is said to lie in this infamous Golden Apple. But to find out if it is real or fake, there is no other way than to grab it in one's hand, for better or for worse.
Beneath Apple Manor is a prime example of what can be created with limited resources. 32K of RAM is enough to generate an entire adventure, requiring strategy and timing. One short session is enough to win a run, and the game has the merit of being replayable with its customisation elements. Younger players will be baffled by its archaic look and antiquated controls, but this is a title that deserves attention, even today.
The version I tried was actually the 1982-1983 re-release, with improved graphics and the ability to create multiple saves. The essence of the title remains unchanged: the game creates procedural floors, in which enemies are to be found. The bestiary is limited: the player will encounter only slimes, ghosts, trolls, vampires, purple worms and dragons, each with their own characteristics. There is a heavy reliance on D&D (1974), which was very much in fashion at the time. The main feature of Beneath Apple Manor is its versatility, as it is possible to customise one's run by picking the number of rooms per floor and the difficulty factor. Exploring is built around a set of four characteristics: Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity and Body. These are not so much fixed characteristics as modern role-playing games are accustomed to, but rather energy reserves, allocated to a particular action. Fighting requires spending Strength points, while moving will use up Dexterity. Casting spells consumes Intelligence, and life points are represented by Body.
To increase these statistics, the player has to spend experience points accumulated in combat, but also by bringing back gold to the central staircase. Gold is furthermore used to improve one's equipment, but above all to buy a brain scan, equivalent to a save, thus fostering resource tension. If a death should occur, the character is called back to the staircase, with the – reduced – characteristics of their last scan. This approach allows for a clever balance of difficulty: the title is never unforgiving, but it does require some caution in exploration. It is typical to eavesdrop to gauge the rooms and to flee when the fighting is too intense. Resting is more easily done between doors to avoid monsters, and a few strategies will be learned as exploration progresses. The goal of the game is to find a Golden Apple in one of the chests in this huge underground. The manual explains that the Apple family has exercised tyranny over the region and that the source of their power is said to lie in this infamous Golden Apple. But to find out if it is real or fake, there is no other way than to grab it in one's hand, for better or for worse.
Beneath Apple Manor is a prime example of what can be created with limited resources. 32K of RAM is enough to generate an entire adventure, requiring strategy and timing. One short session is enough to win a run, and the game has the merit of being replayable with its customisation elements. Younger players will be baffled by its archaic look and antiquated controls, but this is a title that deserves attention, even today.
An early roguelike that predates Rogue... so is Rogue actually a BAM-like? The world may never know (I guess the answer is yes, really).
The dungeon generation in this game is actually slightly more interesting than Rogue, and perma-death had not yet associated itself with this kind of dungeon crawler just yet. You CAN permanently die, but for a price you can also perform a "SCAN" of your body at every level of the dungeon's opening staircase, allowing you to respawn with your current stats should you get yourself into a pickle.
You can only find gold and items in chests that either half or double various stats, the rest is up to you to level smartly using XP gained from acquiring enemies. And yet, you don't want to level too hard, because the game scales to your approximate strength, including unused XP, at each floor.
Playing on a low level you can beat this game no sweat using the saving system, but once you get to even 3/10 difficulty it already gets pretty tough, as a roguelike generally should.
Anyway, it's a fun game that's even more simplistic than Rogue but maintains the key hooks.
3.5 - Good: A good game that lacks something
The dungeon generation in this game is actually slightly more interesting than Rogue, and perma-death had not yet associated itself with this kind of dungeon crawler just yet. You CAN permanently die, but for a price you can also perform a "SCAN" of your body at every level of the dungeon's opening staircase, allowing you to respawn with your current stats should you get yourself into a pickle.
You can only find gold and items in chests that either half or double various stats, the rest is up to you to level smartly using XP gained from acquiring enemies. And yet, you don't want to level too hard, because the game scales to your approximate strength, including unused XP, at each floor.
Playing on a low level you can beat this game no sweat using the saving system, but once you get to even 3/10 difficulty it already gets pretty tough, as a roguelike generally should.
Anyway, it's a fun game that's even more simplistic than Rogue but maintains the key hooks.
3.5 - Good: A good game that lacks something