25 levels of monsters & magic for the Dragon 32/64 and Tandy Colour Computer. Up to four simultaneous players! Written in Machine Code!
Dragon version by Ciaran Anscomb, 2017.
Original BBC Micro version by Julian Avis for Bug-Byte, Copyright 1987.
Cassette systems: Type CLOADM and press
Enter. Press play on tape. When loading is finished, stop the
tape. Loading time should be approximately 1m 40s for 32K machines, or 2m for
64K machines.
Dragon disk systems (DragonDOS): Type BOOT or
RUN"DUNJUNZ" and press Enter.
Tandy CoCo disk systems (RSDOS): Type DOS or
RUN"DUNJUNZ" and press Enter.
Once loaded, you will be asked to select PAL or NTSC video mode. Choosing PAL will use a colour graphics mode in the game, on a blue background. Choosing NTSC will use a black & white graphics mode—which NTSC televisions interpret as a different set of colours—and plays on a black background.
If you select NTSC, you'll be asked to confirm how the artefact colour set looks to you, as the hardware can start up in one of two different states, and it affects which colours you see in this mode.
64K machines will then display a title page.
Next is the character selection screen. Press the keys
1–4 to toggle whether each character is
playing. Select difficulty mode by pressing D. When you're done,
press Space to start the game!
Four heroes must recover the Chalice of Binding and save the World. Mackscrane the Great Demon has hidden it in the Dunjunz complex. They must battle it out against Bashers, find treasure, magic, adventure and death.
Every player starts with 99 health, and takes damage from various hazards. Fall below zero and you're dead! Food and potions replenish health.
The Ranger and Magic-user can both cast magic. Casting eliminates all monsters they can currently see at the cost of health.
Each character begins with a different balance of powers: armour, ammunition and weapon strength. Collect magical items to enhance each. Armour protects against Bashers, ammunition lets you fire more shots at the same time, and weapon strength increases their effectiveness.
Your progress will be impeded by locked doors. Only one specific key will open each door, and you can only carry one key at a time. Stepping over a key while you already hold one will swap your held key with the one on the floor.
Energy Drainers—flashing purple & yellow squares—do a lot of damage if you step into them. Destroy by shooting them several times, but beware: your shots will be reflected back towards you. You can't shoot food, but you can shoot yourself and your fellow adventurers.
Should a player die, anyone still living can bring them back by picking up a cross of resurrection. Only one player need make it to the exit—a red square—for all to proceed to the next level, but anyone still dead when the level ends will lose any upgraded powers.
Should you make it to the final level, gather around the chalice and raise it between you to the heavens.
Player 1 (Ranger, top-left window) and Player 2 (Magic-user, top-right window) use the keyboard. Player 3 (Barbarian, bottom-left window) and Player 4 (Fighter, bottom-right window) use joysticks. Be sure to watch your own window!
Digital gamepad style controllers (with a suitable adaptor) are recommended for players 3 and 4.
Press Break to pause the game. Any key to continue. Press
Enter+Break to restart the game.
| Player | Up | Down | Left | Right | Fire | Magic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ranger | W | S | Z | X | Q | C |
| 2 | Magic-user | O | K | N | M | P | B |
| 3 | Barbarian | Left joystick | N/A | ||||
| 4 | Fighter | Right joystick | N/A | ||||
| Player | Up | Down | Left | Right | Fire | Magic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ranger | 2 | W | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| 2 | Magic-user | P | + | < | > | 0 | ? |
| 3 | Barbarian | Left joystick | N/A | ||||
| 4 | Fighter | Right joystick | N/A | ||||
The source code for this game is released under the MIT License below. This excludes assets derived from the original BBC Micro version. Some build tools in the source distribution may have a different (but still free software) licence - consult individual source files.
Copyright (c) 2017 Ciaran Anscomb
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
The original BBC Micro version of Dunjunz is by Julian Avis, and copyright Bug-Byte, 1987. I do not know who now owns this copyright.
According to Wikipedia, Bug-Byte was already owned by Argus Press PLC by 1987, and may well have already become Grandslam Entertainment, later Grandslam Interactive. Companies House reveals Grandslam Interactive to have been dissolved in March 1999.
However, this rewrite is an homage to the original, it was not created to sell. Consider it an exercise mainly in proving that Bug-Byte could have produced a Dragon version at the time.
No code from the original was used, and all behaviour is implemented purely based on observations. However, certain assets were derived from the original:
In-game graphics, while created from scratch, were obviously produced with the aesthetics of the original in mind.
Thanks to:
Julian Avis, of course, for the original;
David Boddie for his Python tools tackling the Dunjunz level format;
and in particular, Stewart and Eddie Orchard, who provided the initial encouragement and a lot of good early feedback.
But also to a host of others for their kind words & useful feedback. Hey, some of you may even be in the in-game message...
Dragon 32/64, Tandy Colour Computer 32K
Type "CLOADM". The game will start automatically.
© Copyright 2017 Ciaran Anscomb. MIT Licence, with some exclusions.