Dungeon crawlers are a category that is more forgotten than brawlers it seems. While never having been all that popular on consoles, dungeon crawlers were all the rage on computers in the 80’s and early 90’s. No matter if it was first person or overhead, fans could not get enough. Then, much like brawlers on consoles, one day it just ended. Well, never fear, the independent homebrew community has come to the rescue, for dungeon crawlers at least. Winterdane is coming to the Commodore 64 and it is an old school dungeon crawler like fans remember and surely love.
My history with dungeon crawlers
I first got hooked on this category when my brother let me play Alternate Reality: The Dungeon on his Commodore 64. I would play hooky from school just to play more and hopefully get a little farther. I have a fondness for this genre that is rooted right here. I still have a character disk from this time, probably no longer works but I have it.
Later, I got into Eye of the Beholder via the Super Nintendo release, Dungeon Master also on SNES, etc. During this period, I did not have a computer that could run anything not programmed for a Color Computer II. I used it only to really write articles for my fanzine that I sold at a couple local gas stations and to turn in my freelance articles for a few local newspapers. Gaming on a computer was not my focus at all (for the most part it is not now either).
What we know about Winterdane
Honestly, other than the sparse information that our friends over at Indie Retro News have posted, there is not a lot to go on. We know it is a first-person dungeon crawler and has some great graphics on display. Judging by the screens shown, I can see it is going to be my type of dungeon crawler – one character. Call it laziness stopping me from accepting evolution of gaming here or whatever, but I prefer one character in my dungeon crawlers. I don’t care if it is first person like Winterdane or if it is overhead like Diablo. Single character is the way to go as everyone else just ends up being a filing cabinet of stats and items to keep track of.
Fans should be well served here
Fans of dungeon crawlers that harken back to the days of Dungeon Master will want to check out Winterdane. With the availability of emulators and such, I hope the developers, Double Sided Games, make a digital version available. I will be buying it if they do. If you want to support more games like this, please support them as well – a share, a tweet, a comment, a purchase. It all goes a long way.
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