Ranarama was one of my favourite games of its time, and which started my love of maze/dungeon games. The style is also reminiscent of the gauntlet games.
You play the part of a sorcerer’s apprentice who has inadvertently turned himself into a frog. The aim of the game is to hunt down warlocks and turn yourself back into a human. The game is set on different levels, with a number of warlocks located on each level.
The warlocks are scattered throughout a maze-like dungeon, with floor glyphs set into the floor.
The glyphs can be used to cast a spell, destroy all enemies apart from warlocks in the room, view a map of the level explored so far or transport to a different level. There are four types of spells that can be used; power, offensive, defensive and effect spells.
You begin the game with basic levels of all spells. Spells require runes to cast and of course you start with a limited number. Additional runes are obtained from warlocks that you defeat. To defeat the warlocks you must come into contact with them to trigger a challenge, which is to spell the word RANARAMA from an anagram by swapping only two letters at a time within a given time frame. Of course your enemies get tougher
the further into the game you progress, and accidentally finding yourself on a harder level before you are ready can mean an early end!
Dying means you revert back to a power level of one. You must cast a higher power spell before dying again in order to gain another lease of life. Dying at power level one means the end of the game.
Rooms are only highlighted when you enter them, and indeed it is very easy to find yourself lost or at a deadened. I found the map very helpful, as it often gave you clues as to where hidden doors were. Another good indicator of a hidden door what seeing monsters enter through what appeared to be a solid wall!
I remember the maze seemed huge to me at the time, and having played again recently it still seems fairly large! The graphics were reasonable for its time, if somewhat basic. However, it has an addictive gameplay that kept me amused for hours and kept me coming back for more, even to this day. I would recommend you hop along and take a look!
