At the time this game came out, I was about 12. I didn't know a damn thing about computers and I never even thought about games. It was the first gift for me for the family computer, and I didn't open the package for three weeks since I wasn't interested at first. When I finally sat down to play it, it was the beginning of a life long love affair and career.
The Game loaded easily, without too much effort, and I learned to activate the sound after a few tries.
Dungeon Master began to take hold of me. Aside from exploring the small military neighborhood Germany where my family was stationed, my life was pretty repetitive and vanilla.
Dungeon Master has all of the elements of a great dungeon-crawler: first person perspective, corridors that seemed foreboding to a kid, when I was desperately trying to escape a level with all but one character dead. Each fight was a step closer to death, and I'm running out of food. If I can just get around this corner to the fountain -- then bam, monster out of nowhere. There was a definite emotional charge in these scenarios, especially when you're up at 2 in the morning, and you know you know
school the next day will be unbearable on no sleep. Somehow, I never finished the game, but I went on to others, and beat them. I always had a small place in my memory for this game, and pieces of the game still surface when I think about my younger years living in Germany. I carry up to this day the urge to click on odd looking places on the walls, no matter what kind of game I'm playing, and to search for long periods of time in even to most mundane of places for secrets. Still the best game ever!
