GamesNostalgia

Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac

iten

Best dungeon crawlers on GamesNostalgia

In dungeon crawlers, you explore dungeons, defeat enemies, avoid traps, and collect loot; they are the earliest examples of computer RPGs.

This genre was born on computers, not consoles or arcades. Game creators such as Richard Garriott tried to translate their Dungeons & Dragons passions into computers. That's how early games such as Akalabeth: World of Doom, Wizardry, and Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai were born. They were primarily text-based, as there was no need for spectacular graphics. It is a dungeon, after all.

The golden age of dungeon crawlers started with Dungeon Master on the Atari ST and the legendary Eye of the Beholder for Amiga and PC. Those games adopted a view of the world in a portion of the screen. The perspective was first person, in a pseudo-3D. Movements were limited to four directions and 90° rotation. Many other games used the same mechanics, including the popular Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos and Black Crypt.

Everything changed with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, the first game to introduce proper 3D technology to RPG games. After that, 3D became the standard.

As technology improved, RPG mechanics became increasingly complex and no longer solely based on dungeons. Modern RPGs are no longer called dungeon crawlers, which remain a great classic of retro games.

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos dos

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos, the first chapter of the Lands of Lore series, is a real-time dungeon-crawling RPG for MS-DOS. The game is viewed from a first-person perspect...

Year: 1993 Genre: Role Playing

dungeon crawler fantasy rpg sword and sorcery

Dungeon Master amigadosatari-st

Dungeon Master, developed by FLT Games initially in 1987 for the Atari ST, is a grid-based 3D action role-playing game. It is one of the best-selling Atari ST games of all time. Th...

Year: 1988 Genre: Role Playing

atari st dungeon crawler fantasy party-based real-time rpg sword and sorcery

Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep dosamiga

Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep, also known as The Legend of Skullkeep, is the sequel to the famous fantasy dungeon crawler rpg Dungeon Master. Developed by FTL Games, the same creato...

Year: 1995 Genre: Role Playing

dungeon crawler fantasy real-time rpg sword and sorcery

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss dos

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is a fantasy action RPG developed by Blue Sky Productions (Looking Glass Studios). It was published by Origin Systems in 1992 for DOS. It was l...

Year: 1992 Genre: Role Playing

3d dungeon crawler fantasy first-person rpg

Eye of the Beholder C64 commodore-64

Eye of the Beholder C64/128 is an incredible unofficial conversion for the Commodore 64 and 128 of the famous dungeon crawler Eye of the Beholder. The original RPG Eye of the Beholder was released in 1991 for the Amiga and MS-DOS.

Year: 2022 Genre: Role Playing

commodore 128 commodore 64 d&d dungeon crawler enhanced remakes fantasy party-based public domain rpg sword and sorcery unofficial port

Eye of the Beholder AGA amiga

Eye of the Beholder is a dungeon crawler role-playing game based on the AD&D rules developed by Westwood Associates. It was published by Strategic Simulations Inc at the end of 1990.

Year: 2006 Genre: Role Playing

aga d&d dungeon crawler fantasy party-based real-time reverse engineered rpg sword and sorcery

Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back amiga

Chaos Strikes Back is the sequel/expansion to Dungeon Master, one of the first examples of dungeon crawling RPG. It was released in 1989 on several platforms, including Atari ST, Amiga, X68000, PC-98, FM Towns, and MS-DOS.

Year: 1989 Genre: Role Playing

atari st dungeon crawler fantasy mission real-time rpg sword and sorcery

Black Crypt amiga

Black Crypt is a fantasy single-player roleplaying game by Raven Software, published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 1992. It was initially conceived of as a pen and paper roleplaying game by Brian Raffel and Steve Raffel.

Year: 1992 Genre: Role Playing

amiga original game dungeon crawler extra half-brite fantasy party-based real-time rpg sword and sorcery

Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra amigados

Isles of Terra is the third game in the Might and Magic series. It was released initially for MS-DOS in 1991, then ported to Amiga in 1992. Several other versions were published later, including Macintosh, Sega CD, and SNES.

Year: 1991 Genre: Role Playing

dungeon crawler fantasy party-based rpg sword and sorcery turn-based rpg

Eye of the Beholder II AGA amiga

Eye Of The Beholder II: The Legend Of Darkmoon is the sequel to the popular dungeon crawler rpg created by Westwood Associates and published by Strategic Simulations Inc in 1991 for the Amiga and MS-DOS.

Year: 2006 Genre: Role Playing

aga d&d dungeon crawler reverse engineered rpg sword and sorcery

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress dosamiga

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress is a fantasy RPG developed and published by Silmarils in 1992 for DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST. It was part of a trilogy that includes Ishar 2: Messengers of Doom and Ishar 3: The Seven Gates of Infinity.

Year: 1992 Genre: Role Playing

aga dungeon crawler fantasy party-based real-time rpg sword and sorcery

Wizardry dos

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first chapter of the popular series of role-playing computer games. This simple dungeon crawler inspired by Dungeons & Dragons was developed by Andrew C.

Year: 1984 Genre: Role Playing

apple 2 original game dungeon crawler fantasy party-based role-playing rpg turn-based rpg

HeroQuest amigados

Heroquest is a conversion of the famous fantasy-themed board game into an isometric RPG created by Gremlin Graphics and released in 1991 for the Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and MS-DOS.

Year: 1991 Genre: Role Playing

board game dungeon crawler fantasy hotseat licensed multiplayer party-based rpg sword and sorcery wizards and witches

Gauntlet sega-master-systemgenesis

Gauntlet is a fantasy hack and slash dungeon crawl arcade developed by Atari Games and released in October 1985. The game was ported to many platforms, including Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, Apple II, etc.

Year: 1985 Genre: Arcade

arcade coin-op conversion dungeon crawler fantasy hack and slash