dnd

The game that wore its name

dnd — formally The Game of Dungeons — arrived on PLATO in 1975, shortly after pedit5, and it took the borrowed idea much further. Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood built the original, and over the following years Dirk and Flint Pellett expanded it into one of the most elaborate games on the system.

It is widely credited as the first CRPG with a “boss” monster: the dungeon’s goal is the Orb, hidden on the deepest level and guarded by a Golden Dragon that has to be defeated to win. Multi-level dungeons, a teleporting “Gold Crown” treasure, character progression, and a genuine win condition all show up here years before they became genre staples.

Like its PLATO siblings it implemented Dungeons & Dragons directly and without a license — the name dnd says as much — which is why it belongs on the unofficial shelf even though almost everything that followed, commercial and licensed alike, owes it a debt.