Dungeon Hack (DOS)

Dungeon Hack

Platform:	DOS
Year:	1993
Developer:	DreamForge Intertainment, Inc.
Buy:	Amazon

For other games in the series, see Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeon Hack is a pseudo 3D dungeon crawler that creates randomly generated mazes for you to explore. The game uses the rules of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon - 2nd Edition pen and paper RPG and the AESOP engine from Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor (DOS), from which a lot of the graphics are recycled.

There are a wide assortment of monsters, items, spells, weapons, and armor, but only a very basic story. Your master has commanded you to find an orb. As a reward, any treasure you find in the dungeon is yours to keep. As you progress deeper into the dungeon, enemies become tougher, but the treasures become greater.

Since the game lacks a meaningful plot, all of the work was placed on combat and the high-quality (for its time) randomizer. You can customize the dungeon in many ways: how many levels, keys required to open some doors, levels filled with water, magic doors, etc. However, the lack of scripted encounters means there is no surprise to anything that happens after you've seen it once. The game also has an option to turn on permadeath for the truly courageous.

Screenshots

The title screen.

Watching the Introduction.

The main menu.

Creating a new character.

Customizing my dungeon.

About to waste a goblin.

Music

The soundtrack only consists of three rather tame tracks. The music can be played on three different platforms. Songs beginning with a 1 are for the Roland MT-32/LAPC-I. Songs beginning with 2 are for the AdLib/Sound Blaster. Songs beginning with a 3 are for the PC Speaker.

There are no in-game songs; only the sounds of you and the monsters. However, looking at the map plays a short 'chime' sound.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Programmer	Length	Download
101	Scene One	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	2:58	Download
102	Scene Two	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	0:50	Download
103	End	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	0:49	Download

#	Title	Composer	Programmer	Length	Download
201	Scene One	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	2:58	Download
202	Scene Two	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	0:58	Download
203	End	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	0:49	Download

#	Title	Composer	Programmer	Length	Listen	Download
301	Scene One	James McMenamy	Ralph Thomas	3:18		Download

Credits

Ripper: TheAlmightyGuru (XMI, SYX, WAV), Doommaster1994 (VGM)
Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru (MT-32, PC Speaker), Doommaster1994 (OPL2)
Game Credits:
- Audio: Tony Mollick credited as Anthony Mollick
- Audio: James McMenamy
- Digital Sound Effects: Ralph Thomas credited as Cooksey
- Uncredited Music Driver: John Miles
- Uncredited Sound Driver: John Ratcliff
- Uncredited Sound Effects: Brian Lowe
- Uncredited Sound Effects: Michael Provenza
Manual Credits:
- Music and Sound Effects: Tony Mollick credited as Anthony Mollick

The game's credits can be found both in the manual, and at the end of the game. However, the credits are complicated; Though the game credits James McMenamy and Anthony Mollick for the game's audio, both have denied working on the game's music. According to James, the first game he worked on was Ravenloft, and Anthony said he only worked on the game's sound effects. He would record his bass player "Fuzzy" and his brother Scott, then he would use effects on their voices to produce the sound effects. The manual only lists Mollick and credits him for music and sound.

Because Ralph Thomas is credited as a music programmer in Eye of the Beholder III, a game that uses the same game and sound engines, he is listed as the sound programmer. However, the credits list him for Digital Sound Effects. Ralph also stated that he believes McMenamy may have been the composer.

We have also listed Brian Lowe and Michael Provenza for contributing sound effects, as this game uses most of the sound effects found in Eye of the Beholder III.

(Sources: 1, 2, 3)

Game Rip

Format	Conversion	Download
		Download (Info)

Dungeon Hack uses XMI for music and WAV for sound effects. There are three forms of the XMI music for Roland LA32 compatible devices (MT-32, LAPC-I, etc.), OPL2 compatible devices (AdLib, Sound Blaster, etc.), and for the PC Speaker. Roland songs start with a 1, OPL2 songs start with a 2, and PC Speaker songs start with s 3. All of the music files were extracted from the Open.res file, and the music was extracted from both the Open.res and Hack.res files.

The Roland soundtrack was recorded by logging the SysEx data using MIDI-OX and then playing the XMI files through Winamp and outputting the instructions to an MT-32, then recording the output.

The OPL2 soundtrack was logged to VGM format during game play using ValleyBell's patched DOSBox 0.74. Though, you can also get accurate playback using Midpak with the sound driver files in the rip (ADLIB.ADV and STDPATCH.AD).

The PC Speaker soundtrack was emulated and recorded through DOSBox. XMI files starting with a 3 are for the PC Speaker. Strangely, only Scene One exists for the PC Speaker; Scene Two and the End music doesn't exist.