Dark Fortress

Two adventurers race through Shadowthorn Woods, the hedge maze, the Dark Fortress and the caverns beneath it in search of three gems: a diamond, an emerald and a pearl. The first to lay all three in the trophy case under the lounge wins; one player may also go alone. Each turn you pick a word from a menu of 18 commands, with the ways you cannot go dimmed, and every kind of place has its own picture. Fight the monsters you meet, from spiders to rabbits, for life and gold, buy gear at the trading post, cast spells, read, drink, speak and unlock your way onward. Without a lantern the deeper rooms are dark. A bagwoman can snatch everything you carry, and a player who dies is sent to Hades.

Controls: Joystick only: the stick moves the flame over the words and a button chooses. In a list, the right button means nothing. With two players, each uses his own controller and the turns alternate.

ColecoVision version credited in the source to Claude (an AI made by Anthropic) for Amy Studio, in Amy, the language by Amy Bienvenu, 2026: a reimagined adaptation of the published rules. From Ahoy! No. 37, January 1987, page 99: original Commodore 128 program by Cleveland M. Blakemore. The original was a two-player game for the C-128 that used its 40- and 80-column screens at once, one hidden from each player; here the two players share one screen and take turns. A sequel ran in Ahoy! in February 1988. This is a modern homebrew adaptation, not a commercial Coleco release.