# Identifying a computer game from the early '90s **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 15, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064 "2008-10-15T17:59:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/1 "2008-10-15T17:59:59Z")
I cannot for the life of me remember what this game was called, but I thought this might be a good place to ask after it. It was a fantasy dungeon crawling game my cousin and I played in (I believe) Windows 3.1, with extremely simple graphics that were essentially little icons being moved around the screen with a view from above. You decided the gender and name of your character, then began play as a peasant in a village. You’re sent on some errand and when you return home your family has been killed, sending you on a quest. It may be revealed at this point that you’re actually a prince/princess or something like that. You fought things like gelatinous cubes and kobolds, collecting treasure to buy better equipment as you made your way through a multilevel dungeon. Every time the game restarted the dungeon had a different layout, so that you couldn’t just map it out and breeze through on subsequent games. Looking back, it was obviously very D&D influenced, though at the time it was my first exposure to this sort of adventure. We never did manage to make it all the way through the game, though we spent hours playing it and talking about it. For pure nostalgia alone, I’d love to find it again and find out how it ended. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/2 "2008-10-15T18:06:28Z")
> [@CaerieD](#): > > I cannot for the life of me remember what this game was called, but I thought this might be a good place to ask after it. It was a fantasy dungeon crawling game my cousin and I played in (I believe) Windows 3.1, with extremely simple graphics that were essentially little icons being moved around the screen with a view from above. > > You decided the gender and name of your character, then began play as a peasant in a village. You’re sent on some errand and when you return home your family has been killed, sending you on a quest. It may be revealed at this point that you’re actually a prince/princess or something like that. You fought things like gelatinous cubes and kobolds, collecting treasure to buy better equipment as you made your way through a multilevel dungeon. Every time the game restarted the dungeon had a different layout, so that you couldn’t just map it out and breeze through on subsequent games. Looking back, it was obviously very D&D influenced, though at the time it was my first exposure to this sort of adventure. > > We never did manage to make it all the way through the game, though we spent hours playing it and talking about it. For pure nostalgia alone, I’d love to find it again and find out how it ended. Hmm… just how simple graphics? Were they really pictures, or things like letters and punctuation symbols? If the latter, then it’s a Roguelike, though I’ve never heard of one with that particular backstory - many of them just start you in the first level of the dungeon without any explanations as to why. Good luck figuring it out, though! ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/3 "2008-10-15T18:13:44Z")
**chrisk** , they weren’t quite that simple, though I’ve seen games like that so I know what you’re talking about. All characters and creatures were essentially 50 x 50 pixel icons (estimating on size, since this was around fifteen years ago!), not animated, that moved about the screen. The backgrounds were either white or gray. It was simple and not very colorful, but it was graphical. ETA: Looking through a list of Roguelikes I just found it: [Castle of the Winds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_the_Winds)! It’s a bit different from the others because of the mouse interface and older than I thought, but that’s definitely it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/4 "2008-10-15T18:22:53Z")
Castle of the Winds was the first thought too. Rogue-like with graphics on Windows 3.1? Definitely it’s that! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/5 "2008-10-15T19:43:46Z")
I was a big fan of Castle of the Winds. Then I discovered Angband… ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/6 "2008-10-15T20:05:05Z")
Yep. Castle of the Winds was awesome, baby, awesome. I wasted a godawful amount of time on that. And I’ve replayed it within the last few years, too. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/7 "2008-10-15T20:33:48Z")
Yeah, I played that one all the way through as well, and was my first thought. I couldn’t remember the name either, though. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identifying-a-computer-game-from-the-early-90s/468064/8 "2008-10-17T18:17:02Z")
Kind of Zeldish too. Zelda 1 was a plan view game with simple graphics in the beginning.