423:, uses a novel anti-copying technique. The program disks could be copied through the standard methods and the copy would appear to work, but not long after the player began the game, in the Atari version their character would become weaker and weaker and then die from an apparent disease. On the Apple II and Macintosh versions, repeated "random" encounters would occur in quick succession when wandering the town, and escaping the combat was disabled. Eventually, the character would be defeated and die. The Dungeon, if loaded with an unauthorized copy, featured two "FBI agents" as encounters during the beginning of the game, who attacked with "the long arm of the law". The two agents were overly powerful and unbeatable, so as to kill the character before being able to play the game. Due to a bug, the other way to run into these characters was to try to transfer over a character from the city. In effect, it was impossible to actually transfer a character over from the city to the dungeon without mailing in the disks to be exchanged for a fixed version.
506:, drunkenness, and disease, may also alter the player's stats—temporarily or permanently. The player has to keep track of their character's hunger, thirst, fatigue, comfort (hot or cold), and how encumbered the character is. While food and water can be carried, supplies are limited and the player will have to find or purchase new packets. The character can only sleep in an inn, so if the player was off adventuring and the character started to get hungry and tired, they would have to return to a safe area before the player could fulfill these needs.
210:. The deal ended due to lack of funds to start serious development on the project. Monolith originally had funds, but needed the funds for existing games in the pipeline. Monolith tried to find an external publisher to fund the game, but the number of technical innovations, coupled with an unknown market for MMORPGs, made it difficult to find publishers willing to risk funding. The publication deal ended and the rights to the game were returned due to no funds. Monolith went on years later to create
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enter the arena in other ways, e.g., as a spectator or a free man. A limited "character vs. character" mode would allow characters from other saved games to be loaded in and pitted against the current character. Lastly, there would be one or more ways to retire a character into a life of luxury, thus "winning", but players would need to start a new character if they wanted to continue on in the series. Retired characters would then return as opponents faced by any new characters.
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many items resulted in an encounter with The
Devourer, a fearsome creature that sucked items from the player, and thus removed them from memory. Death was permissible and mostly uncheatable since the game cleverly marked the character as dead as soon as the user started and only let the character to become "alive" once they saved. It was possible to "revive" a lost character, but it caused a loss in one of the character's stats.
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260:, one was prompted to "Insert disk #1 of Alternate Reality: The Wilderness". The planned seamless migration never worked out, in large part because the Datasoft developers did not implement the idea, so only the Atari 8-Bit city had the ability to boot sequels. Since the final coding of the sequels was done by Datasoft, the matching code was not put into any of the sequels, including the Atari 8-bit dungeon.
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like other contemporary 3D graphics either. Most other 3D first-person games used static graphics to represent the walls, meaning the player could only move one tile at a time. In this game however the rate of travel depended on the character's speed, and moved incrementally along the tile. Distant walls would slowly come in to focus rather than suddenly appear.
357:
knowledge gained through other locations, the controls for the cocoons could be manipulated to discover what was contained within. It would be revealed that these cocoons hold bodies, the bodies of all of those captured. The machines keep the bodies physically alive and fit, but imprisoned. The minds of those entrapped are tapped and fed with images (Ă la
310:
Planned to feature courtly intrigue and the ability to purchase land in the city, with the capability to alter the map and building layouts if one built new sections or tore down walls. Players could climb the ladder of power and responsibility, and eventually choose to rule the city as its new king.
370:
In the end, the player would be left with many choices. One could continue to live on as the image body, a nearly immortal life, but knowing that these aliens have done this and can watch, feel, and experience whatever is done. In essence, the player is their entertainment. They have become jaded by
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The ship's computer can even permit the images to interact with solid/material components of the ship. The player would learn that his or her own body was itself just an image, with the actual body lying in a cocoon. The question of the nature of reality would be raised, leading to questions such as
301:
Slavers would be added to the City/Dungeon in order to capture new gladiators and force them into combat. This was similar to how the player was captured from Earth in the first place, causing the player to once again be thrust into a new environment. The plan also included provisions for players to
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Aliens have captured the player from Earth, and the player finds themself in front of a gate with a slot-machine-like row of rotating numbers of statistics. Stepping through the gate freezes the numbers and turns the player into a new person, putting them into an "alternate reality", hence the name.
521:
The gameplay of both games is reminiscent of other RPGs but more sophisticated than its peers—while the player wandered around gaining levels and equipment, there were things like a finite number of items in the world, and items stolen could be regained. Near overflows of memory from possessing too
391:
first-person perspective, with a small window taking up about 1/9 of the screen at the center. The player controlled one character who had an absolute minimum of visual representation—the closest to a character image to be found was when one encountered a "doppelganger" monster. The 3D used was not
501:
Character statistics (strength, intelligence, charisma, etc.) are displayed at the top of the screen. Some stats remain hidden from the player. For example, the player is not made aware of their character's alignment (good/evil/neutral). The player comes to learn their alignment through how other
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Now armed with high tech equipment and making allies of certain alien factions sympathetic to the player's cause, the player could take the fight to his or her captors. Searching further within this immense ship, the player would discover a chamber filled with metal cocoons. Using wits and the
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entertainment world) and go back to Earth. One could even destroy the planet, or bring it back to Earth to let scientists learn from it. There would be many choices (including selling out humanity), but these would be the decisions the player would have to make at the end of the journey.
509:
Due to budget constraints, the first game was released, essentially, without a plot. Only in the second installment were any elements of a traditional RPG plot added in, but the player could (and probably did) spend days playing before realizing the importance of any of their actions.
371:
luxury, power and knowledge and use lesser beings to regain some of the passions of life. Hence, one could instead cut off this channel, though the alien beings may destroy the ship, or even Earth itself. One could escape in a smaller ship (as compared to the massive
191:, and that the ship is really a "pleasure world" of some kind for the aliens, leading to the player's ultimate decision of what to do to the ship, to the aliens, or even whether to return to Earth. Only two games were finished and the series was never completed.
326:. There would be traps, tricks to waylay the adventurer, and diversions to turn him or her away from the true quest. This expansion would feature a vast expanse of outdoor terrain and new areas to explore.
513:
The bottom of the screen alternated depending on user choice and situation between consumables like food, water, money, and torches, equipment, combat options, spells, and other things. The sides held the
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which would have been included, became its own release. Nonetheless, the design planned to allow the player to move between these games, so that, for example, when one attempted to leave the confines of
311:
This was intended as another way to retire a character and thus "win". New characters created would be able to meet the previously crowned king, or even attempt to overthrow him.
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was completed and released, work on the remaining 5 installments never moved beyond theoretical outlines. A brief summary of these outlines follows:
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what is a soul, or what is experience. The player has experienced the entire ordeal through the illusionary image ever since the kidnapping.
408:, which came seven years later, but was recognized for popularizing the system. The design implemented right-angle movement only. While the
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771:"a fascinating premise that turned out rather poorly ... a game for those with great persistence and patience", and
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The player is thrust into a new environment (the city of Xebec's Demise) and must learn to survive. While
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upon which he or she was previously trapped. There was to be a way into the ship through the bottom of
183:. The end of the series was to conclude with the player discovering everyone's true bodies on the ship
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was reviewed in
Computer Gamer #12 and got a value for money rating of 5/5. It was also reviewed in
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With the illusion broken, the player would find his or her way onto the alien ship and out of the
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was finished by Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal. Gary
Gilbertson created the music for both games.
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Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (July 1988). "The Role of
Computers".
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was released in 1987. Price was unable to complete the second game in the series, and
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844:"The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 2: The Golden Age (1985-1993)"
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was made up of four concentric levels, each one smaller than the one above.
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The first break from this outline was when
Datasoft forced the release of
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is mostly an open area planned to serve as the hub for the game series,
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is setting, the entire palette of colors changes convincingly. Distant
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The original outline for the game series included plans for 6 games:
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at left (when the player had one) and directional arrows at right.
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issue 12, March 1986, pp. 58-60, Argus Design Ltd., London
342:(on the 4th level), as well as in the distant wilderness.
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In 1988 Datasoft denied that the series would end after
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was to be a pilgrimage to find the truth concerning
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The City (and its sewers, which became The
Dungeon)
48:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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194:During the late 90s, Price intended to produce an
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502:characters treated them in the game. Potions,
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785:were both the subject of the feature review
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1108:Video games developed in the United States
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775:"better than the first, but not by much".
481:Learn how and when to remove this message
108:Learn how and when to remove this message
1103:Video game franchises introduced in 1985
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1029:and canceled project info + Multimedia
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882:. No. 46. April 1988. p. 8
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46:adding citations to reliable sources
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949:Alternate Reality in Computer Gamer
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1093:Role-playing video games by series
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963:"Scorpia's Magic Scroll Of Games"
842:Barton, Matt (23 February 2007).
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57:"Alternate Reality" series
33:needs additional citations for
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783:Alternate Reality: The Dungeon
705:Alternate Reality: The Dungeon
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461:the claims made and adding
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198:version of the game called
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989:"Ludotique | Article"
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135:series. It was created by
789:#135. The reviewers gave
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157:was released in 1985 and
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961:Scorpia (October 1993).
902:"Alternate Reality. FAQ"
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497:An encounter in the city
200:Alternate Reality Online
363:, only years earlier).
133:role-playing video game
578:Tandy Color Computer 3
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1098:Video game franchises
967:Computer Gaming World
879:Computer Gaming World
871:"Inside the Industry"
593:Atari 8-bit computers
563:Atari 8-bit computers
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1063:Classic Mac OS games
42:improve this article
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141:development company
131:) is an unfinished
1078:Commodore 64 games
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402:engine similar to
206:, and teamed with
189:effectively frozen
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822:#33 (June 1986).
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31:This article
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993:. Retrieved
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137:Philip Price
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40:Please help
35:verification
32:
15:
1053:Amiga games
1027:The Dungeon
819:Casus Belli
773:The Dungeon
715:Publication
617:Publication
584:The Dungeon
538:, but were
340:The Dungeon
291:The Dungeon
265:The Dungeon
253:The Dungeon
251:early, and
240:Revelations
181:The Dungeon
165:The Dungeon
1047:Categories
1034:Images of
995:2022-03-24
826:References
455:improve it
414:waterfalls
400:raycasting
380:Technology
360:The Matrix
350:See also:
336:holo-world
330:Revelation
306:The Palace
234:The Palace
68:newspapers
1083:DOS games
991:. RPGGeek
906:eobet.com
855:3 January
849:Gamasutra
763:In 1993,
601:Reception
546:as well.
544:platforms
542:to other
471:June 2021
459:verifying
297:The Arena
263:Although
231:The Arena
145:Published
98:June 2010
1036:The City
973:25 March
886:16 April
769:The City
590:Apple II
566:Atari ST
560:Apple II
551:The City
427:Gameplay
421:The City
287:The City
258:The City
249:The City
228:The City
208:Monolith
185:cocooned
149:Datasoft
911:29 July
810:stars.
805:⁄
767:called
765:Scorpia
516:compass
453:Please
346:Destiny
243:Destiny
171:Concept
82:scholar
933:Dragon
787:Dragon
725:Dragon
627:Dragon
572:MS-DOS
540:ported
504:poison
398:has a
196:MMORPG
84:
77:
70:
63:
55:
874:(PDF)
718:Score
620:Score
557:Amiga
526:Ports
89:JSTOR
75:books
1025:and
1013:The
975:2016
913:2023
888:2016
857:2017
781:and
279:and
187:and
61:news
1017:FAQ
575:Mac
457:by
410:sun
204:ARO
202:or
147:by
44:by
1049::
965:.
941:^
921:^
904:.
876:.
846:.
834:^
389:3D
385:AR
216:.
151:,
128:AR
998:.
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478:(
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105:(
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96:(
86:·
79:·
72:·
65:·
38:.
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