Curse of Ra Unboxing (PC) ENGLISH
9Curse of Ra
Developer: Epyx, Inc.
Year: 1982
Genre: RPG
Platform: PC
Edition: US
mobygames.com: The second in a series of expansion modules for Temple of Apshai (you must have Temple of Apshai to play it). This one takes place in ancient Egypt. The player's quest is to recover four treasures from four "great constructs." The game could be described as a graphical "roguelike", but actually it resembles the mainframe classic DND more, as you cannot see the whole level, but only your surroundings. Furthermore, the level maps are not randomized like in Rogue. Still, the gameplay has a lot in common with Rogue and other early dungeon crawls: A solo character explores a monster-infested, multi-level dungeon to grab some treasure, everything in top-down view. After character generation, you enter the dungeons. On the left, the current room of the dungeon is displayed; the character status and other info are displayed on the right. One thing that sets Temple of Apshai apart from other rpg is that the manual contains detailed room descriptions for each room (that may contain hints about traps or treasures), to create atmosphere despite crude graphics. You move about and perform actions like opening doors, firing arrows, examining walls for secret doors etc. by pressing key commands. Moving is also done without cursor keys: You turn your character into the direction you want to go and then move him forward by 1 to 9 steps, also selectable by single keystrokes. But take care of fatigue: If you keep running all the time, your fatigue rises, and if it reaches 100%, you cannot move or act for some time -- which can be deadly in the presence of, say, a Giant Bombardier Beetle. Each room may contain treasures to pick up (sometimes just trash, sometimes gold, sometimes useful items), secret doors which lead to hidden parts of the dungeon and traps, which obviously should be avoided (you can try to search for them). Of course, you will also encounter monsters -- a variety of undead or giant insects -- which you have to fight using turn-based combat. Apart from the normal attack, there is also the thrust (which is more effective, but risky), and you can also fire arrows at distance or parry. To avoid a fight, you may also try to speak to them.