Gateway to Apshai

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.

The game starts at the Innkeeper by creating a new character (if you already played the game, you can use characters that you created). You get different stat values (in Dungeons & Dragons style) as well as an amount of money that you can spend on weapons, armor and other equipment. Alternatively, you can just enter the stats to "import" characters from other role-playing games (this is also used as a primitive "save / load game" mechanism).

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.