Software:Deep Dungeon

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This page is about the RPG videogame series. For the Armenian monastery, see Khor Virap.

Deep Dungeon (ディープダンジョン) is a series of role-playing video games developed by HummingBirdSoft. The first two installments were released on the Family Computer Disk System by Square's label Disk Original Group (DOG); the third one was released on the regular Family Computer by Square directly and the final one by Asmik.

Games in the series

Madō Senki

Deep Dungeon: Madō Senki
Developer(s)HummingBirdSoft
Publisher(s)DOG
Platform(s)Disk System, MSX
Release
  • JP: December 19, 1986
Genre(s)Role-playing video game
Mode(s)Single-player

Deep Dungeon: Madō Senki (ディープダンジョン 魔洞戦記, lit. Deep Dungeon: Demon Cave War Chronicles) is a "dungeon crawler" presented in a first person perspective, similar to Wizardry. Players navigate undistinguished, maze-like corridors in their bid to find the princess. The game was released exclusively in Japan, but on April 15, 2006, Deep Dungeon was unofficially translated into English.

Madō Senki is set in the town of Dorl. One day, monsters raided the town, stealing both the treasures and Princess Etna's soul. Despite the attempts of brave warriors to retrieve her soul, none have been successful.

In the dungeon, the player is given a command list. The player can choose to attack if an enemy is in the vicinity, view allocated items, escape from battle, examine the area for items, and talk if there are people nearby. The character's effectiveness in battle is largely determined by numerical values for attacking power (AP), defensive power (AC), and health (HP). These values are determined by the character's experience level (LEVEL), which raises after the character's accumulated experience (EX) reaches a certain point.

Reception

Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
Famicom Tsūshin5/10, 5/10, 8/10, 6/10 (FDS)[1]

In Famicom Hisshoubon (ja) one reviewer said the game lacked the fun exploration and gathering information elements of Dragon Quest, but had the same deep gameplay. The second reviewer said that more hardcore players might complain about the lack of items or variety of spells or fun characters, they recommend it for beginners new to the genre. [2]

In Famicom Tsūshin two reviewers compared it to Wizardry with one saying that it was a miniature version of that game and another saying "for better and worse", the games were similar.[1] While one reviewer said it lacked originality and another said the game felt a bit empty another said its a game players would not get bored of.[1] One reviewer complimented the extra features such as being able to turn off the games music allowing them to play after hours.[1]

Yūshi no Monshō

Yūshi no Monshō: Deep Dungeon
Developer(s)HummingBirdSoft
Publisher(s)DOG (Famicom Disk System)
Scap Trust (MSX)
Platform(s)Disk System, MSX (as Deep Dungeon II)
Release
  • JP: May 30, 1987
Genre(s)Role-playing video game
Mode(s)Single-player

Yūshi no Monshō: Deep Dungeon (勇士の紋章 ディープダンジョン, lit. The Crest of the Hero: Deep Dungeon), also called Deep Dungeon II: Yūshi no Monshō, is the second installment of the Deep Dungeon series. According to Square Enix, it was the first 3D dungeon crawler RPG for the Famicom console.[3] In this game, the villain Ruu has returned. The player will need to explore an eight floor tower (consisting of four ground floors and four underground floors) to find and defeat him. Battles were much quicker in this sequel. The first game could get slow because of the very high miss rate for the player and the enemies. It also has a much higher encounter rate, and the player is likely to be attacked within seconds if they stand still. A new feature in this game is that if the player has a significantly higher level than the enemies for the current floor, they will not be attacked while randomly walking through the hallways (although they will still be attacked when they step on predetermined spaces on the map). When the player gains an experience level, they are given attribute points to allocate to their character's stats as they wish (unlike most console RPGs of the era, where stat upgrades are usually predetermined or randomized beyond the player's control).

Yūshi heno Tabi

Deep Dungeon III: Yūshi heno Tabi
Developer(s)HummingBirdSoft
Publisher(s)Square
Composer(s)Kazuya Matsushita
Platform(s)Family Computer
Release
  • JP: May 13, 1988
Genre(s)Role-playing video game
Mode(s)Single-player

Deep Dungeon III: Yūshi he no Tabi (ディープダンジョンIII 勇士への旅, lit. Deep Dungeon III: The Journey to the Hero) is the third installment in the Deep Dungeon series and the first to be released on the Famicom. This is the first Deep Dungeon title to offer the player a world to explore spanning multiple dungeons and many towns. It also allows the player to create their own party with up to three companions in addition to the hero character. The player can choose between a ranger, a magician and a priest for each character. Though the player can dismiss a character once the game has started, they will only be able to replace that character if they meet another pre-created playable character in one of the dungeons. The game however will still end as soon as the protagonist "swordsman" character is defeated. This game retains the player-adjustable level-up stats from the first game, as well as the feature that removes randomized encounters if the player is at a significantly higher experience level than needed for their current location. One exclusive feature of this game is that sometimes the player character will fumble (remove) their equipped weapon, wasting that character's turn. If the player wishes to re-arm their weapon, it will use up another turn. This is the only game in the series to award the player money (Gold) when defeating enemies. All other games will force the player to re-enter maps to collect respawning chests for money or items (for resale) if they want to gold farm.

Kuro no Yōjutsushi

Deep Dungeon IV: The Black Sorcerer
Developer(s)HummingBirdSoft
Publisher(s)Asmik
Platform(s)Family Computer
Release
  • JP: April 6, 1990
Genre(s)Role-playing video game
Mode(s)Single-player

Deep Dungeon IV: Kuro no Yōjutsushi (ディープダンジョンIV 黒の妖術師, lit. Deep Dungeon IV: The Black Sorcerer) is the fourth and final installment in the Deep Dungeon series.

The game has removed the custom character feature of the previous game. Through this game, the player will meet up to two additional playable characters with a predetermined class. This game also reverts to the standard practice or randomizing characters' stat growth when gaining an experience level. New to this engine is that the player can learn to summon two monsters to function as a temporary additional party member for a single battle. It also removed the feature that stops random battles when the player is significantly more powerful than the enemies. The maps in this game are also much smaller (whereas the previous games used multi-floor dungeons up to 32x32 tiles, the dungeons in this game are either single floor, or multiple floors that can fit within a single 32x32 map). In this game, the player can accept "requests" from the non-player characters. These are optional tasks that will reward the player with bonus items, experience or money when finished.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Famibo, Tofuya; Mizuno, Tenchou; Morishita, Mariko; Kanaya, Gascon (February 6, 1987). "新作ゲーム クロスレビュー" (in Japanese). Famicom Tsūshin (ASCII Corporation) (16): 12–13. 
  2. ↑ "Fami-Com Soft Scramble" (in Japanese). Famicom Hisshoubon (ja) (JICC Publishing Bureau) (16): 62. February 6, 1987. 
  3. ↑ 魔洞戦記 ディープダンジョン (Translation), Square Enix

References

  • Square Enix Deep Dungeon page (in Japanese)
  • Deep Dungeon at RPGClassics
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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