Dark Chambers: The Other Dungeon CrawlerAnyone who plays Dungeon Crawlers with any level of frequency has heard of the Gauntlet series, which has spanned gaming hardware from the classic arcades to modern systems and will be rebooted for Steam players this summer. But there was something that came before Gauntlet.
In 1983, two years before Gauntlet's original incarnation was playable at your local arcade, a game known as Dandy Dungeon was released for the Atari 800 personal computer. The creators of Gauntlet drew their inspiration from Dandy Dungeon. In 1988, Atari re-released the game under the name Dark Chambers, for their 2600 and 7800 gaming consoles. Neither version gained much notoriety, because by 1988, the dated Atari 2600 had been in the looming shadow of the technically superior Nintendo Entertainment System for a few years, and the 7800 never took off, also thanks to the NES.
However, every forgotten system has its gems that are a blast to play, and Dark Chambers might be that game for Atari's second-to-last home console. Graphically speaking, the game is above par with other games on the system and on par with games for competing systems. It doesn't quite have the charm of the Gauntlet titles for NES, but the graphics are well drawn given the limitations of the 7800, and exceed those of the original Dandy Dungeon for the 800 XL/XE. That is to say, the 7800 port of this game is the "prettiest" version in existence.
Unfortunately, though, the sound is lacking quite a bit. One thing that held the 7800 back against its competition is the fact that it was given the same sound chip as the earlier 2600 console, although that's not the game's fault. What IS the game's fault is that the game has no soundtrack whatsoever. The only sounds are a few simple sounds for firing, inflicting damage, taking damage, picking up and using items, and climbing down ladders to the next level. Trying to get through all 26 levels (not to mention the harder bonus levels afterwards) without any sort of music in the background can become boring very quickly. Having a stereo playing in the background is highly recommended.
Like many dungeon crawlers of the area, Dark Chambers has no story. You're a hero who has been sent into a dungeon for some unknown reason. Look, there's monsters. Kill them. Each level is relatively short but some of the mazes can be confusing, requiring some advanced navigation tactics. With 26 levels in all, one for each letter of the alphabet, at least an hour of game play can be promised, something you can't say about many Atari 7800 games unless you're really,
really into Pac-Man. Better yet is that once you clear those 26 levels, you start over again on Level A, but with a greater number of monsters and increased difficulty.
One drawback, at least to an experienced gamer, is the difficulty level. Unless you're playing on the "advanced" difficulty level, you'll find it's pretty easy to keep going through the levels. Food is available on almost every level, sometimes enough to refill half of your health bar. Your health bar drains extremely slowly throughout the game, and enemies deal only minor damage, even on the harder difficulties. What makes the game hard in the advanced levels is only the sheer number of monsters, but even that can be dealt with using bombs that clear all the enemies visible on the screen, which you can carry at least 8 of. (The game only shows an inventory maximum of 6, but it will keep counting if you pick up more... the most I've ever had is 8, but you might be able to hold more.) Another thing that hurts the difficulty rating is that there are no boss monsters at all in the game.
It's a pretty fun game which has some replay value, especially with the two-player mode available. It's fun to pick it up and see how far you can make it through the dungeon, or how high of a score you can get, especially since there are some bottleneck areas on certain levels (namely levels F, S, and Y) where you can rack up thousands of points easily. However, the game is very linear and offers no differentiation in paths from one game play session to another. That, coupled with the low difficulty, hurts the addictiveness value. It's addictive enough to want to sit through and play it until you die, then maybe pick it up and do that again two or three more times, then maybe once more with a friend in two-player mode, but after that the game may have a tendency to collect dust.
All in all, this late 80s port of a pioneering dungeon crawler is a fun game to play, if you can get past its drawbacks, its brighter-shining competition. Despite its tarnished points, I'd call it one of the best games that the Atari 7800 has to offer.
Pros:
+ Great graphics for a 7800 game
+ Well designed levels with challenging mazes
+ Simple but effective game play mechanics
Cons:
- Weak difficulty except on highest setting
- Very linear compared to other dungeon crawlers of the era
- Sound performance is poor
Graphics
7 Sound
4 Addictive
6 Depth
7 Difficulty
5
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