Double Dungeons

Double Dungeons, from 1990, is an old-school dungeon crawler: grid-based movement, a view from the character's own eyes, corridors that all look identical, and combat where an enemy simply appears in front of you. The form was born on computers in the eighties and reached consoles slowly, because it demanded patience and a sheet of graph paper within reach.

The game's distinguishing feature is its split screen. Two players can walk the dungeon at the same time, each in their own half, entirely independently, and yet they can meet, help one another or turn hostile. That was a highly unusual solution at the time, since the genre was traditionally solitary and cooperative dungeon play amounted to watching over someone's shoulder. Playing alone leaves the second half of the screen unused, which is a visible compromise.

Everything else follows the genre's basic template: gradually strengthening your character, buying equipment, exploring floors and looking for the way out. The pace is slow and repetition is constant, both typical of dungeon crawlers from this period. The PC Engine contributed more colour than players of such games on home computers were accustomed to.

On OldGame.cz you can play it straight in the browser. If you are curious how someone tried to move a grid dungeon onto a console and bolt a second player onto it, this is one of very few titles that attempted it. Expect a slow start, and expect to draw the map yourself.