Dungeon Maker v1.3 - authors Dragon Software

     An RPG utility, utilised by James Judge on a 486sx

I have been in an age of computer RPGs for many years now, having
discarded board RPGs due to lack of friends <grin>. As a matter of
fact I had forgotten that they had existed, to a certain extent.
Still, I can remember being the beleaguered DM of a small group
once upon a time, and I can remember the wads of paper that I used
to cart around with me, showing me just what the game world looked
like and making me wonder why I had scrawled cryptic messages to
myself across certain locations. Ah, fond memories.

Anyway it was a nice surprise to get a utility to review that
would make creating the dungeons a hell of a lot easier. Instead
of buying up East Peckham's supply of squared paper for a year, I
can now create dungeon levels on my computer - wow!

What Dmaker allows you to do is to open up a file which presents
you with a blank screen (whose size you can alter). There is also
an invisible grid on the screen (which is also alterable in size).
You can then access a library of graphics for walls, floors,
tables, statues etc. and stamp them onto the page, thus creating
your dungeon without the need for ever picking up a pen and paper.
You can add notations to the map as well as rudimentary drawings
using the line, box, circle and draw functions supplied in the
package.

That's all there really is to the package. Once you've created
your dungeon you can then print it out and use it in your next D&D
sessions (ooh-er).

It's put together well and the rudimentary set of graphics
supplied with the shareware version does its job well. With
registration you get a whole host of graphics from different
items, through to different wall and floor designs.

My only gripe is the speed at which it all runs. Because the
program needs Windows to run we can't expect blisteringly fast
response and screen-redraw times, but when you select a new tool,
you can do some hefty foot-tapping while you wait for the HD to
stop being accessed. True, while I was testing it out I has
Microsoft Works loaded with a couple of files, a DOS session
going, File Manager up and running, along with Microsoft Scenes
and another small program or two, but this is what I normally have
running in usual Windows usage, and most other programs seem to
fit well enough into these demands made on the system. Maybe if
you had a faster CPU (486DX2-66, for example) and 8meg of RAM the
program would run a little faster, but it doesn't matter all that
much.

Overall a very good package in a much-needed area of RPGing. It
can also be used to produce neat maps for RPGs you've solved
yourself, but whether you'd want to spend ages transferring paper
maps onto the computer would be a different matter.  The only
down-side is the registration fee. True, it brings a complete
graphics library, but $35 seems a bit OTT to me.

Give it a go and see what you think.
                              - o -