''Moria'' is a

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games an ...

style

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed for the PLATO system beginning around 1975 by Kevet Duncombe and Jim Battin. In the game, up to ten players can simultaneously journey through a dynamically-generated dungeon, presented to the players in first-person wireframe 3D.

Gameplay

''Moria'' allows parties of up to ten players to travel as a group and message each other, dynamically generating dungeons (instead of pre-computing them), and featuring a wireframe first-person perspective display.

Development

''Moria'' was developed by Kevet Duncombe and Jim Battin beginning in either 1975 or 1976. The game was later given a copyright date of 1978. It was initially begun as a top-down two-dimensional dungeon crawl game, inspired by contemporary PLATO game '' Dnd'', which was developed beginning in 1975, and others such as ''Orthanc'' (1978). ''Moria'' was one of several '' Dungeons & Dragons''-inspired games on the PLATO network developed in the late 1970s. Although both developers had played other games based on works by J. R. R. Tolkien or ''Dungeons & Dragons'', Duncombe had never read or played either. During development, Battin suggested converting the game into a 3D game, inspired by other early 3D PLATO games such as '' Panther'', '' Spasim'', and '' Airfight''. The name ''Moria'' was suggested by ''Dnd'' developer Dirk Pellett. An update was made to the game in 1984, with the copyright date changed to match. ''Moria'', like all other PLATO programs, was originally monochrome. In an effort to "modernize" the lessons, color was added by an intern in 1994 at University Online after the CYBIS system and its content was sold to them. CYBIS (short for CYber-Based Instruction System) was the new name for PLATO after CDC sold the trademark to The Roach Organization in 1989.

Notes

Sources

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , title=Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games , edition=2nd , first1=Matt , last1=Barton , first2=Shane , last2=Stacks , publisher=

CRC Press The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information tec ...

, date=2019 , isbn=978-1-138-57464-9 , pages=44–45 {{cite web , url=https://spillhistorie.no/kevet-duncombe-on-moria/ , title=Kevet Duncombe on Moria , website=Spillhistorie.no , date=December 30, 2016 , access-date=December 4, 2022 {{cite book , title=The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture , last=Dear , first=Brian , date=2018 , publisher= Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group , isbn=978-1-101-97363-9 , pages=288–291 {{cite book , title=Before the Crash: Early Video Game History , last=Wolf , first=Mark J. P. , date=2012 , publisher= Wayne State University Press , isbn=978-0-8143-3722-6 , page=212 {{cite web , last1=Schuller , first1=Dan , title=Moria , url=https://howtomakeanrpg.com/r/l/g/moria.html
''Moria''
at cyber1.org, where the game can be played
Fun with PLATO
at Armchair Arcade Role-playing video games 1975 video games Cooperative video games PLATO (computer system) games Video games developed in the United States

Gameplay

Development

See also

Notes

Sources