Sword of Fargoal
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Sword of Fargoal is a computer game written by Jeff McCord and Scott Corsaire (then last name Carter) , almost all game routines had to be rewritten in machine language and was completed in 72 hours of straight programming and published in 1983 by Epyx. The first version was released for the Commodore VIC-20 computer, with a version for the Commodore 64 following shortly thereafter. Both versions were originally based on an earlier, much simpler Commodore PET game, also by McCord, called Gammaquest II. In 2004 it would be "re-released" on the C64 Direct-to-TV.
Sword of Fargoal is a roguelike game, with the player controlling an adventurous warrior attempting to reclaim the titular sword from the depths of a monster-infested, randomly-generated dungeon. The sword is placed randomly somewhere between the fifteenth and twentieth dungeon level (inclusive).
Sword of Fargoal is noteworthy for being one of the first[citation needed] popular microcomputer games to introduce elements used by roguelike games on the mainframe computers of the day, such as dungeons that are randomly generated for each play session, although it lacks the depth of play and complexity usually associated with roguelikes. It is also somewhat notorious in Commodore 64 fandom for being extremely difficult to win—once the sword has been claimed by the player, he or she has exactly 2,000 seconds (33 minutes and 20 seconds) to escape the dungeon by going back through each level, or the sword will be destroyed by a curse. Complicating matters further is the fact that if the sword is lost for any reason, the player must return to the level he or she originally found it, and the clock does not stop or reset when this occurs.
An open source remake exists for many modern computers.
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