This next game in my list of favorite typed-in games isn't here because it's a particularly good game, but it does hold a special place in my memories because it's one of the very first games I sat down and typed in to my C64. The game is called Demon's Lair and it was published in the book, “Using the Commodore 64 In The Home”, written by Hank Librach and Bill L. Behrendt back in 1983. This was the book that got me going with programming in BASIC and I typed in just about every program that it contained. This was also the time when I had no storage device for my C64. So, I actually typed in a few of these games several times until I got my 1541.

Demon's Lair was my first dungeon crawler adventure game on the C64. Before this, I had Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Misty Mountain on my Intellivision. It was (and still is) one of my favorite dungeon crawling games, so programming my own was an extra treat for me.

By today's standards, it's a pretty dull and rudimentary adventure game, even for BASIC. But, there is a particular charm to it, at least for me. You're on an adventure to collect treasure and battle monsters. The maze is revealed to you as you move about, using the H, J, N, and U keys. When you encounter a monster, you have very little time to use either S (for sword) or K (for knife) to slay the creature before your energy level hits zero.

There's no sound in the game, but there is a short tune that is played on the title screen. Yes, this game actually has a sprite generated title screen. All of the rest of the graphics are PETSCII.

The game is 30 blocks in size, so it is a pretty long game to type in. But it being in BASIC also helped me to learn some interesting programming techniques and inspired me to learn more about all of the fun things I could do with my C64. On those rainy days when I have a desire to take a trip down memory lane, I'll load this game up for a quick play.

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