Dunzhin is one of a series of programs that attempts to bring fantasy / role-playing games to the Atari. You are a level one warrior outfitted with a sword and suit of chain mail who seeks certain valuable objects in the lowest level of a dungeon inhabited with monsters and full of deadly traps. Your battle experience slowly increases until you can tackle the strongest foes who inhabit the deep, dark passageways.

This game is played by keyboard commands. The map is automatically drawn as you explore each level of the dungeon and each of the 15 rooms is designated by a letter on separate floors. Three teleport you to a random room on another level, three are filled with poisonous gas, and three heal you. In addition, there are three armor repair rooms in the dungeon. Most of the monsters are in the hallways but a few guard treasure in some of the rooms. The main object in the lowest level is guarded by three nasty monsters.

Keyboard movement becomes tedious in long games. For example, to move east two squares requires the command M E2. Joystick control should have been implemented in this TRS-80 translation to make things easier. Likewise, battle commands require you to designate both the command and the area you wish to aim at. The battles become long, drawn out events, and sometimes you want to avoid this tedium by bribing a monster or fleeing just to speed up the game. Traps are time oriented and require a quick response to escape.

On the whole, Dunzhin is a fair, cohesive, but sometimes tiring game. The graphics, while adequate, lack excitement and animation, and an easier control system with better graphics would have been a big improvement. This text game draws its map while the warrior explores. Fortunately, it has a save game feature for those who plan to continue over a period of days.