Amulet of Yendor

This fantasy adventure has the player exploring a castle in search of treasures. The castle is an eight-by-eight-by-eight grid, with eight levels containing sixty-four rooms each. Its contents are randomized at the start of each game. There are eight major treasures to seek (including the palintir and the silmaril) and twelve monster types to avoid (from pitiful kobolds to might dragons); players can choose from four different character races (elf, dwarf, man or hobbit) and, with sufficient intelligence, can cast three different spells (web, fireball and deathspell).

After picking a race, distributing attribute scores and spending money to gain weapons, armor and other equipment, the player enters the castle. Rooms are portrayed by short textual descriptions and grid numbers showing where they fit into the grand scheme of things. Gameplay consists of typing simple text commands to move, fight and gather treasure. A map is automatically generated during play, but it can only be viewed for a brief moment at a time before it disappears off the screen (even on very slow computers).