Cuthbert Goes Digging

The Good
There are plenty of Dragon games that are graphically quite limited that nonetheless have an addictive quality that overcomes their technical limitations. This game is close to being one of those. The collision detection, speed and complexity curve of the game make for an initial "one more game" effect that means you instantly want to progress just that bit further. What is more you generally do, giving a nice sense of achievement.

The Bad
Sadly the higher levels just offer more of the same, when what is really required is a little bit of variation- monsters, colour sets, sounds, anything really to avoid it feeling like a bit of a drudge. The initial "just one more game" becomes replaced by "can't be bothered". Other games of the era fall to the same problem of the higher levels just offering more of the same,, but most that do offer an initially more complicated game. Limited graphics in the green colour set, and sound that sounds like it could have been by using the BASIC commands in about half an hour (in reality the game was in fact 100% Machine Code) certainly let the game down, but really it is the design that is the problem- more is needed at the higher level whilst the combination of joystick and keyboard is problematic to say the least.

The Bottom Line
All in all it feels like an early 16 K Tandy release that would have passed muster in 1981, but by the time it was released already was a leap behind the better games of the era.