yes, really.
originally intended to be published by competing console maker Mattel (which created the Intellivision). the game was first made playable at the 1984 Consumer Electronic Show.
from the February 1984 issue of "The Video Game Update"
if the year sounds concerning, especially combined with how Mattel is being described here. they had basically laid off their entire programming staff (including both Jane Terjung & Mike Sanders, the latter of whom took over from the former after she was fired.) before CES even started.
while the Intellivision brand would be sold off to a new company which would go on to release the intended Intellivision companion game "Tower of Doom" (albeit with all references to the AD&D trademark removed, which was also applied to re-releases of the other two D&D games on the system.) in 1987, the 2600 version was forgotten despite a duplicate copy of the last build being created by the staff there.
said build would be undumped for decades. but eventually surfaced in an official capacity as part of "The First Console War" expansion created for Atari 50 in 2024. after a bunch of copyright shuffling led to Atari owning everything related to the Intellivision.
the actual game is unsurprisingly just as unique as it's backstory. your travels through these dungeons requires both joysticks. one is the standard movement and inventory management using combinations of holding the button and tapping the stick. the other displays menus, left on the stick to view the dungeon map, and right to view your current stats.
it's certainly not the first game on the hardware to function this way (the 1st party Raiders of the Lost Ark licensed game is probably the most famous example) but it shows how heavily they were experimenting with the hardware.
the main goal is to reach the bottom of the dungeon, with two alternative objectives of saving a princess or killing the "Aga Aga" creature also counting as a victory.
the items run the gamut of boots that make you run faster, weapons like swords and crossbows, keys to unlock locked doors, treasures, and a hat with a ton of effects.
monsters litter the floors and drag you into a basic encounter system when touched. you can either kill them by firing arrows, or "bribe" them with one of the items in your inventory, skipping the fight entirely. the game lets you enter your name at the start, meaning they will personally threaten you in their dialogue.
unfortunately the bribing system shows that the game wasn't quite 100% complete prior to it's cancellation, it's supposed to be a dice roll that utilizes your charisma stat to determine if it's successful or not. but it instead always works no matter what.
other quirks from it's unfinished status include a good chunk of the items having no functionality with their intended uses all being shifted to the Hat of Vision for testing purposes, & the system's color/b&w switch being utilized to activate a "debug mode" which loads up a shortened 3 level dungeon with a few important items already in your inventory.
while it would have been nice to have the game fully polished up for inclusion in the collection, it's still a neat little historical curiosity.
the same expansion also includes a second previously undumped 2600 prototype in the form of "Antbear". which was intended to be a port of the Stern Electronics arcade game (another set of IPs Atari bought the rights to) Anteater.
