Ian Livingstone is one of the biggest names in British fantasy gaming. Together with Steve Jackson, he founded Games Workshop, brought D&D to the UK and invented the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, starting with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The most famous and successful of the books, however, was Deathtrap Dungeon.

It's one of the most basic fantasy adventure settings you can imagine: The sinister Baron Sukumvit annually challenges potential heroes to the Trial of Champions in his magical labyrinth beneath the city of Fang (most of the exotic names in the book are based on actual places in Thailand), the eponymous Deathtrap Dungeon. Here they have to face countless traps, monsters and other encounters, defeat a full-grown dragon in the end to survive and earn insurmountable riches and glory. Needless to say, no one ever succeeded, until the player comes along... and plays the game for dozens of times, as the game is as deadly as it sounds.

Livingstone actually did his first footsteps into the video game industry as early as 1984, when he wrote the story for Eureka! for Domark, the company he would later lead into the merger with Eidos, where he holds an important position to the day. So the eventual announcement of a Deathtrap Dungeon video game adaption wasn't really surprising news. Many fellow Games Workshop designers and fantasy book writers carried out the translation from paper to polygons. Richard Halliwell, author of Warhammer and Space Hulk, was chosen as the lead game designer. Also on board was Jamie Thomson, whose fantasy game books had been adapted to microcomputer games since the '80s, and who continues to be one of the most prolific authors in the genre.

Domark first announced Deathtrap Dungeon in early 1996, around the time it started merging into Eidos Interactive. Curiously, one would be hard pressed to find any Western sources that reported on the game at first, yet it was relatively prominent in Korean magazines. First screenshots still showed a blond protagonist of the usual gruffy hero type, but within few months he was replaced by the hard-bitten thug called Chaindog. (Blondie still makes a cameo appearance on the PSX as an adventurer turned to stone by the Medusa, though.)

He didn't live to see the game released

Only after the huge success of Tomb Raider people started to pay much attention to Eidos' other 3D action game. Since it runs on a similar-looking 3D engine, Deathtrap Dungeon has often been accused of being a cash-in on the success of Core's hit franchise. This claim doesn't really hold much water, given that the game was already in development when Lara Croft's first adventure was still far from finished, and already looked reasonably similar to the final game. The female protagonist on the other hand, the scantly clad assassin Red Lotus, was first introduced at a rather suspicious time, in early 1997. Her initial outfit was hilarious, too, wearing little more than a metal thong and a chain hanging around her neck to cover her nipples. Whether executive prudery prevailed in the end, or someone simply noticed how ridiculous it was, she ended up with the somewhat more chaste leather leotard.

Introduction of the most slutty heroine since Lula

The controls explain why the many comparisons to Tomb Raider, as it's the same scheme with the good old tank movement. Platforming is more problematic, though, as the game has more areas with fixed camera positions, and there's no way to do the jumps systematically like with Lara Croft. For some reason the HUD contains a speed meter, which of course is completely useless. Other than Tomb Raider, though, platforming plays only a minor role, with the focus instead on melee combat. The protagonists (who both play exactly the same, differences are merely cosmetical) have three different combos (four on PSX) at their disposal, chosen by holding the attack button together with the directional pad. The hit detection is a bit dubious, and no doubt many players have wondered if the game's just messing with them, especially when they're surrounded and keep getting hit from all directions at the same time. But there is a method to the madness, and once one learns to use the different combos and, most importantly, blocking to one's own advantage, it all starts to make sense. That doesn't mean to say it's not totally brutal all the same, and you'll still get eaten by dinosaurs, incinerated by dragon breath and mangled between the fist of rock golems aplenty.

So if the direct approach appears too dangerous, there's a whole arsenal of projectile weapons, too. That's right, since pretty much the same group of people is responsible for both games, there's lots of crossover with Warhammer and its steampunky elements. The first weapon to find is a basic "shotgun," or rather its ancient version, the blunderbuss. Later you get bombs, a flamethrower, a portable mortar and even a rocket launcher, which uses the same kind of old-fashioned rockets you know from watching fireworks.

(insert pathetic joke about phallic symbols here)

Ammunition for the firearms is limited, though. Similar goes for magical swords, which break apart with use. All of them are extremely strong, but usually facilitate the killing of certain enemy types, so the Venom Sword easily disposes of poisonous enemies, the Silver Sword is used to get rid of the undead, and so on. The only weapons you can rely on at all times, though, are your trusty old sword and a war hammer, which is so heavy though that you rarely ever get to actually swing it before being killed.

But of course one comes to Deathtrap Dungeon to see the deathtraps, and there's plenty of them, no worries. Expect to get roasted, shot, mashed, bombed, hacked into pieces, dropped down crumbling floors onto beds well made—out of arm-long metal spikes—and pretty much die in all the cruel ways one can imagine. The property sure earned its name. It's not as bastardly as you might think, though. Often you have the chance to see beforehand what's coming for you, if you're being attentive. Nozzles in the wall and darts on the floor are there to tip you off that something's fishy, just as much as the decaying remains of those that tried their luck before you. This actually makes the game a lot fairer than the book, which often leaves the player with seemingly random choices and the anxious hope to not have picked the deadly one this time. Well, you still find yourself in awkward dilemmas like two-switch setups where one switch defuses a trap and the other activates it, with no one telling you which is which. But I guess an author's gotta have somefun at the cost of his victi... ehrm, audience.

If something moves and yet it doesn't kill you, chances are you've found yourself one of the non-rigged treasure chests. The loot ranges from common healing, strength and antidote potions to useful charms hat make the heroes temporarily invulnerable to magic or let them survive walking through fire. Occasionally one even finds some gold or jewelry in the depths. The riches aren't used to secure your overworld wealth, though (the reward for surving the labyrinth should be more than enough to settle the retirement fund, anyway). Instead some of the savepoints (both the PSX and PC versions use them) are glowing red, meaning their use is subject to charges. If you want to defy savepoints altogether, you can also enter every reached level directly, but since you start them without any items, it's not recommended.

Be always aware of what's coming from behind

The baron's collection of monstrosities is quite impressive; more than 40 different enemy types await you, from evil juggling clowns and silly cap-wearing goblins to demon priestesses, steampowered robot scorpions and the Warhammer-native ratmen, everyone who's got a name in fantasy monstering can be found in the dungeon. You're even up against a bunch of not-T-Rex for mini bosses. Just as the specimen that shocked players in Tomb Raider almost two years before, they walk freely around their area, menacing and deadly, a far cry from modern action game bosses that bluntly shove in your face the fact that they just now spawned for you to fight them. Here you can actually turn the dungeon against your foes by luring them into traps. This, dear modern game developers, is how you design a puzzle boss.

At the end of course await the dragons known from the book, one bigger and deadlier than the other. This boss rush opens with the Blood Beast, one of the most iconic (and most disgusting) monsters, which used to decorate the cover of the original editions. Afterwards follows the three-headed Hydra, the flying dragon Vilefor and the final confrontation, the red dragon Melkor.

The latter two dragons actually dwell in huge caverns were they can fly around, harassing bypassing adventurers with explosive projectiles and their fiery breath. There is also a cool ride on the back of flying turtles over a giant pit. Other than these occasions, the architecture lacks a certain sense of grandeur, that the book could convey with the sheer power of words, but would have costed much additional work and budget to realize graphically. The level design is by no means bland, even though it's mostly just rooms and corridors and pits and switches and traps and monsters. Yet it cannot but disappoint to have intersting structures like the huge buddha statue (see further below) entirely missing, especially since Tomb Raider had set the bar with the Sphinx and its huge Midas statue. Many non-standard encounters from the book are left out, too, like the skeleton on the throne, which after all was prestigious enough to eventually replace the Bloodbeast on the covers. You'd also briefly meet several other unlucky adventurers in the book, while all that's left of them in the game are their bones.

Much of the atmosphere is owed to the sound department—like in a good horror movie, effects are designed to instill paranoia and fear: Before you can even see the enemies, you hear them phasing in when they respawn, the growling of the Ogres and the creaking mechanisms of the Automata. Squeaking doors and spurting blood do the rest.

You won't hear any uplifting rhythms or beautiful melodies to go with that, either. In the beginning chambers, there's no music at all. Only when the monsters start attacking, the martial soundtrack first kicks in. Inside the Dungeon, its all eerie screeching noises, bombastic war drums and gladiatoral fanfares. It is a very effective soundtrack in the context of the game, though it offers nothing you'd want to put on your MP3 player for standalone listening.

Although the game first came out for PSX, the primary platform for Deathtrap Dungeon was the PC, according to the in-game credits. But the PlayStation version was anything but a simple downscaled port. Of course it runs in low resolution and thus the texture quality isn't as high, but it still manages to look better regardless. The lighting is more colorful and atmospheric, and the graphics just are on a higher artistic level than the PC textures, which often seem a bit too orderly and regular. The drawing distance is a bit shorter on the console, but the increased darkness only adds to the atmosphere. There is, however, one really cool feature that got dropped in the conversion: On the PC, all the damage the adventurers took would show on their body. You see their bruises, cuts—even arrows keep sticking in their flesh until healed.

With 5HP, she's not so sexy anymore

But the two versions don't only differ on an aesthetic level. The PSX game is more akin to a remix, with different enemy placement, loot and sometimes different secret areas. The level architecture is usually similar, but rarely quite the same, and at one or two points it just takes the same setpieces to build a completely different challenge. The most sensible change is the addition of a backwards strike for the sword. On the PC the only means of defense against attacks from behind is slowly turning around while blocking, which is more than just a little awkward, especially when you're surrounded by multiple enemies.

Due to memory constraints the areas are also broken up into smaller portions, and some are switched around in order. One level, the Quarry, got excised entirely from the port, but seeing how it hosts the most annoying enemies, aggravating platforming passages and a really stupid puzzle, one can safely say that if they had to delete a level, they made the right choice. The loss of some cinematic moments is a shame, though, especially the hub area for the final boss fights, where each door is guarded by a dragon statue that comes to life after you've killed the previous dragon. Then there's the multiplayer deathmatch mode, which is also missing from the port. However, Deathtrap Dungeon was optimized for Windows 95/98, so on more recent systems the multiplayer mode doesn't even work. The same goes for the routines for sound and music; the game now is completely mute. So unless you've still got a running Win9x PC around, the PlayStation version is the way to go.

For collectors, on the other hand, the PC is the more interesting platform thanks to the Limited Edition, which contains a Deathtrap Dungeon card game and an edition of the original gamebook itself. The Bestiary, a booklet that came packed with all versions (at least for the UK release) and describes the various creatures inside the dungeon, is also expanded with profiles of the protagonists and an additional world introduction for PC gamers.

Deathtrap Dungeon suffers from the same trappings as most 3rd person action adventures of its time—first and foremost the awkward and unprecise controls and camera issues. Back in the day, though, it wasn't received as well mostly because it was "that Tomb Raider cash-in game" and because of the harsh difficulty. But it is that brutality that gives the game its identity. At times it almost feels like an early specimen of those sadist games that are specifically designed for you to be tortured, and enjoy it. Only it's not as slick in design. In fact you can notice several seams at mechanics that are implemented, but not at all fleshed out. So you get a piece of chalk to make markings on the floor, yet none of the stages are labyrinthine enough to warrant the effort. Both protagonists can also use their fists in hand-to-hand combat, but they always carry their standard sword, which is always superior.

Regardless, Ian Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon is a rough diamond of an action game that makes you wonder what happened if it had been followed up by more Fighting Fantasy adaptions. But seeing how Deathtrap Dungeon didn't leave much of an impact and they've already kinda blown their ammunition by adapting the most popular book, it's not surprising that there were none. At least not until the ill-received first-person DS game Fighting Fantasy: the Warlock on Fire Mountain was released more than a decade later. Some of the books, including Deathtrap Dungeon are also available as iPhone apps. Those are direct implementations of the original books, though, which merely add a pretty wallpaper and some colored illustrations.