Mike Brixius, known as RavenWolf Retro Tech, has taken on an ambitious project: completing Digital Dungeon Master, an RPG he began on the Commodore 64 in 1984. Rediscovering his unfinished work has reignited his passion for classic coding. The Digital Dungeon Master Revival is both a technical challenge and a personal goal to complete a project that started over forty years ago.
From Avalon Hill to the 8-Bit Screen
Brixius drew inspiration from Telengard by Avalon Hill, one of the earliest dungeon crawlers. He wanted to expand its ideas by adding a surface world and multiple characters. His creative foundation came from his original Dungeons & Dragons campaign and the Ultima series. Games like Ultima IV taught him how role-playing adventures could focus on growth and moral choice. Early on, he wrote his code using a Hessmon monitor cartridge, learning everything from books and trial and error.
Recovering the Past, One Byte at a Time
Nearly four decades later, Brixius uncovered his old notebooks, printed listings, and floppy disks. He used them to rebuild the game with modern tools like Visual Studio Code, Kick Assembler, and the VICE emulator. After typing the code by hand, he successfully restored the map engine from 1985. Players can now walk the overworld, enter dungeons, and move through visible spaces. These small victories show how far the Digital Dungeon Master Revival has come since its early prototype.
The Plan Ahead
Development will continue through quarterly updates, each focused on specific milestones. Community polls on YouTube and Patreon will help decide new features. Brixius plans to fix dungeon graphics, improve color rendering, and refine how data is stored. He also hopes to add traps, locked doors, and visible line-of-sight effects to deepen gameplay. Through each update, the Digital Dungeon Master Revival becomes more complete.
The Road to Completion
Brixius wants the finished RPG to run on both emulators and real hardware. He may later offer boxed physical copies for collectors. His determination has transformed an unfinished teenage dream into a collaborative retro project. For fans of the Commodore 64, this revival story captures the creativity and persistence that keep classic computing alive.
