Dungeon Master 2 IBM PC MS-DOS 1995 FTL Software Heaven

DM2: The Legend of Skullkeep

FTL Games released Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in August of 1995. Dungeon Master 2 employs Rational Systems' DOS/4GW Protected Mode Run-time v.1.97.

Dungeon Master 2 of 1995 is a laughably late sequel to Dungeon Master of 1987 on the Atari ST.

Dungeon Master 2 was first released on the NEC PC-98 in December of 1993, which is still six years after the original. There were even Sega CD and FM Towns versions released in 1994 before the IBM PC MS-DOS version. How odd.

Imagine eschewing discrete flip-screen updates in favor of double-step ones, thereby slowing down gameplay and making movement imprecise.

Westwood's Lands of Lore of 1993 fell into the trap as well, but at least you could disable interpolation in LoL. You can't disable the double-step in DM2.

Dungeon Master 2 displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. That FMVs can render in SVGA doesn't change that fact. The active drawspace is 224x136px, which is the same drawspace size of 1987 Dungeon Master. Thus, 8 years later these developers couldn't add a single pixel to the drawspace size of the original Dungeon Master.

Dungeon Master 2 was distributed on 9x 3.5" 1.44 MB diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Dungeon Master II Installer. The install size is 16 megs (23 files).

Dungeon Master 2 was programmed by Bill Kelly, Kirk Baker and Bert Huml; its graphics were headed up by Scott Bieser; its music composed by Rick Jackson and Allister Brimble.

• Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep manual: 52 pages
• Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep Clue Book: 68 pages
• Dungeon Master 2 skip intro: Delete or move FTL, Splash and Intro files

MIDI devices supported by Dungeon Master 2: Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Ensoniq SoundScape, Microsoft Sound System, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Gravis UltraSound, Gravis UltraSound Max, ESS AudioDrive.

Digital devices supported by Dungeon Master 2: Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Ensoniq SoundScape, Microsoft Sound System, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Gravis UltraSound, Gravis UltraSound Max, ESS AudioDrive, Toptek Golden 16, Thunderboard, AdLib Gold, NewMedia .WAVJammer, I/O Magic Tempo, ARIA Chipset, Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16, Reveal FX/32.

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Flip-screen cRPG active drawspace size comparison (in horizontal and vertical pixels):

• Dungeon Master Atari ST 1987: 16-color 224x136 drawspace
• Pool of Radiance IBM PC 1988: 16-color EGA 88x88 drawspace
• Bloodwych Amiga 1989: 16-color 2x 128x76 drawspaces
• Captive Amiga 1990: 32-color 146x144 drawspace
• Crystals of Arborea IBM PC 1990: 16-color EGA 320x152 drawspace
• Eye of the Beholder IBM PC 1991: 256-color VGA 176x120 drawspace
• Fate Gates of Dawn Amiga 1991: 32-color 176x107 drawspace
• Black Crypt Amiga 1992: 64-color 208x140 drawspace
• Dark Queen of Krynn IBM PC 1992: 256-color VGA 88x88 drawspace
• Ishar: Legend of the Fortress IBM PC 1992: 256-color VGA 256x126 drawspace
• Ishar 2: Messengers of Doom IBM PC 1993: 256-color VGA 256x113 drawspace
• Liberation Captive 2 Amiga 1993-94: 256-color AGA 192x100 drawspace
• Lands of Lore IBM PC 1993: 256-color VGA 176x120 drawspace
• Hired Guns IBM PC 1993: 256-color VGA 4x 140x82 drawspaces
• Perihelion The Prophecy Amiga 1993: 32-color 176x120 drawspace
• Ishar 3: Seven Gates of Infinity IBM PC 1994: 256-color VGA 256x113 drawspace

Other:

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