The Dungeon Revealed — down the stairs, 1987 Runs here
1987 · John Raymonds · System 7 · Mini vMac (Mac SE) · 512×342 black and white
Guide updated October 2026
Yes: The Dungeon Revealed runs free in your browser on this page. Press Start and it boots System 7 on an emulated Mac SE, with no download, no plugin and no account. Controls: Arrow keys (move one square), Numeric keypad (move, as the original intended, if your keyboard has one). Your progress is saved in your own browser between visits. It plays best with a keyboard; on a phone, on-screen keys appear once it starts.
A dungeon crawl in the tradition of Rogue, drawn instead of typed: a hand-inked dungeon of square tiles, a character portrait framed in skulls and shields, and a mostly-black map that fills in as you walk it. You create a character, pick a class, and go down.
John Raymonds wrote it, and Woodrose Editions published it in 1987 as the full version of his earlier Dungeon of Doom. This is that release, on an emulated black-and-white Macintosh.
The title picture appears by itself. Choose New from the File menu, save the game file when asked, then name your character, pick a class and click Onward! The arrow keys move you.
Controls
| Arrow keys | Move one square; the map scrolls to keep you in the middle |
| Numeric keypad | Move, as the original intended, if your keyboard has one |
| File menu | New, Open and Save your game |
| Use and Inventory menus | Use, wear and drop what you are carrying |
| Help menu | The game's own help for every menu, its keyboard commands, rumours and the Hall of Legends |
The Dungeon Revealed was published by Woodrose Editions in 1987 and has not been sold in any form for decades; no current product contains it. Full reasoning is in notices/dungeon-revealed.md, and the takedown promise applies without argument.
Archives and originals
- Internet Archive: the preserved disk this copy came from.
- The Dungeon of Doom & The Dungeon Revealed: earlier versions, also at the Internet Archive.
How it works & what to expect
| Machine | Macintosh SE, 512×342 black and white |
|---|---|
| System | System 7.5.3 |
| Emulator | Basilisk II, compiled to WebAssembly |
| Year | 1987, John Raymonds and Woodrose Editions |
| Saves | Your game file lives inside the emulated Mac, in your browser |
It is a small program on a small machine, so it starts in seconds. The game originally moved with the numeric keypad; here the arrow keys are sent to the keypad for you, since most keyboards no longer have one.
Starting a game
The title picture waits for you. Choose New from the File menu and the game first asks where to save your game file; accept the suggested name. Then comes the character screen: type a name, choose a class (Knight, Fighter, Sage, Wizard, Alchemist, Jeweller or Jones), and look over the rolled Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma. Onward! puts you on the first level.
The right-hand panel keeps your statistics, your dungeon level (DL), hit points (HP) and experience level (EL) in view, and the message box below it reports what happens each turn.
Its own help is the manual
The Help menu is unusually complete for 1987: a page for each of the File, Edit and Control, Use and Inventory menus, a general guide, the keyboard commands, a page of rumours, and the Hall of Legends, where the dead are remembered. Read the keyboard commands before going far down.
Questions people ask
How do I move?
With the arrow keys, which this page sends to the numeric keypad the game was written for. A real keypad works too, and gives you the diagonals.
How is it related to The Dungeon of Doom?
The Dungeon of Doom was John Raymonds' earlier version, passed around as a demo and as shareware. The Dungeon Revealed is the full game Woodrose Editions published in 1987.
Can I save and come back?
Yes. Your game is a file saved inside the emulated Mac, which is kept in your own browser between visits. Open it again from the File menu.
Does it work on a phone?
It loads, and on-screen arrow keys appear once it starts, but the menus are small. A computer with a keyboard is much more comfortable.
Put The Dungeon Revealed on your own site
Free, no permission needed and no account. Paste this where you want the machine to appear; it brings its own emulator and asks nothing of your page.
<iframe src="https://macemu.com/embed/dungeon-revealed/"
width="512" height="342"
style="border:0;max-width:100%"
allowfullscreen
title="The Dungeon Revealed"></iframe>Sized to this title's real screen. How embedding works.
