You just entered the underground cavern you discovered, only to hear a thunderous roar behind you. It’s a cave-in! With the entrance sealed, your only hope is to work your way through the ten caverns that lay ahead of you. With any luck, you’ll get out in one piece. If you’re really lucky, you won’t leave empty-handed, as there’s a fortune in jewels and money scattered throughout the caverns. But beware the dangers that lurk within, or you’ll never see the light of day again.
Programmed by Michael Aichlmayr for Spectral Associates, Downland was released on a cartridge for the TRS-80 Tandy Color Computer (aka CoCo) in 1983. It looks easy to play, but can be very difficult to master. You have four lives and no continues, and there is no way to earn extra lives. Working with what you have, you must guide your nameless adventurer through the ten caverns (numbered 0 through 9) that make up the underground. It’s not a straightforward trek, as there are times where you’ll have to double-back into caverns you’ve already passed through to get items that you’ve missed. The caverns range from simple to navigate to ones that require all of skill just to get through.
The most obvious hazards to avoid are the bouncing blue boulders and the acid drops constantly raining from the ceilings. One hit from any of these, and you’re dead. Each cavern has a time limit as well. Failing to escape a cavern before the time runs out isn’t a death sentence, but it might as well be, because once the time runs out, the bats come out (one per cavern). They dart around the screen in diagonal patterns, and must be avoided at all costs.
Heights are something that must be considered as well. Fall from anything but the shortest height, and your adventurer hit with a thud and collapses into a pile. This can happen if you miss a jump, or if you fall from one of the ropes suspended from the ceilings. Staying on a rope once you’ve grabbed it can be tricky, especially if you’re playing on original hardware, as the joysticks do not self-center. It is possible to hang from either side of a rope to avoid acid drops that drip too close, but be mindful that you don’t push over too far and immediately grab the rope fully after the acid drop falls to continue your journey.
The treasures in the caverns are money bags and jewels, which add to your overall score. Most are within easy reach, but there are a few that may need to be skipped because of the difficulty in reaching them. Trying to may cost you time or a life.
There are also keys everywhere. Some of them just open the exit from the current cavern. Others open doors that lead to previously unreachable parts of caverns you’ve already passed through. These doors may lead you to another cavern to pass through, or just to a smaller chamber with a treasure or two inside. It can take trial and error to figure out which key leads where.
There’s no music in the game, just sound effects. There’s also no ending. Once you’ve completed cavern 9, you’re dropped right back to cavern 0 without as much as a congratulations. This may be because of the limits forced on Aichlmayr, who has expressed his dissatisfaction with the final release of Downland: “I really wish I had been able to finish Downland the way I wanted. My plan was to have a lot more caverns with increasing difficulty. Unfortunately, the last time I provided a copy to show to Tandy, I was told they insisted it fit in a 4K ROM. As it was, it was well over 4K, so I had to ditch my plans and shrink it down without losing what I already had (that took more than a month itself). If I could have had 6K or 8K to fit the game, it would have been a more challenging game.”
