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“It was released two years beforeRogue came out. I was not influencedby Rogue (didn’t see it untilsomething like 1983) and so far asI know the Rogue guys up at UCBerkeley hadn’t seen BAM either.We probably both came up withthe same idea independently. Butat least I can say Rogue is “BeneathApple Manor-like”- Don Worth,Beneath Apple Manor’s creatorShould you die – sooner or later, bound to happen– the scan restored you to life at the staircase. Ofcourse, any money you had at the time was dropped.However, you were alive again as of the last scan. Andyou’d want a new scan as soon as you could afford it.Each use reduced the save by 10%. Ouch! Too manyrestores of the same scan would leave you a wimp.So you proceeded carefully along the level, Listeningat doors, Inspecting walls for secret doors,Bashing stuck doors open, Running when overmatched,and hoping you wouldn’t run into too manywandering monsters.All this had a goal: to find the fabled Golden Apple,rumored to be in a dragon horde far below thesurface. Naturally, it exists, and there it is! Or is it?You know the saying: there can be only one(though not a ring this time). But each horde had asupposed Apple; grab a fake, and you were restoringat the staircase. How could you tell real from fake?Only – haha – by taking it. You don’t always needheavy combat to induce sweaty palms.BAM had to be played entirely in one session. Thebrain scans were good only for the current game. Quit,and you’d have to start a new game next time. Still,it was meant as a “quick” play. At 5 rooms/level, youcould usually get through it in about four hours or so.Thus BAM was a prototype for Rogue and itsmany variants. Sadly, it seems to have been overlookedin the history of this subgenre, even thoughit arrived two years before Rogue itself showed up in1980.In its time, Beneath Apple Manor was a fun – ifoccasionally frustrating – diversion. While simple,the game required thought and strategy. And it showswhat could be done with limited RAM and tight,well-designed code. SCPlaying a hugefloor with colorsenabled. Welisten behinda door, whereapparently a trolllurks inside.BAM allowed you to customize the size of the levels,choose between display modes and 10 difficulty settings.Beneath Apple Manor: Special Edition added so called“hi-res graphics”, but you could still play in ASCII mode.17