Desmond's Dungeon

Desmond's Dungeon is a 1-player arcade game for the 8-bit Atari.

Fiendish Alfonso Schwarz has found the ideal place to hide his plundered gold. He is stashing it in an underground dungeon, a complicated maze of connected passages. One day, Desmond, out for a walk in the sun, accidentally discovers Alfonso's hiding place. Realising that the vast fortune could all be his, he descends into the dark and dingy depths of the earth to search for the precious metal.

The player controls a character that moves laterally and climbs up and down ladders. Each level has several levels of platforms. On odd-numbered levels the player must gather all money bags on a laterally scrolling screen, one at a time, and bring them to a treasure chest in the center of the level. Desmond flies in a plane across the top of the screen and drops bombs towards the player. The player must avoid dangers including spiders and fire. They also need to collect keys to unlock doors. The player has health which slowly regenerates, but is lost when they touch a danger. The player loses their money bag if they are hit.

In even-numbered levels Desmond drops money bags from his plane, and the player must toss the money bags into the hook that moves laterally across the top of the screen. The player must once again avoid dropped bombs, spiders, and other dangers. The player starts with 3 lives, and it's game over when all are lost. The player receives bonus points based upon remaining time when all money bags are collected.