{"id":167,"date":"2026-10-15T03:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T03:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.theicealphawolfden.com\/?p=167"},"modified":"2026-10-15T03:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T03:19:21","slug":"dungeon-keeper-1-and-2-dig-build-expand-and-conquer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.theicealphawolfden.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/15\/dungeon-keeper-1-and-2-dig-build-expand-and-conquer\/","title":{"rendered":"Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2: Dig, Build, Expand and Conquer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2 are among my favourite games.<\/strong> I have played both so many times. Dig out the dungeon, make rooms, expand, kill the enemy and move on. I love that whole loop. It is an RTS underground, and it is exactly the kind of strategy game I enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking through this old magazine brings that back immediately. Here is Dungeon Keeper II before release, with Bullfrog promising new creatures, more elaborate dungeons and better battles. I am still sad that the original series stopped after the second game. There was so much more they could have done with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Jakob Sloth\u2019s preview from CD-ROM Spil 11\/1998, page 24<\/strong>, in the issue dated 15 October\u201311 November 1998. It is a preview, with no review score. Some of its promises became familiar parts of Dungeon Keeper II. Others need a much closer look, especially the claim that sixteen people could play together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View the complete original 1998 preview page<\/summary>\n
\"Photograph<\/a>
My original photograph of Jakob Sloth\u2019s Dungeon Keeper II preview, CD-ROM Spil<\/em> 11\/1998, p. 24. The printed screenshots and character artwork are preserved. Click any article image to enlarge it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

An RTS underground<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What I enjoy starts with making the dungeon itself. The empty rock becomes somewhere I can use: rooms, corridors, space for creatures and routes towards the enemy. Expanding gives me more to work with, but eventually I want to take what I have built and use it to win the level. Then I want another dungeon to dig out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original game ties that building to the creatures living in it. Imps excavate, claim ground, reinforce walls and carry gold. Lairs give creatures somewhere to sleep, hatcheries provide food, and the treasury supplies their wages. Libraries support research, while training rooms improve creatures for combat. Those are working parts of the dungeon, rather than rooms placed only for appearance. The original Dungeon Keeper manual<\/a> lays out how those needs and jobs fit together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dungeon<\/a>
Dungeon Keeper Gold\u2019s training room. Gameplay image supplied on GOG\u2019s product page<\/a>; game by Bullfrog Productions \/ Electronic Arts. This is a store screenshot, separate from my recording below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That combination is why calling it an RTS makes sense to me. There is the construction and preparation, then the fight over territory and the enemy dungeon. The shape of the place matters because it is the space everything has to happen in. I get to build the base and turn it against the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also lets me be the evil bastard running the dungeon. The adventurers are the people coming into my home to cause trouble. Bullfrog built the whole thing around that reversal, with creatures to feed, pay and keep working while the forces of good try to ruin it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sequel without Peter Molyneux<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The preview opens with the question of whether Bullfrog could make a worthy sequel after Peter Molyneux\u2019s departure. It describes the first Dungeon Keeper as a long-delayed project that had taken around three years of his work, then explains that he had left Bullfrog to start Lionhead Studios. Its closing judgment is that the people remaining at Bullfrog seemed capable of doing the job themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Recreated<\/a>
AI-assisted recreated text layout based on my photograph, preserving the Danish wording. This is a new presentation of the excerpt, not an original scan. Source: Jakob Sloth, CD-ROM Spil<\/em> 11\/1998, p. 24.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The sequel became another favourite. I have played both repeatedly, and I still enjoy the digging, building and fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The page expected Dungeon Keeper II in March 1999<\/strong>, both in the opening text and the information box. It reached players later in 1999, during the summer; EA\u2019s current product record<\/a> lists 7 July 1999. March was the forecast in this 1998 preview, rather than the release date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More rooms, more creatures and a different-looking dungeon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The magazine gives the graphics overhaul a lot of space. It describes polygonal creatures and objects, a rewritten engine and Direct3D support from the beginning. It also admits that the creatures are less detailed than those in Unreal, while pointing to the number that could appear on screen together. That is a more concrete explanation than simply calling the new graphics better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accompanying pictures show both the overhead dungeon and the view from inside a creature. The preview\u2019s short caption compares controlling a possessed monster to Quake. That first-person view was an important part of how the dungeon could be experienced: the rooms and corridors could be seen from down among the creatures as well as from above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"First-person<\/a>
Dungeon Keeper II in first-person possession view, inside a training room. Gameplay screenshot from GOG\u2019s Dungeon Keeper II page<\/a>; Bullfrog Productions \/ Electronic Arts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The creature section mixes returning monsters with proposed additions, including a thief who could infiltrate enemy territory, a Dark Angel with skeletal forces, salamanders, black knights, dark elves, rats and spider-women. That is the preview\u2019s planned line-up. The released game\u2019s manual<\/a> documents the Rogue, Dark Angel, Salamander, Dark Elf and other creatures, including the Dark Angel\u2019s Skeleton Army spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new rooms are more directly connected to the part I love: giving the dungeon more things to do. The Combat Pit provides fights between creatures, while the casino lets them gamble away their wages. Both appear in the finished game. The casino is such a fittingly nasty idea for a place run by an evil Keeper: pay the creatures, then give them somewhere to lose the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dungeon<\/a>
The casino in Dungeon Keeper II, with creatures at its gaming tables. Gameplay screenshot supplied by GOG<\/a>; Bullfrog Productions \/ Electronic Arts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Read the recreated graphics and creature excerpt<\/summary>\n
\"Recreated<\/a>
AI-assisted recreated layout of \u201cNy grafik\u201d, with the final sentence continued from the next photographed column. Original wording retained, including its pre-release creature descriptions. Jakob Sloth, CD-ROM Spil<\/em> 11\/1998, p. 24.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Battles, mana and walls that could be breached<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under \u201cBedre kampe\u201d, the preview says the first game had been criticised for overly simple combat. It describes a change to creature collisions, allowing a large monster to block a narrow passage while ranged attackers fire from behind it. The purpose is clear: the space available for a fight should matter, rather than every creature being piled into the same point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finished game\u2019s manual gives creatures different combat roles, including Blockers and Support, and recommends using them together. It also describes mana as the resource for spells, traps and magical creatures. Claimed tiles generate mana, creatures can produce more through temple prayer, and additional Imps consume it. Expansion and the magical budget are connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Recreated<\/a>
AI-assisted recreated layout of \u201cBedre kampe\u201d. The 1998 claims are preserved as printed. Jakob Sloth, CD-ROM Spil<\/em> 11\/1998, p. 24.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The preview names earthquake and turncoat spells. The release manual calls the ground-shaking Keeper spell Tremor and describes Turncoat as taking over an enemy creature to attack its own side. Those are concrete systems behind the promise of more interesting battles. See the combat advice and Keeper-spell sections of the original manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its final combat point is that enemy Imps could dig through reinforced walls. Closing the dungeon off and training indefinitely would no longer provide the same protection. The screenshot below even shows the game explaining the work needed to break an enemy reinforced wall. Later official update notes<\/a> added a multiplayer option to make reinforced walls impenetrable, so the rules also depended on the chosen settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dungeon<\/a>
\u201cEnemy Wall. Your Imps must work hard to dig through this.\u201d The highlighted reinforced wall makes the preview\u2019s point visible in the released game. Screenshot from GOG<\/a>; Bullfrog Productions \/ Electronic Arts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sixteen players in the preview, four in the game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The multiplayer section is where the preview gets far too confident. It says players could now play with up to 16 people<\/strong> over the Internet or a network. That is a specific capacity, stated as something the game could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Recreated<\/a>
AI-assisted recreated layout of the multiplayer excerpt. The number 16 is preserved from the original photograph. Jakob Sloth, CD-ROM Spil<\/em> 11\/1998, p. 24.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The official Dungeon Keeper II editor manual, section 2.4<\/a> gives a maximum of four players<\/strong>. Four is a quarter of sixteen. That is a substantial difference in the feature being described, and it should not disappear into a vague statement that plans changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sixteen-player claim on this page was not what buyers received.<\/strong> A preview can report ambitious plans, but printing that capacity as already possible gave readers a much firmer impression. It deserved to be presented as a development target, with the uncertainty attached to that target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same section promises downloadable levels, monsters and spells at no charge after release. Bullfrog did release updates with additional content. The official patch history reproduced with the 1.70 update<\/a> records extra maps, Elite creatures, the Maiden and the Jack-in-the-Box trap. The official level editor<\/a> also let people make their own levels. There was real post-release support here, even though that does not produce the sixteen-player game described in the magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Dungeon Keeper Gold gameplay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I only have a gameplay recording of Dungeon Keeper Gold<\/strong> to include here, even though I have played both games many times. I think this recording was the GOG version, but I am not certain about the exact release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold packages the first Dungeon Keeper with The Deeper Dungeons<\/strong> expansion, as confirmed by the Gold manual<\/a> and GOG\u2019s edition description<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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