Dandy

Dandy is a dungeon crawl maze game released in 1986 by Electric Dreams Software. Based on the 1983 Atari 8-bit original designed by John Howard Palevich, it is considered one of the first games to feature four-player simultaneous cooperative play and directly inspired the arcade classic Gauntlet. One or two players control warriors Sheba and Thor as they fight through 15 dungeons, collecting treasure, food for energy, keys to unlock doors, and magic spells with random effects. Monsters emerge from spawn boxes that must be destroyed to prevent endless respawning. The game features flickscreen movement between fixed screens rather than smooth scrolling. To complete the game, players must collect all treasure in each dungeon to obtain codes that form a final puzzle .

Amstrad CPC

Released in 1986, the Amstrad CPC version was developed by RamJam Corporation and published by Electric Dreams Software . The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising the gameplay but heavily criticizing the technical execution. The graphics were considered a significant step down from the ZX Spectrum version, with reviewers describing them as "absolutely ignoble" and "poorly colored" . The color palette was less vibrant than other versions . Controls were criticized for not responding with sufficient promptness . The game also features noticeable pauses when transitioning between screens . Despite its technical shortcomings, the gameplay remained enjoyable as a Gauntlet-style dungeon crawler, particularly in two-player mode . It remains a fascinating but flawed entry in the CPC library, a rushed port that failed to match the quality of its ZX Spectrum counterpart .