# First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers')

- Genre: Digital genre
- Date: PLATO's Moria (1975) and Oubliette (1977); Wizardry (1981)
- Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dungeon-crawler/

> Six adventurers, one square at a time, down a wireframe corridor toward something breathing in the dark: the first-person party crawl that players nicknamed the 'blobber'.

**Why it matters:** The blobber turned the tabletop dungeon crawl into the first great computer RPG form. Through Wizardry it also shaped Japan's console RPGs, and it has never quite died.

## Quick answers

**What is First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers')?**
Six adventurers, one square at a time, down a wireframe corridor toward something breathing in the dark: the first-person party crawl that players nicknamed the 'blobber'.

**What are the hallmarks of First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers')?**
A first-person view down corridors, moving square by square and turning in 90-degree steps; A party of adventurers moved as a single unit, the 'blob'; Grid-based mazes built to be mapped, traditionally on graph paper; Traps, spinners, teleporters, dark zones and secret doors as puzzles; Attrition: spells, food, light and hit points drain on the way down; Combat either turn-based through menus or in real time, step by step.

**When did First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers') emerge?**
PLATO's Moria (1975) and Oubliette (1977); Wizardry (1981).

**What are the key works of First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers')?**
Avatar, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, The Black Onyx, The Bard's Tale, Might and Magic Book One, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss.

## What it is

The first-person dungeon crawler shows the world through the party's eyes: a corridor drawn in perspective, a door ahead, a message that something approaches. You move one square at a time and turn in quarter-circles. The whole party, usually four to six characters, occupies a single square and moves as one unit. That is why fans call these games [blobbers](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/blobber/). The heart of the form is the [Dungeon crawl](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/dungeon-crawl/) inherited from tabletop [*Dungeons & Dragons*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/): descend, map, survive, return richer. Its pleasures are cartographic and logistical. You chart the maze, ration spells and light, learn which corridor holds the teleport trap, and inch a little deeper each time.

## Origins

The form was invented on the [PLATO](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/plato-system/) network at the University of Illinois. The first PLATO dungeons, [pedit5](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pedit5/) and [*dnd*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-plato/) (1975), were drawn from above. *Moria* (begun 1975–76, and unrelated to the later roguelike of that name) put players into a first-person wireframe maze. Jim Schwaiger's *Oubliette* (1977) made the dungeon so dangerous that players had to band together. [*Avatar*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/avatar-plato/) (1979) turned that into a cooperative multiplayer crawl that logged more than a million hours.

[Robert Woodhead](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-woodhead/) was a PLATO alumnus. With [Andrew Greenberg](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/andrew-greenberg/) he carried the idea to the Apple II as [*Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/) (1981), published by [Sir-Tech](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/sir-tech/). It had six characters, ten levels, menu-driven combat and no automap; the box included graph paper. *Wizardry* became the model for a generation.

## Evolution

The 1980s were the blobber's golden decade. [Interplay](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/interplay/)'s [*The Bard's Tale*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-bards-tale/) (1985), designed by [Michael Cranford](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/michael-cranford/) and produced by [Brian Fargo](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/brian-fargo/), added color, animated monsters and music, and, published by [Electronic Arts](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/electronic-arts/), it became by one count the best-selling computer RPG of the 1980s, at some 407,000 copies. [Jon Van Caneghem](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/jon-van-caneghem/)'s [*Might and Magic*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/might-and-magic/) (1986) extended the step-and-turn view from dungeons to a whole outdoor world. In Japan, [Henk Rogers](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/henk-rogers/)'s [*The Black Onyx*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-black-onyx/) (1984) brought the same first-person party formula to Japanese computers.

Japan took the form more seriously than America did. *Wizardry* was ported to Japanese home computers such as the PC-88 and PC-98, and a Famicom version followed in 1987. Japanese studios went on producing *Wizardry* spin-offs long after the American series ended with *Wizardry 8* in 2001. [Yuji Horii](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/yuji-horii/) and Koichi Nakamura built [*Dragon Quest*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragon-quest/) (1986) by pairing *Wizardry*'s menu combat with [*Ultima*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-i/)'s overhead world. As a result, the turn-based battle screen of the [JRPG](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/japanese-rpg/) is, at root, a blobber fight. The monsters face you, your party is implied, and you choose commands from a list.

The craft of a good blobber lies in its level design. The genre developed a vocabulary of spinners that silently turn the party around, teleporters, one-way doors, anti-magic zones and pitch-dark squares. Each one is designed to break the map a careful player is drawing. The mazes of the first *Wizardry* were each laid out on a 20-by-20 grid, which is why the box shipped with graph paper.

In 1987 FTL's [*Dungeon Master*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-master/) kept the grid but made the world run in real time. You grabbed objects with the mouse and drew spells from runes while monsters advanced. [Westwood](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/westwood-studios/)'s [*Eye of the Beholder*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/eye-of-the-beholder/) (1991) brought that model to the IBM PC under the AD&D license. The next year, [*Ultima Underworld*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-underworld/) (1992) abandoned the grid entirely for free, texture-mapped 3D movement. That change opened the road to the first-person immersive sim and to [Bethesda](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/bethesda-softworks/)'s [*Elder Scrolls*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-elder-scrolls-arena/), and it largely ended the blobber's commercial reign.

The form survived in niches. In Japan, [Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/) spin-offs and Atlus's *Etrian Odyssey* (2007) kept it alive; *Etrian Odyssey* revived hand-mapping on the Nintendo DS touch screen. In the West, the Finnish studio Almost Human's *Legend of Grimrock* (2012) proved that a faithful real-time grid crawl could still find an audience. In 2024, Digital Eclipse remade *Wizardry* in 3D.

## How to tell it apart

**Blobber vs. party-based isometric CRPG.** Both are [CRPGs](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/computer-rpg/) about a [The party](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/party/). In a blobber the party is one token, seen from inside, and positioning means front rank and back rank. In [*Baldur's Gate*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate/) or [*Pool of Radiance*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pool-of-radiance/)'s tactical combat, each character is a separate figure on a map you view from above, and flanking, spacing and area spells matter.

**Blobber vs. [Roguelikes](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/roguelike/).** A roguelike is usually a single character, seen from above, in a [procedurally generated](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/procedural-generation/) dungeon with [Permadeath](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/permadeath/). The classic blobber is a party in a hand-built maze meant to be learned and mapped.

**Blobber vs. action dungeon crawler.** [*Gauntlet*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/gauntlet/) (1985) and [*Diablo*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/diablo/) (1996) are dungeon crawls too, but they are overhead, real-time and reflex-driven. They belong to the [Action RPGs & Hack-and-Slash](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/action-rpg/).

**Blobber vs. board game.** The [Dungeon-Crawler Board Games](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dungeon-crawler-board-game/), from [*Dungeon!*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-board-game/) (1975) to [*Gloomhaven*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/gloomhaven/), plays the same fantasy on a table with miniatures and cards, not a screen.

The label "dungeon crawler" is itself slippery. It can mean the tabletop scenario, any maze-focused game, or, as here, this specific first-person party form.

## Where to start

- [*Wizardry*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/) (1981): the source, now accessible through the 2024 remake.
- [*The Bard's Tale*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-bards-tale/) (1985): the most popular blobber of its decade.
- [*Dungeon Master*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-master/) (1987): the real-time revolution.
- [*Eye of the Beholder*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/eye-of-the-beholder/) (1991): the AD&D crawl beneath Waterdeep.
- *Etrian Odyssey* (2007) and *Legend of Grimrock* (2012): the modern revival, Eastern and Western.

## Hallmarks

- A first-person view down corridors, moving square by square and turning in 90-degree steps
- A party of adventurers moved as a single unit, the 'blob'
- Grid-based mazes built to be mapped, traditionally on graph paper
- Traps, spinners, teleporters, dark zones and secret doors as puzzles
- Attrition: spells, food, light and hit points drain on the way down
- Combat either turn-based through menus or in real time, step by step

## Facts

- 'Blobber' comes from the way the whole party moves around the map as one unit, or 'blob'.
- Wizardry's box included graph paper, because the game had no automap and every 20-by-20 level had to be charted by hand.
- Oubliette's designer later said he 'could not find any meaningful difference' between Wizardry and his 1977 PLATO game.
- Dungeon Master (1987) made the crawl run in real time and became the best-selling game ever released for the Atari ST.
- The Bard's Tale made players type four-letter spell codes printed only in the manual.
- Etrian Odyssey (2007) made players draw their own maps again, this time on the Nintendo DS's touch screen.
- Legend of Grimrock (2012), a Dungeon Master homage, was the self-funded debut of a four-person Finnish studio.

## Sources and further reading

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_crawl)
- [Wikipedia: Legend of Grimrock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Grimrock)

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From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.