Akalabeth: World of Doom/Gameplay

Documents
There are two versions for the Apple II: the later one includes the manual within the game.

Character creation
Re-roll attributes until you have at least 20 coins and all attributes around 20.

Choose your class:
 * Both classes can use axe and shield.
 * The fighter can use a sword (rapier) and bow & arrows.
 * The mage can use magic amulets.

The magic amulets
The magic amulets allow a mage to cast four spells. Every amulet has a limited number of charges.
 * 1) Ladder-up creates a ladder in front of the hero; it diappears as soon as he climbs it to the previous floor up.
 * 2) Ladder-down creates a ladder in front of the hero; it diappears as soon as he climbs it to the next floor down.
 * 3) Kill instantly defeats any enemy in front of the hero.
 * 4) Bad??? can have one of three effects at random:
 * 5) * Backfire cuts the hero's current health points in half;
 * 6) * Lizard man turns the hero into a powerful lizard man; all of his attributes are permanently multiplied by 2.5, and the effect is cumulative!
 * 7) * Toad turns the hero into a toad, and all of his attributes (except for health points) are permanently set equal to 3. Permanently, that is, until another use of an amulet turns him into a lizard man again.

Even if the hero is turned into a toad, three subsequent transformations into lizard man bring his attributes back to 18, near the starting values. You can then continue to power-up.

Beware: even the most powerful lizard man can still die of starvation, if he runs out of food!