This may be the first RPG game made for the pc. It was published in the early 80's by Avalon Hill. It's a pure dungeon crawler without any object and nearly impossible to map. It was remade as freeware by Travis Baldree (Diablo II and Torchlight) in 2002 and distributed as freeware. It really is more for nostalgia purposes than anything else. Dying is hardcore btw. The same developer also developed a game call DND in 1977 that was a 20x20x20 maze for the PDP-11/70 mainframe. It was my first true adventure into video games.

http://www.buildingworlds.com/telengard/

THIS is the guy that made Fate?

Also, are there screenshots?

Cool, I hadn't seen this remake version until now! This page (Wayback Machine archived link) has the original PC version of Telengard - the download link works, but game needs to be run in DOSBox - with one screenshot, though I don't yet know how different the remake looks from it.

Edit - Mobygames has screenshots of both: 1982 version, 2002 remake

I can understand why people would be afraid to download this is it is not a regular website. That's why I say it is nostalgia. I knew the original developer Dan Lawrence. I was talking with him on e-mail about a month before he died in 2010. He was a dungeon master on Saturday nights since the late 70's at Purdue University.

What makes the game tougher is that it's played in real time. So you have to find an inn if you have to leave for any reason. Also you will have to figure out the controls, but that shouldn't be too hard with experimentation.

I will do better and provide a video of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MihllSYKOTM