There's no character generation; your party always starts with 15 nameless members, including one Elf and one Dwarf. This may sound weird today, but Dungeons & Dragons was a very different game back in 1978 – Elves and Dwarves didn't have classes, and there was a focus on larger parties.

Each type of party member has a function. The Elf warns of immediate danger, such as a nearby trap or enemy, while the Dwarf maps the dungeon – if he dies, the map in the screen will no longer update as you explore. The rest of the party members serve as both your hit points and your strength – the game ends if they all die, but at each victory they increase their strength. This means your 15 warriors will have a strength of 15 at first, go to 30 after the first battle, to 45 after the second, but decrease to 42 if one party member dies. And die they will.

Combat is simplistic, you just roll your attack, which is added to your strength to see if you hit the enemy. Every enemy in the game dies with two hits; they just become harder to hit as you delve deeper. You also have to roll the enemy's attack, and if they hit you'll lose 1-3 party members.

The dungeon offers a few other perils, such as traps that will randomly send you to other levels, and rooms filled with toxic gas. Each of the four levels also has a guardian monster, which will run after the player and kill 1-2 party members if it reaches them. These have different behaviours – the giant snake on Level 3 moves in real time across the maze, while the spectre on Level 4 can pass through walls.

Regardless, Dungeon Campaign is an easy game. It's also short. The goal is not to simply complete it, but to get a high score, collecting as much gold as possible before finishing the dungeon – a score-driven design that mirrors the popular arcade games of the era.