A JavaScript recreation of the 1982 Intellivision classic, built with Phaser 3.
This was literally the first video game I ever played. I have vivid memories of sitting in front of the Intellivision, navigating that overworld map, crossing rivers, and panicking when a dragon appeared in a dungeon. When I started thinking about what to build as a side project, this was the obvious choice — pure nostalgia.
The original game has a surprisingly complicated preservation story. Intellivision source code was written in assembly for the GI CP1610 processor and stored on 8-inch floppy disks. When Mattel shut down its electronics division, those floppy drives were auctioned off. Keith Robinson of Intellivision Productions had to track down the company that bought the drives and call the manufacturer to get the correct jumper settings just to read the disks. The source code was essentially rescued from obsolescence at the last minute — for some games, the code was already gone and had to be reverse-engineered from prototype cartridges.
On top of that, the D&D license itself was lost. When Intellivision Entertainment tried to remake the game for the Intellivision Amico, they no longer had rights to the Dungeons & Dragons name, so the remake was retitled Crown of Kings. The original game — designed by Don Daglow and developed by APh Technological Consulting — exists in this strange limbo where the code was nearly lost and the name can no longer be used.
So I rebuilt it from memory and reference materials in JavaScript. Not a port, not a ROM dump — a from-scratch recreation of the gameplay I remember.
python3 -m http.server 8000Then open http://localhost:8000
After pushing, enable GitHub Pages in Settings → Pages → Source: main branch.
Collect the boat, axe, and key from various mountains, then reach Cloudy Mountain and retrieve both pieces of the Crown of Kings.
Overworld Map:
- Arrow Keys or WASD: Move your 3-person expedition
- Enter/Space: Enter a mountain when standing on it
Inside Dungeons:
- Arrow Keys: Move your character
- Number Keys 1-9: Shoot arrows in 8 directions (numpad layout)
7 8 9 ↖ ↑ ↗ 4 6 = ← → 1 2 3 ↙ ↓ ↘ - ESC: Exit dungeon (lose progress and a life)
| Mountain Color | Difficulty | Contains |
|---|---|---|
| Gray | Easy | Arrows |
| Blue | Medium | Boat (cross rivers) |
| Red | Hard | Axe (cut through forests) |
| Purple | Expert | Key (open gates) |
| Cyan (Cloudy) | Final | Crown of Kings (2 pieces) |
| Monster | Hits to Kill | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bats | 1 | Harmless, just annoying |
| Spiders | 1 | Steal your arrows |
| Rats | 1 | Leave tracks |
| Snakes | 2 | Appear at difficulty 2+ |
| Demons | 2 | Fast, appear at difficulty 3+ |
| Dragons | 2-3 | Guard exits and crown pieces |
| Blobs | Indestructible | Slow, block your path |
- You start with only 3 arrows — find more in dungeons
- The guard dragon at each exit must be killed to leave
- Fog of war clears as you explore rooms
- Mountains respawn monsters after you clear 4 others
index.html Game container (loads Phaser 3 via CDN)
game.js Title screen, victory screen, Phaser config
js/
overworld.js Procedurally generated overworld with terrain obstacles
dungeon.js Procedurally generated dungeons with combat system
~1,400 lines of game logic total. No build tools, no dependencies beyond Phaser 3 loaded from CDN. Pure vanilla JavaScript.
Overworld: Random mountain ranges, winding rivers, forest patches, stone walls with gates. Persistent layout within a session — the map stays the same until game over.
Dungeons: Random room grids (4x4 or 8x4), random wall openings, random monster placement scaled by difficulty, fog of war, and a guard monster at the exit.
This recreation stays faithful to the original Intellivision gameplay with a few modern quality-of-life improvements:
- Smoother controls (WASD + arrow keys, not limited to Intellivision disc controller)
- Larger visible game window
- Visual feedback for sound effects
- Session persistence (overworld map stays consistent)
- Original Game: Mattel Electronics (1982)
- Original Design: Don Daglow, APh Technological Consulting
- This Recreation: Built from scratch with Phaser 3