Dungeon Keeper

Dungeon Keeper is a strategy video game that was the last to be developed by Bullfrog Productions under Peter Molyneux.

In the game, the player attempts to build and manage a dungeon or lair while protecting it from (computer-controlled) "hero" characters intent on stealing the user's accumulated treasures and killing various monsters. The game was met with high critical praise and positive gamer reaction, resulting in a sequel being made, along with many mods and editors to improve the experience.

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes Bugs

Unused Levels#

Level 80#

In the original release, level 80 is a mysterious level that is not in later western releases. It appears to be a heavily modified version of Mirthshire (level 17); you start with a built-up dungeon with a large army, but you go to the heroes, not the other way around. The objective is to obtain a Horned Reaper, but there is no text, so you are left with no instructions, and no way, other than looking at the script, to know what to do.

In Dungeon Keeper Gold and standalone The Deeper Dungeons, level 80 is replaced with Morkardar, and no longer exists. It remains in Dungeon Keeper Premium.

Secret 5 (Lost Level)#

There are six possible Bonus Levels to be located in the game, including the "Moon" level. However, you can only gain access to five of them in unmodded games.

The "Locate Hidden Realm" bonus crate should have been located in Level 14, "Sleepiburgh", to the opposite side of the "Transfer Creature". The crate itself is not in the game, possibly due to a mistake by the programmers where they forgot about it or (accidentally) erased the crate.

Another theory is that the crate was meant to be in Level 18 "Blaise End". This makes sense, as the level was originally an early version of the The Deeper Dungeons level "Morkardar", and it did have a Locate Hidden World crate. Bullfrog seemingly forgot to reintroduce the crate when that version of the level was scrapped.

Using mods such as KeeperFX or any similar editing tools, you can obtain the bonus crate.

Unused Multiplayer Levels#

To do: Replace these still map previews with animated ones flashing neutral rooms like in the game, now that there's a tool to generate such previews.

In the levels folder, among the other multiplayer levels, there are 5/6 complete, unused multiplayer levels unattached to any level select. In order to play them, you must rename the default multiplayer levels or add these to LEVELS.txt or DD1Lev.txt.

Level 1000#

There is a hidden and unused test level, numbered 1000, that appears to contain and be a test for every type of slab in the game.

Early level remnants#

.FLG files#

To do: Upload maps of these removed levels and levels with differences

In the levels directory, each level has a .FLG file. This appears to be an older and less sophisticated format for the map itself, lacking data for certain features that the .SLB format (used by the final maps) supports. Some of these maps have significant differences to their corresponding final version, whereas others appear to be the remnants of levels that did not make it into the final game.

Old script file#

In the levels directory, there is a MAP00001.OLD file, which is a script file for an early, cut, level. It was last modified on 27 February 1997. There are CREATE_TEXT commands, which are all commented out in the other scripts and were used to create custom objectives, one of which suggests the Fly at this stage did not require food. Also of note is that there are CREATURE_AVAILABLE commands applied to the hero player, suggesting that the hero player could have attracted creatures like the player does.

Unused Spells#

Disease#

The Disease Creature Spell appears to have been cut quite early on, as it does not have image files in with the other creature spells. However, this may just mean it shared the images with the Keeper Spell.

Little information is known about this Creature Spell, but references are made to it by the manual:

When fired at a foe, it gives them a Disease which is then spread to other
creatures in its own Dungeon. These creatures are slowly dying and can
only be healed in the Temple.

It is believed to work exactly the same as the Keeper Spell, possibly a weaker version of it. Considering the massive cost and devastating ability of the Keeper Spell of the same name, it is very likely the Creature Spell was cut for being incredibly overpowered.

Chicken#

The Chicken spell is a cut Creature Spell, likely due to being unbalanced.

Not much is known about it, but references are made to it by the Dungeon Keeper manual:

When fired at enemies, this turns them into chickens. The enemy isn’t able
to attack but has the same strength and thus won’t be as easy to kill as a
normal chicken. This spell wears off after a while. Acts the same as the
Turn To Chicken spell on the Research Panel of the Control Panel.

From this, we know its effect would have been identical to the Chicken Keeper Spell, but would've been fired as a projectile.

Illumination#

The Illumination spell is a cut creature spell. While graphics for it exist, it does nothing, if added into the game by editing files. It was possibly cut due to balance issues.

Whip#

In 1996, early into the post-revamp game's development, there was a Slap spell, which was replaced with a whip spell called "Discipline".

Among the images in the game's files, there exist icons of a whip grouped in the section of Creature Spells. The images look identical to those of Must Obey. This suggests that at some point, there was a creature version of this spell planned. However, at some point, this entire spell was scrapped, and the final game has the function in the form of a hand action.

There is the possibility that the graphics were just added later than the other spells, as Chicken, Destroy Walls, Disease and Armageddon were added later than the other spells, and so Must Obey was simply added after that, either with or directly after the graphics for the Creature Spell icons.

Time Bomb#

Time Bomb is a Keeper Spell. It still exists in the game's code, and can be added to maps or researched if the files are edited to do so. A spellbook is also created as normal, labelled Time Bomb, but has the graphic for Conceal Monster. It cannot be used in-game, as there is no slot for it due to all 16 slots being used for the standard spells already.

In an interview Simon Carter, the lead programmer of the game, says that:

"Until about 30 seconds ago I thought Timebomb was in the shipping game.
Since it isn't, I'll tell you - you could turn imps into suicide bombers. Great fun!"

How this would've worked in-game is unknown. Reasons why it was cut could include it being seen as offensive, or just it making the game unbalanced by making Imps more powerful.

Easter Eggs#

Remnants Of Obtaining A Fax#

On certain levels, you would receive a fax if you had a printer plugged in. This was done by the PRINT level script command, but it was removed by the final build. These messages were actually mistaken for genuine death threats, which is likely why this feature was cut.

However, evidence of it remains in some level script files:

HA HA ROBBO (LOW COUNT) YOU ARE DEAD

I LIVE AGAIN. The Avatar.

I KNOW THY NAME, I WILL DESTROY THY EVIL PRESENCE. The Avatar

I SENSE AN EVIL PRESENCE. The Avatar

Developer Messages#

Simon says Hi to everyone he knows...

Dene says a big 'Hello' to Goth Buns, Tarts and Barbies

Alex, hopefully lying on a beach with Jo, says Hi

JONTY HERE  : ...I AM WRITING THIS AT 4AM ON KEEPERS LAST DAY. I LOOK AROUND 
THE OFFICE AND ALL I SEE ARE THE TIRED PALE FACES OF THE KEEPER TEAM. THIS 
PROJECT HAS DESTROYED THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL LIVES OF EACH MEMBER, SO I HOPE 
YOU LIKE THE GAME. AMAZINGLY AFTER SIXTEEN HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK, FOR 
NEARLY 5 MONTHS WE STILL DO. THIS GAME HAS BEEN WRITTEN WITH A PASSION I AM 
PROUD TO BE PART OF.... 

I DO NOT JUST HOPE YOU LIKE IT, I ALSO HOPE YOU ARE AWARE OF THE HUGE AMOUNT 
OF WORK WE HAVE ALL DONE. ENOUGH WAFFLE AND ON TO THE REASON FOR THIS TEXT... 

THE ENDLESS GREETINGS... GREETINGS GO OUT TO IN RANDOM ORDER... 
RAB C, JACOON, BUCK, SI, BARRIE, KIK, CHRIS, PROC, RUSS, RIK, ALEX NEEDS, 
LARRY MOOR, EMMA TEUTON - AN ALE DUE TO EACH ONE OF YOU - THE LIST GOES ON.... 

LOUISE GEE, MY GOOD SIS NICOLA, GEMMA, JENNY, HALEY, JO EVANS... 
SARAH TELFORD.. PETER AND STEVEN, AMELIA, SARAH, ISY, SALLY, MARK, 
MATT WOODCOCK, PAUL NETTLETON, PETE BANFORD, TOM, DAVE BANHAM, DAVE KEENS, 
ALISON BOSSON, MIKE LINCOLN, KIRSTY, DARREN SAWYER... 

AND ALL UEA NORWICH PAST AND PRESENT. NICK ARNOTT, BAVERSTOCK, SARAH BANKS, 
SEANY, MARK STACEY, GILEY MILEY COOKSON [WHERE ARE YOU?], STEVE CLARIDGE, 
DEUBERT, JAMES GREENGRASS, SIMON ONG, KEVIN RUSSELL, CLARE WRIGHTON, 
ELTON [GIB IS JUST A DAY AWAY], NICOLA GOULD, STEVE LAST, KEN MALCOLN, 
RICO, ANDY CAKEBREAD, ROBBO, CARR, AND THE LITTLE ONE, CROFTY, SCOOPER, 
JASON STANTON [A CUP OF COFFEE], AARON SENNA, MIKE DORELL, IAN HOWIE, 
HELEN THAIN, ALEX FOREST-HAY, LEE HAZELWOOD, VICKY ARNOLD, GUY SIMMONS, 
SHIN, VAL TAYLOR.... 

IF I FORGOT YOU I AM SORRY... BUT SLEEP IS DUE TO ME... AND I HAVE A DREAM TO LIVE... .

CHAZ,MATT,LOUISE,NICK,MUM AND VARIOUS OTHERS - HELLO

Editor#

The official editor's executable file contains an exclusive Easter Egg. You can activate it by starting with the command parameter -mark. After loading the editor, press and hold down Left ⇧ Shift and type CROW, revealing the following message:

Hello from Mark to all who know him!

It's not hell, but you can see it from here.

Also in the editor's executable file are what appears to be leftovers from the game, including some strings in the previous section (activated by its Easter Eggs), and even the -alex parameter to activate them. However, the editor refuses to run when the -alex parameter is passed to it.

Hidden Figure#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Figure needs to be identified, if possible. The arrangement and detail are suggestive of intent; it's a reversible figure, not pareidolia. This is therefore unlikely to be pure coincidence, as accidental/coincidental reversible figures are rare.

On the level map, there is a figure of a smiling/laughing man with his hand on his hip hidden in plain sight. It is to the left of Blaise End and beneath the trees (which are on a bridge), and appears to simply be an archway to the ocean. But, if you look extremely closely, it is in fact a reversible figure optical illusion. It only appears on the early levels; it starts to disappear at level 5 (Lushmeadow-on-Down), and is completely gone by level 7 (Wishvale). It is also visible on the "good" wallpaper in the Dungeon Keeper Theme Pack.

On both the actual game and the Theme Pack wallpaper, the figure is so effectively camouflaged that only the most eagle-eyed observers will be able to spot it.

Unused Text#

Debug Text#

There are some unusual messages (likely left over from development) in the executable file that are not seen in the game:

'Told You So' error! Cannot create creature because there are too many fucking things allocated.
This bloody tooltip is too long
How come this bridge was placed on path? Hmmm?
BLOODY HELL >10 SPELLS TO REPOSITION!!!
BLOODY HELL >10 BODIES TO REPOSITION!!!
Attempt to remove a creatures lair from room he didn't think he was in
Lair thinks it belongs to a creature, but the creature disagrees.
Shit, could not get to treasure room door and I've cleaned up my old state
HOW CAN A ROOM EXIST WITH NO SLABS?
THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN - ROOM COUNT WRONG?
I've been pushing for a very long time now...
A legal collision with a solid object? Come on...
I've been given a shite position
It's even more shit than I first thought
Some THING has been deleted during the processing of another thing
A state return type for a human controlled creature?
GoldPile with no gold!
Oh fuck, illegal bastard in room list
WHAT THE HELL HAVE WE CREATED?

There are also variations on the first one, with other types of thing (object, shot, etc) in the place of 'creature'.

Unused Level Objectives#

You have been called to this realm to punish a horde of revolting Bile Demons by crushing them with Boulder Traps scattered around the perimeter of the dungeon. You have very little time, so rock and roll!

Well done. You have excelled in your use of large balls of stone for which the dark gods will repay you, by granting you three superior Imps when you reach the next realm.

These objectives (found in TEXT.DAT) indicate that there was once a level that involved killing Bile Demons with Boulder Traps, but there is no such level in the final game and these texts are not seen anywhere else either. However, the level is present in the 21 May 1997 prototype, so these texts were almost certainly meant for that level.

Unused Custom Level Objective/Information Strings#

To do: Go through these and post them.

As noted above, the scripts are laden with commented-out CREATE_TEXT commands, which were used to write to string slots. These strings are different to the ones used, but most bear some resemblance in meaning to their counterparts in TEXT.DAT, which are the ones used, and for some reason are written in all capitals. Some also have typos.

Unused Terrain#

Damaged Wall: Unless repaired, this wall will eventually collapse.

This tooltip was presumably meant for reinforced walls that have been partially dug or damaged by a creature. This is also a discrete slab type from the other walls. However, walls do not change to this type when they take damage, nor can they be repaired.

Spell Tooltips#

Illumination: Not used

An admission that the Illumination spell isn't used.

Group: Not used
Fear: Not used

More cut spells.

Alarm Trap Text#

Your manufacturers have built an Alarm Trap. It will warn you of your enemies' approach and summon nearby creatures to deal with the intruders.

There's script code to display this message in level 11 (Hearth) when an Alarm Trap has been manufactured; however, the Alarm Trap was cut from this level. This message is not displayed in level 10 Nevergrim (where the Alarm Trap is first available) or in any other level. It is not known whether the Alarm Trap's removal from this level was accidental or the developers forgot to move this message to Nevergrim.

MS-Word Files#

There are 16 files in the KEEPER\LEVELS directory with the pattern MAPxxxxx.DOC. These are Microsoft Word 6.0 documents, each identical and containing a generic description of one of the levels.

ALEVEL GENERIC LEVEL DOCUMENT:

LEVEL :1
TOTAL AVAILABLE GOLD:
TOTAL ADVERSORIAL CREATURES: 4
MAP DECRIPTION:

   Dig out of a dead end tunnel to find a T - junction in inpenetrable rock. The left cave leads to    a semi-excavated gold mine. To the right lies a medium sized underground lake. 2 Tunnelers  dig in from this side. A total of 4 Heros come in - 2 Thieves and 1 Archer with the Knight. 

These were all last modified on 18 August 1996, about 10 months before the game was released, and the incompleteness of these files suggests that the idea was quickly abandoned.

The document is riddled with spelling errors, but there are tables marking which creatures are available (missing are the Orc and Tentacle (the Orc came towards the end of development)), which new magical items (mentioned are POWER POLYMORPH (possibly an early name for the Chicken spell) and POWER TECTONIC (possibly Destroy Walls or Cave-In)) are available, and which new rooms are available. Each row has the related entry and seven additional columns ranging from 0 to 6. Only Fly 0 and Bug 0 are marked. A stray "Player Good" has Archer, Tunneller, and Thief underneath. The document has Secret Areas, with nothing underneath it.

Tabs are found after "cave leads to" and "2 Tunnelers", which may only be noticed if using a program that converts word documents into a different format.

Unused Cutscene#

In the LDATA folder, there is an unused cutscene (drag.smk) of the Lord of the Land being dragged to the bonus torture room.

Unused Sounds#

FANFARE3.WAV (This was presumably meant for the Call To Arms spell.)

BUTTON3.WAV

WHIP.WAV

SWONARM1.WAV

SWONARM2.WAV

SWONARM3.WAV

SWONSW1.WAV

SWONSW2.WAV

SWONSW3.WAV

SWONSW4.WAV

SP_HOLD.WAV

SP_APOC.WAV

Unused Dialogue#

'Master, I sense the presence of the Avatar!'

'What trickery is this?! The Avatar's body has vanished!'

'The battle is over.'

'A door design has been discovered.'

'The enemy has taken a door design.'

'You have taken an enemy's door design.'

'You have taken an enemy's spellbook.'

'The enemy has stolen a spellbook!'

'You have taken an enemy's trap design.'

'Your creatures have found a spell.'

'You are victorious! Your darkness pervades throughout the kingdom! All hail the new lord of shadows!'

'You are losing territory.'

'Your creatures have discovered a mysterious magic box.'

'New creatures have joined your dungeon.'

'Your prisoners are starving to death.'

'You may resurrect one creature.'

'Select a creature to take with you to the next realm.'

'A trap design has been discovered.'

'A trap design has been taken from you!'

Unused Graphics#

Hidden in GUIEDIT.DAT (for the level editor that was released afterwards) is this image of a smiley face with blood coming down diagonally. This is possibly a reference to Watchmen.

Unused Leftover Icons#

To do: Sort out the shadows on these icons. They were initially extracted using xgfx, which saves them as BMP files with a black background, making it difficult to distinguish between background and shadows.

Watch on YouTube

icons0-0.dat and icons0-1.dat are full of icons, seemingly left over from a much, much earlier build (early 1996, or perhaps even late 1995), as some of these icons can be seen in the late 1995 and early 1996 trailers. A smaller version of the Corporeal Creatures icon is used in this prototype and the final game for Creature messages; the rest seem to go unused.

Watch on YouTube

Early Portraits#

Found in PORT0-0.dat and PORT0-1.dat

Early Room, Door, and Trap Icons#

Most of these are found in ROOM0-0.dat

Early Placeholder Icons#

Found in ICONS0-1.dat.

Unused Frontend Screen#

In the DATA directory, there is a file called FRONTEND.RAW and its palette file FRONTEND.PAL. This is a screen that does not appear at any point in the game.

Fist Icon#

There are actually two versions of the Hand-to-Hand attack: sword and fist. However, for whatever reason, both versions use the sword icon (hand holding a dagger), meaning the fist icon goes unused; the only way to tell which version a creature has is by the sounds it makes when it hits something. The fist icon exists alongside the other abilities' icons in GUI2-0-1.dat. It is not to be confused with the icon used to represent a creature's strength when querying it, which is also a fist.

Crown Icon#

To do: There's a very slim chance that this is seen in multiplayer when looking at another player's party. It's not seen in KeeperFX, but the retail game needs to be checked, too. However, it's much more difficult to check the original game.

The manual mentions a crown appearing above the head of the leader of a party created in a Barracks. However, as you appoint the leader by possessing him/her and the party disbands when he/she is depossessed, this icon is, at the very least, never actually seen. The official guide book also mentions the most experienced creature being chosen as leader and the ability to pick him/her up and drop him/her elsewhere, neither of which are true in the released game. It is therefore likely that this is a remnant of this earlier way Barracks grouping worked. The high-res icon is present in GUIHI.DAT, and the low-res icon is in GUI.DAT.

Regional Differences#

The player can construct a torture chamber for various enemy or player characters, which have their own unique animations normally. One of these is a tent that rocks back and forth, which the German version uses for all creatures, rather than just some. The German version also removed the gore.

The Japanese version has many differences to western versions:

To do: The installation is also different.

Sources:YouTube videos

• When you try to mark more tiles for digging than you are allowed to, the "Mentor" tells you that you can't give them any more work. However, in the Japanese version, the voice that plays is markedly different: it seems to be the Imps themselves telling you to wait a bit, in a somewhat demanding voice.

• In English, the red-haired dwarf is the Mountain Dwarf, but in the Japanese version, the blond-haired dwarf (Tunneller in the English version) is the Mountain Dwarf, and the red-haired dwarf is just called a Dwarf.
• The Japanese title/legal screen is slightly different. It is slightly darker and missing the Bullfrog logo.

Original	Japanese

• The Japanese no-CD screen has a message saying "CDを確認して下さい" (Please check the CD). There is no message on the original version.

Original	Japanese

• In the Japanese version, the Easter egg message suggesting the player plays Theme Hospital instead suggests Syndicate Wars:

• Japanese releases have an EA cinematic, which is not present in western releases, prefixed to the intro.
• In Dungeon Keeper Premium, due to level 80 remaining, Morkardar is level 98. Because of this, Morkardar plays a different music track; the level number is part of a formula that determines which music track plays; 80 yields track 6, whereas 98 yields track 4.

Translation#

'...But does it make sense?' The translations on this page need to be proofread. If you are fluent enough in this language, please make any corrections necessary!

Unused High Score Data#

In the LDATA directory, there is a file called HISCORES.DAT; however, the game instead looks at another file called HISCORES.DAT, this one in the DATA directory. The LDATA HISCORES.DAT appears to be in an older format: it lacks a level number and contains only the score and the player's name. If there is no file called HISCORES.DAT in the DATA directory, the game will create it with hardcoded defaults (the top score here is 1000); the LDATA HISCORES.DAT does not appear to be used at all. The LDATA HISCORES.DAT has 16 entries, with the top score being 1600; the following scores are decremented by 100 sequentially. It is also RNC-compressed. The used, DATA HISCORES.DAT is generated with 10 entries, each with a level number, and there is considerably more space for the player's name.

Revisional Differences#

To do: Add information about the patch

• The original Japanese release was not available in Japanese, but in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, and Swedish. It also runs on DOS. It is essentially the western release, with some Japanese docs and the above-mentioned EA cinematic. Dungeon Keeper Premium replaces French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, and Swedish with Japanese, but keeps English, and removes DOS support, running only on Windows. It also has the patch pre-applied.
• Dungeon Keeper Gold, released in March 1998, is also pre-patched. As mentioned above, it also removes the unused level 80.

Assets left over from other Bullfrog games#

In the DOSSETUP/ART directory on the CD, there are several BMP files that are leftover assets from the Theme Hospital setup program, including the logo and GUI elements.

In the same directory, the file PALET0-0.LBM is a file containing icons and other assets from Magic Carpet. Weirdly, these icons are clearly from the game itself, not the setup program. None of these assets appear in anything pertaining to Dungeon Keeper.

References#