What is "dragonstomper"

Dragonstomper is a role-playing video game programmed by Stephen Landrum and published in 1982 by Starpath. It was developed for the Atari 2600 video game system. Making use of the Starpath Supercharger, an analog cassette-based peripheral, Dragonstomper was perhaps the truest RPG for the Atari 2600, which also had Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Adventure.

Dragonstomper follows the adventures of a dragon hunter who is given a quest by the king to defeat a dragon and reclaim a magical amulet that was stolen. The player makes his way over the countryside vanquishing various adversaries and gaining gold and experience. After gaining strength, the player enters a shop in an oppressed village where equipment can be purchased, soldiers hired, and special scrolls obtained to defeat the dragon in its lair. The final leg of the journey traverses into the dragon's lair where he must avoid a series of traps strewn throughout the cave and defeat the dragon.

In November 2005, Ed Lin writing for Forbes named "Dragonstomper" as "the best title ever made in the history of U.S. videogaming" by a single person. Lin singled out the game's ingenuity, noting that "[t]here were multiple ways to solve problems. One could descend to the dragon's lair on a rope or simply jump down (and absorb some damage)."