- If you are looking for any of the games, there is the games setup guide of the DME (which also tells you how to get them working). Many versions (including Amiga/Atari emulator and Apple II GS versions) are there, but note that these games, despite anything you may have heard elsewhere, are NOT public domain, abandonware, etc.

- There are many utilities, add-ons and programmes that people have worked on, that are all freeware. Once again, the DME has links to these in either the download, clones, or file shares sections. These include editors of the game (DMute, DMEdit, Graphreader, Textmute), manuals, hintbooks, DMuted dungeons and other items of interest. There are direct links or downloads for the biggest ` clones (such as DM Java and Return To Chaos) on that site too.

- These are programmes that let you play games from other machines on your PC. The ones for the Amiga are Fellow and WinUAE. The ones for the Atari are Pacifist and WinSTon. You should be able to find them for download on the web, and WinUAE/WinSTon and all their necessary utilities are on the DME games setup page too. They play compressed files of the old Amiga/Atari disks (.adf or .st files) that you will also need to download. The Amiga emulators finally need a kickstart.rom file, which can be tricky to get a hold of, though there is one available on the DME, so no problem : )
DM and CSB are available for both, and DM 2 is available for the Amiga (which has superlative sound). There are also other platforms (such as Nintendo's SNES and the Japanese X68000) that had DM, and can also be emulated.

- The games setup guide of the DME has everything you will need to download to get the WinUAE and WinSTon emulators running, as well as detailed instructions. This includes all files, games files, and configurations that have worked.

- DM doesn't run with sound when played through Windows. Sorry. And DM2 doesn't work at all through it!
DM works best when played in pure DOS mode. This of course requires you to be able to get into pure DOS mode (which you can't in the later versions of Windows like 2000 and ME), and even then you need DOS mouse support (eg cutemouse), and preferably an old soundcard.
Don't worry, the games setup section once again has everything you might want to get the game running smoothly, and the download section has a DOS boot disk available for use with later Windows versions, or for other DOS support. For soundcards, SBLive! and certain other PCI cards do have DOS support,or the ability to play sound through DOS with the right fiddling. It will involve searching the web for it, but check out posts on the DME forums too (usually DM2) for people that have found things before.

- To run PC DM2 in DOS, make sure you've also downloaded the PC patch on the DME download page. If you have downloaded the larger CD version, you will need to run the setup.exe first, as it has to be installed on your hard drive. Then use the command dm2.bat while logged into the DM 2 directory. If this doesn't work, then go to the DME games setup section. There is also some postings and help about other problems in the relevent DM2 forum on this site.

- The 'install.exe' programme in the PC DM zip file is left over from when the game came on a floppy disk - it would install the game on your hard drive from the floppy disk. So when you run it, it asks you for another drive letter other than the one you have the original programme on. However, there is nothing extra to unpack, so you can simply extract all the files to any folder you desire instead of running the installer! (make sure that the graphic.dat, dungeon.dat and song.dat all go into a sub-folder called 'data').

- The PC DM version keeps the same save screen from the old Atari/Amiga versions, but it actually does save to your hard drive (the save files is very small, so it saves instantaneously. So don't fear, once you have clicked save, a dmsave.dat has been created in the game folder. Quit out of the save screen and carry on playing!

- The most common thing people find is that they run RTC before altering the config.txt file. There is only one line you need to check, the 'screen_mode' line. Make sure this is set to a valid option of your video card (it is set to 640x480x24 by default, but some cards only do 16 and 32bit colours, for example). If this does not solve your problem, then check out the forums.

- Some people have difficulty setting up DMJava to run. Basically, you need to call the command 'javaw' from the Java Runtime environment (for Windows it would probably be in programme files, in the 'bin' sub-directory). However, you need to be logged into the directory of DM Java. The command 'javaw dmnew' calls the game, and 'javaw DMEditor' calls the editor. For Windows users, the easiest way to achieve this is to create a new short cut. Have the target being the aformentioned 'javaw.exe'. You can add the extra dmnew/DMEditor options after the " ", leaving a space between. Then have the 'starti n' part set to the location of your DM Java folder. My set up looks like:
Target: "C:\Program Files\JavaSoft\JRE\1.3.0_02\bin\javaw.exe" dmnew
Start in: C:\Games\Ftl\DMJava
If this info doesn't help, then check out the DM Java forums. It is advisable to hunt around the general section first for posts, as this topic has been dealt with for a number of systems before, a number of times. There could also be a specific DMJ faq coming soon to help new people set it up.

 - There are hintbooks and walkthroughs for various incarnations over at the DME. The editors DMute and DMEdit are powerful tools that will let you see the levels of DM and CSB, and even change them slighty to get you out of trouble (note DMEdit does have a security condition that might block access to viewing some edited dungeons - author's decision). For CSB, once again at the DME, there is the html version of the hint oracle. The clone CSB For Windows allows you do create an ASCII dump of the saved game. Combined with DMute?DMEdit, you can then tell exactly what is doing what, to what, and what it needs to do it!

- Of course, there is also the simple option of choosing the best forum from the links? section here. Check previous posts or post yourself. All are regularly looked at by hard core players, so you should be able to progress without much delay : )

- There are many rumours and facts flying around. Check this page for a list of all the current facts and rumours going around (curently only DM/CSB/limited DM2).

- There was lots of information, much now lost, on an old bulletin board, but some posts have been archived at the DMWeb forums, which is also a good place to discuss anything you've heard yourself.
The DME forums also have a wide range of posters, and because of the advanced knowledge found through CSB For Windows, more of the old questions have been answered.

- There are no large points beyond the ones given in the manual. Always wear the best armour, use the best weapons (if it takes alot of fighter/ninja levels to get an attack, it's a good weapon!), put your toughest fighters at the front, and let your guys at the back earn extra levels by throwing weapons to gaining ninja levels (make them the party leader to pick up incidenatl throwing bonuses from handling objects too). Find items that gift mana to let low mana characetrs earn priest/wizard levels faster. Never let mana go to waste, casting random spells or creating back-up potions to level up faster. Infact always practice your skills as you go along to gain level sooner.
You can always find quiet corners of the dungoen to sit and constantly swing, fire spells and cast potions. There are some rooms where food creatures are constantly generated, and water is nearby...if this is your style of play, then you can happily sit in these places for as long as you like! (hint: there is one near the end of level 4, and one near the end of level 9). Use the dungeon to good effect. If there are pits, doors or shooters then lure monsters to them (doors do massive damage to anything apart from non-corporeal, and sometimes a creature falling through a pit can be instantly killed if his creature type isn't present on the level below).

- While it might seem worthless at first for a few extra points in attributes, don't underestimate the value of choosing to reincarnate a party. A reincarnated party will soon gain the levels lost, and more important than the slight abilities gain, they will also get the chance to quickly increase their health, stamina (and mana) when gaining the lower skills they just lost (experience is exponential...it takes twice as much to advance to the next level as it did to get to the previous one, so re-leveling is faster while gaining you the same stats increase as if you played for a few dungeon levels with their starting stats).
Meanwhile a character on his own is not such a insane choice either. While they cannot be revived in a VI altar, and your party is missing alot of carrying capacity/attacks/mana, you do get to concentrate all the experience gasined in one place (ensuring swift gains and large stats), with much lower food and water consumption. You also gain the handy ability to dodge spells! Aswell as having a 50% chance of a spell firing down the wrong side, if you place your character on the back row, then you will give yourself extra time to spin out of the way of anything thrown at you...to the extent of dodging spells thrown by creatures you are toe-to-toe with!

- Expereience gained is affected by a few things. First is dungeon level. Each one is assigned a modifier that affects experience gain, lower dungeon levels in DM give you more for the same actions. The second one is that you gain more experience when engaged in combat than normally...plus this can be in anything, not anything directly relating to attacking the creature you are fighting.
Some ways are obvious, others are not. For example, don't be afraid to take damage, this actually gives you fighter experience! So you might find it better to fight weaker opponents by standing toe-to-toe and just punching while taking damqage, than simpling chopping or fireballing them out of the way. And similarly try not be to quick to use options like doors or fireballs in fights if you aren't in any immediate danger. There are other obscure things that can help. Tossing coins gains ninja levels! Increasing character wisdom by whatever means will help mana recover faster, to speed up leveling up with spells.

- Genetic manipulation, loading back, etc are just terms for a fairly extreme trick when gaining levels. As long as you save regularly, then when you gain a level and don't think you gained as much stats as you could have (these gains are random in size) you simply kill yourself off and restart the game and play to the level up point again, and again, until you feel you have managed to luck a decent high score. Then you can finally resave and continue with the game as normal.

- In the original dungeon, there were no obvious secrets. However, if you read the manual you know that the original quest is to find the Firestaff and bring it to the dungeon entrance for Lord Librasulus (Order). Doing this triggers an alternate ending that is quite surprising! In line with this, if you cast the 'magic window' spell OH EW RA on the dungeon entrance, you can see Lord Librasulus standing outside awaiting your return. Interestingly enough, both the Grey Lord and Lord Librasulus are available as creatures if you hack a dungeon with DMute, DMEdit, etc. Both are immortal like Chaos, but cannot be fused. Librasulus can move, has the same teleport ability as Chaos (infact seems able to teleport further, this could be my imagination though) but only fires fireballs. The Grey Lord is the one present at the end of the game, and as such doesn't move or attack.

- The Apple II GS version of DM had a 'kid's dungeon' you could access. It was a few levels that let you get the hang of DM, with a wimpy dragon at the end. You could access it by, on the DM entrance screen, holding down the apple 'extra fucntion' key while pressing the 'enter' button onscreen. One of the DM regulars infact created a DMute dungeon to emulate it, downloadable at the DME file shares forum.

- In CSB, in the Hall of Champions, there are two hidden characters (explore thouroughly)! These are Lor, Champion of Good and Kazai, Shadow Warrior. You cannot get both without hacking, as choosing Lor will cause Kazai's path to close off, and chosing Kazai, or some other 'evil' characters (Skelar, Deth, Plague and Necro) cause Lor's path to close. There is another hidden character in the main dungeon, that you cannot reach without hacking, or renaming a file. This is Halk Gonzo Barbarian. He is obviously a play testing character that has been left in the dungeon. The two ways to get him are to:
a) rename the mini.dat dungeon as csbsave.dat. This starts you in the main csb dungeon with him (portrait Halk on Atari, and Aroc on Amiga). Obviously, this way means you cannot play with him in a normal party.
b) In DMute, look at your own csbsave.dat, and check out tile 31,36 on level 10. This is the area for selecting him. To reactivate it, you will need to hex edit the 3rd/4th byte of the mirror beside there to 7f/ff in the 3rd byte, and 0 - b in the 4th. This will reactivate the mirror, with one of the 24 character portraits. So what you can do is create a teleporter to take you there, and change the teleporter there to take you back out again. And it gives you all the corbums and a few nice iron keys to play with in a chest too! : )

- Cheat? *sigh* As mentioned, DMute and DMEdit are powerful editors. You can edit all the stats of a current party with DMute (levels, abilities and skills) in DM/CSB, add more food and weapons (within number limits), and basically mold the saved game how you want. The editor Textmute allows some starting mirror stats of DM to be altered (only health/stamina and mana, to a maximun of 127). There is an alternate version of CSB For Windows by Djarcas, based on version 3.0, that gives you toggleable options like easykill doors, hints to false walls, and experience gain pointers (all in-game).
For DM2, the only cheat is a character trainer that lets you boost all a party's stats.

- While it's not really a cheat, this is a widely advertised method that lets you circumvent a game mechanic at the end of DM, that shuts you into the lower dungeons when you gain the full Firestaff.
Don't stand on the square before the door in the small amalgam room carrying the completed Firestaff. Instead, throw it out of the door, and pick it up on the other side. You will find that the dungeon is still as you left it, and no walls have sprung up to lock you in with Chaos! You cannot activate the alternate Librasulus ending with the full Firestaff.

- Some magazines list the OH EW RA (window) spell at the entrance mentioned above in their cheats. It's not really a cheat though, just a nice touch : )
The only 'official' cheat is to pause the game, type...eh, a phrase ('Lord Librasulus smites thee down', or soemthing), and cast MON GOR SAR to kill dragons. This is, no matter what you hear, was nothing but an April's Fool joke by a magazine years ago. Magazines and sites who should know better have propigated it to this day!

- Chaos Strikes Back allowed you to port parties from old DM saved games into the new game. This does not work across platforms (PC DM to anything, for example) and you can't use your old saved games from Amiga/Atari days with the emulators (until someone can post otherwise somewhere : ) ).
CSB4win hasn't included this porting ability, so you can only use the champions you get from the Prison (no atari parties, certainly no PC parties) However, what you can do in DMute is edit the csbsave.dat file for most formats (see editing below). The programme has the portraits, and portraits+, so you can hack your initial game and alter the stats and picture to your old party. Not as exact, but close if you were attached to them : ).

- CSB was only released for the Amiga/Atari. So previously, the only way to play it on the PC was to play it through an emulator. Now though, Paul Stevens has taken the original Atari source code and re-wrtten it in C++ so a PC can run the original files. This is CSB For Windows. Almost all the features of CSB have been ported (the utility feature isn't, and only lets you start a game with a CSB HoC party, and doesn't have the portrait/name editing option). It also features four saved game slots instead of one. Another feature is that DM limited how many items were stored in the file (ever play a long game and notice that worm rounds and skeleton weapons disappeared from earlier levels?). CSB For Windows allows you, when you reach this limit in-game, to expand the database. However when you do this, you will find you cannot edit that game using DMute (DMEdit is fine with these games). See the clones section further down for more info.

- DM X68000 is a Japanese version of Dungeon Master. It runs in a wider screen view, but is essentially the same as Dungeon Master. DM:Nexus was released on the Saturn, but only in Japan too, and it is a sequal of sorts to DM, using a 3D engine! You can still get it, but there can be problems getting a normal Saturn to run the game (see DME and DM Web forums for discussions on this). Theron's Quest is another (different) version of DM for Japan (also available in America), this time for the PC-Engine (TurboGrafix). It features sub-quests, which basically borrowed elements from DM and CSB.

- DM Java, Return to Chaos (RTC), DM: Legacy and DM2000 are all clone projects. For more information check out the clone faqs, or the links on the links? section.

- The source code for the original game is the Holy Grail, and no, there is no place to get it. However, lots of people have worked to hack the code of DM, most notably the .dat save, dungeon and graphics files, so you can find out things through the forums. In the case of Chaos Strikes Back, Paul Stevens has written his CSB For Windows directly from the original Atari coding, and has made the source for CSB For Windows available, so this is as close as you are going to get. Given that indications have always been the CSB code is just the DM code with a few new things bolted on, there you go, that's preeeeeeetty close. No one so far has attempted, or made much progress, with the DM 2 code.

- The main two clones on the go are Return to Chaos and Dungeon Master Java. RTC is a pet project of the mind behind DMute, George Gilbert. It's the first game he has done, and as such he is very proprietorial of it. He will release the save game/dungeon format when this has stabalised, so third parties can create editors the equivalent of DMute/DMEdit that can alter anything. But the game engine itself won't be released. DM Java is a stand alone Java application, and I believe the plan is that once the game is fully finished (all suggestions incorporated and bugs fixed) its source will made public.

- Yes, over the years there have been some editors to hack some game versions, letting you toggle walls or alter player stats. More recently though, a powerful editor had come about thanks to George Gilbert - DMute. This has wide ranging abilities, enabling the starting dungeon or a current saved game to be altered significantly. A surprising amount of information is held in these files, so you can finally create brand new DM dungeons using the existing items and monsters.
This support extends to CSB and CSB For Windows too. And this year, a second powerful editor, DMEdit, has been released by Guillaume Bastard. It has a more dynamic ability to read and change dungeon files than DMute, so the scope for reading and expanding the original dungeon has vastly improved. Also this year, Graphreader has appeared. This project will allow graphics of DM games to be altered for the first time (including DM2). Unfortunately, at the moment there is no way to edit DM 2 games themselves.

- There is a forum capabale of uploading to at the DME here, which has all the edited dungeons currently available to let you see what can be done. You can also comment on them here too.

- DMute is a Windows based programme. It reads the dungeon.dat and dmsave.dat files that DM uses and displays a full level at a time. Through simple keyboard and mouse shortcuts you can edit any dungeon aspects you desire, aswell as many of the party stats if you are editing the saved game. Most versions (original Atari and Amiga aswell as the PC) are supported, as is the sequel Chaos Strikes Back (though there are a few more limits to this editing ability).
DMute has one clever addition. Even though it doesn't have every single option available as part of the GUI for v1.3, it does allow you to edit the underlying raw hex code of every item and tile. So therefore, as people find out more twists to the code, complex puzzles can be created right away by editing this without having to wait for a new version of the editor.

- DMEdit is a Glide based programme (which runs in Windows). It can read, or create from scratch, dungeon.dat files for DM or CSB, displaying a full level at a time. It is purely keyboard driven, and allows you to create or alter any dungeon aspect, including adding/deleting levels. It has been created on complete knowledge of the workings of the whole dungeon.dat structure, so therefore there are many object limits in altering a DM dungeon that DMEdit can overcome. It has a few more tricks, for cutting and pasting to alter object order on tiles, or moving objects from place to place. It is an ongoing project though, so although it is fully usuable, support for texts, champions and chest is not included yet. DMEdit can read DMuted files owing to its reading ability (but DMute cannot read DMEdited dungeon, as DMute is based on knowledge of the static layout of the original files). DMEdit also has a security feature that means people can choose not to allow people so see their DMEdited dungeon unless they desire it.

- For a more detailed comparison of the overlaps and strengths of each editor, see this page

- There are a few things that the editing abilites of DMute and DMEdit can't overcome, but there are other small (also Windows-based) programmes available that can fill these gaps. Textmute can edit the texts of Dungeon Master (which includes starting character info), aswell as some small aspects of the general dungeon (level placement and difficulty). There is also Namedit, which allows the names of any object can be altered, through changing the graphics.dat file DM uses. Both are thanks to Zyx. His work has continued to the graphics.dat file in general, and this work has become Graphreader. With it you can rip the graphics (and music/sounds, stored in the same file) of DM, CSB, and DM2. It is an ongoing project, but support for then adding new graphics is growing all the time with each release.

- For a more detailed breakdown, look at this list.
In general you can now create dungeons from scratch, with limited new graphics support. You can alter the existing DM/CSB dungeons (and saved games through DMute). New items and monsters aren't possible, and there is still a (now increased) upper limit on monsters/objects/pads (which you can't yet overcome for saved games). You can move and alter the properties of all objects, the characters (to a large extent), texts (DM only) and tiles. This means you can design wildly imaginative new dungeons, with more complex and fiendish puzzles. Mwuhahaha. Importantly, there is a special pad you can use that triggers a proper end of game, so you aren't limited to the 'defeat Chaos' ending of DM.
You are still limited to the starting characters of DM/CSB, and there is only limited support for altering their stats just now too.

-At the moment DM2 is a closed book apart from the graphics.dat file starting to be hacked (although in theory it is the same as DM/CSB with a few added objects) There is a small trainer programme to boost in-game party stats available at the DME download page, but that is more a cheat than an edit.

- In terms of formats Atari, Amiga and PC files can all be edited for DM and CSB. As CSB For Windows uses the original Atari files, then this too can be edited without any problems (in the case of DMute, you cannot edit saved games if you have said yes to the 'expand database' option given in-game).

- If the file is the saved game file dmsave/csbsave.adf/.st then you can edit it directly in DMute like any other saved game file.
Otherwise, the .adf/.st files are like zip files containing all the files from the original disks. For .adf, programmes like AdfOpus (downloadable from the web) can be used to view the contents, extract the relevent files to your PC for editing, then replace them back into the .adf file afterwards for use.
The .st files require a similar programme.

- If you mean commands-wise, read the .txt file that comes with the programme. DMute uses the keyboard and mouse in conjucnction, so you will need to know a few shortcuts (for example 'd' when hovering the mouse over a tile deletes items, 'a' adds them, 't' creates new tile types, and so on). This file should answer all your questions about using the GUI - once you get accustomed to use both keyboard and mouse at the same time, it should be fairly easy. DMEdit uses the keyboard only, but on screen help, so you can see which letters refer to which stats when editing anything. Page up/down scrolls through levels, you can toggle a lock on a tile with 'return', and then alter its properties and objects after that.

- For puzzles ideas and mechanics, there is a forum at the DMWeb dealing specifically with DMute. Look through old posts for tips about editing and trap ideas. Similarly, occasional posts appear in the general or DM sections of the DME forums. Or you can view the original dungeons or new DMuted dungeons to see how things have been put together (or DMEdited dungeons as long as the author has allowed it : ) ).

- If you reach the limits of the GUI in DMute, or you find there are bugs in your dungeon, then you can also download my hex manual either from here (this is from this webspace), or at the download section of the DME. So even at the limits of the GUI, there is still so much more you can do by editing one small part of an object/tile using the edit hex option (shortcut 'h'). In my manual are all the findings compiled from the DMute forum, and further hex tricks. It also contains a large trouble-shooting guide for DMute and DMuted dungeons, and a hex editing tutorial. While DMEdit does not allow hex editing, and my manual hasn't been updated to take its existence into account yet, DMEdit's object knowledge is based on the most recent findings, and also the dungeon troubleshooting guide is useful for non-hex instances here too.

- George Gilbert, the author of DMute, is very busy with real life. Rather than continue to investigate the .dat file for diminishing returns, and to give himself programming experience, he started to create a fully editable DM clone instead called Return To Chaos. It is designed to be as close to the original as possible, but with the added benefit of full editablilty and expandability. This takes up all his DM related free time, and although he has never fully ruled out in the far future creating a final version of DMute, at the moment there will be no DMute 1.4.

- The main two new projects, DMEdit and Graphreader, are both personal interest projects of their creators. So of course both rely on interest and free time in a busy real life. Keep abreast of new developements through this site, or simply checking the relevant DME forum. But these are active projects, which will no doubt see many cool things happening with them in months to come.Keep checking back! : )

- If you yourself are interested in the format and hacking it, the best thing to do is simply ask for information on the forums, and see what is there already. All the people with related information will be around to post, so you can pick up many useful tips. If you are interested in simple hex-editing of the .dat files for dungeons, then check the appropriate DMWeb forum or my hex editing maual, mail me, or then just ask on the forums!

- By clones it is meant direct interpretations of the game by fans, not commercial games like Knightmare that used the same style of engine. After a period of time when there were none, four main ones have sprung up, with another one becoming a possibility. The current four are all based on the same 2D dungeon crawl principles of DM.

• Return to Chaos is by the author of DMute, George Gilbert, and is trying to remain as faithful to the original as possible. The graphics and sounds have been ported directly, and the engine is constantly tweaked so that when playing the original dungeons (DM available, CSB coming very very soon) it still feels the same. It has all the features of CSB too (such as the hint oracle and porting utility) but also has support for overriding the graphics and sound sets, up to 24-bit graphics support, and a new twist to the DM spell system. Full editing for it is planned.
  
• Dungeon Matser Java is a clone programmed in Java by Alan Berfield (Alandale), but is a stand alone application - this makes it multi-platform. It uses updated graphics, but the engine is still based on DM. It also comes with a brand new (tougher) dungeon following on the story from DM, with new spells and, most importantly, an editor. DM and CSB are now available thanks to other players of the game.
  
• Chaos Strikes Back For Windows is as it sounds. Paul Stevens has taken the original Atari code, and converted it into C++ code. It still uses the original atari .dat files, so has the same graphics, mechanics and sounds plus is as editable as the original DM/CSB. The hint oracle was ported aswell, though the utility function only works enough to start the game (no character editing, or porting of DM characters). It also has four saved game slots, rather than the usual one.
  
• Dungeon Master: Legacy is a web-based game built by Daniel Decourdemanche, using DM-like graphics, and an engine based loosly on the DM one too. It is a multiplayer environment, which is still being developed right now. (HoC finished, main game being developed) It was written in French, but now there is an English translation provided at the necessary points if needed.

- There are a few other smaller ones on the go, either using DM graphics or only playing very specific formats. For example, Master of Chaos is a two (or four) player DM dungeon to play on the Atari STF/STE or Falcon.

- You can find links or the actual games (especially all the smaller ones) on the clones page of the DME. The links for the main ones are also available on the links? section here.

- The big two, RTC and DMJava, also have their own dedicated set of ezboard forums started and maintained by the authors, which deal with suggestions, bugs and commets.. They also link to download sites for the games (with DMJava you need to also download the Java Runtime Environment if you do not already have it). CSB For Windows is based at the DME...there are detailed comments and downloads for the game in the clones section too, and there is also a forum dedicated to it there.

- DM: Legacy is launched from its own website at either www.avalon-games.com or http://perso.wanadoo.fr/avalon-games/ which also explains all about it. The english translation should be found by following the flag link at the bottom right if needed.
DM2000 is downloadable by checking here , and though the original thread started in the RTC forum here, the comments actually continue in the DMWeb clones forum thread here.

- Impossible to answer about the best (obviously) : ) There are two main areas to compare the clones in though.

Firstly, the ability to play CSB on the PC, free from emulators. For this all three of the main clones can be compared. CSB For windows is, to all extents and purposes, like playing the original DM - so the same opinions of DM to its clones apply. It is the original engine, its dungeons (within limits) are fully DMutable. But better than DM, it has full sound and runs wonderfully under Windows. It is based on the original Atari engine, so has the same niggles - some graphics aren't as good as the Amiga, you have some things you can't do like drink from fountains, find invisible walls unless you walk into them, etc. Meanwhile, both DM Java (thanks to Wishbone) and RTC (as planned) have the CSB dungeon. So it comes down to the question of which you prefer. For closeness to the original, CSB For Windows wins, but RTC is a close second as the engine is designed to be that way, with the added bonus of all of RTC's features - things from all the DM formats, and a few nice twists of it's own. Meanwhile DM Java, with its newer engine and graphics, will have a fresher feel to people, and all of the quirks of it's own engine.

The second area is how it plays like a fresh DM-style game. For the main two, each clone has been made by a huge fan of DM, taking many thousands of hours to create, test, and re-engineer the programmes. Both succeed, having the same basic feel while introducing new aspects and expansion prospects.

- Many people will want to compare the main two around at the moment. To summarise (I'm slightly biased to RTC, so you will have to concider this) DM Java feels like a 2-D dungeon kit, with a DM-like engine and DM skin provided. However, it is a completed project within reason, and being supported as such. Any additions or bug fixes to the code are updated in patches so games are backwardly compatable.
RTC feels more like DM (even all the addtions are crafted to fit in with the original DM dungeon feel) so it is perhaps less 'fresh'. However, it is just as expandable, and already includes many features like graphical overrides and finally dungeon creation. DMJ was released earlier, but RTC has been available for public testing so the gap between the two is not that great. The lack of editor is the only large difference, and the format is stabalising for RTC so the method of editing/creation through text files has been released. So by the end of the next few months, you will be able to choose the platform you wish to design on, or just enjoy playing great dungeons on both! For a full list of the state of each so far, click here.

- For those wanting the familiar feel of DM but a totally different style of gamplay or engine, then the biggest thing to be on the horizon is DM2000, attempting to create the DM game in a fully 3-D engine with rendered graphics. So far a prpototype can be seen with the ability to move and attack creatures. Monster AI, items and item/combat intrefaces still need to be dealt with.
The web-based game DM:Legacy is in advanced stages of completion, and is always on, allowing interaction with players. It benefits from a broadband connection over a 56k modem, and the engine is merely based on, rather than emulating fully, DM.
For those lucky enough to have an Atari STE/FTE or Falcon, then there is Master of Chaos, which allows two people to go head to head using one character each in a DM dungeon environment with the same characters, monsters and items available. It is a completely new dungoen, and can even be played linked over two computers (so two or even four players can go head to head).

- There is no site that deals specifically with the graphics. Many sites use some though, so if you check out all the sites available from the DME links page, you can get many of the pictures. The DME itself uses much of the graphics, plus has screen shots and manual pictures. There is a programme (available on the old DM Clone site and DME) that rips the graphics from the original DM graphics.dat file. The only problem with this is that the original graphics have some colour differences from that screened, due to the way DM handles its in-game palettes (for example the raw colouring features oranges and pinks, so you have a very strange looking dragon...in-game, the dragon level shifted the orange and pink to red shades so the dragon looks fine ther). The best idea if you have the games is to rip them using Graphreader. It will pull out the graphics from almost all graphics.dat fiels (where the graphics are held). However, the same warning about palette colours applies.

- As for in-game sounds, there is sounds section at the DME you can rip then from, the DM2 music is available from the DME too,and you can also try to rip then directly from the graphics.dat files to using Graphreader again.

- For new graphics, Drake's site has many new graphics, such as in-game graphics for RTC and also large character pictures. Another DM forum regular had started developing some graphical sets for RTC too. For DM Java, there is Omera's site which was for anything related to new DMJ, and an upload site. A poster has started on a set available at http://home.t-online.de/home/rh.hinne/, another has custom weapons graphics at http://wizardtower.tripod.com/wizardstower/ and also one poster from there created new in-gmae character portraits which you can get at http://www.geocities.com/fmunoz_/dm/dm.html. Other people are developing all the time, so keep checking out the forums of clones, the links?<>/a here or of course the current news! : )

- There was a CD called DM - The Album available a few years ago. See the post at the DMWeb forum (DM and archive) about it, started by DMologist. Since then the tracks have been found and are available to download in a music section of the DME in .mp3 format.
Tom Hatfield was wishing to re-create the music (from the SNES version), and though his site seems to be currently in the land of 404, he had re-synthasised some tracks already.
There was a post on the DME DMII forum here that dealt with ripping and converting the music from the graphics.dat file, but this may be too advanced (or just too much of an effort!) for some, and uneccessary as the site owner made his accomplishments available from that thread too!

- Amazingly, there isn't that much fiction/fan fiction. There are some bio ideas for original characters at Drake's site in the Realms section, and it is possible if more people wish to contribute that this could be opened wider.