Play ICON - The Quest for the Ring Online

ICON: The Quest for the Ring came out in 1984 for MS-DOS, developed by John S. James. It was part of that early wave of PC dungeon crawlers, the kind you loaded from a floppy disk and played on a monochrome monitor. The game didn't have fancy graphics, but it had a certain pull; it was a world built from simple lines and text, leaving a lot to your imagination.

You control a lone adventurer exploring a vast, multi-level dungeon. Your goal is to find the pieces of a magical ring scattered throughout the labyrinth. Movement is screen by screen; you navigate tight corridors and large rooms, managing your inventory of keys, torches, and weapons. Combat is straightforward, often just bumping into enemies with your sword, but resource management is key as your light source can die, leaving you in the dark. The pacing is deliberate, sometimes slow, and the difficulty is unforgiving; a wrong turn can mean a quick death. It feels like a genuine, lonely expedition into the unknown, where every decision carries weight.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".