Part 1 of 4 — The History of Warrior Caverns

Warrior Caverns: The Original Drawings and a Dream from 1986

Part 1 of 4 — The History of Warrior Caverns

Before Warrior Caverns became a finished Atari 8-bit game in 2026, it was a collection of handwritten notes, pencil drawings, and hundreds of hours of programming on an Atari 800XL.

Some of those original drawings and design documents survived nearly 40 years. Looking through them today brings back wonderful memories of a time when home computers were just beginning to capture our imaginations.

I thought it would be fun to share some of these historic images and tell the story of how Warrior Caverns first came to be.

It All Started with an Atari 800XL in 1983

My programming journey began in 1983 when I got my first Atari 800XL computer.

For someone interested in computers and technology, it was an incredible time. Home computers were becoming more accessible, and suddenly you could sit down at your own computer and create something entirely new.

I started learning Atari BASIC and quickly discovered that I enjoyed programming just as much as playing games.

There was something fascinating about typing in lines of code, running a program, discovering what didn't work, and then figuring out how to make it better. Sometimes the smallest accomplishment could take hours, but when it finally worked, it was worth every minute.

Over time, I began spending more and more hours writing programs and experimenting with what the Atari could do.

By 1986, I was ready to tackle something much more ambitious.

The Birth of Warrior Caverns

In 1986, I began designing a game I called Warrior Caverns.

The concept was an action/adventure game where a warrior would explore a dangerous mountain filled with caverns, monsters, hidden passages, and powerful enemies.

I wanted players to experience the excitement of exploration, never knowing exactly what might be waiting in the next room. But before I could program everything, I needed to design it.

And in those days, that meant paper and pencil.

I drew pictures of the warrior, imagined the environments, worked through the gameplay, and kept notes about how everything should function. These weren't polished computer graphics or professionally produced design documents. They were simply my ideas, captured on paper as I tried to figure out how to turn them into a real game.

Looking at these drawings today, I can still see what I was trying to create.

Even more interesting is seeing how many of those early ideas eventually found their way into the completed game four decades later.

Building a Game in Atari BASIC

Warrior Caverns was originally being written in Atari BASIC on my 800XL.

Programming a game back then was a very different experience from modern game development. Everything required careful planning, experimentation, and a lot of patience. And lets be honest, Basic was not the way to go for my vision.  I spent countless hours working on the code, developing the game mechanics, and trying to bring the world I had imagined to life.

There was no large development team. No professional graphics department. No massive library of ready-made game engines. It was just me, my Atari, my design notes, and an idea I wanted to make real.

And while I made progress, the project was ambitious. There was always something else to develop, refine, or figure out. Then, as the 1980s came to an end, the computer industry began changing rapidly.

And so did my interests.

From Atari BASIC to PC Shareware

Around 1990, I transitioned from Atari programming to the rapidly growing world of IBM-compatible personal computers. Microsoft Windows was becoming more popular, and I found myself drawn into developing software for this new environment.

Eventually, I began writing and selling shareware programs through my own little software company.

Three of those programs were:

• QuiClick — a Windows menu bar utility.
• Optical Jammer — a CD player program.
• Matchin' Mania — a game.

For my programs, customers would actually mail checks to my small company.

I would take those checks to the bank, cash them, and then prepare a floppy disk containing unlocked versions of the programs. I'd package the disk and mail it back to the customer.

It was a simple process by today's standards, but there was something exciting about receiving a check from someone who wanted to purchase software I had written. And in 1993, something especially memorable happened.

PC Magazine recognized QuiClick as a Top 20 Shareware program.

That was an exciting accomplishment for a small independent software developer.

My PC shareware development years opened an entirely new chapter in programming.

The Game That Never Quite Went Away

As I spent more time developing Windows software, filling floppy disk orders, and exploring new programming opportunities, I gradually spent less time working on Warrior Caverns. 

The Atari computer that had introduced me to programming was giving way to a new generation of machines.

And the game I had spent so many hours designing and programming was never completed.

But I didn't throw everything away. Somewhere among my belongings, the original drawings, notes, and source code survived. At the time, I had no way of knowing how important those papers would become.

They were simply reminders of a game I once dreamed of creating. Nearly forty years later, those same pages would help bring Warrior Caverns back to life.

And that's where the next chapter of this story begins.

Coming in Part 2: Rediscovering Warrior Caverns

How the original 1980s design documents and source code survived, and what happened when I decided to revisit a game I had left unfinished decades earlier.

- Kevin 

Warrior Caverns is now available for Atari 8-bit computers!