story is set at a time before the Temple of Apshai, where the original game took place, was rediscovered. In 1985, Epyx published the remake Temple of Apshai Trilogy. Reception Temple of Apshai was very successful. Automated Simulations reported that it had sold 20,000 copies of the game by 1981. By 30 June 1982, it was 30,000 copies. Sales reached 400,000 copies by 1986. After the Commodore 64 Version was released in 1983, it appeared on top of the Compute! Gazette list of best-selling Commodore 64 Entertainment programs, generated from surveys with retailers and distributors. It constantly remained among the five best-selling Commodore 64 games according to that list until the column was discontinued after March 1984. The VIC-20 version also appeared on the list of best-selling games for that system from December 1983 onwards. At the middle of June 1983, the wholesale software distributor Softsel International placed Temple of Apshai seventh in a list of best-selling computer games, compiled from sales to 4,000 retail outlets in 50 states and 30 countries. By that time, the game had been in the distributor's top 50 chart for 38 weeks. Temple of Apshai was Epyx's third best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987. Early reviews of Temple of Apshai praised the game's graphics and unusual complexity, while criticizing long loading times and slow screen build-up for the dungeon graphics. Compute! stated that Temple of Apshai for the PET "is for anyone who is tired of simple 'video games' ... [it] is quite an experience". It advised readers to be aware that "this is a serious game. Be prepared to THINK". Jerry Pournelle in BYTE called it "an excellent real-time dungeon game", and later reported that his sons had "nearly worn out the Dungeons of Apshai". Kilobaud Microcomputing criticized the long load times, but liked the game's graphics and "excellent" documentation. PC Magazine stated that the IBM PC version did not fully exploit the computer's graphics capability, but that players "will find excitement and entertainment ... it's certainly worth the silver to grab this game for the PC". The magazine was also favorable towards Upper Reaches of Apshai, which it called "better than Temple of Apshai in some ways". Popular Science called Temple of Apshai "a good example of a graphic adventure game", but also stated that in it and other games like it "the play seems to drag" because "it takes time