Dandy (later Dandy Dungeon) is a dungeon crawl maze game for the Atari 8-bit family published by the Atari Program Exchange in 1983. It is one of the first video games with four-player, simultaneous cooperative play. Players equipped with bows and unlimited arrows fight through a maze containing monsters, monster spawners, keys, locked doors, food, and bombs in search of the exit leading to the next level. If a player dies, they can be revived by finding and shooting a heart. The game includes an editor for making new dungeons. Dandy was written by John Howard Palevich for his undergraduate thesis while attending MIT, drawing inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons, Defender, and arcade maze games. Some of the levels, and level design elements which have become standard in dungeon crawls, were developed by fellow student Joel Gluck. The 1985 Atari Games arcade video game Gauntlet built upon the core design of Dandy, and a lawsuit from Palevich was settled out of court. Gauntlet designer Ed Logg later called Dandy a direct influence. Electric Dreams Software published versions of Dandy for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC in 1986. Dandy was reworked into Dark Chambers, without Palevich's direct involvement, and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit family. The name Dandy is a play on D&D, the common abbreviation for Dungeons & Dragons. Gameplay Dandy takes place in a maze-like dungeon, seen from an overhead view. The goal is to reach the exit in each dungeon and warp to the next. Dungeons are labeled "A" (the first) through "Z". Portions of the mazes are blocked by locked doors, which can be opened with keys found throughout each level. Each player is armed with a bow and arrow which can be shot in eight directions. Monsters come in several varieties, though the differences are strictly graphical. When hit, the monsters "devolve" to the next less-powerful state, before eventually being killed and disappearing. Some monsters are placed in the maze during its pre-game creation and appear as soon as that level is entered, while others are produced in skull-shaped monster generators. Monsters touching the player reduce the player's health, which can be improved by eating food scattered around the dungeon. Potions destroy all monsters on the screen when activated. Potions can be either shot with an arrow, or picked up and carried for later use.