Dungeons of Daggorath was one of the first games that attempted to portray three-dimensional space in a real-time environment, using angled lines to give the illusion of depth.

While Daggorath was visually similar to these games, it added several elements of strategy, such as different kinds of monsters, complex mazes, different levels of visibility, and the use of different objects and weapons.

This heartbeat system was used instead of numerical statistics such as hit points or vitality, and was inspired by arcade games,[4] specifically 1978's Space Invaders where a heartbeat-like sound gradually increases pace as enemies advance towards the player.

[5] The game was developed by Douglas J. Morgan and Keith S. Kiyohara, with sounds by Phil Landmeier, in 1980–81 for the Tandy (RadioShack) TRS-80 Color Computer.

Despite this, the game features a multi-level maze and has what for the time were advanced sound effects that provide important clues to the locations of monsters.