这款游戏于Rogue 问世前两年发行。我没有受过"Rogue 的影响（直到 1983 年才看到它），据我所知，加州大学伯克利分校创造出 Rogue 的那伙人也没有看过BAM。我们可能是各自独立地产生了同样的想法。但至少，我自己可以说Rogue 是Beneath Apple Manor-like。

It was released two years before Rogue came out. I was not influenced by Rogue (didn't see it until something like 1983) and, so far as I know, the Rogue guys up at UC Berkeley hadn't seen BAM either. We probably both came up with the same idea independently. But at least I can say Rogue is Beneath Apple Manor-like

Don Worth,
《苹果园之下》的开发者

Don Worth,
Beneath Apple Manor's creator

万一你挂了——这是迟早的事儿——这次扫描会让你的角色在楼梯口处复活。当然，你会因此损失掉身上所有的钱。但是，毕竟，你又活了过来，回到了上次扫描时的进度。如果能付得起费用，你最好尽快再进行一次新的扫描。使用同一个脑部扫描复活，会使下一次重生后的属性被削弱 10%。噢！还没来得及进行新的扫描，就死太多次的话，会让你的角色变得虚弱不堪。

因此，你应当小心翼翼地探索每一层地牢，注意倾听门后有没有什么动静，墙壁上是不是有暗门，砸开卡住的门，在遇到强敌时赶紧跑路，并且祈求自己不要一头扎进游荡的怪物群中。

所有这些努力都是奔着一个目标：找到传说中的金苹果，相传它就藏在地下深处的某个巨龙宝库中。反正呢，按游戏的设定，它就藏在那儿了，而且你也知道，世上就只有这么一个金苹果（尽管这次的故事主角不再是一枚魔戒）。

Should you die – sooner or later, bound to happen – the scan restored you to life at the staircase. Of course, any money you had at the time was dropped. However, you were alive again as of the last scan. And you'd want a new scan as soon as you could afford it. Each use reduced the stats of your next “reload” by 10%. Ouch! Too many restores of the same scan would leave you a wimp.

So you proceeded carefully along the level, listening at doors, inspecting walls for secret doors, bashing stuck doors open, running when overmatched, and hoping you wouldn't run into too many wandering monsters.

All this had a goal: to find the fabled Golden Apple, rumoured to be in a dragon hoard far below the surface. Naturally, it exists, and there it is! Or is it? You know the saying: there can be only one (though not a ring this time).

一些历史学家声称，BAM 是第一款商业电脑游戏，装在密封袋里，通过专卖店进行出售。

Some historians claim that BAM was the very first commercial computer game, sold in speciality stores inside a ziplock bag.

但是，每座宝库中都会发现一个苹果，如果拿到了假的金苹果，你很快就会死掉。那么，如何分辨真假呢？哈哈，只有拿到它的时候才可以知道。就算没有发生激烈的战斗，也会有这样让你紧张得满头大汗的时刻。

《苹果园之下》必须在一次游戏内完整通关。脑部扫描仅能在当前这一局使用，下次游戏时，你得从头来过。不过它还是提供了快速游戏的选项，如果设置为每层地牢五个房间，那你差不多能在四个小时左右通关。

此外，《苹果园之下》是 Rogue 及同类许多游戏的原型。可悲的是，在谈及这类型作品（Roguelike）的历史时，它常常被人忽略，即便它出现的时间，比1980年诞生的 Rogue 本身还要早两年。

在当时那个时代，玩《苹果园之下》，尽管有时也会感到挫败，但想来会是很有趣的消遣。虽说游戏内容简单，但也需要思考和策略。而且，它还示范了，在内存有限的机器上，如何用紧凑高效，设计巧妙的代码呈现高完成度的作品。

But each hoard had a supposed Apple; grab a fake, and you were soon reloading. How could you tell real from fake? Only – haha – by taking it. You don't always need heavy combat to induce sweaty palms.

BAM had to be played entirely in one session. The brain scans were good only for the current game. Quit, and you'd have to start a new game next time. Still, it was meant as a “quick” play. At 5 rooms/levels, you could usually get through it in about four hours or so.

Thus BAM was a prototype for Rogue and its many variants. Sadly, it seems to have been overlooked in the history of this sub-genre, even though it arrived two years before Rogue itself showed up in 1980.

In its time, Beneath Apple Manor was a fun – if occasionally frustrating – diversion. While simple, the game required thought and strategy. And it shows what could be done with limited RAM and tight, well-designed code.