So, just how big are some games?
I asked this question after having played through a bunch of old classic grid-based games. Which is the biggest, i.e. which has the most squares you can step on?

Of course, the numbers may not fully correlate over games, and quality does not equal quantity, but this should give a decent idea of the relative sizes of games.

For number of disks, if a disk contains no functional maps, it is not included in the "# of disks."
Name Outside Towns Dungeons Total Disks Comments
Deathlord 20 at 56x56
62720
35 at 64x64
143360
36 at 64x64
147456
353536
2
The maps aren't as detailed as Ultima V, say, but they still look cool or hide some neat trick. Quantity and quality.
Ultima V 2 at 256x256
131072
66 at 32x32
67584
8 at 8x8 + 121 at 11x11
15153
213809
7
Maps are very detailed, and they needed to use a lot of memory for the NPC's that wandered around. A pretty big game, though.
Demon's Winter 49 at 56x56
153664
N/A 5 at 64x64
20480
174144
4
This game sprawled, and it used compression for its surface maps(0x94 0x70, for instance, meant 0x70 in a row of icon 0x14). It was almost too big to get into, with annoying gameplay and manual combat. Way bigger than the preceding Shard of Spring.
Ultima II 10 at 64x64
40960
15 at 64x64
61440
8 at 16x16x16
32768
135168
3
Pretty big, but a lot of the locations are useless. They went overboard a bit here.
Ultima IV 256x256
65536
16 at 32x32
16384
8 at 8x8 + 121? at 11x11
15153
97073
3
Not bad sized at all.
2400 A.D. 165 at 32x16
84480
N/A N/A 84480
2
This is one of my favorite games because it is so big and still has detail.
Ultima III 1 at 64x64
4096
12 at 64x64
49152
7 at 16x16x8
14336
67584
2
They switched from big maps to neat new features, a good choice.
Ultima I 4 at 84x84
28224
40 at 38x18
27360
36 at 8x8(?)
2304
57888
2
Not bad for a first effort.
Wizard's Crown 8 at 30x30
7200
N/A 12 at 30x30
10800
18000
2
Combat took up a lot of this game's memory. And although it seems small it's quite interesting.
Shard of Spring 120x60 + 64x36
9504
N/A 32 8x32 chunks
8192
17696
2
Written in BASIC. Some dungeon chunks were blank, but this game managed to seem pretty big.
Eternal Dagger 5 at 30x30
4500
N/A 12 at 30x30
10800
15300
2
Actually smaller than its predecessor, Wizard's Crown. But they ironed out some details along the way.

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