Well, I did it. I managed to win at Wizardry.

Actually, I had done it before, except I couldn't figure out how to get out of Werdna's lair. So, I was eventually finished off by random encounters.

The second time, I simply gambled by using MALOR- a teleportation spell. Got back nicely.

To gain levels, I simply kept destroying Murphy's Ghosts in Level 1. Then, it was not difficult to destroy Werdna and his Vampire goons. You didn't even have to gain the Blue Ribbon.

Overall, I would have to say that CV Lord of the Dungeon has much better staying power. There isn't any such way of cheating, and the enemies are much deadlier in the lower levels. There is also more variety, overall, although the environment is simpler, and there are no trapped chests.

Still, it was fun. But I do seem to recall the early versions of the game being more difficult than the NES version.