I never solved Sword of Fargoal, but I did get my hands on the sword of the game's namesake... once. I think it's a superior game to Rogue in many respects because of the simplicity and intuitiveness of the interface. With many CRPGs of that era, you're forced to look up an instruction sheet to find out which key does what. Although Fargoal does use some keypresses, they are fairly obvious (such as pressing I to read a scroll of invisibility).

The randomly generated mazes really give it infinite replay value. I'm a big fan of using randomization or a procedural algorithm to design a maze. Telengard uses the latter in creating a 200x200x50 dungeon that remains static but is generated entirely with a Fibonacci-like mathematical sequence. It's a great way to save memory space, and it's also good for the designer in that, he will be able to play his or her own game after it's completed and still find surprises.

I wholeheartedly agree with your parting thoughts at the end. Thank you for this video!