Roguelike Roundup (MLP) By kpaul Mon May 31st, 2004 at 02:09:41 AM EST
	------+----------       a) some food |........d..@..!|       b) +1 ring mail [4] being worn |...........%...|       c) a +1,+2 mace in hand |...............|       i) a magnesium wand |...............+####  --press space to continue-- ----------------- Level: 3 Gold: 73 Hp: 36(36) Str: 14(16) Arm: 4 Exp: 4/78

Intro: How has such a simple game kept so many people awake long after their bedtime? In this day and age of high res graphics, why are Roguelike games still popular? For most, it's the replayability of the games. No two games are ever the same in a good Roguelike. We've come a long way since the original Rogue, and a long, strange trip it's been. Below are some links to take you down memory lane. Rogue - 1980 Rogue started with then student Ken Arnold developing a C package called curses. With it, a programmer could assign a character at a point on the screen - cursor addressing. Two other students, Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman, used the package to create Rogue. In the game, a person descended into the randomly generated Dungeons of Doom. Many humans enjoyed delving into the dungeon to find the Amulet of Yendor. In 1984, ROG-O-MATIC: A Belligerent Expert System, was programmed to play the game of Rogue. Post-1984, many clones began to appear in a genre that came to be known as Roguelike. Most even say Diablo and Diablo II are modeled heavily off of the original Rogue and many Roguelike games. Moria - 1983 Moria was the first Roguelike to include a 'town' level outside of the dungeon. In the town you could buy weapons, food, and other supplies before you went to battle creatures. It was coded by Robert Alan Koeneke in VMS PASCAL. It's also the first freeware/opensource Roguelike. Hack / NetHack - 1985/1987 My personal entrance into the world of Roguelike games was Hack / NetHack. I would spend countless hours trying to get to the bottom level and retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. The original 'hack' was created by Jay Fenlason and later enhanced by Andries Brouwer. NetHack took over where Hack left off. The developers (originally led by Mike Stephenson) kept the sense of humor in the game and made it even more complex. The developers (it's been said) regret using 'Net' in front of Hack because everyone assumes it's a multiplayer version. It isn't. It is a classic, though, and very playable even today. Larn - 1986? Larn has been called by many an easy entry into the Roguelike genre. One of the variants of Larn came to be known as ULarn (Ultimate Larn) was released in 1992. Many other people also had their way with the original Larn source code. Overall, this is considered a 'little kid brother' of most of the other Roguelikes. Angband - 1990 Angband is a major branch in the Roguelike tree, having spawned many variations of its code base. There's even a multi-player variant of Angband called mangband. Another variant, Zangband, has a reputation for being more difficult than other Angband variants. Zangband is based on the work of Roger Zelazny. Like some other Roguelikes it allows you to use a tileset to see graphics rather than just ASCII. It also offers a GUI. Ragnarok - 1992 Ragnarok, set within Viking mythology, started to get a little intense with a GUI and a graphics interface. Some classify it as one of the minor Roguelikes and yet it's still part of the family. To me, though, pure ASCII is still the best way to play a Roguelike game. Alphaman - 1995 Alphaman is another Roguelike that is recomended for those new to Roguelike games. While it offers some things over ADOM and NetHack, ultimately it isn't a front runner in the genre. SLASH'EM - 2000 Although SLASH'EM (Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic) is based on NetHack, there are some noticable differences. This is yet another variant that tries to add graphics to the classic. Does it work? IMHO, not really. ADOM - 2001 ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) is an up and coming Roguelike that is gaining a strong following, making it as 'big' as Angband and NetHack. One interesting thing to come out of ADOM development is QHack, beginning basic code to create your very own Roguelike game. 3D Roguelikes Believe it or not, some links from comments on that other site led me to Falcon's Eye and noeGnuD, two graphical interfaces to the all-time classic. IsoAngband is another new face for Angband. These interfaces seem to take roguelikes to another level, a cross between Diablo and old-school roguelikes. While 3D roguelikes are visually interesting, it's still the code underneath that makes Roguelike games fun time wasters. Even with the simple ASCII graphics, I found myself back in the day caught up in the heat of the moment - I'd just used a wand of digging to steal the contents of a shop and was being chased, randomly teleporting around the level after eating the wrong monster. Palm OS Roguelikes Just like the classic SimCity, when Palm Pilots hit the scene, it wasn't long before people ported various Roguelikes to the handhelds. PaleoHack (2003), iRogue (2001), iLarn (2001), kMoria (2000), and NetHack-Palm (2000) are some of the Roguelikes available for the PalmOS. Conclusion As you can see, Roguelike games are still alive and kicking, even spawning more recent games like Diablo and Dungeon Hack. If you're tired of EverCrack and Halo, fire up NetHack or another variant of the classic and get lost in the dungeons, scrounging for food and trying to survive.

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Poll

Favorite Roguelike The original Rogue 6% NetHack 50% Hack 1% SLASH'EM 6% Angband 18% Zangand 4% Ragnarok 0% other (see below) 13% Votes: 83 Results | Other Polls

Related Links

Freshmeat Google @ Rogue Ken Arnold curses Michael Toy Glenn Wichman Dungeons of Doom ROG-O-MATIC Roguelike games Moria Hack / NetHack Amulet of Yendor NetHack sense of humor Larn ULarn other people Angband mangband Zangband more difficult Ragnarok minor Roguelikes Alphaman some things SLASH'EM differences ADOM QHack Falcon's Eye noeGnuD IsoAngband 3D roguelikes PaleoHack iRogue iLarn kMoria NetHack-Palm More on Software Also by kpaul