Roguelikes

Back in 1980 two guys, Michael Toy and Glenn Whichman created a lovely little game called Rogue

Start up Screen

It was a very simple game in which is made up of a grid of ASCII. You originally were the @ sign that walked around. Nowadays there is a graphical version, which I have, (http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/rogue/) it isn't nearly as cool as the original version on a terminal. Your main goal is to descend deeper and deeper into the dungeons, leveling up of course, until you retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. I know. Spicy name. Then you get to tote it all the way back to the top. In my opinion, an excellent way to waste innumerable hours.

Playing Rogue

THEN...the people saw that this was good, so they went to their own computers and started work on their own games that were like Rogue...but weren't Rogue. So before the 80's had run its course, there was Hack,  Moria (obviously based on Tolkien's Middle Earth), Larn, a successor to Hack known as NetHack, and numerous other less popular titles. All these games expanded on the overhead view looking down upon your character, but they also added classes, races, and other goodies. Then in 1990 the open-sourced Angaband was born based heavily on Moria, in 1994 Thomas Biskup of Germany brought us my personal favorite: ADOM (a nifty acronym meaning Ancient Domains of Mystery), in 1996 Diablo was born (which featured...graphics!),  DoomRL (very entertaining),  another of my favorites, Dwarf Fortress, was born in 2006, and another T.o.M.E.. At this point you may be trying to find these games to buy, but unfortunately...they are all FREE*!!

*Thomas Biskup asks you to send him a postcard in exchange for getting his game ;)



DoomRL

DoomRL is a really nostalgic game. It brings you back to the original Doom, probably because it has ALL the original sound effects and music! Really great combat mechanics, and interesting leveling system.

Doom Startup Screen

I'm the @ symbol

With a Berserker Pack 

ADOM

ADOM is a really really fun game. The first few run-throughs are really confusing but once you start to understand where you need to go and start memorizing the commands it can really get fun.

ADOM Startup screen

Leveling Up

The 3rd level of a Dungeon

A room full of enemies

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress...Wow. There is SOOO much detail in this game! Before you can start building your fortress the game must first generate an entire world for you to play in. It first creates a really realistic world with forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, and oceans. Then, DF populates this world with a variety of races and special creatures and generates a history (generally like 500 years) and THEN you can play. But there is a whole mode of this game devoted to reviewing the generated history ;)!!! Also it simulates weather and places  gems and minerals in the correct geological conditions that they form in, in real life! Good Stuff Tarn Adams!

Dwarf Fortress Startup screen

Getting some designations in place

Mining bedrooms for the dwarfs

Some stats about this VEERY young fortress

The finished bedrooms

These games are often overlooked because of their (insanely) high learning curve. It does take a while to get used to the different environment in which you, as the player, find yourself. For example, in Dwarf Fortress you don't actually have direct control over any of your dwarves; you just assign jobs that must be done, but it is still up to "the dwarfs" to actually realize they are selected to that type of work, that they aren't doing anything else, and that they should do it.

Roguelikes have definitely gotten much more complicated since the original Rogue, but I would definitely suggest you try at least one of them out. Also, give yourself some time to learn the commands and at least partially understand the game before quitting. There is fun in it....somewhere ;)

~V 1.5~

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