A roguelike is a computer game that borrows some of the elements of the 1980s computer game Rogue. A roguelike is a superficially two-dimensional dungeon crawling computer game, usually with simple text or ASCII "graphics" and many with "tiles" which replace the rather limited character set with a wider array^[1]. A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Rogue is a dungeon crawling computer game dating from 1980. ... 2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models (such as 2D geometric models, text, and digital images) and by techniques specific to them. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...

The genre is named after Rogue, although some features of Rogue existed in earlier games, notably: Adventure (1975), Dungeon (1975 for PDP-10 mainframes), and several games written for the PLATO system on CDC computers such as dnd (1975) and 0moria (late 1970s). Both dnd and 0moria used limited graphics and were multi-user. 0moria used a primitive first-person shooter 3-D view, while dnd used a top-down map view similar to Rogue. Unlike Rogue and 0moria, most earlier games had pre-scripted scenarios that were largely the same each time they were played and which players could grow tired of, with only some random variations. In Rogue and 0moria, the dungeon is randomly regenerated each time the player begins the game, creating a new challenge each time and remaining fresh for the player. Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) (Crowther & Woods, 1976) was the first computer adventure game. ... Dungeon was perhaps the first computer role-playing game, and ran on Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 mainframe computers. ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Control Data Corporation, or CDC, was one of the pioneering supercomputer firms. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... First-person shooter (FPS) is a genre of video games which is characterized by an on-screen view that simulates the in-game characters point of view and a focus on the use of handheld ranged weapons. ...

Becoming widely available with the Berkeley Software Distribution version of Unix, Rogue became the most popular dungeon crawl game yet created. ^[2] Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD, sometimes called Berkeley Unix) is the Unix derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1970s. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...

Typical gameplay

These games present a plan view, the components of which were originally characters on a teletype. Traditionally, the hero is represented by an "@" sign, which can be seen as a head and shoulders view from above. Other characters (usually enemy monsters) are represented by letters of the alphabet. Rogue itself only made use of capital letters, but modern roguelikes utilize different capitalization of letters to represent different monsters. A dog, for example, may be represented by the letter "d", and a dragon by a "D". Also, to further distinguish various creatures, a modern roguelike game will display different colored letters. For example, a Red Dragon might be represented by a red "D", whereas a Blue Dragon might be represented by a blue "D", each with their own abilities and required strategy by the player. Further dungeon features are represented by other ASCII (or ANSI) graphics. A traditional sampling is below. A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. ... Heroine (female hero) redirects here. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Alphabet (disambiguation). ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. ... Saint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... ANSI escape codes are used to control text formatting and other output options on text terminals that are based on the ANSI X3. ...

Though many Rogue "purists" scoff at the idea, it is becoming increasingly popular to make use of graphics in roguelikes. Numerous graphical versions are available for most of the traditional games; and it is very common for the newer roguelike projects in development to use graphics, sometimes even sound.

The hero is controlled by short commands of one or a few keypresses rather than using a mouse or typing long sentence-like commands. For example, in NetHack a player would press "r" to read a scroll, "d" to drop an item, and "q" to quaff (drink) a potion. Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ... NetHack is a single-player roguelike computer game originally released in 1987. ... Reading is a process of retrieving and comprehending some form of stored information or ideas. ... A scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper which has been written upon. ... A potion (from Latin potio, potionis, meaning beverage, potion, poison) is a drinkable medicine or poison. ...

Though they may seem like trivial games at a first glance because of their simple graphics and interface, fans claim that roguelikes provide a much greater gameplay detail depth than average commercial games, arguing that instead of spending a lot of time on the graphics and 3D engines roguelike developers focus on advancing gameplay.

There are many online communities dedicated to roguelike games, most notably the rec.games.roguelike hierarchy on Usenet. There also exist a few paper-based roguelikes; one is in fact called "Roguelike". "Adom the RPG" is another. A virtual community is a group whose members are connected by means of information technologies, typically the Internet. ... Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...

The computer game Diablo is thought of as a modern, graphical RPG adventure with a similar premise to Rogue: players slash their way through increasingly difficult monsters and attain treasure while traversing to deeper and deeper levels of the dungeon and completing quest objectives. In light of this, Diablo is referred to by some as a "Roguelike", even though the actual gameplay is wildly different. Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed hack and slash action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on January 2, 1997. ...

Usual features

• Roguelike games feature randomly generated dungeon levels, which give them more replay value than games in which the levels are the same every time, though many have static levels as well. The randomly generated levels typically include rooms (some of which may be preset or specific, e.g. monster lairs, treasuries) and corridors / tunnels leading from one to another, though more open non-room spaces or other elements, like rivers, may occur.

• Rogue uses a hardware-independent text cursor system called curses to display levels with information in the termcap database. Rogue is one of a number of applications to separate display from underlying hardware which Unix runs on.

• The appearance of magical items changes randomly from game to game. A player who finds these items would be told only the appearance of the item. The effects of the item are not revealed; the player must find this out somehow. For example, the red potion might be the potion of healing in one game and a poison the next. The items can often be modified in-game or have specific features (like being cursed).

• Roguelike games use a Dungeons & Dragons-like turn-based combat system instead of a real-time system. Often, physical combat is executed by "bumping" into monsters.

• There is a great deal of variance between different games in appearance, commands, plot, and strategy.

• Most roguelikes are single-player games, due to the difficulty of extending a turn-based system to support multiple players. However, some multi-player Rogue derivatives such as TomeNET, MAngband, and Crossfire exist and are playable online. On multi-user systems controlled by appointed administrators and having the required security features, scoreboards for single-player games are often "shared" between players playing the same rules, without the opportunity to cheat by changing the game or savefiles. Some also allow traces of former players to appear in others' games in form of ghosts or grave markings.

• Roguelike games traditionally implement permadeath—death is unrecoverable. Once a character is dead, discounting item-afforded preclusion, the player must start over from the beginning of the game. Most roguelikes provide a "save game" feature, but this is only intended to allow splitting a game across multiple sessions, and the save file will be deleted automatically when the character dies. Players can avoid this by copying the file to another location, but this is considered cheating and often known as "save scumming". Some roguelikes provide a "wizard mode" that lets players explore the dungeon without risk of death. Players may also encounter items during normal gameplay that can prevent death (usually just once).

• The world of roguelikes is heavily interactive and players can often perform tasks impossible in other games, e.g., digging through walls or lighting fires.

• While some elements may not appear in all roguelikes, they are often popular and found in various games of the genre. Examples may include wishes or a system of religion (often with a pantheon of gods which a player's character can worship).

Random redirects here. ... Replay value or replayability is a term usually found in combination with video games, but it may be also used to describe other kinds of games, movies, music, or theater plays. ... Curses is a terminal control library for Unix-like systems, enabling the construction of text user interface (TUI) applications. ... Termcap is a library and database that enables programs to use display Computer terminals in a terminal-independent manner. ... Magic: The Gathering. ... Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) currently published by Wizards of the Coast. ... The Battle for Wesnoth turn-based strategy, released under the GPL. A turn-based game, also known as turn-based strategy, is a game where the game flow is partitioned in well-defined and visible parts, called turns or rounds. ... “Fights” redirects here. ... Look up plot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often winning. Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ... ToME is a roguelike computer game created by Darkgod. ... MAngband, or Multiplayer Angband, is a realtime multiplayer variant of the dungeon-crawling roguelike Angband. ... Crossfire Client 1. ... Online means being connected to the Internet or another similar electronic network, like a bulletin board system. ... A ghostly woman coming down the stairs. ... In RPG terminology, permadeath, permanent death or PD describes games (or parts of games), in which player characters, who die, are not always brought back to life. ... Cheating is defined as an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A pantheon (in Greek, παν – pan — all + θεός – theos — god) is a set of all the gods of a particular religion or mythology, such as the gods of Hinduism, Norse, Egyptian, Shintoism, Greek, vodun, Yoruba Mythology and Roman mythology. ...

Roguelike family tree

Roguelikes branched in three main directions:

• The Hacklikes, where levels are saved after being left. Notable examples include NetHack, Slash'EM, Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and Castle of the Winds.
• The Bands, where levels are regenerated after being left. The main occupants of this branch are Moria, Angband and their variants.
• The overworld games, where there is more than one dungeon (or, in the case of The UnReal World, no dungeons at all (only caves)). Notable examples of this school are Omega (dungeons are regenerated after being left), ADOM (every dungeon but one is preserved when left), ToME, and later versions of ZAngband.

Note that there are other attributes that distinguish branches; for example, starvation is a major threat in Hacklikes, while in the others it is rare to die of starvation. NetHack is a single-player roguelike computer game originally released in 1987. ... SlashEM (short for Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic), is a variant of the roguelike game NetHack with many extra features, monsters, and items. ... Linleys Dungeon Crawl (or just Dungeon Crawl or Crawl) is a roguelike computer game originally programmed by Linley Henzell in 1995. ... Castle of the Winds (CotW) is a tile-based Roguelike RPG that runs under Windows 3. ... Moria is an old roguelike computer game, based on a story from The Lord of the Rings. ... Angband is a roguelike game derived from Moria and enhanced successively by Alex Cutler, Andy Astrand, Charles Swiger, Ben Harrison and Robert Ruehlmann. ... The computer game Angband is notable for having many variants based on its codebase. ... The UnReal World (URW) is a realistic graphical roguelike CRPG set in Iron age Finland by Sami Maaranen. ... Omega is a roguelike computer game, programmed by Laurence Brothers in the late 1980s. ... ADOM Title Screen ADOM (short for Ancient Domains of Mystery) is a roguelike game in which your aim is to stop the forces of Chaos which are invading the world of Ancardia. ... ToME, or Tales (or Troubles) of Middle Earth, is a free roguelike computer game created in 1998 by someone who identifies himself only as DarkGod. ... ZAngband is a freeware role-playing computer game. ...

Major roguelikes

Modern roguelikes (which are still supported and/or widely played)

• Ancient Domains of Mystery or ADOM
• Angband (with over sixty variants, some not actively maintained)
• Troubles of Middle Earth, or ToME (a heavily modified ZAngband variant, perhaps the closest to Tolkien in some regards)
• Linley's Dungeon Crawl (also called Dungeon Crawl or just Crawl)
• NetHack (a descendant of Hack)

ADOM (short for Ancient Domains of Mystery) is a roguelike game in which the players aim is to stop the forces of Chaos which are invading the world of Ancardia. ... Angband is a roguelike game derived from Moria and enhanced successively by Alex Cutler, Andy Astrand, Charles Swiger, Ben Harrison and Robert Ruehlmann. ... ToME, or Tales (or Troubles) of Middle Earth, is a free roguelike computer game created in 1998 by someone who identifies himself only as DarkGod. ... ZAngband is a freeware role-playing computer game. ... Linleys Dungeon Crawl (or just Dungeon Crawl or Crawl) is a roguelike computer game originally programmed by Linley Henzell in 1995. ... NetHack is a single-player roguelike computer game originally released in 1987. ... Hack is a roguelike computer game originally written in 1982 by Jay Fenlason with the assistance of Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne. ...

Classic roguelikes (influential early roguelike games)

• Rogue
• Moria
• Hack
• Larn
• Omega

Rogue is a dungeon crawling computer game dating from 1980. ... Moria is an old roguelike computer game, based on a story from The Lord of the Rings. ... Hack is a roguelike computer game originally written in 1982 by Jay Fenlason with the assistance of Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne. ... Larn is an old roguelike computer game that was originally written by Noah Morgan in 1986. ... Omega is a roguelike computer game, programmed by Laurence Brothers in the late 1980s. ...

See also

• MUD
• Seven day roguelike
• List of roguelikes

Some dried mud with windblown stones. ... A Seven day roguelike (7DRL) is a roguelike game made in seven days; these are mostly created during the so called Seven Day Roguelike Challenges, a friendly contest among roguelike developers to make a playable roguelike in the 7 day timespan of a designated week, where the developers start coding... 3059 (Real-time, futuristic Rogue-derivative with music and sound) Alphaman Ancient Domains of Mystery or ADOM Angband (with over sixty variants, some not actively maintained) Azure Dreams Castle Adventure Castle of the Winds CastlevaniaRL (A roguelike based on the Castlevania universe) Chocobos Mysterious Dungeon (and the other games...

References

1. ^ Damjan Jovanovic (2005-1-13). Roguelike Development FAQ (txt). Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
2. ^ Petri Kuittinen (2001-06-12). Rogue - Exploring the Dungeons of Doom (1980). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 4th redirects here. ...

Sources

This article or section was considered for deletion and requires cleanup according to the discussion. Please help improve this article to meet Wikipedia's quality standards or discuss the issue on the talk page.

• Rogue - Exploring the Dungeons of Doom
• Roguelike Roundup
• ADOM - Introduction to Roguelike Games
• Rogue in 1UP's The Essential 50 - An article detailing the history of Rogue and touching on the effects it had on many other games.

Image File history File links Information_icon. ...

External links

• Google Groups rec.games.roguelike hierarchy
• Guide to Roguelike Games
• Genealogy & Chronology of Roguelike games
• Open Directory Project's Rogue-like Category
• List of Actively Developing Roguelikes
• Roguelike Development - a good starting point for aspiring developers, containing articles, files, and helpful links.
• RogueBasin - a MediaWiki-based wiki devoted to roguelikes.
• Roguelike Restoration Project
• @ Play - a column devoted to discussion of Roguelikes.
• Roguelike. The magazine
• Temple of the Roguelike - a web-based roguelikes community