Rogue Gaming

In this day and age, there is nothing more unappealing at first glance than a game which in all truth would not look out of place on a ZX81. If I were to come across these games for the first time today, they would not even be granted ten seconds of attention. Such, I'm afraid, is the way of the world today. If it aint got flashy visuals, it aint no good. But oh oh oh, what misguided and superficial fools we really are, for in these here games which occupy around half a Meg of memory and have neither Direct 3D nor Open GL support, there lies a depth and addictive playability that would shame even some of the most popular games of today.

Having said that, Rogue Style Games (named after Rogue, one of the first of its genre) are not for everyone. You need to have at least some interest in the world of RPG's and strategic games. A good memory is useful too....the amount of times you remember that wand of extra healing in your pack just after you die.... Arrrgh....well you get the picture.

I was first introduced to these games on the Sequent machine at University back in 1988. Running under UNIX on machines with zero graphics capability, there was little else to do with your spare time during practicals than play them. The first of them I tried was "Moria", based loosely on Tolkein's Mines of Terror...the aim...travel down into the dungeons after first equipping yourself...and kill the Balrog.....sounds simple, no? I didn't finish it in 4 years at university (but have since done so on the PC). Then came "Larn", "Nethack", "Omega", "Angband", the list goes on. I never actually got the hang of Omega, and am searching for it on the PC at the moment...if anyone can point me in the right direction. The programs are all freeware, the source code is freely available and the idea is that anyone can alter it, improve it or use it as a base for a conversion....as long as they keep the credits to the authors so far, do not charge for it, and provide their source code to allow any subsequent programmers to do the same.

So here is a run-down of all of those I have on the PC, plus nice little downloads for you to click and try. Please read the licence agreements for these games carefully. Some, like Alphaman are Shareware rather than Freeware.

ANGBAND

Starting off on the surface, you find yourself in a small town populated with drunks, thieves, lepers and shopkeepers ready to haggle. The amount of money in your pocket depends upon your race and background, and your abilities to fight, run, haggle, and spot things depend upon your race and chosen profession. So with the barest of equipment, you got into a shop. What will you need in the dungeons below? Food for a start; and torches (or better a lantern); a stick to hit the monsters with and some armour to protect you from their sticks...oh, and those magical scrolls and wands look good too, but damn they're expensive. The scroll "Word of Recall" is what you want, because that will return you to the surface magically (after a delay of a few turns), so that way you can forage deep, pick up various items and gold and return without having to tramp all the way back up through several hundred metres of rock.

Get used to this View....you tend to see it a lot.

I wish Farmer Maggot would keep his dogs under control

So down you go, picking up artefacts as you go....trying on that new leather helm .... Only to find the damned thing is cursed....aaagh...and you can't get it off without the aid of some magic....damn damn damn...Ok..I'll be a bit more careful with the next item...ah...it's only a dagger...I'll take it back and get a few gold crowns for it in the shops up top. "There you go Mr Armour Shop Keeper, here's a poxy dagger", ooh 4 gold pieces...ok, I'll take it while you go out the back and identify what it is and ..... aaaaargh It's a dagger of the Elvenkind, increases my speed by 5 and adds +10 to hit and +7 to damage and slays goblinkind.....and it's worth...32000 gold pieces....and I just sold it for 4 !!! Aaaagh why didn't I get an identify scroll and look what it was myself before I sold it?.....right..never mind....I'll just go and get another item and it'll be worth a fortune, just go and get another Word of Recall scroll to take me back down into the dungeon and ... oops...sorry Mr Battle Scarred Veteran...I didn't mean to spill your pint...I'm sure ... ooof...now wait just a ....ugh...........right I'll just blast you with my rod of fireballs that I found and..... damn that rogue must have swiped it, the git...um....do you think we could resolve this issue calmly????......RIP

That is a typical game of Angband, frustratingly annoying but very addictive...oh, and your save games get deleted when you restart them...so find them and copy them somewhere safe before you restart....There are more keys and actions than you can shake a stick at, but all the instructions are there...so go....hit the dungeons....and have fun.....It can be done....and here's proof: Meet Folin , my Dwarvern Priest who triumphed over the powers of darkness to return from the dungeons as a King and possibly the hardest bloke in the world....(He killed Morgoth without taking a single hit!!)

LARN

Very much in the mould of Moria and Angband, slightly less complex, easier to play, but just as frustratingly difficult.

You start Larn after learning that your daughter is suffering from a very rare fatal disease...the only know cure for the disease is an elixir, rumoured to rest deep in the heart of the nearby volcano...you have neither money, nor the ability to fight...but you only have 120 days to save your stricken daughter.........there is only on course left open to a doting father like yourself.....get into that volcano and get that potion.

Actually, going straight into the volcano is an exceptionally stupid thing to do (though it can sometimes be very rewarding if there is an important artefact near the entrance and you can swipe it and get out before being vaporised by a swarm of 8 Multi-Hued Dragons), so you must first train yourself in the lore, magic and fighting at the College of Larn, and start searching in the catacombs near your home...an altogether less deadly place than the volcano...at least near the surface it is. Somewhere in the catacombs lies the Eye of Larn...an object of great importance in your quest, though it is rumoured to be guarded by a Demon Prince (it ain't no rumour).

So you go about your business of finding artefacts and scrolls and spells, fighting off the creatures of the deep, avoiding traps and gaining experience and hit points. Until at last you seize the elixir and whisk it off to save your daughter. Easy as that. Honest. Just watch out for the Demon Princes. You may be able to take on a horde of platinum dragons and receive barely a scratch, but over confidence is always your downfall, as the Demon Princes can still take you down with only two or three swipes....(oh..they are invisible too!!)

oh and read the instructions (you have to put device=nansi.sys in your config.sys file for it to work properly)

NETHACK

Nethack is Moria on ACID!! Well some versions are weirder than others; this is unfortunately a more sane version....(I'm trying to find the version with the three Stooges throwing custard pies at each other and you). Essentially a dungeon game, involving the same concepts of killing things, advancing levels, etc. Nethack is unique in the sense that you have a companion: a little cat or dog which you can name and train to do things.....your pet grows in experience and strength with you and will defend you till the death....(possibly the saddest you'll ever experience playing a computer game, is that moment where little Nippy the hound falls into a bottomless pit). You can eat the corpses of slain beasts (though some are toxic...or worse) and even smash little Nippy's brains out and chew on his still twitching fur yourself if you are starving. You can find hallucinogenic drugs, polymorph yourself into a dragon, tame more dogs and cats....polymorph them into dragons and demons...so you can end up with a mob of baying mythical beasts...all straining at the leash. You can find shops in the dungeons, buy stuff....attempt to steal things...(shopkeepers are hard nuts)...or even train little Nippy to thieve things from shops for you. Another major part of Nethack which should not be ignored is the issue of keeping true to your deity....there are a number of Gods and alignments and sacrifices of corpses at altars make them happier...unless they are sacred animals, or pets...or humans...when the Gods can get a tad miffed...and deitic intervention is not a thing to be sniffed at...the Gods can place a ball and chain around your leg which you will have to drag about the dungeon until you do your penance or find a way to remove it.....alternatively they can conjure up a beast to tear out your gizzard...or simply reduce you to a frazzle with a thunderbolt.

Oh and make sure that Nippy and other pets stay close when you travel deeper into the dungeon....pets can get lost, and hungry...and may not recognise you when you come across them again.....irate pets make for bad foes....So too do the ghosts of former characters...though they will often be guarding the items collected by the dead character (which is a nice surprise after losing them all in your previous incarnation).....There are lots of characters to do battle with too, some holding great secrets....Often cryptic messages written in the dust can reveal a hidden doorway, or sounds of someone counting money may mean that a hidden treasure vault lies nearby....

As you progress....your task becomes clear....to travel through the very depths of Hell itself to do battle with the wizard of Yendor and steal his amulet....a very tricky thing to do indeed, as he has a body double...in fact....I have never finished Nethack, though I feel another attempt coming along.

ALPHAMAN

Set in a post apocalyptic New York, the whole place is now forest and scrub land populated by mutant killer owls and snails and other crazy things. Scattered in the forest are old ruins, tunnels and buildings; strange berries with marvellous and terrible effects grow all over and the remnants of forgotten technologies lie scattered about. The game starts in a forest with a nearby technical device of unknown purpose. A bit of examination and head scratching reveals the item to be a tape recorder....the message that it plays tells of the Grinch and his nerve toxin which will be released on the world in a weeks time. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get the Grinch and destroy his nerve toxin.

Now I can't say I've got very far with Alphaman yet, but what I have seen of the game, it is very weird. You find bits of lost technology as you play, anything from seltzer bottles to grenade launchers, dialysis machines to colour televisions, which can help, hinder or do nothing. You also have some special mutations when you begin the game, and as you progress, radiation and some berries cause further mutations....you can grow horns...have mental attack powers, find yourself with extra limbs, all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

Try it....all I can say is it is as weird as Nethack...if not weirder...in what other game can you beat Elvis impersonators to death with a big club? Or get shot by an Antelope carrying a laser rifle? Or even enticed by a deadly rosebush?

What is the attraction of moving an @ sign around a maze in ASCII worlds of dungeons, dragons, dialysis machines and plasma grenades?

ANGBAND

LARN

NETHACK

ALPHAMAN