OT - the ultimate roguelike?

[Ed Kolis]

http://tower.sourceforge.net/

... OMG ...

A roguelike with 3D rendered ASCII text? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif
A roguelike where when you eat rotten food and vomit, you can PICK UP the vomit? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif
A roguelike where my first character died by reading the only starting item in his inventory, a scroll which caused God to awaken, destroying the universe? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif (Admittedly that must have been a fluke - or a prank - as my second and third characters started with torches http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif)
A roguelike with *animated* ASCII graphics? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif (Remember the vomit? Well, you see a little % falling down from the @ onto the # http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif A bit less disturbing are the movement and combat animations http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)
A roguelike where you choose your class by - well, I'll let that be a surprise the first time you play http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

(OK, some of those aren't too impressive, but they were interesting/funny nonetheless http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

Seriously guys... if you're into roguelikes, you gotta check this game out... It's got some bugs (like the arrow keys don't work so you have to use hjkl to move http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif) but that ought to be fixable pretty readily http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Randallw]

oh I get it, it's a joke. The joke being the play now button doesn't do anything.

[Shadowstar]

Roguelikes are pretty cool. I just wish mainstream developers would take them more seriously. Hidden beneath all that funky old-schooliness are some of the most innovative design concepts this industry has ever seen. They always say "plays like Diablo", and don't look any deeper... Will Wright being the exception with Spore.

Still, my favorite roguelike of all time has to be TOME (Troubles of Middle Earth).

Hmm... It's time for another one of Rob's Crazy Game Ideas...
Rob's Crazy Game Idea #23: SOME - Spores of Middle Earth

[Arkcon]

Randallw said:
oh I get it, it's a joke. The joke being the play now button doesn't do anything.

You'll want to download the files and run them. Hitting play starts Java, then downloads into the Java runtime window from another site. Its all sourceforge.org, so probably not an exploit.

But still, maybe you have pop-up blockers, or Windows' Java doesn't like this method, or something like that.

[Ed Kolis]

Yeah, I couldn't get the play now button to work either, and I have the latest Java runtime installed too. The game actually runs if you download the files and run the executable jar (which is a bit hard to find, it not being in the bin directory like one might expect - it's in lib http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif)

[Arkcon]

Ever since I played Rogue on IBM-PC's back in 1989 (I'd call that the original rogue, but I'm afraid of a mountain of fanboy corrections), I've always enjoyed a rogue-like. Small files that can be loaded anywhere, and can kill a boring afternoon -- always good stuff. Omega, Nethack, Moria, you name it, I've at least tried it. I'll bookmark this one for later.

If you like roguelikes, check out this site here:{web page} (http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) It's a wiki about various roguelikes. I wouldn't call it a definitive resource -- people aren't really filling in the descriptions like other Wikis out there on the net. But it has way more entries pointing to rogue-like development sites than you'll find buy searching google.

[Ed Kolis]

Oh, yeah, Roguebasin... that's a great site!

[Shadowstar]

For Angbanders, there's also: http://www.thangorodrim.net/

could very well be the biggest archive of Angband variants on the net.

EDIT: Doh, I just saw that it's already listed on Roguebasin. Well it's about time someone got all those links together, good for them.

[PvK]

My favorites semi-recently have been ADOM and Dwarf Fortress -

I'm hoping Dwarf Fortress gets suitably finished at some point. Right now the bug report forum is rich entertainment!

[Elshar]

I really like zangband. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Blade W]

* Votes for Nethack

[Arkcon]

I was wasting a lot of time on Nethack myself -- so many classes to choose from. I was trying to play Omega again recently ( I do like the quests angle), and it went and crashed on me -- probably shouldn't have used the WinXP version on Win2000, heh. I was wasting a lot of time on Ragnarok too. Now there's a delightfully frustrating game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[David E. Gervais]

KAngbandTK For the Win!! (I like the graphics (by me), some neat new quests (by me) ah the fond memories..)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Santiago]

I was just playing that a few weeks ago lol

[PvK]

Oh I also particularly like/recommend IVAN and Dungeon Crawl (which each offer unique things), and sort of also TOME.

[MrToxin]

ADOM is the WINNAR!!!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Adom. I lost so much time to that game...

Won three times using the backup save game cheat. Got to the last room a few times without it.

Now, though, with so much time passed, I tend to get killed by Yrggs...Er, the carpenter guy.

Maybe he went mad trying to spell his name...

[Shadowstar]

I liked the premise of Omega, though it was pretty difficult. I did fairly well in the arena though, and even had some luck as a thief, breaking into people's houses, lol...

I was into Adom a long time ago. After I found TOME I just stopped following other variants. That was about 2 years ago.

There are just way too many race and class combos in TOME. You could spend years just trying to learn them all. It's a wonder it's not very buggy. It must be torture to test.

My current TOME character is a Half-Ogre Sorcerer. Sorcery is probably the best magic class in ToME just because of all the spells you get access to, plus you can learn many of the more specialized magic skills that are harder to get with other classes, like Runecraft and Necromancy. The only trouble is, you end up with so many spells that you pretty much have to use macros. But, you can do just about anything. Plus as a half-ogre, I have the extra hitpoints to sacrifice on the sorcery skill, which more than makes up for the race's mental shortcomings, which can be overcome at higher levels with stat potions and stat-buffing equipment.

I think I also tried a Hermit Death-Mold Symbiant... That was a weird experience. There are some really weird combos in TOME if you know where to look.

[Slick]

This thread is like poison to me. I have spent too many hours of my life on these games. hmmm...


*must...resist*

[henk brouwer]

This thread made me install slash'em again, I lost a lot of time to that game, only ascended once (with a lycanthropic rogue)

[Baron Munchausen]

What an extreme bunch of addicts we have here... can't even keep the forum topic to the game which it's supposed to be dedicated to, but have to discuss all their game fixes in the same place.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif

[Arkcon]

Sooo much time wasted on these games. I remember Rogue. That drove me completely nuts. I missed college classes, meals and even sleep just sitting in the PC lab trying to beat that game. And I'd never done that for any other reason. Eventually I beat it -- by editing the exe with a hex editor to reduce the damage the monsters did. Hey, that was a tough game -- lots of people never finished it. 'Course, back in those days, you could actually open a game's exe file, page through the 20 Kb or so, and edit the unencrypted data.