- What is it?
- A commercial roguelike game,
later released as freeware,
1992,
DOS/VGA.
- What computer or emulator will it run on?
- A 386. It won't run under XP, but without problems in DOSBox.
- Similar Games
- Valhalla, Moria, Alphaman.
Character development is one of the chief draws of Ragnarok/Valhalla. Throughout the game, the player may change forms, to obtain the powers and abilities of almost any monster in the game. The player can also modify his own body, changing the number of fingers and eyes, and the gender of the character. The player also has the option of changing his class every ten levels, and can gain powers, skills, abilities and permanent status effects. Therefore, it is quite possible to begin the game as a male sage, and end the game as a lycanthropic female Fire Giant conjurer with 14 fingers, 3 eyes, and the ability to shoot laser beams from her eyes.—Wikipedia
Ragnarok (known in Europe as Valhalla, more about the differences below) was developed by Thomas Boyd and Rob Vawter (Norsehelm Productions), the first release was obviously 1992, the last for Valhalla 1994 and for Ragnarok 1995. It was originally a commercial production, but at some point the authors declared it freeware.
If you have never played a roguelike game and would like to try it, this is a good game to start with. Unlike most others, it has a mouse-enabled GUI. Furthermore, you can save and restore your game, albeit under certain restrictions.
Ragnarok has taken Rogue and placed it in Norse mythology. Both its names are taken from there: Ragnarok is the final battle that will be fought between the forces of light and the forces of dark at the end of time, while Valhalla Odin's hall in Gladsheim, the home for those slain gloriously in battle.
There are some side quests (also taken from Norse mythology), making it more like a conventional RPG. And very unlike the original Rogue, there are no one way streets: You can always return to the map you came from. I played it for quite a while with enjoyment.
Be warned however that it has no option for really starting from scratch except a fresh install. If, for example, your character is killed and you create a new one, you will encounter the ghost of the deceased, which is not so pleasant. On the other hand, you can pick up all the gear you accumulated on your former character!
If it gets too much (these ghosts can accumulate) you can always delete the ghost files in your Ragnarok directory.
In November 2003 I got a rather interesting email from Christoffer Heggem pointing out the differences between Ragnarok and its European release, Valhalla:
About the authors, there was little I could find out. One Thomas Boyd was technical director for Electronic Arts' 1997 Nuclear Strike, they may be the same person. About Robert Vawter I found nothing at all.
The downloads contains two manuals: MAN_WORD.DOC is obviously a text file imported into Word 2.0 and saved as a DOC. It will open in WordPad and is perfectly readable in a standard text editor, too. HB_WHOLE.DOC, nearly three times the size, is an elaborate Word 2.0 document (lots of tables) and may not open in anything else. If you do have Word 2.0, it is preferrable.
