Rogue

In 1980, Glenn R. Wichman tells us, a student named Ken Arnold […] put together a library of routines which allowed programs to do 'cursor addressing', which means the programs could put a character at a specific location on the computer screen. There were still no real 'graphics', but now you could use letters, numbers, and symbols to simulate pictures. The library of software routines was called 'curses'.

Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman, both Adventure players, decided this package could be used for a graphical adventure. To make it possible that even they themselves could still be surprised by their game, they let it randomly create a dungeon every time it was played.

Basically, Rogue is a fun little game, but it is far too difficult. The first I don't know how many times you play it you'll get killed after a few minutes, and there is no save/restore function, you simply have to start all over again.

There have been various ports to DOS, most of them taking advantage of the PC's superior display possibilities and its arrow keys and number tab. On the original Unix version, you had to use these keys for movement:

y k u
h . l
b j n

Not for the easily discouraged.

Links

• Rogue for DOS Screenshots
• A Brief History of "Rogue" by Glenn R. Wichman, one of the original creators of the game.
• Merry Prankster Games has Rogue for Windows and PocketPC.
• Semicolon Software has a version for the Macintosh that is smaller and closer to the original than the one you find on Boudewijn Waijers homepage, about which he says:

  This is a graphical version, somewhat slow. It seems that not all the monsters in Rogue were put in. A slightly different game, but still interesting.

• Play Rogue online in a Java version. Warning: This is a faithful reproduction of the original Unix version, you have to move your character with the abovementioned keys.