tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6264881409789872629.post4196915055893462684..comments2024-03-26T08:44:02.732-04:00Comments on Data Driven Gamer: Game 60: RogueAhabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131989140638867919noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6264881409789872629.post-65521261492169381462021-06-27T08:32:39.714-04:002021-06-27T08:32:39.714-04:00Know what, Rogue may be my favourite game of all t...Know what, Rogue may be my favourite game of all times :) To write a game that is infinitely replayable and immersive despite the crude "graphics" even today is a feat, and once you get used and accept the incredibly difficulty, I find the design to be pure genius.<br /><br />I have tried and failed a thousand times to win it, but I always love the thrill of encountering a capital "T", and to hone my strategy even further (I would need several pages to write it down) -- only to always lose because I just didn't stop to think in the excitement and made a stupid move. And it's absolutely amazing how immersed I am in this game, all due to the permadeath feature which really, really gives a sense of danger with every step you take.<br /><br />(I will always remember that one game where I was really, really lucky. I had a two-handed sword +2 or more, great armor, a selection of great identified scroll and potions and whatnot... and then, instead of attacking some monster on level 20, I inadvertedly THREW my sword at it...)<br /><br />Regarding your confusion about the versioning, the DOS versions started a new version numbering, starting at 1.0, which is completely independent of the Unix Rogues. I have done quite a lot of research about its genealogy about 10-15 years ago. IIRC, the DOS version seems to be based on UNIX Rogue 5.3 (like Rogue Clone and Linux Rogue), which unfortunately seems to be lost (or was back then), but it has a few unique additions, my favourite being the slimes. Both DOS Rogue 1.0 (published by AI Design, not Epyx yet) and UNIX Rogue 5.3 came out in 1983, the Epyx versions came out a little later, 1984 at the latest. (Dating Rogue and early roguelikes is a nightmare of conflicting information :)<br /><br />My favourite version is the Epyx DOS 1.48 version, it looks and plays best and has a nice balance. (By the way, in the source code, the function displaying the CGA title screen is called "epyx_yuck()" -- I just love to picture Jon Lane being ordered to include that picture, totally going against the UNIX purist in him :)<br /><br />Oh and "Mr. Mctesq" is very probably just the guy who cracked the copy protection. (On illegal copies, monsters made much more damage, and the gravestone on the death screen reads "Rest In Peace, Software Pirate, killed by Copy Protection Mafia".) (All this from the top of my head, I added that info to Mobygames back then, before I got fed up by battling with approvers on silly details and 100% accuracy.)schrottvogelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08633709582603706577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6264881409789872629.post-28715265223984412952020-04-24T15:34:05.402-04:002020-04-24T15:34:05.402-04:00"Incidentally, there's even a z-machine v..."Incidentally, there's even a z-machine version of Rogue. The fact that it even works is both a testament to the genius of Infocom's coders and to the madness of Roguelike fans."<br /><br />Most Z-machine abuses were made by home programmers, not Infocom imps, but the point is well taken. (Or do the Infocom props simply point to the robustness of the text adventure language they invented to allow such abuses to be possible?)<br /><br />"Chester at CRPG Addict beat it fairly as his second RPG"<br /><br />Posting the Rogue completion screen on Reddit was actually the seed that prompted his project, so in a sense, his completion of Rogue predated his blog.Rowan Lipkovitshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08691096685515251681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6264881409789872629.post-84674298263440560632019-05-02T19:07:36.372-04:002019-05-02T19:07:36.372-04:00You know that "Rogue" as a character cla...You know that "Rogue" as a character class didn't come about until *decades* after Rogue was released? You seem very stuck in modern thinking. There's no contradiction being an apprentice in the fighter's guild and the game being called Rogue.Zambnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6264881409789872629.post-82913526141559378772019-05-02T16:22:46.414-04:002019-05-02T16:22:46.414-04:00Rogue blew me away when I first encountered it. 19...Rogue blew me away when I first encountered it. 1991? 1992? I spent hours playing Rogue and Civilization.ERobertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10100273633659655294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6264881409789872629.post-59483455928006064162019-04-29T13:43:58.480-04:002019-04-29T13:43:58.480-04:00I played Rogue a bit growing up... but I spent hou...I played Rogue a bit growing up... but I spent hours on Hack back in the mid-80s on my old Tandy 1000...<br /><br />Save scum at will or you'll have no hair!<br /><br /><br />arthurdawghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04269435724709435094noreply@blogger.com