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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 28</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
  With The Sims</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: 
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  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="download.php">loonygames' 
                Roguelikes</a>: Interested in trying some of these games? We've 
                compiled <b>six</b> of them for your downloading pleasure. We 
                guarantee <b>years</b> of playing from each <b>one</b> of them. 
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        <p align="center"><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">Adventures 
          in ASCII<br>
          </font><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"> 
          </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          <a href="mailto:jeffmill@bellsouth.net">Jeff Miller</a></font></b></font></p>
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<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.15/">2.15: Livin' With The Sims</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.14/">2.14: To the Extreme</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.13/">2.13: Not Just a Passing Wind</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.12/">2.12: It's Not Easy Being Green</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.11/">2.11: Inside Origin Systems</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.10/">2.10: Game Networking 101</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.9/">2.9: Tell me a Story</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.8/">2.8: Anatomy of a Video Game</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.7/">2.7: 1999 loonygames Awards</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.6/">2.6: PC Fight Club</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.5/">2.5: Paul Steed '99</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.4/">2.4: Sounds From All Over</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.3/">2.3: Kicking Back with a Bear</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.2/">2.2: End of the Line</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.1/">2.1: American McGee's Alice</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.41/">----- Volume 1 -----</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.41/">1.41: Put a Little Love...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.40/">1.40: Game Programming...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.39/">1.39: More loonygames @ E3!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.38/">1.38: loonygames at E3!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.37/">1.37: The ReRuns Issue</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.36/">1.36: Inside Raven Software</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.35/">1.35: Waking Graeme Devine</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.34/">1.34: Writing the Game</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.33/">1.33: Totally Tribal</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.32/">1.32: Under His Skin</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.31/">1.31: The Glory of G.O.D.</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.30/">1.30: Chillin' w/Jason Hall</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.29/">1.29: Extreme Annihilation</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.28/">1.28: Adventures in ASCII</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.27/">1.27: Serious Brass Ones</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.26/">1.26: Two Programs...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.25/">1.25: The Unreal Cliffy B!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.24/">1.24: Gimme Your Money!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.23/">1.23: Old Crusty Gamers</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.22/">1.22: Bugs!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.21/">1.21: 2001</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.20/">1.20: Can't Please Everyone</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.19/">1.19: The Rise and Fall...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.18/">1.18: romuluSngan HoH!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.17/">1.17: A Very Geeky Christmas</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.16/">1.16: 5 Years of Doom!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.15/">1.15: Tune Up Your Game!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.14/">1.14: NT + Games = ???</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.13/">1.13: Blue and Levelord...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.12/">1.12: When It's Done!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.11/">1.11: Hangin' With John Romero!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.10/">1.10: Still Sick of Games</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.9/">1.9: Gettin' Odd with the loonies</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.8/">1.8: LAN Parties...</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.7/">1.7: The Community Summit</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.6/">1.6: DRAW Pardner!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.5/">1.5: Taking Aim at Paul Steed</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.4/">1.4: Play Where You Like!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.3/">1.3: *Special Duke Issue*</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.2/">1.2: Are You Sick of Games?</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.1/">1.1: Chris Taylor Gets Some!</option>

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        <p><img src="../../images/letters/i.jpg" width="26" height="40" align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 

          &nbsp; suppose all RPG fanatics remember their first encounter with 
          the genre. Usually, it begins with a reading of Tolkien, followed by 
          long nights of beer, dice, and figurines. I played my first RPG in 1980, 
          sending my level one elven fighter, Polero (the name of all my subsequent 
          RPG characters -- go figure) through <i>B2: The Keep on the Borderlands</i>, 
          that little burgundy module that accompanied the blue <b>Dungeons and 
          Dragons</b> basic boxed set. </font></p>

        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My introduction to computer 
          RPGs came shortly thereafter, when my parents, in the guise of Santa, 
          placed a brand new Atari 400 under the tree. Though humble by today’s 
          standards, this 8k RAM workhorse along with a cassette data recorder 
          and cartridge slot ran the classic, <b>Temple of Apshai</b>. Not a high 
          tech game. To find out what any room looked like, you read its description 
          in the manual. A year later, when we upgraded to the 800 and bought 
          a disk drive, I vanquished Mondain of <b>Ultima I</b> and his wife, 
          the Enchantress, in <b>Ultima 2</b>. No small accomplishment for a twelve 
          year old kid.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">My addiction to CRPGs continues 
          unabated. Presently, I’m in the throws of <b>Baldur’s Gate</b> and <b>Fallout 
          2</b>, but it hasn’t always been easy. Computer upgrades are hard to 
          come by for a freelance writer, and even during the dark days when I’m 
          lagging two generations behind current tech standards, I’ve got to satisfy 
          that Jones. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thank God for <b>Roguelikes</b>.&#9;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Graphics, admittedly, are 
          not these games' forte -- tiled graphics exist for some of them and, 
          in most cases, are very pretty, but for the hardcore player, ASCII art 
          is the rule. As a result, <b>Roguelikes</b> can be played on just about 
          any system, even a 386. But, graphics aside, for the fantasy gamer seeking 
          excellent gameplay -- and in <b>Roguelike</b> games, there’s <i>plenty 
          </i>of excellent gameplay -- their price can't be beat. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">They're free. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For a man with an addiction, 
          &quot;free&quot; is the most alluring four-letter word in the dictionary.</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What the Hell is a &quot;Roguelike?&quot;</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Roguelike</b> games, and 
          there are hundreds ... nay...thousands of variants out there, all share 
          a few common characteristics. First, they are free. Second, they are 
          turn based single player games that involve a player character, usually 
          represented by an &quot;@&quot; symbol, who travels through randomly 
          generated dungeons killing LOTS of monsters, also represented by a variety 
          of ASCII symbols. The character grows in power, accumulating magic items, 
          better armor, and deadlier weapons as he or she descends.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But for me, the defining 
          characteristic of a <b>Roguelike</b> game, that characteristic that 
          makes a <b>Roguelike</b> game such a nail biting experience is that 
          once you die,<b> </b>you’re dead<b>.</b> For<b> </b>good.<b> </b>Game<b> 
          </b>over.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can save the game, but 
          saves are deleted as soon as you resume play. Every move counts. There’s 
          no going back to redo an action. Want to see if the Riders of the Apocalypse 
          are edible? Is carrying a Cockatrice corpse down the stairs dangerous? 
          If I’m chaotic and indulge in human sacrifice, will I suffer? Answering 
          these questions is a true test of will because you must be willing to 
          risk losing that character permanently. Of course, if you are a complete 
          and total loser, you can back up your save files, but this is a practice 
          generally placed in the same category as kicking dogs and propagating 
          spam -- no true player would ever do such a thing.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Winning a <b>Roguelike</b> 
          game is a lifetime achievement. In my 5 plus years of playing <b>Roguelikes</b>, 
          I’ve won only once. Many players never win at all.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But they keep on trying.&#9;</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Ancient History</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Roguelike</b> games take 
          their name from their grandpa, &quot;<b>Rogue</b>,&quot; a game so old, 
          it traveled from computer to computer in the version 4.2 distribution 
          of BSD UNIX. Way back then in 1980, computer games were mostly a mainframe 
          phenomenon, and the hottest of them all was Crowther and Woods’ <b>Adventure</b>, 
          the first text adventure game. Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman, students 
          at UC-Santa Cruz and huge fans of <b>Adventure</b>, were dying to try 
          something of their own. Instead of writing an <b>Adventure</b> clone, 
          however, they decided to play around with a new library of routines 
          that enabled programs to put characters at specific locations on the 
          monitor. Thanks to this library, the monsters, the player, the items, 
          and the walls could be represented by moving letters and symbols. <b>Rogue</b> 
          was born. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Michael Toy eventually moved 
          on to Berkley where he teamed up with Ken Arnold to continue <b>Rogue</b>’s 
          development, and, as Berkley was home of BSD, a then popular version 
          of UNIX, <b>Rogue </b>was included in its distribution. It traveled 
          all over the world and quickly became the most popular game among college 
          geeks everywhere. The authors even wrote a commercial version for Epyx, 
          a now bankrupt game company.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The game’s premise was simple: 
          the player descends an infinite number of randomly generated dungeon 
          levels killing everything in sight, looting treasure and gaining experience. 
          For the modern gamer, <b>Rogue</b> is of little interest except as a 
          piece of gaming history -- there’s no end goal and only a single character 
          class -- but its influence on later games cannot be underestimated. 
          . </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"<b>Nethack </b>was one of 
          many games that inspired the development of <b>Diablo</b>&quot; says 
          Matt Householder, a producer of Blizzard’s upcoming sequel, <b>Diablo 
          II</b>. &quot;<b>Angband</b> was another dungeon-crawl that the <b>Diablo</b> 
          creators admired and played a lot. The Atari coin-op, <b>Gauntlet</b>, 
          and Epyx' <b>Rogue</b> and <b>Temple of Apshai</b> were even earlier 
          inspirations." </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Rogue</b> and its descendants 
          have made their mark on RPGs of every color, no doubt about it.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Rogue’s Progeny</b> <b>-- 
          Moria and Angband</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For readers not familiar 
          with Middle Earth, Moria and Angband are both dungeons from the work 
          of J.R.R. Tolkien: Moria being the dwarven mines where Gandalf met his 
          end (think you can do better than him?), and Angband, the iron fortress 
          of Morgoth, the dark god from <i>The Silmarillion</i>. Computers and 
          Tolkien are match made in geek heaven, so it was, I suppose, inevitable 
          that <b>Rogue</b> would morph into these new incarnations. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Moria</b> was the brainchild 
          of Robert Koeneke, a self-described longhaired computer nerd from Oklahoma. 
          In 1973, a high school teacher introduced him to computers, and he wasn’t 
          impressed ...until he discovered the games. He was addicted and, soon 
          after, began tinkering around with BASIC, hoping to write a few games 
          of his own. Once he reached the University of Oklahoma in 1975, the 
          beginning of a ten year college stint, he started churning out a few, 
          beginning with <b>Adventure</b> knock-offs such as <b>Dungeon</b>, written 
          for the Texas Instrument TI-59 programmable calculator (uncanny!), and 
          <b>Pyramid</b>, a fairly popular game for the TRS-80. </font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="index2.php">continued 
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Illustration &copy; 1999 Jason Bergman. Adventures in ASCII is &copy; 
        1999 Jeff Miller. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it...or we'll force you to play <b>NetHack</b> for six years 
        straight. Oh wait...that's not a very good punishment. Don't worry...we'll 
        think of something especially evil. Muhahahahahaha. Really. Try it. I 
        dare you. </font></i></p>
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