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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>
              
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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>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Moria</font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
          didn’t arrive until 1981. Koeneke had played <b>Rogue</b> for the first 
          time in 1980, but when his network administrator deleted all games from 
          the university computer in an attempt to improve productivity (yeah, 
          right), Koeneke took matters into his own hands. In a valiant effort 
          to stave off withdrawal, Koeneke decided to write his own version of 
          <b>Rogue</b><i> </i>from scratch ... with improvements. From 1981 to 
          1986, Koeneke developed his game, adding a town, allowing the character 
          to buy items with gold, providing the player with an end goal (killing 
          the Balrog at the bottom of the dungeon), increasing the size of the 
          levels, and giving the player the option to ascend as well as descend. 
          All levels are randomly generated and, once you leave a level, it disappears 
          -- a new level will be generated when you revisit. Koeneke developed 
          the notion of species, allowing a letter to stand for an entire class 

          of monster rather than an individual type, and the use of color-coding 
          to differentiate variants of a species. There were more traps, the addition 
          of spells, a random character generator -- in short, <b>Moria</b> was 
          a computer literate <b>D&amp;</b>D addict’s wet dream. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Once he started distributing 
          <b>Moria</b> among his friends and acquaintances, it quickly became 
          a hit on bulletin boards and network systems all over the world. Koeneke 
          even received mail from behind the Iron Curtain asking for copies. In 
          1985, Koeneke finally graduated and, after entering the work force, 
          left <b>Moria</b> behind him. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&#9;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Moria</b> took on a life 
          of its own, however. Koeneke had released the source code and, as a 
          result, development on the game has continued up until today.<b> </b>But 
          though <b>Moria</b> still has a committed group of players, its successor, 
          <b>Angband</b>, has a far more active fan base, and has carried the 
          torch lit by Koeneke into the nineties.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ironically enough, for a 
          period of ten years, Koeneke was completely out of the loop concerning 
          his game, only learning of its immense popularity when he got an ISP 
          account in ‘95. He was astonished to discover a number of <b>Moria</b> 
          newsgroups. After picking his jaw up off of the terminal, he typed the 
          following post:</font></p>
        <blockquote>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>&#9;[Subject: Angband]</i></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>&#9;&gt;&gt;This game 
            sounds a lot like the one I wrote years ago called Moria ...</i></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>&gt;Any relationship?</i></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>&gt;Robert Koeneke</i></font></p>
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>&gt;Creator of original 
            Moria</i></font></p>
        </blockquote>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He subsequently received 
          a lot of email. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Angband</b>&#9;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The first version was written 
          by Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand at the University of Warwick in England. 
          Based on the code from <b>Umoria</b> 5.2.1, a <b>Moria</b> variant, 
          these two gamers set out to add features without losing <b>Moria’</b>s<i> 
          </i>Tolkeinesque roots. Development of <b>Angband</b> has been passed 
          down through several hands, finally landing on the doorstep of Ben Harrison, 
          who now faithfully maintains and improves the code. Surviving the 100 
          level descent to face Morgoth presents a challenge (to say the least) 
          that can provide the fantasy gamer with years of happy distraction.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Like <b>Moria</b>, <b>Angband’s 
          </b>levels are all randomly generated and do not persist throughout 
          the game. Leaving a level means that it and everything in it has vanished 
          into the ether. Unlike <b>Moria</b>, however, <b>Angband</b> introduces 
          unique creatures such as Farmer Maggot, Wormtongue, and Smeagol, as 
          well as several quests.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Angband also adds a vast 
          array of new creatures and magical items (most based on Tolkien lore), 
          a black market where one can buy powerful equipment, rooms full of monsters 
          (called vaults, a mix of monsters, or pits, all of a single species), 
          and &quot;feelings&quot; for items and levels that let the player know 
          whether they’re worth fooling around with. But perhaps the best feature 
          of <b>Angband</b> is its variants: <b>Zangband</b>, <b>Kangband</b>, 
          <b>Pziband</b>, <b>Oangband</b>, <b>Sangband</b>, along with dozens 
          of others that add features and adjust the difficulty of the game. If 
          <b>Angband</b> doesn’t suit your taste, chances are there’s a variant 
          that will. </font></p>
        <p> </p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Nethack</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Probably the most popular 
          of all <b>Roguelikes</b> (at least until the advent of <b>ADOM</b>, 
          which has given <b>Nethack</b> quite a run for its money), <b>Nethack</b> 
          takes a less &quot;serious&quot; approach to gaming. Just take a gander 
          at the available character classes: knight, wizard, rogue, samurai, 
          barbarian, elf, priest, healer, valkyrie (?), caveman (??), archeologist 
          (???), and tourist (???!). Hallucinations caused by ingesting certain 
          ... substances may cause you to see the Great Bugblatter Beast of Traal 
          or a Giant Purple People Eater, and, if you’re caught stealing from 
          a shop (conveniently located right in the middle of the dungeon -- unlike 
          <b>Angband</b>, <b>Nethack</b> has no surface town level), the Keystone 
          Kops chase you with billy clubs and cream pies. Borrowing liberally 
          from sources as diverse as <i>Dune</i> (you can make a crysknife), <i>Star 
          Trek</i> (the most valuable gem in the game is a dilithium crystal), 
          <b>AD&amp;D</b>, and Tolkien (never underestimate the power of Elbereth), 
          <b>Nethack</b> creates a world all to its own. Don’t let the silliness 
          fool you, however -- <b>Nethack</b> is a richly complex and satisfying 
          game.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Nethack</b> originated 
          from <b>Hack</b>, a hacked up version of <b>Rogue</b>. The original 
          was written by Jay Fenalson and was subsequently developed by others. 
          At version 1.03, the current maintainer, Andrei Brouwer, decided he 
          didn’t want to continue with the project. As a result, the Dev Team 
          was born. </font></p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="index3.php">continued 
          on next page</a>)</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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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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