ToeJam & Earl included –
Everything from Rogue to the Binding of Isaac .
Richard C. Moss – Mar , 3: (UTC UTC)
No one quite agrees on the exact definition of the term beyond its literal meaning (“a game like Rogue “). One way to define these games would be to say that roguelikes are randomized dungeon crawls with little or no story, where you’re really fighting the dungeon as much as — if not more so than — the monsters inside it in an endlessly-repeating struggle to master its layouts and contents and the systems that define its nature before you die and it regenerates anew.
But some people have tried to nail down the definition more narrowly. For instance, consider the
Berlin Interpretation
‘s “high-value factors,” which were agreed on at the International Roguelike Development Conference . (Yes, there’s an annual conference for roguelike developers, as well as another one for players ).This agreement says that a roguelike should have permadeath — meaning that when your character dies, they’re done; No reload possible. It should also have random / procedural level generation, grid-and turn-based movement (that tends to be played at a rapid pace), complex character-object-world interactions, a need to manage finite resources to survive, and a sense of exploration and discovery on every playthrough — where skill and luck, not memorization, get you through. And it should be player vs. environment — that is, a game focused on killing (or fleeing from) monsters rather than making friends with them.
There’s also a clause that states you should be able to use any command at any time or place, but even some “canon” roguelikes violate this rule with their overland maps or shopping screens — so we won’t worry about it too much.
How did we get here? Well, from Rogue , of course — but even that game was not created in a vacuum.
Pedit5
Pedit5
Pedit5
The Game of Dungeons .
The Game of Dungeons
The Game of Dungeons
Beneath Apple Manor , really the first game to pull all the Rogue – y bits together (and add a dash of color)
Beneath Apple Manor
The pre – Rogues
Although they had no direct impact on Rogue ‘s creation , Plato dungeon-crawlers Pedit5 (
, probably) and dnd aka The Game of Dungeons (1978) were the first computer games that attempted to emulate the peril of dungeon crawling in tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons (Beneath Apple Manor ( ) was the first game to pull all the Rogue – y bits together. It had a randomly generated dungeon up to 17 levels deep, rendered in either text or graphical tiles, with customizable difficulty and a “fog of war” -like view (the level reveals itself as you explore further). The core game loop involved moving around exploring rooms, opening doors, collecting items and treasure, and battling monsters using various D&D – esque commands. And it even had a MacGuffin — a Golden Apple, hidden somewhere beneath the manor.
Its only problem was, in essence, that it’s not Rogue . Or to put a finer point on it, Beneath Apple Manor just wasn’t played by the right people. Perhaps this was because of its Apple II exclusivity (until , when it hit IBM-PC and Atari systems), which limited its exposure to the wider world, or maybe it was due to the name or to its marketing or to any number of other variables. It’s impossible to say why, but the game never really caught on.
History is funny like that. New ideas and innovations are only as powerful as their impact and influence, and sometimes something needs to be invented twice (or more times) before it can thrive. This was one of those times. Beneath Apple Manor fell into obscurity, but its concept would be (independently) invented again just a short time later.
Listing image by Angland.
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