Hello everyone! Runek and I were talking back and forth a bit today and the topic of "roguelike" games came up. He, like most people, had no idea what a "roguelike" game was; so here I am to educate you all!
A roguelike game, according to Wikipedia, is: "a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by level randomization, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many monsters, items, and environmental features. Computer roguelikes usually employ the majority of the keyboard to facilitate interaction with items and the environment. The name of the genre comes from the 1980 game Rogue."
I would also like to add that losing is half the fun of a roguelike. I have had many-a-good stories about losing in the roguelikes I play.
Runek said he would like to try some of them.... so here is my list of recommendations:
Dwarf Fortress:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/Dwarf Fortress is a game with 2 different play modes. One is "Fortress mode" where you try to manage a fortress of dwarves. The other is "Adventure mode" where you try to make a name for yourself in your randomly generated land.
WARNING: there is a steep learning curve for this game. Once you get the hang of it, it should come naturally.
Cataclysm:
http://whalesdev.com/Cataclysm is a pretty straightforward roguelike. You one of the sole survivors of a zombie apocalyptic event. The point of this game is to survive. It features a apocalyptic, cyberpunk, zombie survival world.
Angband:
http://rephial.org/A standard dungeon-crawler game. It features monsters from D&D as well as Lord of the Rings. It also has a few more features compared to Rogue.
Prospector:
http://code.google.com/p/rlprospector/A space exploration roguelike. The goal of this game is to make as much money as you possibly can so you can retire in style.
WARNING: another very hard roguelike.
And of course Rogue:
http://rogue.rogueforge.net/Rogue is just what the wiki explanation of it says. A dungeon crawler where your objective is to get to the bottom of the dungeon.
If you would like to check out other roguelike games, here is a good site:
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Main_PageWORD OF WARNING: you have to be careful when going to homepages of roguelikes on the site above. Some of the links will send you to pages with viruses.
HOWEVER: the roguelikes I have listed WILL NOT, I repeat: WILL NOT give you a virus. I downloaded them and my computer is virus-free. I made sure I would recommend safe games to all my fellow VC-ers.
JUST REMEMBER: LOSING IS FUN!
