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Saturday, January 23, 2010

The first, The best, The only: ROGUE

I love RPGs.  They are, by far, my favorite type of video game, and the love started a long, long, long time ago (the 1980s).

Until recently, though, I could never remember the name of that very first PC game that started my love on dungeon exploration, weapon acquisition, and monster bashing.  I did a little wandering about the web, and I found it:  ROGUE.  Yes, yes!  I was so excited!  Here's the cover of the manual from EPYX Computer Software:


Doesn't it look exciting?!  In this game, you fight your way through level after level of dungeons, looking for armor and weapons to help you on your quest to find the Amulet of Yendor.  You can read Rogue's whole story at RougeLikeDevelopment.org where I found these pictures.  It's a fantastic journey of adventure and excitement! 

BTW - the actual screenshot looks like this:



I played this game for HOURS.  Days, even.  It was truly, truly AWESOME, and I thank you, Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold for using the computers at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkley to inspire a whole division of video games that have kept be happy for my whole entire life.

Thank you.

PS.  Want to see what it's like to play Rogue?  (sorta)  Try out the web-hosted Hexatron Rogue.  But, don't blame me if you get addicted.

3 comments:

matt said...

My favorite text-RPG computer game in high scholl was Lords of Karma, with a plot very similar to Rogue. Thanks for bringing back good memories of primitive computer fun.

Secondary Roads said...

I got addicted to Zork. From the early text-based versions to later ones with graphics and sound.

Clara said...

It's all my fault. I was addicted and shared it with you. Wasn't it great?! I'm going to try out the web hosted version.

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