RoguelikeGame

The NetHack guidebook describes NetHack as "a cheery little game in which an @-sign runs around gathering treasure and having its face et by dragons". Well, all right, it doesn't, but I know I've seen that quote somewhere in conjunction with the game. And it's appropriate, not only to NetHack, but to many of the RoguelikeGames in general. Until someone else fills in more info, more info can be found at http://www.skoardy.demon.co.uk/rlnews, the Roguelike News site.

According to a .sig on rec.games.roguelike.angband, it's a game where "an '@' sign runs around slaying letters in search of punctuation."

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Notable examples of this type of game include:

• Rogue (duh)
• NetHack
• AngBand
• ADOM ([Ancient Domains Of Mystery])
• Moria
• DiabloIi (well, not strictly, but Diablo and its sequel can be described as RoguelikeGames with good graphics)
• Crawl
• Omega
• Dungeon of Doom (old Mac roguelike with monochrome graphic tiles)
• Larn

I don't know if I agree with DiabloIi being a RoguelikeGame. I think one of the qualities of a RoguelikeGame is that is is text based with monsters and items etc being represented by single characters. DiabloIi being graphical would not qualify. -- BenZeckel

Many RoguelikeGames these days also support graphical tiles in addition to the original text-based "graphics". A couple are completely graphical. DiabloIi really pushes the boundary of "roguelike" more because (a) it's real-time (whether the now-defunct Utumno would've been considered roguelike is anybody's guess) and (b) it doesn't involve any actual tiles. Also, by and large, the gameplay seems to aspire to that of Gauntlet rather than AngBand. It does have definite roguelike tendencies, and anyhow it's fun...

Omega lets you generate yourself as a character -- just answer the questions to find out your stats.

Where else can you get messages such as 'There is a well-made repeating kill-o-zap gun (12 ammo remaining) here'?

Uh, Boss (a Moria variant), probably -- most of the item renames are just for flavor (scrolls -> floppy disks, wands -> ray guns) but there are also handguns of various sorts (though this is one of the translations that doesn't work well... seems kind of silly to pick your bullets up off the floor when you miss...). Admittedly, Boss didn't let you do severe damage to your hands with a small gray cylinder, and the death messages weren't nearly as off-the-wall (pun intended!) as Omega's ("killed by a move worthy of Clouseau").