What is Rogue & the Like?
Rogue is an adventure/roleplaying game written by Michael
Toy & Glenn Wichman in the early 1980s. It was revolutionary in that each
game was randomized and played out differently, and characters and symbols
were displayed in a graphical maze-like fashion--as opposed to the purely
text descriptions of the day. Players wandered a dungeon, hacking and
slashing monsters, gaining treasures, and becoming more powerful. It was a
good game and is still played today. But it is simple and limited in
comparison to the many descendants it has spawned.
Although the common features of rogue and its many
descendants are `obvious' to many people, they are difficult to describe in
simple terms. Generally, the games mentioned below are single-user, fantasy
role-playing computer games, generally set in a dungeon, run with a simple
character or a graphic interface. In all of the games, the player controls a
single character, who roams around getting more powerful, in order to
fulfill a difficult quest. Sword-and-sorcery rule the day. Logistically,
they're all free games; executables, and generally sources, are available by
FTP.
Rogue-like Pocket PC Ports
