There’s been many efforts to define exactly what a “rogue-like” game is. Permadeath is definitely one. A different map every time you play is another. Having to discover each time what the magic items you discover do, that’s one. Descending into a deep dungeon, grabbing a quest item and making it back to the surface in one go, definitely.
Rogue came out of a thriving ecosystem of similar dungeon-exploration games from the late 70s and early 80s. Its simple, quick gameplay was perfect for quick gaming sessions between classes, which is how I first encountered it at the University of New Hampshire back in the day. Universities, back then, were the fertile breeding ground for the progenitors of many computer game genres that we still play today. It was a wonderful time.
Mostly what I remember about Rogue back at UNH was it crashed a lot. It didn’t have fancy colors or symbols back then.
Rogue is mostly remarkable for the genre it helped spawn, setting alight the torch which was a beacon that Hack, Nethack, Angband, Moria, Larn and the generations of RLs that built off from those followed.
80s game company Epyx licensed Rogue from the original authors, packaged it for consumers and sold it as a commercial project. The Atari ST and Amiga had ports which added mouse control and really nice tilesets. The IBM PC port only received a slight color upgrade and the use of an expanded character set to represent items, traps, stairs and so on.
It is this IBM PC port which Pixel Games UK is selling. It’s only three bucks in the Steam store. Pretty cheap?
Well, you’re not really getting anything for it. The IBM PC port was done ages ago; Epyx back in the day only licensed it, and I very much doubt Pixel Games UK is feeding any money back to the original developers.
Secondly, there’s plenty of places where you can play Rogue for free. Want the cool graphics that this version doesn’t provide? Yeah, you can play that for free, too. Want the source code so you can play with it yourself? That can happen – knock yourself out.
Why buy this now? There are no Steam achievements or Steam integration in any way. The game runs in a DOSBox window and so all the limitations of DOS games apply.
It is the original game of Rogue, but nothing more. If it was a port from the better Amiga or Atari ST ports, then it would be worth the money, because those graphics and control schemes added value to the game.
If you’re just looking to get into rogue-likes, you’d probably be better off getting Nethack with a good tile set. Here’s one you can play in the browser. It has graphics, runs great, and you even get a pet.
Rogue’s a hugely influential game, and its descendants sparked a revolution in computer gaming. Unfortunately, this offering does little to justify the price, even when the price is very low. You would be better off spending a couple of hours playing one of the free versions online, and then looking around to appreciate where the genre has come in the intervening forty years.