Tuesday, May 05, 2009
The History of Rogue
Gamasutra has an article up by Matt Barton and Bill Loguidice entitled, "History of Rogue: Have @ You, You Deadly Zs."
Of particular amusement to me was the following excerpt regarding the development of graphical front-ends for the modern derivatives of the original Rogue:
"The task of creating custom graphics for each object and creature in these games is a considerable undertaking that may very well distract developers from what most Rogue fans consider essential: the gameplay.Of course, I'm one of the chorus of folks who complain about the dominance of graphics over gameplay in modern games. In particular, I bemoan how gameplay will be sacrificed to accomodate graphics (or UI issues). Designers will say things like, "Oh, we can't do animations for every creature in the game being knocked down, so we'll just get rid of the knock down ability...""At least some fans of Rogue may also be resistant to advanced audiovisuals on principle. Malthaner, for instance, felt his project failed because of "acceptance. Not technical issues; these were solvable -- but acceptance was low."
But my personal feelings are more of a desire to strike a balance. I have enjoyed playing Vulture's Eye Nethack, if for no other reason than having a lower learning curve identifying objects visually and having a menu to help me figure out commands. And it's not like character-set graphics don't come with their own sets of limitations.
But more than anything else - the history of Rogue is a subset of the history of computer RPGs. It was one of those early efforts to bring the fledgling new gaming experience to the computer screen, and its influence is still being felt.
History of Rogue: Have @ You, You Deadly Zs
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:02 PM (Permalink)
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I tried to play NetHack a few times at the past. Being a game developed over 20 years, described as an "Anomaly", and considered as one of the best games ever made and of course one of the few games i can run via SSH at home from my job (hey, i had a very boring job back then :-P), i couldn't let it pass.
Unfortunately the game is very complex and i never get rid of the feeling that i'm not playing it right. And as you mentioned, remembering what all these symbols mean was a little hard (when i was at home i thought to use some graphical front end, but one i tried for some reason didn't worked).
Although i can see how this can be addicting once you get past the initial culture shock and learn the game's interface.
Beyond that, i think i'm about to buy the book mentioned in the article. I love gaming history :-).
Unfortunately the game is very complex and i never get rid of the feeling that i'm not playing it right. And as you mentioned, remembering what all these symbols mean was a little hard (when i was at home i thought to use some graphical front end, but one i tried for some reason didn't worked).
Although i can see how this can be addicting once you get past the initial culture shock and learn the game's interface.
Beyond that, i think i'm about to buy the book mentioned in the article. I love gaming history :-).
You wrote a passage yesterday that made me think of rougelikes and, specifically, Nethack.
"The problem is that - for the most part - RPGs aren't made as anything resembling simulations. [...] So spells have very particular, extremely limited uses, and tend to be more of the "blow crap up" variety. Spells that provide knowledge, hints, or "intelligence" are subject to exploit in single-player games, as the information they provide to the player is persistent, even when the player reloads the game immediately to 'restore' the expended spell."Nethack's divination spells are important for survival and satisfying to cast. In many ways it's the CRPG Tomb of Horrors. Nethack is about information and danger; especially in the early- and mid-game. Given what I know about the items in my inventory, my abilities and the dungeon, how can I survive this level? When permadeath is lurking around every corner it is preferable to cast monster detection and creep around the nest of sleeping killer bees than to stumble in and be stung to death before you can even get a fireball off.
It's permadeath that prevents players from reloading and doing things differently. Death means something ... everything. However, this is probably what also puts people off. "Learning Nethack" is a series of very frustrating experiences. I wonder if there is a gentler way to make utility spells matter through procedural generation of content and no reloading. Perhaps there are clues in Dwarf Fortress and Mount and Blade? I'm pretty much just rambling now ...
Interesting note. Nethack's attack school holds only six of the game's 40 spells.
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"The problem is that - for the most part - RPGs aren't made as anything resembling simulations. [...] So spells have very particular, extremely limited uses, and tend to be more of the "blow crap up" variety. Spells that provide knowledge, hints, or "intelligence" are subject to exploit in single-player games, as the information they provide to the player is persistent, even when the player reloads the game immediately to 'restore' the expended spell."Nethack's divination spells are important for survival and satisfying to cast. In many ways it's the CRPG Tomb of Horrors. Nethack is about information and danger; especially in the early- and mid-game. Given what I know about the items in my inventory, my abilities and the dungeon, how can I survive this level? When permadeath is lurking around every corner it is preferable to cast monster detection and creep around the nest of sleeping killer bees than to stumble in and be stung to death before you can even get a fireball off.
It's permadeath that prevents players from reloading and doing things differently. Death means something ... everything. However, this is probably what also puts people off. "Learning Nethack" is a series of very frustrating experiences. I wonder if there is a gentler way to make utility spells matter through procedural generation of content and no reloading. Perhaps there are clues in Dwarf Fortress and Mount and Blade? I'm pretty much just rambling now ...
Interesting note. Nethack's attack school holds only six of the game's 40 spells.
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