Roguelikes for 2600?

[Flojomojo]

Are there any games that could be called Roguelikes on 2600?

 

Secret Quest? Dark Chambers? Haunted House? Adventure?

 

Roguelike is a subgenre of role-playing video games characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated game levels, turn-based gameplay, tile-based graphics, and permanent death of the player-character. Most roguelikes are based on a high fantasy narrative, reflecting their influence from tabletop role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Though the roguelikes Beneath Apple Manor and Sword of Fargoalpredate it, the 1980 game Rogue is considered the forerunner and the namesake of the genre, with derivative games mirroring Rogue's character- or sprite-based graphics. These games were popularized among college students and computer programmers of the 1980s and 1990s, leading to a large number of variants but adhering to these common gameplay elements, often titled the "Berlin Interpretation". Some of the better-known variants include Hack, NetHack, Ancient Domains of Mystery, Moria, Angband, and Tales of Maj'Eyal. The Japanese series of Mystery Dungeon games by Chunsoft, inspired by Rogue, also fall within the concept of roguelike games.

More recently, with more powerful home computers and gaming systems, new variations of roguelikes incorporating other gameplay genres, thematic elements and graphical styles have become popular, typically retaining the notion of procedural generation and permanent death of the player-character. Indie games like Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac, FTL: Faster Than Light, and Rogue Legacyhelped to establish the use of roguelike elements in other genres. These titles are sometimes labeled as "roguelike-like", "rogue-lite", or "procedural death labyrinths" to reflect the variation from titles which mimic the gameplay of traditional roguelikes more faithfully. Other games, like Diablo and UnReal World, key titles in the action role-playing and the survival game genres respectively, took inspiration from roguelikes.

[Inky]

I'd love a roguelike for the 2600. Make use of the Video Touch Pad for things like inventory and spells...

[zzip]

Adventure was the first thing that came to my mind-- because of the randomized treasure placement. But it doesn't have permadeath or procedural levels.

Edited March 23, 2017 by zzip

[Skippy B. Coyote]

The closest I can think of to a roguelike on the 2600 is the homebrew game Dungeon, which is a really outstanding turn based dungeon crawling RPG that can be played through in half an hour or so. The corridor layouts in each level of the dungeon are the same every time but the enemy and item locations are randomized in every play through. The same goes for game mode 3 in Adventure.

 

Those two games are probably your best bets for RPG action on the humble Atari 2600, though Secret Quest is great if you're looking for something similar in feel to The Legend of Zelda. Another game that could be worth looking into is a homebrew RPG titled Anguna, though I haven't played that one yet so I can't say much about it.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Jin

[jhd]

It is much more simplistic than Rogue, but I vote for Dark Chambers. It is essentially an ancestor of the arcade game Gauntlet.

 

The levels are always the same, but enemies and food/treasure are randomly placed.

[+Gemintronic]

Atarowg and/or C@verns of Chaos is my attempt at a Rogue-like. I submitted it to the 7DRL contest years ago. John Hancock also sold it as part of the Cowlitz Gamers for kids charity.

Ways like a Rogue-like:
* Procedural Dungeon (256x256 screen levels. 256 floors)
* One must delve past the 5th level and retrieve the artifact. Haul arse back to the first floor.
* Chests with equipment including sword, shields and potions.

Ways unlike a true Rogue-like
* No permadeath. You get warped to a special darkened floor.

[gauauu]

Those two games are probably your best bets for RPG action on the humble Atari 2600, though Secret Quest is great if you're looking for something similar in feel to The Legend of Zelda. Another game that could be worth looking into is a homebrew RPG titled Anguna, though I haven't played that one yet so I can't say much about it.

 

Anguna isn't very rogue-like (no random maps, not turn-based, no perma-death), but it is intended to be very zelda-like. (An overworld, multiple dungeons with an interesting power-up in each one, different types of enemies and bosses to fight, etc) I can't promise it's actually fun, but it is an attempt to force-feed the action-RPG genre onto the VCS.

 

(more information about it is in the link in my sig)

[+SpiceWare]

I'd love a roguelike for the 2600. Make use of the Video Touch Pad for things like inventory and spells...

 

 

The 32 character text display would work well for a rogue like game.

[hizzy]

Love Anguna. One of my favorite fantasy-type games

[CDS Games]

I'd love a roguelike for the 2600. Make use of the Video Touch Pad for things like inventory and spells...

 

I've been experimenting with the Dark Chambers engine--it has a lot of promise for more sophisticated Diablo-style action adventure games.

 

Instead of 2 sets of stats for Player 1 and Player 2, you get rid of player 2 and use those extra stats for mana, gold, and additional items. Here's a sample:

 

 

Top red bar for health, blue bar under it for mana. White score for XP, yellow score for gold. You also have a few extra bits you can use for additional items.

 

I haven't tried anything with a second controller, but I basically had the same idea you had--keypad in the right port for inventory/spells/etc.

[Centurion]

 

I haven't tried anything with a second controller, but I basically had the same idea you had--keypad in the right port for inventory/spells/etc.

I hope this turns into something. I love the keypad idea and have felt it'd be perfect for this type of game.

[ZylonBane]

It is much more simplistic than Rogue, but I vote for Dark Chambers. It is essentially an ancestor of the arcade game Gauntlet.

 

Dark Chambers is based on Dandy, not Gauntlet. But then, Gauntlet was based on Dandy too.