Can you help me identify a RL from my childhood?

[Mountaingod]

I'm new to Roguelikes, or at least I never called them by that name when I used to play them. Until I saw the 'tiles mode' for NetHack, I thought they were ASCII only.

In fact, NetHack in tiles mode reminded me of some shareware game I used to play (up to the 'pay up now' point, anyway). No doubt it was a really minor release that's long since forgotten, but it would be nice if I got hold of it again.

The game started in a small village / town, with buildings like a blacksmiths where you could buy, sell or upgrade stuff organised around a central square. At the top of the square was a big temple that for some reason you can't enter.

Opposite the temple was the path out of the village, which connected to a highway, leading to nearby villages that you also couldn't enter yet. Off the main road was a dungeon / cave - which you had to explore.

It had several levels going down, but basically an item - I think it was a cryptic piece of text that crumbles upon being read - is discovered midway down. You can enter & exit the dungeon as much as you want to sell gear in the village, but once you've read that text, the village is all burnt to the ground next time you return.

After that, the game directs you to hit the highway and go to the next village. I don't think you can return to the dungeon any more. And that's as far as I ever got. The wikipedia entry for NetHack reminded me of it and now I want to see what happens next.

It's a long shot I know, but any clues would be appreciated.

[getter77]

Castle of the Winds

[Vanguard]

Getter got it.

You can download Castle of the Winds here in the lower half of the page.

Edit: And that's the full version of the game there, which the author has released for free, so you can finally see the ending now.

[Mountaingod]

Woah, that's amazing. There goes a few weeks of my life right there!

Thanks a lot for this, I never expected it to come so quickly!

[getter77]

Sometimes it happens that everybody around here gets utterly stumped on ID'ing an older Roguelike, but generally, somebody thinks of something.   

[Z]

If a regular knows the answer, it will come quickly, and if not, then probably noone knows...

[Slash]

Yeah, like this one

[Yyrkoon]

Yeah, like this one

I vaguely remember a late 80's ANSI game that started on an alien world where instead of food you had to collect crystals of various types off the surface of the planet to survive.  Some replenished oxygen, some stamina, some strength.  Cannot remember if one of the monsters had a web attack.  But falling into cracks/fissures on the surface seems to ring a bell.   Don't remember any town or temple though so it's probably a miss.  As I recall the game was rather lifeless, it seemed more like a highscore quest than anything else.  I believe ultimately you had to find 3 or 4 parts for you ship so you could leave the planet.  Didn't stay on my system very long.  Probably appeared around the same time that ADOM was first making an appearance, and ZZT was popular.  I mention ZZT just on the off chance that's what he was talking about since gems instead of gold was the curency.  Hard to tell with ZZT since it had so many modules and some were very roguelike in look/feel.  Caves of ZZT for example.

[Yyrkoon]

He might also be talking about one of the Kingdom of Kroz series.  Again roguelike in look/feel, but wouldn't ring any bells around here since not a true roguelike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroz_series

[Z]

I vaguely remember a late 80's ANSI game that started on an alien world where instead of food you had to collect crystals of various types off the surface of the planet to survive.  Some replenished oxygen, some stamina, some strength.

This looks like Reaping the Dungeon (aka Dungeon Rogue). a video

[Yyrkoon]

I vaguely remember a late 80's ANSI game that started on an alien world where instead of food you had to collect crystals of various types off the surface of the planet to survive.  Some replenished oxygen, some stamina, some strength.

This looks like Reaping the Dungeon (aka Dungeon Rogue). a video

Yes, that is the game I was first thinking of.  Havn't seen that in years.  Thanks for the little movie.  Don't know if it's the game the original author was looking for though.  Don't remember a town, temple, kobolds, or a lodestone.  But it does seem to meet some of the other requirements.