Are the classic "Trek" games roguelikes?

[ekolis]

It occurred to me the other day that maybe they are! In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, I mean games like EGA Trek and Star Fleet I, in which you command a ship on a grid-based map blasting Klingons or whatever the enemies of the week are with phasers and photon torpedoes. Sure, you don't move the ship with the numpad or anything, but the map is grid-based and procedural, and there's definitely permadeath! (Well, except in Star Fleet I, where you have some persistent scoring mechanisms between games.)

[guest509]

Those old games were an inspiration to me. But is it a roguelike? No idea. Good games.

[chooseusername]

Yes, you wouldn't necessarily be wrong if you called them roguelikes.  See the wikipedia page, which effectively says all you need is one feature attributed to roguelikes.  And that roguelike-like means the same thing.  Recent forum threads have also been undiscerning about what qualifies.

[Quendus]

What a sick, sad world we inhabit where people can call games roguelikes without retribution. 

[chooseusername]

What a sick, sad world we inhabit where people can call games roguelikes without retribution. 

Go edit the wikipedia page and add in some form of punishment if it bothers you.

[tootboot]

Anything with randomness gets called a roguelike or 'roguelike-inspired' these days.

[Quendus]

What a sick, sad world we inhabit where people can call games roguelikes without retribution. 

Go edit the wikipedia page and add in some form of punishment if it bothers you.

What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it. I'll leave the honour to you.

[chooseusername]

What a sick, sad world we inhabit where people can call games roguelikes without retribution. 

Go edit the wikipedia page and add in some form of punishment if it bothers you.

What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it. I'll leave the honour to you.

It's your opinion, not mine.  I'm happy for the Trek games to be called roguelikes.  Or even for Tetris for that matter.  To be honest, I have no idea where your retribution line even came from.

[Paul Jeffries]

What a sick, sad world we inhabit where people can call games roguelikes without retribution. 

Go edit the wikipedia page and add in some form of punishment if it bothers you.

What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it. I'll leave the honour to you.

It's your opinion, not mine.  I'm happy for the Trek games to be called roguelikes.  Or even for Tetris for that matter.  To be honest, I have no idea where your retribution line even came from.

You clearly don't realise just how serious this is.

[ekolis]

What a sick, sad world we inhabit where people can call games roguelikes without retribution. 

Go edit the wikipedia page and add in some form of punishment if it bothers you.

What a great idea, I wish I had thought of it. I'll leave the honour to you.

It's your opinion, not mine.  I'm happy for the Trek games to be called roguelikes.  Or even for Tetris for that matter.  To be honest, I have no idea where your retribution line even came from.

You clearly don't realise just how serious this is.

BURNINATE THE HERETICS!!!

[mushroom patch]

Yeah, as soon as people started saying that swords and sorcery style fantasy and console interfaces are not integral to the genre (which seems to have happened in the 90s), the term was basically doomed to meaninglessness in the long term. Soon people are going to be calling mad-libs roguelike. Flappy bird with randomized pipe positions? Roguelike or at least roguelike-like!

On the plus side, it does draw attention to more traditionally roguelike stuff, albeit in a small, oblique way.