26th year Roguelike statis report

[Yyrkoon]

I started my roguelike gaming with a little game called Dungeon on the Commodore Pet.  Since that time I've been an on again, off again, addict.  Here is my 26th year progress report.

Larn - Beaten several times
Moria - Never beaten (3 or 4 times fought the Balrog)*
Angband - Never beaten (Never seen Morgoth)
Omega - Beaten
ADOM - Never beaten
Nethack - Beaten once in the early 90's.

Show me any other game genre that can provide a single player that much challenge over a quarter century?

*I've actually seen the Moria/Angband borg beat Moria.

[Z]

Congratulations From the games you mention, I have beaten Larn once (it was nice, but I moved to other games afterwards), had no interest in Moria and Angband, savescummed Omega and Nethack (and found them not fun enough to try legally... also Omega did not look like if it could be beaten legally, but maybe that's just savescummer's perspective),  and beaten ADOM several times. So my successes in these games were quite different. In my subjective easiest-to-hardest ranking, I would put them as follows: Larn, ADOM, NetHack, Omega (not sure where to put Moria variants).

[Yyrkoon]

Congratulations From the games you mention, I have beaten Larn once (it was nice, but I moved to other games afterwards), had no interest in Moria and Angband, savescummed Omega and Nethack (and found them not fun enough to try legally... also Omega did not look like if it could be beaten legally, but maybe that's just savescummer's perspective),  and beaten ADOM several times. So my successes in these games were quite different. In my subjective easiest-to-hardest ranking, I would put them as follows: Larn, ADOM, NetHack, Omega (not sure where to put Moria variants).

Thanks.  Omega was beaten legally.  Err, sort of.  I generated my own character by answering questions, and had near 20 for all stats.  So perhaps not legally, but not by savecheat.   You can fluke an awesome character in Omega sometimes just by walking around.  I remember the game I won, I just created my character.  Joined the traditional guildhalls.  Equipped up.  Had a couple of Arena fights.  Got the Goblin Chieftan quest from the King.  Took one step outside.  Hit by a minor mana storm.  Survived and was leveled up to 10 or something insane.  The game was pretty easy for a while after that.

Also I need to add one significant Roguelike to the list that I forgot, but  beat.   Ragnarok!  Great game.

If you don't play Nethack, Moria, or Angband.  What roguelikes do you primarily play?

[Z]

Yeah, Ragnarok! I won it.

I started with Ragnarok (actually Valhalla, something like 15 years ago), then Angband (actually a variant named GSNband, but nowadays from the broader perspective I consider Moria variants not as good as other roguelikes), then ADOM, then Dungeon Crawl. These were my "primary roguelikes", I also played many others on the side (and considered some of them good, although I won them quick enough, so they did not become primary).

[corremn]

Moria was my first rl.  Managed to defeat it once, with a troll priest IIRC.  Just hovered around level 40 until I had about 8-10 potions of invulnerability, blaseted everything with orb of draining, exept AMHDs, AGDs, emporer undead and evil Iggies, before defeating the balrog in much the same way.  Probably my greatest gaming achievement ever.  Played angband varients on and off but never really set out to defeat them.  Mostly just to relive my Moria glory years, so I generally play NPP version.

ADOM I have won once, but have scummed to achieve the god ending. 
Hated nethack and never got into ragnarok, larn or omega.

Nowadays I just play Crawl, it has great features and still is very reminiscent of those early games and extremely challenging.

Show me any other game genre that can provide a single player that much challenge over a quarter century?

Roguelikes are probably one of the most challenging genres out there, which is why they still exist me thinks.
IF is also still kicking it too.  Not that I have ever really gotten into them and I always get stuck in the early game anyway.

[Yyrkoon]

Moria was my first rl.  Managed to defeat it once, with a troll priest IIRC.  Nowadays I just play Crawl, it has great features and still is very reminiscent of those early games and extremely challenging.

I bow to you.  Defeating Moria legally puts you in that .000001 percentage group of Spelunkers that have bested that beast.  I on the other hand, after reading every faq on the matter was still unable to catch up to him, and when I did.  I wished I hadn't.

Ancient Multi-Hued dragon....  Please don't breath on me!

I have beaten lesser Balrogs and even a named Balrog in Angband, but I don't believe they had close to the strength of the Moria Balrog.

[getter77]

For me I started with the Fushigi Dungeon series and have mostly beaten the ones I have/played----though never their ultimate challenges post-game.   I'm keen on pretty much any Tile/Graphical Roguelike I've spent time with and several I've not yet had the time for and just can't handle the ASCII ones period...well....save Triangle Wizard somehow.

One of these days if I ever figure out precisely how to play a graphical Umoria...or I guess the graphical Amiga port....or even more "not quite" am able to actually correctly run Mines of Morgoth on my new PC once it is situated----I really do need to spend some time with the whole lot and maybe some Angband variants as well.

Compared to virtually everybody here save a couple, I'm very much late to the party seeing as how I only came to discover Roguelikes a just a year or couple back.

[corremn]

This was before I had any internet access, so some faqs may of helped, every thing was trial and error, probably how rls are meant to be played.

I think the balrog in moria can be overcome easily enough with the right tools.  This is going back well over 10 years...possibly mid ninties, on a Mac classic II.  Trollish priests level slowly but have lots of hitpoints, he had staffs of cure wounds which counters most of the annoying spells (if the balrogs casts those sort of spells i cant remember), many potions of invulnerablity (which ran out soon enough), and the orb of draining spell which is the best spell in the entire game, as there is no resistance and does extra damage on evil creatures IIRC.

I seem to remember it was an epic battle, I would of spent most of the latter half of the battle recovering from its many hits and fire attacks.   I guess I used portal a bit too, man its all coming back to me now.
I had met the balrog a few times before so I new how to be prepared.

I wish I had the morge file nowadays...

I would love to play again, but the interface is just too dated, that and I dont have 40 hours so spare.

[Yyrkoon]

For me I started with the Fushigi Dungeon series and have mostly beaten the ones I have/played----though never their ultimate challenges post-game.   I'm keen on pretty much any Tile/Graphical Roguelike I've spent time with and several I've not yet had the time for and just can't handle the ASCII ones period...well....save Triangle Wizard somehow.

One of these days if I ever figure out precisely how to play a graphical Umoria...or I guess the graphical Amiga port....or even more "not quite" am able to actually correctly run Mines of Morgoth on my new PC once it is situated----I really do need to spend some time with the whole lot and maybe some Angband variants as well.

Compared to virtually everybody here save a couple, I'm very much late to the party seeing as how I only came to discover Roguelikes a just a year or couple back.

Lol, yeah.  Shiren is a very recent roguelike for me.  It's not bad, but the food dungeon, trap dungeon, and final dungeons are insane.  I've managed to beat the rest.  I sent Sega a message asking for Shiren 2 nds which was 3 on the N64, with about as much success as my pleas to continue the Shenmue franchise.  You should definately pick up Ragnarok if you havn't.  You'll need dosbox or something similar, but it is a rather nice tilebased roguelike from the 90's.

[getter77]

For me I started with the Fushigi Dungeon series and have mostly beaten the ones I have/played----though never their ultimate challenges post-game.   I'm keen on pretty much any Tile/Graphical Roguelike I've spent time with and several I've not yet had the time for and just can't handle the ASCII ones period...well....save Triangle Wizard somehow.

One of these days if I ever figure out precisely how to play a graphical Umoria...or I guess the graphical Amiga port....or even more "not quite" am able to actually correctly run Mines of Morgoth on my new PC once it is situated----I really do need to spend some time with the whole lot and maybe some Angband variants as well.

Compared to virtually everybody here save a couple, I'm very much late to the party seeing as how I only came to discover Roguelikes a just a year or couple back.

Lol, yeah.  Shiren is a very recent roguelike for me.  It's not bad, but the food dungeon, trap dungeon, and final dungeons are insane.  I've managed to beat the rest.  I sent Sega a message asking for Shiren 2 nds which was 3 on the N64, with about as much success as my pleas to continue the Shenmue franchise.  You should definately pick up Ragnarok if you havn't.  You'll need dosbox or something similar, but it is a rather nice tilebased roguelike from the 90's.

Ragnarok/Valhalla  (I wonder if there is some way to effectively mergee the 2, blasted regional decisions!) is firmly on my todo list.  As a Moria guy, perhaps YOU might be one of the few who could take to Mines of Morgoth....or at least fully delve the demo and see what the systems and such turn out to be?

In terms of Shiren, the lineage is actually a bit more complex.  After the SNES original, there was a GB(C) game or so on the Gaiden/sidestory line---that was the game which was remade as "Shiren 2 DS".  The N64 Shiren, bore the actual mark of being "Shiren 2".   Then there were some other Gaiden ones for Dreamcast/PC(Asuka).  Shiren 3 is coming for Wii stateside in a few weeks, but also further down the line a remixed/allegedly improved in many aspects PSP port of it will arrive in Japan but no idea when/if THAT will also make it stateside  Then, of course, Shiren 4 is in development DS wise offering many changes/additional complexities over any of the previous titles.   There is a fantranslation effort somewhat underway for Shiren 2 DS as well as the various Chocobo and Torneko Dungeon games we've missed out on.