Keep Your Quake III; I'll Just Play Zangband

by Mr. Bad

1999-11-02 11:06:10

Quantum Deepfried Electro-Diddle

Yeah, I know, I know. First-person shooters and real-time strategy games are big, Big, BIG! But I've got ADD and I get bored easy. Walking around a maze and shooting at the same 4 monsters over and over gets old quick. To keep me challenged, interested, and excited, man, I GOT to have a good Rogue-like game. And Zangband is the best.

Folks who are used to ultra-realistic 3-D Voodoo-Hoodoo graphics and spectacular explosions of pixellated gore probably don't quite GROK why roguelike games are so popular. I mean, instead of a GUN and a ROCKET LAUNCHER you get the "@" symbol. This is you, in your fear-inspiring glory! And instead of a bunch of DROOLING MUMMIES, you get attacked by "O" and "T" and the VERY DREADED "p." ASCII characters that inspire INCREDIBLE FEAR! What the FUCK?

But the thing about rogue-like games that makes them worth playing is the incredible DEPTH of the game world. Zangband, for example, has >1000 types of monsters to fight, 100 levels, 50+ quests, and an unending array of fascinating game situations.

The other thing that's cool is that you develop a CHARACTER. Your character is a work of ART, not just based on what you HAVE or what Pacman level-route you follow, but on all the choices you make from the minute you start the game. It's TOTALLY COOL.

Like I said, Zangband is the connoisseur's roguelike game (nethack coming in a close second or third, maybe). There's a kajillion ports to practically every platform under the sun (Acorn RISC OS?!) and lots of cool sites about it. You should start playing Zangband TODAY. Go! Now!

Check it out yourself

vagrant@pigdog.org