wapd@houxj.UUCP (Bill Dietrich) (02/02/84)
Here is some general information useful to novices at Rogue. This is prompted by several recent articles asking questions. - the colors or labels on potions, wands, staffs and scrolls change from game to game, but remain constant within a given session. - most wands and staffs, such as polymorph, cold, magic missile, only work when used via the 'p' command (p, direction, item), not the 'z' (zap) command. Some, like light, work with either command. Some, like striking, seem to work only if you wield them and do a 'p'. - levels in the dungeon are created when you enter them, and vaporize when you leave them. Thus you can't drop stuff on a level and expect it to be there when you come back up to that level later. - winning occurs when you get to a level where the Amulet of Yendor, which shows up as a comma, appears, pick it up, and carry it all the way back up to level '0' without dying. At that point, all of your possessions are converted to their values in gold, and your position on the top ten depends on that total (gold plus value of possessions). - when you lose (die), your possessions are thrown away, ten percent of your gold is confiscated as a burial fee, and the remaining gold total determines your position relative to the top ten. - these rules hold for every version of Rogue that I have seen. Newer versions add lower-case monsters, new staffs and scrolls, qualities like constitution and dexterity, and some even have trading posts, mazes, etc. - there have been total winners of every version, I believe. - most versions have obscure bugs that allow winning by what could be considered cheating. Some people have written programs to mess with rogue.save files and cheat that way. - rogue.save files contain saved security information to prevent tampering and cheating. For example, the inode number of the file is stored in it, along with much other information (?), and rogue will not restart a game unless all of the information checks out. Thus if the operators take your system down for a disk compression or other mangling, rogue will refuse to restart your saved games. You lose. - someone reportedly has written a rogue-playing program, and I believe they promised to post it at some time in the future when it is finished. Maybe not. Bill Dietrich houxj!wapd
clardy@smu.UUCP (02/12/84)
#R:houxj:-32800:smu:25400001:000:562 smu!clardy Feb 11 22:36:00 1984 - these rules hold for every version of Rogue that I have seen. Newer versions add lower-case monsters, new staffs and scrolls, qualities like constitution and dexterity, and some even have trading posts, mazes, etc. I am very interested in finding these newer versions of rogue. Could you please tell me where they are to be found? James Clardy !smu!clardy P.S. I am new to notes, and not sure how the addressing works. I hope that your response finds me. Thanx in advance.
olson@fortune.UUCP (02/15/84)
#R:houxj:-32800:fortune:4400008:000:337 fortune!olson Feb 14 13:13:00 1984 I agree with most of your points, but you are mistaken about the 'p' command (for wands) being in most versions. I have played on about 6 versions up through and including 5.3, and there was no 'p' command in any of them. Dave Olson, Fortune Systems UUCP: {ihnp4,harpo,ucbvax!amd70}!fortune!olson ARPA: amd70!fortune!olson@BERKELEY