[net.games.rogue] Some General Information

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