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Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other Rougelikes Changed the Course of Video Games
In 1980, computers were instruments of science and mathematics, military secrets and academia. Stern administrators lorded over sterile university laboratories and stressed one point to the wide-eyed students privileged enough to set foot within Computers were not toys. Defying authority, hackers seized control of monolithic mainframes to create a new breed of computer the roguelike, cryptic and tough-as-nails adventures drawn from text-based symbols instead of state-of-the-art 3D graphics. Despite their visual simplicity, roguelike games captivate thousands of players around the world. From the author of the bestselling Stay Awhile and Listen series, Dungeon How NetHack, Angband, and Other Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games introduces you to the visionaries behind some of the most popular roguelikes of all time and shows how their creations paved the way for the blockbuster videogames of today―and beyond.
154 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2015
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April 26, 2017I wrote this book, so I won't cheat by leaving a star-rating or critique. Instead, I'll talk a bit about the process of writing it. (I'm counting it toward books read in 2016 because I spent this past weekend reading through and revising it.)
DUNGEON HACKS chronicles the making of seminal roguelikes--RPGs with procedurally generated levels, monsters, and treasure. My interest in writing about them stemmed from interviews I did for STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN, wherein I explore the making of Diablo, which was influenced by roguelike games.
As is usually my approach when writing about game development, I wrote about the games covered in DUNGEON HACKS through the lens of the era in which they were made: the shared interests and factors that influenced their creators, and how the technology they used informed their designs.
The end result is a collection of stories that are meant to be read in chronological order, but can be cherry-picked if, say, readers are more interested in Moria than they are NetHack. Also, I'll say that although roguelike fans will get the most out of this book, neophytes should enjoy it, too.
DUNGEON HACKS chronicles the making of seminal roguelikes--RPGs with procedurally generated levels, monsters, and treasure. My interest in writing about them stemmed from interviews I did for STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN, wherein I explore the making of Diablo, which was influenced by roguelike games.
As is usually my approach when writing about game development, I wrote about the games covered in DUNGEON HACKS through the lens of the era in which they were made: the shared interests and factors that influenced their creators, and how the technology they used informed their designs.
The end result is a collection of stories that are meant to be read in chronological order, but can be cherry-picked if, say, readers are more interested in Moria than they are NetHack. Also, I'll say that although roguelike fans will get the most out of this book, neophytes should enjoy it, too.
November 30, 2023
I really enjoyed this book. The range of computer history covered (from late mainframes and early micros through personal computers on up through today) closely matches my own, and I've spent many hours playing the games detailed within.
Individual chapters cover rogue, hack, and other roguelike games. The history provided is often from interviews and other direct means. In this way, the chapters connect to tell a fairly complete story of a videogame genre. Terms from procedural generation to perma-death are explained in enough detail for the lay person to understand without diving to the level of source code. The best roguelikes are about telling a story, and this book is full of stories!
There are games that the author didn't include, but a complete volume would be a mighty tome indeed. Fortunately there are enough pointers and hints here to direct anyone with more interest to the right corner of the web.
I've heard the audio book is good, but I've also heard that mispronunciations are a problem. I enjoyed this book enough to give that a try in the future - will amend this review appropriately.
Individual chapters cover rogue, hack, and other roguelike games. The history provided is often from interviews and other direct means. In this way, the chapters connect to tell a fairly complete story of a videogame genre. Terms from procedural generation to perma-death are explained in enough detail for the lay person to understand without diving to the level of source code. The best roguelikes are about telling a story, and this book is full of stories!
There are games that the author didn't include, but a complete volume would be a mighty tome indeed. Fortunately there are enough pointers and hints here to direct anyone with more interest to the right corner of the web.
I've heard the audio book is good, but I've also heard that mispronunciations are a problem. I enjoyed this book enough to give that a try in the future - will amend this review appropriately.
August 17, 2017
I was lucky enough to pick this up in a Humble Audiobook Bundle for $1 and boy was it worth it. I've been a fan of roguelikes since getting my first computer in the 1980's. It's really something that every game is completely different, and when I die, I'm dead, forced to start again. The book is also something of a history book of early computing. I'd highly recommend this to any videogamer looking for a good read or computer science student looking for a history of early game development.
October 24, 2017
The "roguelike" genre described in this book (for me, nethack, angband, and especially ADOM) are some of my favorite video games -- I first discovered them in the early 1990s on shared UNIX systems and have played off and on over the years. They're amazing because they somehow manage to tell great stories, and have high replay value, while being very simple in UI and in particular being largely procedurally generated (thus different every time).
This book describes several of the most important games, what makes them unique, and includes background/biography on the developers.
This book describes several of the most important games, what makes them unique, and includes background/biography on the developers.
February 19, 2019
Apex Legends released recently to roaring acclaim; a behemoth on twich, the hype got me to try it—I even scraped together a win—but I quickly gave up and went back to watching professionals play. It is the difference between me running some laps in the park against seeing Allyson Felix compete in the Olympics: sure, we’re both running, but only one of us elevates it to an artform.
Watching others play creates a micronarrative, a communal experience like hearing about a Nethack ascension run, reading the touchstone Dwarf Fortress boatmurdered saga, or losing an afternoon deep in the intrigue of EVE Online:
No one except the author, who tracked down the creators of a handful of foundational games for an entire genre, interviewed them and spun the history into a cohesive narrative. That’s amazing. Don’t you wish someone had done that for, say, the creator of the umbrella? Not just the “when” and “where” but the “why” and “how.” That’s what you get here: “For Rogue to achieve Toy’s dream of an infinitely replayable game, every element had to be procedurally generated.” The dude that created Rogue wanted to play his own game and be surprised, and lo, procedurally generated dungeon crawls were born. That’s friggin’ nuts.
Even the format of Dungeon Hacks hews closely to the open-source ethos that drove many of the early roguelikes:
If you’ve never heard of the Amulet of Yendor, I don’t know how or why you would search this out. But if you have even the smallest amount of interest in video game history—of uncovering the roots of the procedurally generated loot tables that underpin the gaming world’s new hotness—then Dungeon Hacks is required reading. Because while Apex Legends is about forty years too new to be in the book—a team-based battle royale where you drop into a Hunger Games-inspired arena where you must find gear, fight the 19 other squads, and survive to win—it wouldn’t be anywhere without Rogue.
Watching others play creates a micronarrative, a communal experience like hearing about a Nethack ascension run, reading the touchstone Dwarf Fortress boatmurdered saga, or losing an afternoon deep in the intrigue of EVE Online:
Although it’s not important to the game, some of the most fun you can have with roguelikes actually doesn’t involve playing them, but involves going into the Usenet groups and reading players’ stories about their games.Dungeon Hacks is the definitive text on early roguelikes—a genre that hasn’t been generified like “xerox” to “copy”, “DOOM-clone” to “first-person shooter” [FPS], “Kleenex” to “tissue.” So the foundation—Rogue—is still in the name. But no one is preserving the link.
...One player started playing a character whose ambition in life was to be a dragon. She found the ring of polymorph and an amulet of polymorph control. She slips on the ring, drinks the potion of polymorph, specifies “black dragon,” then slips on the amulet. Dragons have lots of disadvantages, but she went on to win the game anyway.
No one except the author, who tracked down the creators of a handful of foundational games for an entire genre, interviewed them and spun the history into a cohesive narrative. That’s amazing. Don’t you wish someone had done that for, say, the creator of the umbrella? Not just the “when” and “where” but the “why” and “how.” That’s what you get here: “For Rogue to achieve Toy’s dream of an infinitely replayable game, every element had to be procedurally generated.” The dude that created Rogue wanted to play his own game and be surprised, and lo, procedurally generated dungeon crawls were born. That’s friggin’ nuts.
Even the format of Dungeon Hacks hews closely to the open-source ethos that drove many of the early roguelikes:
"I never would have written [Moria] if I hadn't run into Colossal Cave Adventure and Rogue, and those were free. What I did is I ended up releasing the source code to anyone who wanted to run the game, but also so people could learn the same things I had learned—about data structures, about how to write code efficiently. That was kind of my gift to the education world, I guess."A number of interviews the author personally conducted are accessible in the back of the book. Having the interviews at the end is nice in theory, but structurally puzzling. As I read through them, I kept flipping back to reference the chapters and noticed that direct quotes were inserted; you’ll read the same words more than once if you read the whole book (my first excerpt is from an interview with John Harris, and it appears twice in Dungeon Hacks). I like seeing the sources fleshed out, so the small complaint of reading the same sentence twice barely registers on the cosmic scale of things that could have gone wrong with what seems to be a self-published (self-funded?) endeavor. Amazing.
If you’ve never heard of the Amulet of Yendor, I don’t know how or why you would search this out. But if you have even the smallest amount of interest in video game history—of uncovering the roots of the procedurally generated loot tables that underpin the gaming world’s new hotness—then Dungeon Hacks is required reading. Because while Apex Legends is about forty years too new to be in the book—a team-based battle royale where you drop into a Hunger Games-inspired arena where you must find gear, fight the 19 other squads, and survive to win—it wouldn’t be anywhere without Rogue.
February 21, 2021
Dungeon Hacks is seeing seeds sprout.
August 10, 2015
Before I begin my review: I know David Craddock through the wild ties that bind via the interwebs, and through that relationship I got an early copy of this book. I'm not one to review books lightly (I'm actually pretty damned harsh) but I respect David quite a bit and, frankly, wanted to know about the genre that my husband obsessively plays.
I'm not your average non-fiction reader, so one would think that Dungeon Hacks (being a history of sorts of roguelike games) would bore me to tears. The book is told as a story, though, with each chapter focusing on a different game and a different group of people. Over the course of the book, the stories build: after all, what came before surely influences what comes after, and the history of roguelikes is built on each game that is created.
If you're already an aficionado of roguelike history (and if you are, who are you? That's weird) this book might be a bit boring to you, since it does go over the basics of the main players' lives and overviews of the games. It does delve deeper, though, into how things were built, distributed, and the community that enabled this genre to grow into the hugely successful (and commercial) enterprise it is today. While only a couple decades in the past, the world of video game design looked nothing then like it does today, and it's odd to look into an industry you are currently involved in and feel that, just a mere 15 years ago, it was essentially the stone age.
In terms of the writing and structure of the book, I appreciate that Craddock decided to call his footnotes side quests (there are also proper foot notes but the longer diversions are elegantly interwoven through hyperlinks, making the book feel like a choose-your-own adventure.) In most cases, this would feel jarring, but he pulls it off and leads me through the book in a way that feels varied yet well structured.
I'm not your average non-fiction reader, so one would think that Dungeon Hacks (being a history of sorts of roguelike games) would bore me to tears. The book is told as a story, though, with each chapter focusing on a different game and a different group of people. Over the course of the book, the stories build: after all, what came before surely influences what comes after, and the history of roguelikes is built on each game that is created.
If you're already an aficionado of roguelike history (and if you are, who are you? That's weird) this book might be a bit boring to you, since it does go over the basics of the main players' lives and overviews of the games. It does delve deeper, though, into how things were built, distributed, and the community that enabled this genre to grow into the hugely successful (and commercial) enterprise it is today. While only a couple decades in the past, the world of video game design looked nothing then like it does today, and it's odd to look into an industry you are currently involved in and feel that, just a mere 15 years ago, it was essentially the stone age.
In terms of the writing and structure of the book, I appreciate that Craddock decided to call his footnotes side quests (there are also proper foot notes but the longer diversions are elegantly interwoven through hyperlinks, making the book feel like a choose-your-own adventure.) In most cases, this would feel jarring, but he pulls it off and leads me through the book in a way that feels varied yet well structured.
June 2, 2019
I listened to this on Hoopla while doing yardwork. It definitely made me want to play Rogue again- my dad used to play the DOS version on our computer at home and I played it as well and made sure I copied it over to my college desktop when I moved out. I don't know if he ever knew I did that. I just loved Rogue so much. And I've never won it.
I wish the history of Roguelikes had more women in it. Listening to this history about these teen and young men making their Roguelikes just emphasizes you don't need a ton of special knowledge to hack about on your computer and do stuff.
I wish the history of Roguelikes had more women in it. Listening to this history about these teen and young men making their Roguelikes just emphasizes you don't need a ton of special knowledge to hack about on your computer and do stuff.
October 12, 2015
Evocative and well done
This is not a book for everyone. Only those who feels the mysterious seduction of the roguelike will enjoy this book. It is a tour through the origins of some of the most important games of the genre, with interviews with the creators and enough context to understands how the genre was invented and evolved.
This is not a book for everyone. Only those who feels the mysterious seduction of the roguelike will enjoy this book. It is a tour through the origins of some of the most important games of the genre, with interviews with the creators and enough context to understands how the genre was invented and evolved.
January 23, 2018
I listened to the audio book version. It was a very informative listen that was well researched. While the source material was great, it was obvious that the narrator had no knowledge of it. There were numerous mispronunciations that were irritating.
December 8, 2015
SO GOOD.
February 19, 2020
I listened to the audiobook of this title.
I really enjoyed David Craddock's Stay A While and Listen, a look into the development of Blizzard North's Diablo, a game I spent many hours playing. While I had never really gotten into Roguelikes, based on the justice Craddock did to Diablo I thought Dungeon Hacks would certainly be worth checking out. I wasn't wrong.
The book goes right to the sources, containing in depth interviews with many of the people who were responsible for creating some of the most popular Roguelike games over the years. Between the firsthand accounts and Craddock's connecting of the dots and addition of context, you really get a good picture of how these titles sprang up, often independently of one another, and how they became such cult classics. It was very interesting to see how these games were entwined with the development of computers and the Internet, and how they probably could not have gotten their start at any other point in gaming history.
As someone who unfortunately doesn't have as much time to play games these days as he does to read about them, I still found myself rather compelled to check out some of these classics, even knowing how quickly I'd die, again and again. Learning about their development and the systems created for such unique experiences definitely made me curious. Hopefully I'm able to follow through and play one or two.
If you're interested in the history of computers, the Internet, and videogames, Dungeon Hacks is definitely worth the read. And who knows, you might find yourself with a new favorite genre of games!
I really enjoyed David Craddock's Stay A While and Listen, a look into the development of Blizzard North's Diablo, a game I spent many hours playing. While I had never really gotten into Roguelikes, based on the justice Craddock did to Diablo I thought Dungeon Hacks would certainly be worth checking out. I wasn't wrong.
The book goes right to the sources, containing in depth interviews with many of the people who were responsible for creating some of the most popular Roguelike games over the years. Between the firsthand accounts and Craddock's connecting of the dots and addition of context, you really get a good picture of how these titles sprang up, often independently of one another, and how they became such cult classics. It was very interesting to see how these games were entwined with the development of computers and the Internet, and how they probably could not have gotten their start at any other point in gaming history.
As someone who unfortunately doesn't have as much time to play games these days as he does to read about them, I still found myself rather compelled to check out some of these classics, even knowing how quickly I'd die, again and again. Learning about their development and the systems created for such unique experiences definitely made me curious. Hopefully I'm able to follow through and play one or two.
If you're interested in the history of computers, the Internet, and videogames, Dungeon Hacks is definitely worth the read. And who knows, you might find yourself with a new favorite genre of games!
June 8, 2024
In which Craddock interviews some of the creators and historians of the storied roguelike game genre, and I am left with an irresistible need to delve once again for the amulet of Yendor.
In typical Craddock form, this slice of video game history takes the broad form of several interviews, with optional interstitial vignettes ("side quests"). It's a good history, pushing up to 2015, and I appreciated its chronological structure. Featured are the greatest roguelike hits: rogue, Moria, Angband, nethack, ADOM, and subsequent "roguelites" FTL and Diablo. Moria gets the most enjoyable chapter, replete with mood-setting Tolkien passages, and a recounting of an epic prank. Thomas Biskup, creator of ADOM, has the best interview, scoring a chapter all his own.
The struggles faced by the developers of these games are universal, and Craddock provides the developers a sympathetic ear. Software engineering is hard! But these games are a testament to their creators' grit and passion.
Included is coverage of the roguelike Usenet group, where I encountered the early roguelikes before they were a category. Nethack nearly capsized my undergraduate degree. I later helped playtest ADOM and got my name in the credits. So I'm hardly an unbiased reviewer, but if these games were a part of your youth, you will likely enjoy the reminiscences.
In typical Craddock form, this slice of video game history takes the broad form of several interviews, with optional interstitial vignettes ("side quests"). It's a good history, pushing up to 2015, and I appreciated its chronological structure. Featured are the greatest roguelike hits: rogue, Moria, Angband, nethack, ADOM, and subsequent "roguelites" FTL and Diablo. Moria gets the most enjoyable chapter, replete with mood-setting Tolkien passages, and a recounting of an epic prank. Thomas Biskup, creator of ADOM, has the best interview, scoring a chapter all his own.
The struggles faced by the developers of these games are universal, and Craddock provides the developers a sympathetic ear. Software engineering is hard! But these games are a testament to their creators' grit and passion.
Included is coverage of the roguelike Usenet group, where I encountered the early roguelikes before they were a category. Nethack nearly capsized my undergraduate degree. I later helped playtest ADOM and got my name in the credits. So I'm hardly an unbiased reviewer, but if these games were a part of your youth, you will likely enjoy the reminiscences.
October 13, 2021
Roguelikes were my favorite game genre during the 90's. I liked them so much that it influenced my choice of career, and I ended up working in the gaming industry (I've been doing it so far for 15 years). My favorite ones were Moria and Ragnarok, so I was thrilled when I realised that this book was partly about one of them.
I consider myself be the target audience for this book. With that said I found it really uninteresting, which took my by surpsire. It is well written, it's about (theoretically) very interesting subjects and I didn't know anything about the vast majority of what this book was about. Why didn't I like it?
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure, but since I didn't enjoy it I had to give this book low score, still feeling guilty about it. The best explenation I can give is that the reason why I liked roguelikes and other games so much is that I'm escapist at heart; I want to lose myself in fantasy worlds, with strange monsters and weapons. This book wasn't about any of it. It was about real people struggling with real problems very much like the ones I struggle with every day. I didn't feel excitement to read about the behind the scenes material. I felt more like "Well, yeah, that makes sense, what else is new?"
I consider myself be the target audience for this book. With that said I found it really uninteresting, which took my by surpsire. It is well written, it's about (theoretically) very interesting subjects and I didn't know anything about the vast majority of what this book was about. Why didn't I like it?
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure, but since I didn't enjoy it I had to give this book low score, still feeling guilty about it. The best explenation I can give is that the reason why I liked roguelikes and other games so much is that I'm escapist at heart; I want to lose myself in fantasy worlds, with strange monsters and weapons. This book wasn't about any of it. It was about real people struggling with real problems very much like the ones I struggle with every day. I didn't feel excitement to read about the behind the scenes material. I felt more like "Well, yeah, that makes sense, what else is new?"
December 20, 2022
Interesting history of Rogue and other influential Roguelikes.
There's good research in this book, though the chapters feel inconsistent. I often felt like I was reading filler, and other areas felt underdeveloped. When Craddock got good anecdotes from his interviews with the original developers, he included them. The rest of the time, he filled the pages with descriptions of how the games played. Some of it was interesting, other parts felt unnecessary.
I would have loved to read more about what became of these developers. Where did they work after that? Did their formative years working on Rogue, Hack, NetHack, Moria, Angband, and such have much influence on their professional careers? I think the book could have explored more of the modern Roguelike games beyond ADOM, not from listing games after games, but how Rogue and its successors influenced more titles beyond just Diablo or FTL.
Overall I still enjoyed the book. It's an interesting account of a niche segment of computer and gamedev history and definitely a recommended read for anyone involved in RPG or Roguelike/lite game development.
There's good research in this book, though the chapters feel inconsistent. I often felt like I was reading filler, and other areas felt underdeveloped. When Craddock got good anecdotes from his interviews with the original developers, he included them. The rest of the time, he filled the pages with descriptions of how the games played. Some of it was interesting, other parts felt unnecessary.
I would have loved to read more about what became of these developers. Where did they work after that? Did their formative years working on Rogue, Hack, NetHack, Moria, Angband, and such have much influence on their professional careers? I think the book could have explored more of the modern Roguelike games beyond ADOM, not from listing games after games, but how Rogue and its successors influenced more titles beyond just Diablo or FTL.
Overall I still enjoyed the book. It's an interesting account of a niche segment of computer and gamedev history and definitely a recommended read for anyone involved in RPG or Roguelike/lite game development.
September 1, 2018
I got this book as part of a Humble Bundle. I chose to listen to it because Dan (one of my younger brothers) had roped me into Rogue-likes via FTL and Spelunky! The book was a fun, quick read of the history of these games. Two things were fascinating to me about the events of the book. One is remembering how primitive early computers were and how long it took them to get anywhere close to modern. This, of course, led to creativity in how to create games when disk space, RAM, or processing power were extremely limited. What was more fascinating to me was to see that the legacy of Rogue, Rogue-likes, and Rogue-like-likes was not just in modern games like Vertical Drop Hero, Diablo, FTL, and Spelunky! Lots of these games are still actively developed! While my fondness for many of the modern Rogue-likes demonstrates that I'm not a slave to graphics or music, it was interesting to read that as late as 2012 there were people actively developing (and playing) the original games developed in the 70s and 80s - or at least the most recent releases of those old games.
March 28, 2021
I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, other than as reference material, but as I have played a lot of Nethack, and other similar games, I was very interested when I found out this existed.
This history of rougelike games, from the earlier precursors such as Beneath Apple Manor, through Rouge itself to more “recent” reimplementations and spiritual successors such as Angband and Ancient Domains of Mystery makes a very interesting, and at times humorous read out of what is possibly quite a niche subject.
It could be quite dry: “such and such wrote this, then moved on, and so-and-so took over, somebody else then followed with the other”. This is not, however, the case; it brings some of the giants of software engineering to life, detailing their love of the games they played and their desire to both improve them, and make their own mark on them, and also gives an insight into what life was like in the universities that facilitated their hobbies, and helped them bring their dreams to life and share them with the world.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.
This history of rougelike games, from the earlier precursors such as Beneath Apple Manor, through Rouge itself to more “recent” reimplementations and spiritual successors such as Angband and Ancient Domains of Mystery makes a very interesting, and at times humorous read out of what is possibly quite a niche subject.
It could be quite dry: “such and such wrote this, then moved on, and so-and-so took over, somebody else then followed with the other”. This is not, however, the case; it brings some of the giants of software engineering to life, detailing their love of the games they played and their desire to both improve them, and make their own mark on them, and also gives an insight into what life was like in the universities that facilitated their hobbies, and helped them bring their dreams to life and share them with the world.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.
September 8, 2017
Picked this up with a Humble Bundle and am glad I did. I started playing roguelikes in the early 90s and have kept up with them on and off since. This history runs through the classic, giving fun details, both personal and technical, about the games.
I loved hearing how these games came from such an exuberant, creative place, regardless of the creators. There's a contagious sort of energy coming from these stories. My biggest beef is that there's not enough to them. I wish the author had gone deeper and included some of the roguelikes he left out (I know he mentions it, and why, but I really wanted to hear about T.o.M.E.).
The narrator was good, for the most part. A couple of his pronunciations pulled me out of the book, but those were few and far between. Still very understandable. Didn't have the problem of droning on.
I loved hearing how these games came from such an exuberant, creative place, regardless of the creators. There's a contagious sort of energy coming from these stories. My biggest beef is that there's not enough to them. I wish the author had gone deeper and included some of the roguelikes he left out (I know he mentions it, and why, but I really wanted to hear about T.o.M.E.).
The narrator was good, for the most part. A couple of his pronunciations pulled me out of the book, but those were few and far between. Still very understandable. Didn't have the problem of droning on.
March 2, 2020
I read Stay Awhile and Listen (another great book by same author based on the legendary game diablo) some time ago and now I just finished Dungeon Hacks. Actually, by read I mean I listened to the audiobook version in both cases. I played Diablo when it was originally released many years ago and was immediately hooked for life but only recently found out about rogue and rogue-like games and found them very appealing. Though I don’t have a long history with rogue or rogue-like games this book is still very much an entertaining read and I'd highly recommend to anyone who like myself is a life-long fan of this awesome fantasy/D&D-inspired genre whether it's games or books, I can't seem to get enough of it.
August 6, 2017
I have not played any of the main Rogue Like games that were described in this book. However, i have been a fan of Dungeons and Dragons for many years, and love adventure games and RPGs on the computer. No idea why i never got into them. Maybe it was my desire to have a nice graphical interface to make playing the games easier. The only Rogue like game mentioned in this book that i had played was Diablo.
I enjoy these types of books, even if i had no real involvement in it. I like how people were inspired to develop and build something that they not only wanted to play, but for other to play as well.
Will i play one? Maybe. Will have to see if there is one that will grab me.
I enjoy these types of books, even if i had no real involvement in it. I like how people were inspired to develop and build something that they not only wanted to play, but for other to play as well.
Will i play one? Maybe. Will have to see if there is one that will grab me.
October 22, 2019
There's a special place in my heart for the roguelike. This was a fun little genealogy of some of the genre's forerunners.
It strikes me how closely related developing the early games was to developing for the hardware, and to the limitations of the hardware. We don't really have that constraint any more, and I definitely get how it can be a real thing of beauty to be as perfectly expressive as you want to be within a clearly defined set of constraints. It's the whole point of haiku, and other rigid poetic constructs.
I think that if I were to start writing such a game myself today, I'd start on a fantasy console like the TIC-80 in order to feel some of those same limitations.
It strikes me how closely related developing the early games was to developing for the hardware, and to the limitations of the hardware. We don't really have that constraint any more, and I definitely get how it can be a real thing of beauty to be as perfectly expressive as you want to be within a clearly defined set of constraints. It's the whole point of haiku, and other rigid poetic constructs.
I think that if I were to start writing such a game myself today, I'd start on a fantasy console like the TIC-80 in order to feel some of those same limitations.
November 28, 2017
I never played NetHack or Rogue or Angband, but I was curious about the roots of Diablo and similar hack and slash, procedurally generated roguelike games. The story itself is just ok for someone like me. I'd imagine if you're a fan of the specific games you'll love this book. There's some interesting topics of general game design of why these games are still followed today. But all in all, I didn't get much out of this book.
June 1, 2017
This is a very niche book and has the feeling of an "oral history" of roguelikes. I'm not sure how interesting it would be to people who are not super into roguelikes, and it doesn't really inspire me to want to play roguelikes too much. That said, it is pretty boring and doesn't particularly sensationalize the topic, which is a plus in my book.
July 26, 2017
This was fun. I think there was some stuff about coding that I might not have appreciated as much as someone who does that. But if you're interested in game design and videogame history, this is a good read.
Also, the audio version I listened to was well read and produced. So if you like listening to books, I'd recommend the audiobook on this one.
Also, the audio version I listened to was well read and produced. So if you like listening to books, I'd recommend the audiobook on this one.
April 27, 2025
Craddock is an OK writer. But through his slightly awkward presentation, what shone through was a collection of lovely stories about young people becoming inspired, and in many cases being nurtured by caring teachers. I've installed a bunch of roguelikes games, and I can see the whimsy and also the dedication of these teams reflected in their projects.
May 17, 2017
Short but interesting. Each of the games featured are pretty similar so the chapters do start to get a little "samey" but the book doesn't overstay it's welcome. Goodreads really needs to let me have half stars. 3.5/5 would recommend if you're interested in the subject.
July 23, 2017
Okay, that was also a good one. Craddock apparently knows what he's doing. I'd say this one was even better than Stay Awhile And Listen. (And it makes me wanna play Mines of Moria and Angband and ToME and FTL and... and... and I am installing D2 now, too. Whoops.)
November 9, 2022
Really enjoyable to hear different perspectives over the decades. Always enlightening to read about the early hackers interactions with Unix mainframe systems, and the first generations of home computers.
August 13, 2017
Really quite good overview of the development and post-release life of various Roguelike games.
Significantly more professional seeming than many other books in the genre.
Significantly more professional seeming than many other books in the genre.
August 23, 2017
Fun book if you are an old cRPG player, but too much detail bogs it down and too much repetition and OT detracts from the core narrative.
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