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Classic Mac Gaming: Angband - Past, Present & Future
August 11, 2006 | Sharon Cho | |
It was some time in the winter of 1992 when I was alleviating my boredom by scouring the Mac downloads of AOL's virtual cellar. I had just moved to the Bay Area and, not knowing too many people here, I relied on my trusty 2400 baud modem to bring me various entertainment (ask me sometime about adventures on bbs's).I looked at all games ,but if a game had that particular magic word—FREEWARE—attached, it caught my immediate attention. Angband was one of those games. I set my computer to download all night long, and despite what you are thinking, Angband isn't a large game, even now; it was just modems were that slow in those days. The next evening, I embarked on my first adventure. And within six moves of booting up the game, my character was dead. Despite that ignoble defeat, Angband has retained my interest, and frustration, for the past 14 years. Angband (released 1990) has its roots in Rogue (released in the 70's) and its offshoot Moria (released 1985). Apparently, the originators of Angband felt that Moria wasn't based enough on J.R.R. Tolkien's works and modified it into Angband; the name itself comes from the mighty citadel that Morgoth made. For more on this, read "The Silmarillion" by Tolkien. Perhaps if I had downloaded a version of Moria, I would be writing about that game today, but as it was, I was enchanted with what I saw. After reading this article, click on the above link and you can download the latest stable version of Angband onto your Mac, PC, Linux box, or whatever machine and check it out. But I do warn you, it is addictive and it is frustrating. Yes, you read that correctly; the latest stable version is available still, for free.However, before you click on that link, you should know a couple of things. If you are the type who likes graphics—like the type you find in World of Warcraft, or even Pac-Man—you'll be disappointed. There are NO graphics in Angband. None. (Actually, there are graphical versions, but to me those are just cartoony and can't be taken seriously. But that's me.) Once you get used to the concept of no graphics, the world of imagination takes over and you will never be able to look at an "@" in the same way again. The other two things you should know about Angband are: 1) it is totally random (which accounts for the replayability of it) and 2) since there are no graphics, the programmers put most of their efforts into the AI (Artificial Intelligence). It is one of the most difficult games to win. That last point is what I forget, and what kills me almost every time. Well, that and not paying enough attention to how much damage I'm taking.
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