Overview
@ enters the Dungeons of Doom. Rogue emerged from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz in 1980, combining procedural dungeon generation with permanent death. Every playthrough generated new layouts; every death was final. The curses library rendered everything in ASCII—@ for the player, letters for monsters, symbols for items. A genre was named after it, and forty years later, “roguelike” remains gaming vocabulary.
Fast facts
- Developers: Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, Ken Arnold.
- Year: 1980.
- Platform: Unix systems.
- Innovation: Procedural generation + permadeath.
Core mechanics
| Element | Implementation |
|---|
| Procedural dungeons | New layout each run |
| Permadeath | No saves on death |
| Turn-based | Move, then enemies move |
| Inventory | Item management |
ASCII representation
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|
| @ | Player |
| A-Z | Monsters |
| * | Gold |
| ! | Potions |
| ? | Scrolls |
Design principles
| Principle | Expression |
|---|
| Fairness | Rules apply equally |
| Emergent challenge | Procedural danger |
| Knowledge accumulation | Player skill, not character |
| Meaningful death | Consequence creates tension |
Distribution
| Vector | Impact |
|---|
| BSD Unix | Academic spread |
| Source availability | Modification, variants |
| Ported versions | Commercial releases |
Legacy
| Descendant | Connection |
|---|
| NetHack | Direct lineage |
| Spelunky | Modern roguelike |
| Hades | Roguelite evolution |
| ”Roguelike” genre | Named after Rogue |
See also