Changes from 5.4.3 to 5.4.4 include:

- Save/restore code fixed
- Fixed crash when c)alling a weapon twice
- Mac OS/X port (no binary package yet)
Please report any problems or bugs you encounter.

Binaries posted for: Windows, DOS, Linux
Source posted with autoconf and generic makefile support

You can download it from the Rogue Restoration homepage here

A new roguelike engine has just been released called Neon. Check it out here.

From the author’s website:

Neon is a flexible Java roguelike engine. It features a huge overland map and can be modified/extended through the use of JavaScript and XML. Included is an editor to make non-random maps

Kamyran’s Eye 2 has just been released the sequel to the Nokia and PC Java game Kamyran’s Eye. The game sports a full mouse driven interface and graphic tileset. <Note: This game is shareware. A demo is available.>

From the author:

Kamyran’s Eye 2 is a graphical fantasy-themed Rogue-like role-playing
game for PC available for both Windows and Linux operating systems
(shareware).

Beyond standard roguelike ingredients it has a emphasis on story and a
dynamic world with different factions, shifting alliances, armies that
fight each other and destroy cities …

Check out the website here and screenshot 1 and screenshot 2

Version 1.26 of CastlevaniaRL, the roguelike based on the Castlevania series, has been released.

From the author’s website:

There are LOTS of changes from 1.25… you have missed a lot if you havent tracked the playtesting versions!

* Each character class now has a skill advancement tree and increases his skills on levelup. No more spirit fusion
* New Skills: Item Crashes and Soul Powers for Vampire Killer, Morphs for Renegade and Manbeast, Summons for the Invoker, new Spells for the Vanquisher and Shielding for Knights
* Lots of UI Improvements and fixes
* Lots of new items, Sun/Moon Cards, Orbs of return, weapons and artifacts. Shields
* Item modifiers
* Level generators improved, dungeon generator included
* Automap
* Plot Scenes
* Hidden Stages, new bosses
* Char Dump
* Item sounds
* Fight with Solieyu Belmont and a way to save him
* Extended look mode
* Swimming
* Teleport Statues
* Morphing madness
* Phases of the day
* Blue nightime
* Enhanced inventory screen allows using items

The game is intended to be easy to play yet enjoyable and challenging, browse to the official website to get it.

CastlevaniaRL: Serenade of Chaos
Developer: Slash
Licence: Freeware
Status: 1.26 Beta

Lo and behold! Who says that magic is dying! Here is living proof that it is not!

What happens when you dont post for eighteen days? lots of things going on into this, our small roguelike world!

Lands of ElderLore This promising world-scoped roguelike project keeps advancing with version 0.0.9

After a big rush this weekend, I succeeded in almost finishing what was remaining to do. Thus here is version 0.0.9, still not fully playable, but with a lot of new functionalities which are detailed below.

Après un gros rush ce week-end, j’ai réussi grosso modo à terminer ce qu’il restait à faire. Voici donc la version 0.0.9, toujours non jouable, mais avec pas mal de nouvelles fonctionnalités qui sont détaillées ci-dessous.

(Isn’t french WAY cool?)

The new version includes improvements on tbe world generator for forests and deserts, a new musical introduction, animals, isometrical view for zones and several bugs destroyed. Keep on it Altefcat!

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Subterrane v0.224, from Tarindel, the same guy of dev-spot, is now available for download.

Subterrane is an underground dungeon crawl largely following in the footsteps of Crawl. The player begins the game trapped in a dungeon, with the ultimate goal of escaping. Along the way, the player will explore the dungeon, encounter monsters, and find treasure to help in that endeavor.

The game now runs on linux and there is a lot of new content, including magical items, non physical damage, textbooks and many more things.

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HexCrawl, a 7DRLPatch for Dungeon Crawl is out for public evaluation

It’s crawl, but in hex. “Why?”, you ask; “Why not?” I cunningly retort.

It is a big patch, and there is not yet any available documentation… direct download here

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HellBand 0.8.6. by Sir konijn_ of Montreal (aka Mr. T) has been released.

Phew,

A new release is ready, and this time I will keep on working on Hellband. This release is mainly fixing my pet peeves with the game without breaking save game file format. I will break it for 0.8.7 which should come out fairly soon.

Get the download here

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The Dungeon Creation contest at the Dev-Spot forums has finished, congratulations to the 6 challengers!

Okay, final results time. There were 6 entries for this contest:

• konijn’s undead desert terrain generator — Interesting use of browser transparency and hexes.
• Icey’s town generator — Love the fact that it includes a brothel. The trees, statues, lakes, and flowerbeds add a nice touch.
• sinoth’s island generator — Very interesting, I especially like the minimap.
• gerryq’s dungeon generator — I’ve never seen a dungeon generator do multi-width hallways. The generated dungeons are pleasing.
• microwerx’s dungeon generator — I like how you linked the stairs via html. Clever!
• Seventh Holy Scripture’s forest generator — The forests look very lush.

My pick for winner of this contest is… Seventh Holy Scripture, even though the river always goes left. Heh.

Each participant has been given a medal for their bio page at roguebasin. Check the results and generators here

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Some critical patches have been released for Incursion taking the game to version 0.6.1.a, check them out at the official download site

What should I be doing with patch release announcements? I’ve been patching frequently, and I don’t want to spam Usenet.

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An interesting 7DRL based on DarkGod’s T-Engine, Zombie Horror, has been released. the game seems to be pretty nice and to make a good work at setting up the mood, it includes sound and… zombies!

Features:
* Great music
* Scary and funny (Yes, these are features )
* Multiple target-zone based damage system
* Lots and lots of gore

What do people have with Zombies and Sewers on roguelikes, I wonder?

Further info here

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Yendor continues with the noble task of bringing life to the original versions of Rogue, with the release of Advanced Rogue 5.8s and Rogue 5.4.3

This is a variant of the original Advanced Rogue 5.8 with some additional magic items, some different monsters, and a variety of “special” rooms (the ’s’ stands for special in the name). This is pretty much the last version of rogue I had laying about waiting for restoration.

Info at rogueforge: Advanced Rogue and Rogue 5.4

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Seven Weeks is a new java based 7DRL

I started Friday the 13th and finished on Thursday the 19th. I didn’t find time to actually release until now, but I haven’t touched the code after the deadline ended.

Following a proud tradition of roguelikes, this is a game about a thief. Taking this concept to its logical extreme, it puts a heavy emphasis on stealth and advanced forms of movement. In fact, it contains no winnable combat, and the only enemies comparable to monsters in normal roguelikes should generally be avoided at all costs.

A lot of work seems to have been put into the game, which sports interesting gameplay features. An updated 7DRL version has been released as usual; further info at the projects’ website http://kadwiell.nrkn.com/sevenweeks/

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Gape in awe at Stu’s rusty bucket, and find out about his roguelike game in the works: Cracks and Crevices, which got it 0.3 version some time ago now be sure to also check out his cRPG, FishGuts… looking nice!

Actually, 0.4 must be coming out anytime, as it is already been developed

The 0.4 release is shaping up very nicely, I’ve put in a ‘win state’ which is not the true end game but its enough to keep to the game winnable for the time being and give players a goal for early releases.

Anyhow, the game sports semi realtime movement and a classic theme… worth checking!

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And so, this long update post ends. Hopefully next one will come sooner :)

The Forsaken — primordial mage-lords who made pacts with things beyond the rim of creation — were sealed into a ceaseless, ageless slumber eons ago during the sorcery wars. Now, their sleep grows restless and troubled, and the thirteen signs and omens the holy texts claim will presage their awakening have begin to come to pass.

The making of a good roguelike is a process that takes a lot of time and dedication; the project grows at pair with yourself, you learn from the project, and the project “learns” from your experience and mistakes. It sleeps for some months, then polymorphs in the most unexpected way… day by day, as years go by, ideas acummulate in the developer head, notepads are scratched on idle times, the mind flies during boring corporate meetings or classes. Some of these ideas are lucky enough to make it into an actual implementation.

Incursion 0.6.0 has been released. What can I say? this is a masterpiece in progress by Julian Mensch, a roguelike game so detailed and with so many interesting features it can hardly be described until you see for yourself; the vast number of options, the extremely detailed descriptions of races, classes, rooms, skills, combat! and it is not just about cute literary descriptions; everything has an impact on the game, which is a pleasure to play with its many good user interface features and customization.

I only wish I could have had more time to provide a detailed review of this great game, I am afraid I could only chop the top of an iceberg, which I hope to tackle later on, as it is really worth it.

The project is still under development, but it is very enjoyable and will surely make your jaw drop. It is actually part of a much bigger project which will probably be in the fight for the ultimate roguelike of the milennia. An interesting white paper about these can be found here; there is also a nice detailed manual you can browse online to know a bit more about the game.

Incursion is a freeware roguelike (meaning a text-map, turn-based computer game featuring character growth, permanent death and an emphasis on strategy and gameplay depth) game based on (but not strictly adherant to) the mechanics of the d20 system made available under the Open Game License by Wizards of the Coast — the same rules system used by the popular tabletop roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons.

Incursion: Halls of the Goblin King
Developer: Julian Mensch
Licence: Freeware
Status: 0.6.0

Prepare again for a journey into the chilly caves, as a new version of Frozen Depths has been released after almost one year of work.

Many enhancements make the game much better now, and it is overall fun to play, with interesting content and a theme completely integrated into the gameplay. Prepare to kick ice blocks and loot frozen adventurers bodies, while whacking ice crabs and eating your warm goo. Beware the big mosquitos!
A fairly advanced UI, a complete point based skill system and the temperature system that requires you to gather clothing and take care of becoming a frozen @.

Grab your copy while it is cold at the official website

Donnie Rusell, the same guy from AGB-Rogue, which I have posted about early on, announces the release of a new version of AGB-Hack.

So, if you are tired of dying at the hands of the evil RNG, or just want to feel a bit of pet company, this is your chance :)

The game uses the same “ported UI” than AGB-Rogue, which means you can play the game just like you were on a PC (You have access to a virtual keyboard, which is tied to the key-bindings for quick reference).

This one, however, comes with no tiles. But in my opinion, half the charm of Hack (and NetHack) comes from their ASCII modes.

AGB_Hack is an adaptation of Don Kneller’s PC Hack 3.61 to the GameBoy Advance.

New features:

* Menu-based inventory/command interface. You can now select an object in your inventory and perform actions relevant to it.
* Many selections that previously required a keypress have been
converted to menus.

* Bugfixes, optimizations and small changes to improve playability
(see changes.txt file for details)

AGB-Hack
Developer: Donnie Rusell
Licence: Freeware
Status: 1.4

A port of Rogue for the Gameboy Advance handheld console… it supports both a nethackish tiles mode and an emulated console display…

User interface is a bit tricky, but once you get a hold of it it may be decently playable… you know, there are only 4 buttons here :)

It also introduces ranks, as descriptions for the character levels.

The game is pretty close to the original (some parts even print “press space to continue” :P), although it introduces new monsters and gameplay is probably a bit on the easier side.

Of course, the best way to enjoy this game is play it on a real console (that is, not using an emulator). I am sure this will be a good friend for your long trips or boring meetings :)

AGB_Rogue is an adaptation of PC Rogue version 1.48 to the GameBoyAdvance.
New features:
* Graphical tiles and minimap (text mode is still available)
* Additional sound effects
* Menu-based command/inventory interface

AGB-Rogue
Developer: Donnie Rusell
Licence: Freeware (Source available)
Status: 1.2 Stable

I wrote a review for SewerJacks back when the game was released for a 7DRL challenge.

Corremn has just announced a new version with exciting new features and improvements, while keeping the spirit that made the original game unique and fun!

This roguelike game uses blood bowl rules (a football RPG system) to make close combat much more interesting, including teaming up with fellow sewerjackers, using terrain to your advantage, blitzing away or to the enemies, amongst lots of special characters each one with an unique twist.

What are you waiting for? a world of fame and glory awaits you in the sewers!*

* Not really

Take your failed Blood Bowl player down into the sewer depths and seek out fame and glory.
Show those team selectors what they are missing.
Team up with other ex-footballers to eradicate the filthy vermin found within or go it alone.
Pit your skills against chainsaw wielding fanatics, goblin bombardiers, dark elf assassins and goblin throwing trolls.
Ruthlessly destroy the undead or take on the tough dwarfs, the choice is yours.

SewerJacks
Developer: Corremn
Licence: Undefined (Source available)
Status: 0.8.1.