S2 E2: How Rogue and the Roguelike Were Born

Where did Rogue and the Roguelike come from? Created to appease its own programmer’s lust for adventure, Rouge (1980) built the game world from scratch each time you played. On top of that, it is one of the first games that based its play and setting on the still relatively new Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying system. Today Rogue’s insistence on meaningful consequences, opaque mechanics, and randomization is felt recent hit Rogulike games like Hades and Returnal as well as less obviously in Dark Souls and its ilk. But how does the originator hold up over 40 years later? This week on Gameography we head into the Dungeon of Doom to find out!

Notes

1. A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom by Michael Toy and Ken Arnold
2. A Brief History of “Rogue” by Glenn Wichman
3. The Making of Rogue
4. Rogue authors on the game’s legacy
5. Rogue – Exploring the Dungeons of Doom (1980)