Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

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Brail
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Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by Brail »

So Dungeons of Dredmore was my very first Roguelike dungeon crawl, and LoG has been amazing so far.

I want to check out some old ones that were the basis for these games. I hear a lot about Dungeon Master, for example.

Where should I start?
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gambit37
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by gambit37 »

Definitely start with Dungeon Master. It's the grand-daddy of them all and although the graphics aren't as good as some of the later games such as Eye of the Beholder, it has a purity that later games lack. It also defined most of what this genre copied, including Grimrock, so if you want to know how all this real-time dungeon crawling started, play Dungeon Master :)
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Nachtfischer
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by Nachtfischer »

Brail wrote:So Dungeons of Dredmore was my very first Roguelike dungeon crawl, and LoG has been amazing so far.
First of all one has got to differentiate. While both those games you mentioned are dungeon crawlers with spatial (grid based) movement, that's also where the similarities end. The most defining (and maybe the oddest) features for roguelikes are random content generation, permadeath and turn-based movement. None of those are present in LoG (all of them in Dredmor, permadeath at least through an option).

So, if you are looking for old-school, first-person, grid-based RPGs like LoG I can obviously also recommend Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder (maybe the biggest inspirations for LoG). Something slightly more modern would be Lands of Lore (one of my favourite games ever). If you don't mind having no party, but making your way with one single character you could also take a look at Anvil of Dawn (the best graphics of the old ones).

If you want to play a roguelike on the other hand, there's the obvious recommendations (also known as "major roguelikes"): ADOM, Angband, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, NetHack, Tales of Maj'Eyal (or "ToME", immensely polished, great UI!). Those are big ones, pretty complex and can be hard to get into. For some tighter experiences, check out Brogue (best looking ASCII ever) or DoomRL (it's like a roguelike-shooter) first. And then there's still so many unique games in this genre, I could spend hours going on about them... :P

A last hint: If you want to play a combination of the two kinds of games mentioned, try DungeonHack, a first-person roguelike. Hope you find something worthy! :)
Brail
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by Brail »

Thank you for the info! I wasnt aware of what classified something as Roguelike or not, very helpful to know.
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stage
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by stage »

And if you want and old-school like but modern rogue like crawler take a look at Monster's Den: Book of Dread and also follow on the Godfall release. And by the look of it the next gen has been released already without my knowledge :o Monster's Den: Chronicles
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Nachtfischer
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by Nachtfischer »

Brail wrote:Thank you for the info! I wasnt aware of what classified something as Roguelike or not, very helpful to know.
If you want more detailed info on that, you can take a look at the Berlin Interpretation. While it should not be taken as "the definite answer", it's perhaps the most helpful document to tell you what the roguelike genre is all about.
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EvoluZion3
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by EvoluZion3 »

As mentioned above, Dungeon Master is the daddy of them all. Chaos Strikes Back is the successor to DM (there is a DM2 but CSB comes between) and is advisable for DM veterans only! :)
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Miles-McStyles
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by Miles-McStyles »

Well, I kinda just associate "Dungeon Crawler" with 'First Person RPG", which are rare enough as it is.

Dating back to the PS1, my first and favorite First Person RPG series is King's Field.

King's Field 2 Gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCEy2EEt0GY

Truly one of the best franchises ever made, I feel King's Field pulls off what most other first person RPG's don't: the feeling that your character is ALONE and every other living thing around you is TRYING TO KILL YOU. Apparently the creators of King's Field (From Software) eventually made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. I haven't played them though.

There are other good first person RPG's that can set up a great looking dungeon, like Dark Messiah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4s8LTCz ... re=related) for example. But the main character in Dark Messiah is basically followed around by 2 gorgeous women, one of whom makes it clear the whole game that she'd like to sleep with you. It takes away the eery feeling of what a Dungeon Crawler really is.

Other than that, the Elder Scrolls series is all first person RPG, and certain other actual RPG's(Turn based battles) can be in first person format, like Shining the Holy Ark for Sega Saturn.

IMO I think these games aren't getting enough attention because makers of games spend a whole lot of time creating and designing and rendering a "main character" that it they would feel weird if their players weren't seeing that character at all times.
wlcina
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by wlcina »

Brail wrote:So Dungeons of Dredmore was my very first Roguelike dungeon crawl, and LoG has been amazing so far.

I want to check out some old ones that were the basis for these games. I hear a lot about Dungeon Master, for example.

Where should I start?
Start with Dungeon Master, then Dungeon Master 2, and try Chaos strikes Back - the last one is really hard!

All 3 games you can play on modern pc on Windows OS (w764bit included) with Return To Chaos remake

http://ragingmole.com/RTC/

Wish you fun and good entertainment :D
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kitty
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Re: Want to play older dungeon crawlers.Where to start?

Post by kitty »

wlcina wrote:
Brail wrote:So Dungeons of Dredmore was my very first Roguelike dungeon crawl, and LoG has been amazing so far.

I want to check out some old ones that were the basis for these games. I hear a lot about Dungeon Master, for example.

Where should I start?
Start with Dungeon Master, then Dungeon Master 2, and try Chaos strikes Back - the last one is really hard!

All 3 games you can play on modern pc on Windows OS (w764bit included) with Return To Chaos remake

http://ragingmole.com/RTC/

Wish you fun and good entertainment :D
I prefer DM2 DosBoxed version instead of RTC. DM a CSB in RTC is ok.
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