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Angband (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Angband is a dungeon-crawling
roguelike
computer game
derived from Umoria
. It is based on the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien
, in which Angband is the fortress of Morgoth
. The current version of Angband is available for all major operating systems, including Unix
, Windows
, Mac OS X
, and Android.
dungeon, in which the player seeks to amass enough power and equipment to ultimately defeat Morgoth
. A new level is randomly generated
each time the player changes levels, which gives Angband great replay value
: no two games are the same.
Angband gameplay is combat and tactics based, with inventory management as an important aspect of gameplay. Angband games can last for weeks.
in 1990. They wanted to expand the game Umoria by adding items, monsters, and features. After Cutler and Astrand, the source code
was maintained at the University of Warwick by Geoff Hill and Sean Marsh. They released "2.4.frog_knows", which was enhanced by others and widely ported to non-Unix platforms.
Following their departure, the later principals of Angband have included Charles Swiger, Ben Harrison, and Robert Rühlmann. Harrison was the maintainer responsible for the "Great Code Cleanup", modularizing, extending, and greatly improving the readability of the Angband source code. This in turn led to the large number of variants currently available, as well as the rather large number of ports. Like other maintainers, he eventually moved on to other interests, passing the title to Robert Rühlmann in 2000.
Rühlmann's contributions included releasing version 3.0, which included many monster and object changes contributed by Jonathan Ellis. He also introduced Lua
, a lightweight scripting language, with the intention of simplifying development of both the main game and its variants. The Angband community, however, did not generally embrace the addition of scripting, with many expressing confusion over its usage, and as such it was later removed.
While Rühlmann was maintainer, he started the Angband Open Source Initiative, designed to place Angband under a Free Software
license. Although the original license (Moria/Angband license) allows distribution of the game, it only does so if "not for profit", which precludes packaging with many Linux
distributions or inclusion within a magazine cover disc. The license also does not explicitly allow code modification, something which is in practice ignored by the Angband community. In light of these perceived issues, an effort to re-license Angband under the GNU GPL was started in 2000 and completed on January 9, 2009.
Rühlmann stepped down in October 2005, leading to a brief period of uncertainty. However, Julian Lighton was soon announced as the new maintainer in March 2006, but did not release a new version of the game. Due to the absence of Julian, Andi Sidwell assumed maintainership, with the support of the community, in December 2007. Under their watch, other developers have come on board and the game has seen significant gameplay and internal code changes.
network.
's The Chronicles of Amber
. Topi Ylinen initiated development, though the project involved others, including Robert Rühlmann. Most development ceased in 2006. Formerly Tolkien-flavoured variant Tales of Middle Earth (ToME) was originally derived from the ZAngband code base, but was rewritten from scratch for version 4.0.0, and no longer uses a Tolkien setting as it now has its own original fantasy setting.
Dungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
derived from Umoria
Moria (computer game)
Moria is a roguelike computer game based heavily on J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. The game's objective is to kill a Balrog, presumably Durin's Bane, deep within the Mines of Moria. A later port of Moria called Umoria inspired the Angband roguelike game...
. It is based on the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, in which Angband is the fortress of Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
. The current version of Angband is available for all major operating systems, including Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
, Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and Android.
Gameplay
The game revolves around exploring a 100-levelLevel (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
dungeon, in which the player seeks to amass enough power and equipment to ultimately defeat Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
. A new level is randomly generated
Random dungeon
A random dungeon is a dungeon in a role-playing video game which is procedurally generated by the computer using an algorithm, such that the dungeon is laid out differently every time the player enters it, and a player often never plays through quite the same dungeon twice. Random dungeons are...
each time the player changes levels, which gives Angband great replay value
Replay value
Replay value or replayability is a term found in combination with video games, but it may be also used to describe other kinds of games, movies, music, or theater plays. In video games, the term replay value is used to describe the entertainment value of playing a game more than once...
: no two games are the same.
Angband gameplay is combat and tactics based, with inventory management as an important aspect of gameplay. Angband games can last for weeks.
History
The first version of Angband was created by Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand at the University of WarwickUniversity of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
in 1990. They wanted to expand the game Umoria by adding items, monsters, and features. After Cutler and Astrand, the source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
was maintained at the University of Warwick by Geoff Hill and Sean Marsh. They released "2.4.frog_knows", which was enhanced by others and widely ported to non-Unix platforms.
Following their departure, the later principals of Angband have included Charles Swiger, Ben Harrison, and Robert Rühlmann. Harrison was the maintainer responsible for the "Great Code Cleanup", modularizing, extending, and greatly improving the readability of the Angband source code. This in turn led to the large number of variants currently available, as well as the rather large number of ports. Like other maintainers, he eventually moved on to other interests, passing the title to Robert Rühlmann in 2000.
Rühlmann's contributions included releasing version 3.0, which included many monster and object changes contributed by Jonathan Ellis. He also introduced Lua
Lua programming language
Lua is a lightweight multi-paradigm programming language designed as a scripting language with extensible semantics as a primary goal. Lua has a relatively simple C API compared to other scripting languages.- History :...
, a lightweight scripting language, with the intention of simplifying development of both the main game and its variants. The Angband community, however, did not generally embrace the addition of scripting, with many expressing confusion over its usage, and as such it was later removed.
While Rühlmann was maintainer, he started the Angband Open Source Initiative, designed to place Angband under a Free Software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
license. Although the original license (Moria/Angband license) allows distribution of the game, it only does so if "not for profit", which precludes packaging with many Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distributions or inclusion within a magazine cover disc. The license also does not explicitly allow code modification, something which is in practice ignored by the Angband community. In light of these perceived issues, an effort to re-license Angband under the GNU GPL was started in 2000 and completed on January 9, 2009.
Rühlmann stepped down in October 2005, leading to a brief period of uncertainty. However, Julian Lighton was soon announced as the new maintainer in March 2006, but did not release a new version of the game. Due to the absence of Julian, Andi Sidwell assumed maintainership, with the support of the community, in December 2007. Under their watch, other developers have come on board and the game has seen significant gameplay and internal code changes.
Community
The Usenet newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.angband and the Angband Forum are the loci of the Angband community, places to discuss all aspects of the game. An IRC channel, #angband, exists on the WorldIRC network, and another, #angband-dev exists on the freenodeFreenode
freenode, formerly known as Open Projects Network, is an IRC network used to discuss peer-directed projects. Their servers are all accessible from the domain name [irc://chat.freenode.net chat.freenode.net], which load balances connections by using the actual servers in rotation...
network.
Variants
Angband has spawned many derivatives. A family of around sixty variants exist, of which roughly half a dozen are active. Each differs in purpose and degree of alteration. The multiplayer variant MAngband was developed in 1997; it includes real-time elements to support simultaneous gameplay. ZAngband (Zelazny Angband), is largely based on Roger ZelaznyRoger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
's The Chronicles of Amber
The Chronicles of Amber
The Chronicles of Amber is group of novels that comprise a fantasy series written by Roger Zelazny. The main series consists of two story arcs, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Amber short stories and other works....
. Topi Ylinen initiated development, though the project involved others, including Robert Rühlmann. Most development ceased in 2006. Formerly Tolkien-flavoured variant Tales of Middle Earth (ToME) was originally derived from the ZAngband code base, but was rewritten from scratch for version 4.0.0, and no longer uses a Tolkien setting as it now has its own original fantasy setting.
External links
, with wiki and development information- Angband at oook.cz, with forum, spoilers, and other resources
- Angband at RogueBasin - overview, history, licensing, links
- ToME - The Fourth Age (Official site)