Angband (video game)

{{Infobox video game

| title = Angband

| image = Angband.png

| caption =

| developer = Angband Development Team

| publisher =

| director =

| designer =

| programmer =

| artist =

| writer =

| composer =

| series =

| engine =

| released = Initial
{{Start date and age|df=yes|1993|04|11}}{{cite web |title=Angband Releases: 2.4.frog-knows - angband.github.io |url=https://rephial.org/release/2.4.fk |website=rephial.org |access-date=30 August 2023}}
Stable
4.2.5 / {{Start date and age|df=yes|2023|08|19}}

| genre = Roguelike

| modes = Single-player, multiplayer

| platforms = Unix-like, Windows, Mac OS

}}

Angband is a dungeon-crawling roguelike video 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. It is identified as one of the "major roguelikes" by John Harris.{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=John |date=2 February 2011 |title=Analysis: The Eight Rules Of Roguelike Design |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/analysis-the-eight-rules-of-roguelike-design |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=Game Developer |language=en}} Angband is free and open source game under the GNU GPLv2 or the angband license.{{Citation |title=Angband 4.2.4 |date=2023-06-29 |url=https://github.com/angband/angband |access-date=2023-06-30 |publisher=Angband}}{{Cite web |title=Home of Angband - angband.github.io |url=https://rephial.org/ |access-date=2023-06-30 |website=rephial.org}}

Gameplay

The goal of Angband is to survive 100 floor levels of the fortress Angband in order to defeat Morgoth.{{cite web|url=http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/01/play_angband_at_last.php|title=COLUMN: @Play: Angband—At Last!|author=Harris, John|work=GameSetWatch|date=19 January 2008|access-date=2016-08-19|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924020726/http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/01/play_angband_at_last.php|url-status=dead}} The game is reputed to be extremely difficult.{{cite web |last=Morgan |first=Dale |date=25 October 2013 |url=http://www.allaboutthegames.co.uk/feature_story.php?article_id=12634 |title=Angband Retrospective |website=All About the Games |access-date=2013-11-03| archive-url=https://archive.today/20131104102631/http://www.allaboutthegames.co.uk/feature_story.php?article_id=12634 |archive-date=4 November 2013}}{{cite web |last=the Ark |first=Ick |date=5 April 2010 |title=Is Angband Olde Schoole? |url=https://likebeingreadtofromdictionaries.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/is-angband-old-schoole.html |website=Like Being Read To from Dictionaries |access-date=2013-11-03 |archive-date=22 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822140045/http://likebeingreadtofromdictionaries.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/is-angband-old-schoole.html |url-status=dead}}

The player begins in a town where they can buy equipment before beginning the descent. Once in the maze-like fortress, the player encounters traps, monsters, equipment, and hidden doors.{{cite web|last1=Weisiger|first1=Chris|title=The Angband Newbie Guide|url=http://thangorodrim.net/TANG/index.html|website=Thangorodrim|year=1999|access-date=2016-08-19|archive-date=7 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407214359/http://www.thangorodrim.net/TANG/index.html|url-status=dead}} With the help of found objects and enchantments, the player's attack and defense power increases, and can even neutralise specific attacks. The player also meets characters and finds artifacts from Tolkien's legendarium.

Angband gameplay emphasises combat and careful resource management. The player has a certain amount of health points. Although Angband records the player's progress to a save file, it does not allow one to resume a saved game in which the player character has already been beaten. The levels are procedurally generated, allowing for a unique game in every play.

Development

The first version of Angband was created by Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand at the University of Warwick in 1990.[http://www.thangorodrim.net/history/version.txt history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004224846/http://www.thangorodrim.net/history/version.txt|date=4 October 2016}} in version.txt 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 finally released the game to the public with the version named "2.4.frog_knows" on 11 April 1993. The game, which was previously confined to the University of Warwick, was then 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

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 was therefore later removed.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

The original Moria/Angband software license{{refn|group=notes|The "Angband licence": This software may be copied and distributed for educational, research, and not for profit purposes provided that this copyright and statement are included in all such copies. Other copyrights may also apply.e.g. https://github.com/angband/angband/blob/master/src/cmd-wizard.c}} allowed distribution of the game, but 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 initiative to re-license Angband was therefore started by maintainer Rühlmann in 2000.{{cite web|url=http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rec.games.roguelike.angband/msg/f391c73356981524?dmode=source |title=Angband OpenSource Initiative |date=2000-06-07 |first=Robert|last=Rühlmann}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.thangorodrim.net/development/opensource.html |title=Opensource |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-date=26 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326083215/http://www.thangorodrim.net/development/opensource.html |url-status=dead}} This "Angband Open Source Initiative" was designed to make Angband proper Open source under the GPL license. The process was completed on 9 January 2009.{{cite web|url =https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/rec.games.roguelike.angband/DtJai-eJRHA/UBzUYZn8si0J|title=Re: Angband 3.1.0 beta released|last=Sidwell|first=Andi|date=2009-01-09|access-date=2009-01-09}}

Rühlmann stepped down in October 2005,{{cite web|url= https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.angband/browse_thread/thread/b23070da01b64866/1a7ace090a5ff90c|title=Stepping down as Angband Maintainer|access-date=2007-12-24|last=Rühlmann |first=Robert |date=2005-10-09 |work=rec.games.roguelike.angband}} leading to a brief period of uncertainty.{{cite web|url= https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.games.roguelike.angband/tIVXIE04Q8c#fa720195b0bc4190 |title=So Who is the New Maintainer? |access-date=2007-12-24|date=2005-11-18|work=rec.games.roguelike.angband}} Julian Lighton was later announced as the new maintainer in March 2006, but did not release a new version of the game.{{cite web | url=http://angband.oook.cz/rgra.php?showpost=72226 | title=Stepping down as Angband Maintainer | access-date=2007-12-24 | last=Ruehlmann | first=Robert | date=2006-03-05 | work=rec.games.roguelike.angband | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080112175921/http://angband.oook.cz/rgra.php?showpost=72226 | archive-date=2008-01-12 | url-status= live}} Due to the absence of Lighton, Andi Sidwell assumed maintainership, with the support of the community, in December 2007.{{cite web|url=http://angband.oook.cz/rgra.php?showpost=93663|title=Re: Angband Maintainer|access-date=2007-12-24|last=Sidwell|first=Andrew|date=2007-03-23|work=rec.games.roguelike.angband|archive-date=28 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928124839/http://angband.oook.cz/rgra.php?showpost=93663|url-status=dead}} Under their watch, other developers have come on board and the game has seen significant gameplay and internal code changes. Maintainership passed over to the current maintainer Nick McConnell, starting from version 4.0.0 (2015).{{Cite web|url=https://rephial.org/release/4.0.0|title=Angband Releases: 4.0.0 - angband.github.io}}

Community

Some loci of Angband discussion are the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.angband, the [http://angband.oook.cz/index.php Angband Forum website], and the IRC channels #angband (on WorldIRC) and #angband-dev (on Freenode). Some players continue to play Angband for several years.{{cite web |last=Savage |first=Laurence |date=21 April 2013 |url=http://videogamegeek.com/thread/961690/well-into-its-second-decade-angband-still-delights |title=Well Into Its Second Decade Angband Still Delights |website=Videogamegeek.com |access-date=2013-11-03}}{{Cite web |title=Dubtrain Angband Sound Pack v3.1.0 |url=http://www.dubtrain.com/angband/ |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=www.dubtrain.com}}{{Cite web |title=Copying and licence information — The Angband Manual |url=https://angband.readthedocs.io/en/latest/copying.html |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=angband.readthedocs.io}}

Derivative works

Among Angband's many derivatives{{cite web|url= http://angband.oook.cz/variants.php?ordrd=1|title=Angband variant list|access-date=2009-01-18}} are MAngband (1997), a multiplayer variant; Zangband ("Zelazny"+"Angband") (1994), which incorporates elements of Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber novels;{{cite web|url=http://www.zangband.org/|title=zangband.org |access-date=2009-01-17 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090122202032/http://zangband.org/ |archive-date=2009-01-22 |url-status= live}} and Tales of Middle Earth (1998), a Tolkien-themed game developed from the ZAngband code base. Tales of Middle Earth's source code and story were later rewritten, and the game became Tales of Maj'Eyal (2012).

Legacy

David Brevik cited Angband{{'}}s randomized levels and items as a "huge influence" on Diablo and "the model of what we wanted".{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/video/watch/war-stories-how-one-gameplay-decision-changed-diablo-forever |title=War Stories: How One Gameplay Decision Changed Diablo Forever |date=18 August 2020 |website=Ars Technica |access-date=2020-08-27}}

Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player Two features the dungeon from Angband and "Morgoth's crown" as the location of one of the Seven Shards that the protagonists must collect.

Notes

References

External links

{{official website|http://rephial.org/}}
{{Internet Archive game|id=msdos_Angband_1992}}
[http://angband.live/ Angband.live] where one can play Angband, and several variants, online
{{MobyGames|id=/angband}}
[https://roguebasin.com/index.php/Zangband Zangband] (Zelazny + Angband)
[https://tangaria.com/variants/ Angband variants table] - list of 140+ Angband variants

Category:1990 video games

Category:Acorn Archimedes games

Category:Classic Mac OS games

Category:MacOS games

Category:Video games based on Middle-earth

Category:Video games with gender-selectable protagonists

Category:OS/2 games

Category:Roguelike video games