ToME (computer game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tales of Middle Earth

Developer(s)	DarkGod, many others
Latest version	2.3.4
Release date(s)	December 14, 2005
Genre(s)	Roguelike game
Mode(s)	Single player / multiplayer (TomeNET)
Platform(s)	Cross-platform
Media	Download the game View Java screencasts

ToME, or Tales (or Troubles) of Middle Earth, is a free roguelike computer game created in 1998 by someone who identifies himself only as DarkGod. ToME is an Angband variant, originally based on the ZAngband 2.2.9a source code, which now differs greatly from it. ToME was also used as a base for many derivative games known as modules. Popular modules include Bone to be Wild, E-Team, FuryMod, Theme, Dragonball T, Gerband and Annals of Ea.

The game was originally known as PernAngband, and was essentially a crossover that placed characters from Anne McCaffrey's fictional world of Pern into J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world of Arda.

By the time of version 5.x.x, PernAngband had attracted a substantial online community. However, it came under legal threat from Anne McCaffrey and from Ubisoft, a company that had created several licensed Pern-related games. At this time most elements of Pern were already removed from the game, so DarkGod removed the last Pern elements and changed the name of the game to ToME.

The game is set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Arda, although other influences include H. P. Lovecraft and Roger Zelazny's Amber universe. These are inherited from Cthangband and ZAngband, respectively.

The player creates a character from an extended list of races and classes, ranging from Dúnadan warriors to Elven magi. The player then explores the world of middle-earth, destroying monsters, finding items, and gaining power, with the ultimate goal to destroy Morgoth, Lord of Darkness.

There is also a multiplayer version of ToME, which is called TomeNET.

ToME is under active development. The game is freely distributed, along with its source code, under a license that allows sharing and modification of the game but not commercial use. Bugs should be reported on ToME's own wiki. Currently in alpha release is ToME 3, which will include greater support for the Lua programming language and drastically change the internal handling of objects and flags.

Important features of ToME which are not in Angband include: