Chronology of roguelike video games

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This is a selected list of roguelike video games.

Legend

Video game platforms
AMI Commodore Amiga
APPII Apple II
ATR Atari 8-bit family
BEOS BeOS
C64 Commodore 64
CROSS Cross-platform
DC Dreamcast
DEC DEC Professional
DOS DOS / MS-DOS
DROID Android
DS Nintendo DS
GB Game Boy
GBA Game Boy Advance
GBC Game Boy Color
GEN Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive
GG Sega Game Gear
INT Intellivision
iOS iOS
LIN Linux
MAC Macintosh / Mac OS
MSX MSX
OS2 OS/2
OSX Mac OS X
N64 Nintendo 64
P2000 Philips P2000
PC88 NEC PC-8801
PC98 NEC PC-9801
PET Commodore PET
PS1 PlayStation / PSone
PS2 PlayStation 2
PSP PlayStation Portable
SAT Sega Saturn
SMS Sega Master System
SNES Super NES / Super Famicom
TRS80 TRS-80
VIC20 Commodore VIC-20
Wii Wii
WIN Microsoft Windows
WIN3X Windows 3.x
WS WonderSwan
XBLA Xbox Live Arcade
  

Roguelikes

The following is a list of roguelike games that are generally considered to hold true to the Berlin Interpretation of a "roguelike".

First Last Title Developer Setting Platform Notes
1978 Beneath Apple Manor Don Worth Fantasy APPII One of the earliest commercial Apple II games. It predates Rogue, and was much simpler, but supported a low resolution graphical display in addition to the text version. Was ported to the IBM PC in 1983.[1]
1979 DUNGEON Brian Sawyer Fantasy PET Published in Cursor issue 15[2][3][4][5]
1980 Rogue Michael Toy, others Fantasy CROSS Inspired the genre as a whole.
1982 Telengard Daniel Lawrence Fantasy APPII, ATR, C64, TRS80 Some roguelike features. Play is in real time. Levels are not randomly generated.
1982 Sword of Fargoal Jeff McCord Fantasy C64, PET, VIC20 Real time action gameplay. Based on Gammaquest II by the same author.
1982 Hack Jay Fenlason, Andries Brouwer, others Fantasy CROSS Later became the basis for NetHack.
1982 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain Mattel Electronics Fantasy INT
1983 1999 Moria Robert Alan Koeneke & Jimmey Wayne Todd Fantasy CROSS Based heavily on The Lord of the Rings. Later port (Umoria) became the basis of Angband. Influenced the preliminary design of Blizzard's Diablo.[6]
1985 1987 Dungeon of Doom, The John Raymonds Fantasy MAC Released commercially in 1987 as The Dungeon Revealed.
1985 Island of Kesmai John Taylor, Kelton Flinn Fantastical CROSS Early CompuServe commercial multiplayer game
1986 1987 Larn Noah Morgan, Phil Cordier Fantasy CROSS Original version of Larn remains part of the NetBSD games collection.[7]
1987 2003 NetHack The NetHack DevTeam Fantasy CROSS Descendant of Hack.
1987 2010 Omega Laurence Brothers Fantasy CROSS Features a rich, persistent and quirky world and multiple endings.
1987 1992 Scarab of Ra Rick Holzgrafe Modern, Fantasy MAC Turn-based Roguelike played in first-person 3D.
1988 Moraff's Revenge Steve Moraff Fantasy DOS One of the earliest 3D, first-person perspective role-playing video games.
1989 N/A Castle of the Winds SaadaSoft Fantasy WIN3X
1990 N/A Dragon Crystal Sega Fantasy GG, SMS
1990 2013 Angband Alex Cutler, Andy Astrand Fantasy CROSS Based heavily on The Silmarillion.
1991 N/A Cave Noire Konami Fantasy GB Simplistic dungeon crawler with random room placement, loot and monsters.
1991 N/A Fatal Labyrinth Sega Fantasy GEN
1991 Moraff's World Steve Moraff Fantasy DOS Sequel to Moraff's Revenge.
1992 Mission Thunderbolt Dave Scheifler, John Calhoun Futuristic DEC, MAC, WIN
1992 1995 Ragnarok Norsehelm Fantasy DOS
1992 2015 UnReal World Sami Maaranen Wilderness survival, Historical DOS, WIN, LIN, OSX Graphical roguelike set in the far north during the late Iron-Age. It's open-ended and emphasized on survival in the harsh ancient wilderness.
1993 Torneko no Daiboken: Fushigi no Dungeon Chunsoft Fantasy SNES
1993 Dungeons of the Unforgiven Steve Moraff Fantasy DOS The final of the series that began with Moraff's Revenge and continued with Moraff's World.
1993 N/A Dungeon Hack DreamForge Fantasy DOS Features a pseudo-3D game screen based on SSI's Eye of the Beholder series. It uses the rules mechanics of AD&D 2nd Edition.
1994 2015 Ancient Domains of Mystery Thomas Biskup Fantasy AMI, BeOS, DOS, LIN, OS2, OSX, WIN
1994 2012 World of Arch I.A. Jääskeläinen Fantasy AMI, WIN
1994 Zangband Topi Ylinen Fantasy CROSS Angband variant based on Roger Zelazny's "Amber" novels
1995 The Sorcerer's Cave Peter Donnelly/Skookum Fantasy WIN Based on Donnelly's "roguelike" boardgames, The Sorcerer's Cave (1978) and Mystic Wood published by Avalon Hill in 1980
1995 Alphaman Jeffrey R. Olson Post-apocalypse Science Fiction DOS Features "elaborate use of colors and the extended IBM character set"
1995, 2008 Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer Chunsoft Fantasy DS, GB, SNES
1997, 1999 Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Square Fantasy PS1, WS
1997 2005 Linley's Dungeon Crawl Linley Henzell Fantasy CROSS
1997 1997 Slash'EM The Slash'EM development team Fantasy CROSS A variant of NetHack with extra features
1998 2008 Baroque Sting Fantasy PS1, PS2, SAT, Wii
1998 2008 Tales (or Troubles) of Middle Earth DarkGod, others Fantastical CROSS Based on the PernBand variant of Angband, and thus on The Lord of the Rings. Author no longer maintains it, but a separate maintenance branch repository exists.[8]
1998, 1999 Chocobo's Dungeon 2 Square Fantasy PS1 Sequel to Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon.
1998 2000 Azure Dreams Konami Fantasy PS1, GBC
1998 Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic The Slash'EM development team Fantasy CROSS Variant of NetHack.
1999, 2001 Torneko: The Last Hope Chunsoft Fantasy GBA, PS1 Sequel to Torneko no Daiboken: Fushigi no Dungeon.
2000 2001 Dark Cloud Level-5 Fantasy PS2 Also included a city-building aspect, making it not purely a roguelike, though dungeons did include a roguelike engine.
2000 2001 Falcon's Eye Jaakko Peltonen Fantasy CROSS Graphical update to NetHack.
2000 Fushigi no Dungeon: Fūrai no Shiren 2: Oni Shūrai! Siren-jō! Chunsoft Fantasy N64
2001 Shiren The Wanderer GB2: Magic Castle of the Desert Chunsoft Fantasy GBC Successor to the gameboy port of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer.
2002 2003 Dark Chronicle/Dark Cloud 2 Level-5 Fantasy PS2 Much like its predecessor, Dark Cloud, it wasn't a pure roguelike, including world-building aspects, though dungeons remained roguelike.
2002 2013 Doom, the Roguelike Kornel Kisielewicz Futuristic, Fantasy LIN, WIN Based on the Doom series by id Software.
2004 TwinBee Konami Fantasy Mobile Phone Themed by TwinBee Universe.
2004 Nightmare of Druaga: Fushigino Dungeon, The Arika, Chunsoft Fantasy PS2 Sequel to The Blue Crystal Rod for SNES.
2005 N/A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team[9] Chunsoft Modern, Fantasy DS
2005 N/A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team Chunsoft Modern, Fantasy GBA
2005 2006 Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal Konami Fantasy DS Semi-sequel to Azure Dreams.
2006 Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja Success Fantasy DS
2006 2013 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Community Fantasy CROSS (open source) Fork of Linley's Dungeon Crawl
2006 2015 Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress Tarn Adams Fantasy LIN, OSX, WIN
2006 Dragon Quest: Shonen Yangus to Fushigi no Dungeon cavia Fantasy PS2 Spin-off of Dragon Quest VIII.
2007 N/A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness Chunsoft Modern, Fantasy DS
2007 N/A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time Chunsoft Modern, Fantasy DS
2007 2008 Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns Ninja Studio Fantasy DS Sequel to Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
2008 Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon Square Enix Fantasy Wii [10]
2008 2010 Shiren the Wanderer Chunsoft Fantasy Wii, PSP 3rd game in the series.[11]
2009 N/A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Chunsoft Modern, Fantasy DS [12]
2009 2012 Brogue Brian Walker Fantasy WIN, MAC, LIN
2010 100 Rogues Dinofarm Games Fantasy iOS
2010 Smart Kobold Jeff Lait Fantasy WIN, Linux A "seven-day roguelike" that was selected for demonstration at IndieCade, E3 2010. It attempts to implement a high level of artificial intelligence for a single type of enemy.[13]
2010 Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman Nippon Ichi Software Fantasy PSP [14]
2011 Deadly Dungeons CodeZombie Games Fantasy Android 3D Dungeon exploration with randomly generated floors, items, and creatures. Movement is tile-based. First-person roguelike [15] gameplay similar to Dungeon Hack.
2011 Dungeons of Dredmor Gaslamp Games Fantasy WIN, LIN, OSX Tile-based movement with rudimentary graphics and a sense of humour.[16]
2011 Tales of Maj'Eyal Nicolas ‘DarkGod’ Casalini Fantasy RPG WIN, LIN, OSX Graphical rewrite of the author's earlier ToME (video game). Turn based role playing game based on its own fantasy universe. Players unlock most classes, story threads are available, and elements have been taken from MMOs to significantly change the combat.
2012 2015 Ultima Ratio Regum Mark R Johnson Historical WIN Non-combat-focused roguelike about exploring and deciphering an intellectual conspiracy to rewrite history; set in the Renaissance/Scientific Revolution.
2013 Sword of the Stars: The Pit Kerberos Productions Sci-Fi RPG WIN Turn based, 2D Dungeon crawl, RPG based in the Sword of the Stars universe. Players are able to collect equipment, weapons, armor, and ingredients for crafting. Explore 30 levels and death is permanent.
2013 WazHack Warwick "Waz" Allison Fantasy RPG IOS, DROID, WIN, OSX Turn based, 2D side-scrollingDungeon crawl, RPG. Players are able to collect equipment, weapons, armor, potions, and scrolls while combating enemies and starvation. Fights and levels are random and death is permanent.
2013 The Guided Fate Paradox Nippon Ichi Software Fantasy PS3
2014 2014 Slash'EM Extended Amy Bluescreenofdeath Fantasy WIN A variant of Slash'EM, which is a variant of NetHack

Hybrid roguelikes

These are games that feature elements of roguelike games but not necessarily all of the features as defined by the Berlin Interpretation. Terms like "hybrid roguelike", "roguelike-like", "rogue-lite", and "procedural death labyrinth" are used to distinguish them from traditional roguelike games. In most cases, hybrids feature common elements like procedural level generation, randomized item and adversary placement, and permadeath.

First Last Title Developer Setting Platform Notes
1991 ToeJam & Earl Johnson Voorsanger Productions Fantasy Sega Genesis 2D top-down real-time exploration of a world made of randomly-generated floors. Features randomized items and permanent death (although it has multiple lives).
1996 Diablo Blizzard North Fantasy WIN, MAC, PS1 Action role-playing hack and slash.
2001 2011 Lost Labyrinth Lost Labyrinth Fantasy WIN, LIN "Zelda style" gameplay, graphics and sound; plays to its conclusion in 10–40 minutes.
2002 2004 Strange Adventures In Infinite Space Digital Eel Space science fiction WIN, MAC, PALM, PPC Random universe generation; turn-based starmap exploration; pausable real time combat. Full graphics, sound and music; plays to completion in 20 minutes or less.
2005 2014 Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space Digital Eel Space science fiction WIN, MAC, iOS, DROID, NOOK Random universe generation; turn-based starmap exploration; pausable real time combat. Full graphics (OpenGL), sound and music; sequel to Strange Adventures in Infinite Space; plays to its conclusion in less than 30 minutes.
2009 2012 Spelunky Derek Yu, Andy Hull Modern, Fantasy WIN (2009), XBLA (2012) 2D action-adventure platformer without save points that has four increasingly difficult areas with exclusive features that are divided into multiple randomly generated caves of which each one might contain a further unique secret.
2011 The Binding of Isaac (video game) Edmund McMillen, Florian Himsl Surrealistic, Horror WIN, LIN, OSX 2D Dungeon exploration Top-down shooter without save points inspired by The Legend of Zelda, but with semi-randomly accessed floors with exclusive features that have randomly generated rooms of various types potentially including random items.
2012 FTL: Faster Than Light Subset Games Futuristic, Space Simulator WIN, LIN, OSX 2D Real Time Strategy styled after space travel. Players move from system to system avoiding a trailing horde of enemies as they participate in side-quests, with the ultimate goal of entering the last area.
2013 Don't Starve Klei Entertainment Fantasy RPG WIN, OSX, LIN 2D action-adventure. Players are able to harvest plants, build traps to catch animals and craft items. Fights and levels are random and death is permanent.[17]
2013 Rogue Legacy Cellar Door Games Fantasy RPG WIN, OSX, LIN, PS3, PS4 2D side-scrolling Platformer, Action-adventure. Players are able to collect gold, food and potions while combating enemies. Fights are random. Each character has its own unique abilities. Characters level up and change every time player dies.
2013 Risk of Rain Hopoo Games Sci-Fi Action WIN 2D side-scrolling action platformer; a single play through goes through six levels that are randomly selected from pre-generated layouts but with randomized object placement, and the game's difficulty increases based on how long the player remains alive.
2013 Not the Robots 2DArray Sci-Fi Action WIN From their Steam Store Page: "Not The Robots is this year’s most exciting Roguelike Stealth Furniture Eating Simulator. It’s a game with random levels, permadeath, and the goal of eating furniture. Same furniture is also your stealth cover. "
2013 TowerClimb (Beta) davioware Fantasy Action WIN An unforgiving proceedurally generated platformer, in which players must climb/jump/fly and swim up through increasingly difficult levels. The game is divided into multiple sections each with their own unique theme and challenges.[18]
2013 99 Levels to Hell ZaxisGames Fantasy Action WIN 2D side-scrolling action game[19]
2013 Delver Priority Interrupt Fantasy WIN, MAC, LIN, DROID Randomly generated first person roguelike.
2014 2015 Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars Digital Eel Space science fiction WIN Random universe generation; turn-based starmap exploration; pausable real time combat. 3D graphics, full sound and music; sequel to Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space; plays to completion in 20–45 minutes.
2014 Tower of Guns Terrible Posture Games First-Person Shooter WIN Single player FPS with randomly generated levels.[20]
2014 Crypt of the Necrodancer Brace Yourself Games Fantasy WIN, OSX, LIN Dungeon exploration combined with a rhythm game beat matching mechanic
2014 Invisible, Inc. Klei Entertainment Espionage WIN, OSX, LIN A tactical turn-based strategy RPG with a focus on stealth. The player must maneuver agents through several procedurally generated levels in a limited amount of in-game time.
2014 TinyKeep Phigames Fantasy WIN TinyKeep, a top-down procedurally generated dungeon escape game with permadeath. Master the frantic physics-based combat, lure enemies into traps or make them fight each other for dominance.
2014 Dungeon of the Endless Amplitude Studios Science Fiction WIN, OSX A hybrid roguelike / tower defense game, where the player must guide heroes through randomly generated, under-powered facilities to move a crystal across the map.
2014 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Nicalis Fantasy Microsoft Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita A remake of The Binding of Isaac.
2014 Darkest Dungeon Red Hook Studios Fantasy Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita A gothic, role-playing, dungeon-crawl-based game centered around having the player make tough decisions in dire situation, goaded into their decisions with difficult enemies, limited resources, and an innovative "Affliction System".
2015 Captain Forever Remix Pixelsaurus Games Science Fiction Microsoft Windows Multidirectional shooter, where the player builds up a spaceship from modules of defeated enemies.

Notes

  1. ↑ Kim R Schuette. Book of Adventure Games. p. 22.
  2. ↑ "DUNGEON - Search for gold in the ancient ruins". Video of Brian Sawyer's DUNGEON.
  3. ↑ Sawyer, Brian (1981). "DUNGEON". In Jeffries, Ron. PET Fun and Games. McGraw-Hill. p. 75. ISBN 0-931988-70-5.
  4. ↑ "Dungeon". CBM Software-Database entry for Dungeon.
  5. ↑ "Game 85: Dungeon (1979)". CRPG Addict review of DUNGEON.
  6. ↑ Pitts, Russ (2006-06-06). "Secret Sauce: The Rise of Blizzard". The Escapist. Retrieved 2007-12-24. [The idea for Diablo] was modified over and over until it solidified when [Dave Brevik] was in college and got hooked on … Moria/Angband.
  7. ↑ src/games/larn/. NetBSD CVS Repositories. Accessed January 18, 2008.
  8. ↑ "ToME 2.3.x Maintenance Branch".
  9. ↑ Frank Provo (Sep 21, 2006). "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team Review". Gamespot. Retrieved 2010-08-03. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has more in common with a litany of dungeon hacks than it does with any of Nintendo's traditional Pokémon role-playing games.
  10. ↑ Hatfield, Daemon (July 1, 2008). "Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon Review". IGN. Retrieved 2010-08-14. Mystery Dungeon and "roguelike" games make up a niche genre that spans the difficulty range from the unforgiving Shiren the Wanderer to the more breezy Pokemon [sic] Mystery Dungeon titles.
  11. ↑ Goergen, Andy (March 4, 2010). "Shiren the Wanderer". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 2010-08-14. The series of Mystery Dungeon games, of which the original Shiren on SNES is a founding member, are referred to as roguelikes amongst their fans, a reference which dates back to an early 1980s computer game called Rogue.
  12. ↑ Bailey, Kat (2009-09-06). "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Preview". 1UP. Retrieved 2010-08-14. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is the latest iteration of Nintendo's cuddly take on the roguelike genre.
  13. ↑ Keith Stuart inverviewing Sam Roberts (Wednesday 23 June 2010). "Tech Weekly: E3 – Kinect, 3DS and the best of the indies". Tech Weekly. 24.50 minutes in. guardian.co.uk. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ↑ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2010-12-26. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  15. ↑ "Android Games and Game Reviews". 2011-08-10. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
  16. ↑ Caoili, Eric (2011-07-14). "Dungeons of Dredmor, Spelunky Mac Released". Game Set Watch. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
  17. ↑ Sliva, Marty (2013-05-01). "Don't Starve Review". IGN. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  18. ↑ Smith, Adam (2013-03-27). "Falling From The Top Of The World: TowerClimb". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  19. ↑ Skyes, Tom (2013-03-06). "99 Levels to Hell: a Spelunky-like roguelike-like with an emphasis on, like, blood and guns". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  20. ↑ Groen, Andrew (June 13, 2013). "The disaster of 38 Studios scarred a designer and birthed the randomly generated FPS, Tower of Guns". The Penny Arcade Report. Penny Arcade. Retrieved April 8, 2014.