Angband
Angband is a roguelike computer game in a style somewhat different from NetHack. Angband and its variants are popular enough to rival NetHack; some classifications divide roguelike games between "hacklikes" and "bands". Among the variants of Angband is a game called ToME for "Tales of Middle-earth".
Angband is named for the fortress Angband, a location in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Angband and most of its variants have a Middle-earth theme; the usual goal is to go to the bottom of the dungeon and call Morgoth.
Origins
- Rogue was the first roguelike game. Rogue started as a binary for BSD, then a variant of Unix running on VAX hardware. Because Rogue did not include its source code and originally ran only on one platform, several Rogue clones came into existence.
- For computers running VMS, the first Rogue clone was Moria, started in 1983. The port from VMS and Pascal to Unix and C was Umoria, of which Angband is a variant.
- Meanwhile, on Unix appeared a free Rogue clone, Hack, of which NetHack is a variant.
In Rogue, the goal was to obtain an Amulet of Yendor. Moria deviated from Rogue by featuring a town above the dungeon and by not featuring the Amulet; the goal was to kill a balrog. Angband enlengthened the game and featured the goal of killing Sauron and then Morgoth.
Hack, though retaining the Amulet, added features like persistent levels, pets, and shops. NetHack changed the game even more with additions like dungeon branches.
Development of Angband and NetHack continues today; both games have spawned many modified versions and patches. Thus their respective communities consider Angband and NetHack to be vanilla versions, in contrast to variants like ToME and SLASH'EM.
License
NetHack is free and open source software under its NetHack General Public License; in contrast, Angband and its variants use a license inherited from Moria which prohibits seling copies of the game. The practical effect of this is that operating systems like Debian classify NetHack as "free" and Angband as "non-free". The Angband OpenSource Initiative is an attempt to change this.
Gameplay
The town
Moria added a town just outside the dungeon entrance. While NetHack players cannot leave the dungeon until they find the Amulet of Yendor, Moria and Angband players can repeatedly visit the town, using the services and shops. Central to the Angband is the Scroll of Word of Recall, an item that warps you between town and the deepest dungeon level. Some Angband variants even let you leave town to find other dungeons and towns.
The NetHack Guidebook makes clear that the entrance to the dungeon is nowhere near town; thus one can guess that this is why leaving the dungeon without the Amulet ends your game:
- "You spend one last night fortifying yourself at the local inn, becoming more and more depressed as you watch the odds of your success being posted on the inn's walls getting lower and lower.
- "In the morning you awake, collect your belongings, and set off for the dungeon. After several days of uneventful travel, you see the ancient ruins that mark the entrance to the Mazes of Menace." – NetHack Guidebook, Chapter 1 "Introduction"
Angband shops are somewhat less fun than the ones in NetHack; the game has a menu at each shop entrance. Pets or monsters cannot enter shops or take items. Forget about grabbing some items and reading a scroll of teleportation to escape; all items are "behind the counter" and commands like reading do not work in shops. There also is no way to attack and kill a shopkeeper.
Items in shops are identified, so shopkeepers will not bother selling cursed junk or useless stuff (like the potion of blindness). You can also identify things by selling them; this is great for unknown scrolls, potions, and magical devices from the dungeon. There is no "price identification" because shopkeepers never identify items until after they buy them.
Shops are reliable sources of food and basic items; beginners can supply themselves well if they have money, however players must look for more enchanted items in the dungeon.
The dungeon
In Angband, there are two ways to label dungeon levels: by number (1, 2, 3, 4) as in NetHack, or by depth (50 feet, 100 feet, 150', 200') where the depth is fifty times the level number.
Dungeon levels are much larger in Angband than in NetHack. Each NetHack level fits on a screen, unless your screen is smaller than the common 80-by-24 hardware terminals. Most Angband levels are much larger and must be split into panels. Thus Angband often has larger rooms and longer corridors. Each level takes longer to explore; in fact some Angband players will take the first staircase > instead of fully exploring a level.
Dungeons are also drawn differently. For example, a NetHack room and corridor might appear like this:
---------- # |........| ########+ + door |..{.....| # # { fountain |..@.....| ### # @ hero |........-#### # |......d.| # d dog |........| # ---------- #
Now hear is how it might appear in the Barrow-Downs of ToME:
########## #^^^^^^^^^ #........# ^...+.'..+ + door #.._...;.# ^^^.###'^^^^ _ fountain #..@.....###^...^ #.^ @ hero #....;...'....##^ ^.^ #;.....C.#^^^^# ^.^ C canine #...,....# #.^ , mushroom ########## ^.^
Angband does not have persistent levels. If you return to the same depth, Angband generates a new level with new monsters and items. A consequence of this is scumming; the process of repeatedly going up and down a staircase until Angband generates a good level. Because you cannot revisit a level, Angband players do not leave stashes of items like NetHack players would. Instead, the Angband town provides a home where players can stash extra items to free their inventory slots.
Monsters
As you fight monsters in Angband, you will gradually memorise their capabilities. Fight enough of a particular monster, and your monster memory will describe how many times you killed each type, how fast the monster moves, what attacks it has, and what level it normally appears on.
NetHack only gives a vague description of the monster, usually a quote from literature. When playing NetHack, you must remember those monsters yourself.
When using a ranged attack, Angband lets you target any nearby monster; NetHack restricts you to firing in eight directions.
Objects
NetHack has plenty of ways to make objects surprise the unspoiled player. We have blessed, cursed, and uncursed objects, erodeproof objects, greased objects, and objects with enchantment bonuses and charges.
Angband objects do most of that.
In some ways, Angband objects can be even more complex than NetHack objects. It becomes even more complex in Angband variants. ToME has:
- Artifacts. Unique items with extra powers, similar to NetHack artifacts.
- Randarts. Randomly-generated items that have artifact-like properties.
- Ego items. Extra properties; that Scimitar might be a Scimitar of Frost.
- Junkarts. Does nothing except when you "activate" (invoke) it.
Sometimes, the Scroll of Identify reveals not all these advanced properties, and one must use a Scroll of *Identify* instead.
Items become progressively more powerful as the hero descends deeper into the dungeon. Even wands will have higher base levels. A winning player often wields and wears several artifacts simultaneously!
Both NetHack and Angband players can wield weapons, wear armor (in several armor slots), put on rings and amulets. In Angband, wearing something frees an inventory slot, which is nice because Angband only has 23 slots (a to w). Even when counting equipment slots, Angband still has lets slots than NetHack, which gives you 52 slots (a to z and A to Z). In addition, NetHack has containers like bags and chests to hold many screenfuls of items; Angband does not.
So how do Angband players save slots? They find spellbooks with multiple spells. They destroy items with the "destroy" command. They become so wealthy that they need not gather items to sell. Angband players do not collect gems like NetHack players do, so that frees up many slots.
