Angband history

[myshkin]

Prompted by the recent discovery (thanks, elly!) that most of the posts from rec.games.moria and rec.games.roguelike.angband are available for download from archive.org, I started curating a collection of Usenet posts about Angband. Please add on if you can (I'd like to see notable variant announcements and discussions about game design and strategy, for example), and enjoy if you haven't seen them before. Most of the links below go to Google Groups individual post pages.

• The Angband trailer (Keith Robinson, May 1991)
• A longer tease, part 1 and part 2 (Sean Marsh, Jan 1993)
• The first release (Sean Marsh, Apr 1993)
• Changes from Moria (Geoff Hill, Apr 1993)
• A major Angband update announcement (Ben Harrison, Jan 1995)
• Early discussion of the borg (Ben Harrison et al., May 1995)
• The first (?) borg winner (Andrew White, Apr 1997)
• The first competition (George Quail, Feb 1999)
• The Arch-Mage's Tale (David Grabiner, Jul 2003 -- zip of chapters)
• Tales of the Bold [V3.0.4] (Eddie Grove, Mar 2004)
• The hunt for old authors' GPL consent (Dec 2006-Jan 2007)
• Tales of the Bold Rogue (Eddie Grove, Jun 2008)

[half]

This is brilliant. I've only read the first three so far, but they are a fascinating record. I actually got quite excited about this 'Angband' game. It is easy to look at all of its flaws now that they are well known (e.g. many cases of bigger but not actually better), but they really were making an impressive contribution to roguelikes. Artefacts and uniques are probably my favourite improvements, but I may be forgetting some others.

[half]

• The Angband trailer (Keith Robinson, May 1991)

I had thought you were referring to these, which are already archived on this forum, but well worth watching again. I remember the first of them vividly.

http://angband.oook.cz/fun/lotr2.php

http://angband.oook.cz/fun/lotr3.php

[thapper]

I had thought you were referring to these, which are already archived on this forum, but well worth watching again. I remember the first of them vividly.

http://angband.oook.cz/fun/lotr2.php

http://angband.oook.cz/fun/lotr3.php

"You hear a door burst open" made me laugh out loud, and I needed that, so thanks!

[half]

Artefacts and uniques are probably my favourite improvements, but I may be forgetting some others.

Oh, I forgot vaults.

[Nick]

This is a great collection, myshkin, well done.

[half]

This is a great collection, myshkin, well done.

Nick: you probably want to download these for your archives as they might not be around for ever.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Nick: you probably want to download these for your archives as they might not be around for ever.

....And re-post on another server. :

[takkaria]

....And re-post on another server. :

All the posts are archived on archive.org forever so it's probably not worth worrying about it.

[AnonymousHero]

All the posts are archived on archive.org forever so it's probably not worth worrying about it.

archive.org FTW. Although... they could probably use donations.

[seanym]

Prompted by the recent discovery (thanks, elly!) that most of the posts from rec.games.moria and rec.games.roguelike.angband are available for download from archive.org, I started curating a collection of Usenet posts about Angband. Please add on if you can (I'd like to see notable variant announcements and discussions about game design and strategy, for example), and enjoy if you haven't seen them before. Most of the links below go to Google Groups individual post pages.

• The Angband trailer (Keith Robinson, May 1991)
• A longer tease, part 1 and part 2 (Sean Marsh, Jan 1993)
• The first release (Sean Marsh, Apr 1993)
• Changes from Moria (Geoff Hill, Apr 1993)
• A major Angband update announcement (Ben Harrison, Jan 1995)
• Early discussion of the borg (Ben Harrison et al., May 1995)
• The first (?) borg winner (Andrew White, Apr 1997)
• The first competition (George Quail, Feb 1999)
• The Arch-Mage's Tale (David Grabiner, Jul 2003 -- zip of chapters)
• Tales of the Bold [V3.0.4] (Eddie Grove, Mar 2004)
• The hunt for old authors' GPL consent (Dec 2006-Jan 2007)
• Tales of the Bold Rogue (Eddie Grove, Jun 2008)

How strange - I was just reminiscing about Angband and thought I'd do a quick search, to find that there is still an active community for it - wow! 21 years since I sent out an email from the University of Warwick to announce its general release. Very glad to find out it is still being enjoyed today, I've just had a game myself for old times sake - it's funny how it comes back to you and how addictive it still is, despite it being about as basic as they come graphically.

Cheers all, Sean (Marsh).

[seanym]

Prompted by the recent discovery (thanks, elly!) that most of the posts from rec.games.moria and rec.games.roguelike.angband are available for download from archive.org, I started curating a collection of Usenet posts about Angband. Please add on if you can (I'd like to see notable variant announcements and discussions about game design and strategy, for example), and enjoy if you haven't seen them before. Most of the links below go to Google Groups individual post pages.

• The Angband trailer (Keith Robinson, May 1991)
• A longer tease, part 1 and part 2 (Sean Marsh, Jan 1993)
• The first release (Sean Marsh, Apr 1993)
• Changes from Moria (Geoff Hill, Apr 1993)
• A major Angband update announcement (Ben Harrison, Jan 1995)
• Early discussion of the borg (Ben Harrison et al., May 1995)
• The first (?) borg winner (Andrew White, Apr 1997)
• The first competition (George Quail, Feb 1999)
• The Arch-Mage's Tale (David Grabiner, Jul 2003 -- zip of chapters)
• Tales of the Bold [V3.0.4] (Eddie Grove, Mar 2004)
• The hunt for old authors' GPL consent (Dec 2006-Jan 2007)
• Tales of the Bold Rogue (Eddie Grove, Jun 2008)

Wow this brings back memories. For some reason, I thought I'd see if Angband was still being played and clearly it still has some popularity. Who would have thought that, 21 years ago, when we released the first version from the University of Warwick, it would still be being played so many years later. Just having a game to reminisce - it's funny how it all comes back to you so quickly, although I did just nearly suffer an embarrassing death to a Death Mold...

Cheers,
Sean (Marsh)