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What is Angband?
Long, long ago, on a computer far, far away (well, quite far away, anyway) there was born a game called Rogue. Rogue was a dungeon adventure game in which the player, the dungeon and all the monsters were represented by ASCII characters (letters) on the screen and did fierce battle with each other...
In time, a student by the name of Robert Alan Koeneke was exposed to Rogue and became addicted to it. When it became impossible for him to play Rogue any more (because the system administrator forbade it) he resolved to write his own dungeon game, and Moria was born.
Luckily, Robert didn't believe in selling games and gave permission for others to take up his game, enhance it and make it available for other machines.
One such 'enhanced' version of the game that quickly took on a life of its own was Angband, and thankfully the concept of being freely available has been retained all through the (long and colourful) history of the game.
So, What is Angband?
Put simply, Angband is a dungeon adventure game, similar to Dungeons & Dragons in some ways, but with the emphasis on strategic use of equipment, magic and skills rather than role-playing and problem solving. It is (loosely) set in Tolkein's Middle Earth, although trying to pinpoint quite when is difficult.
Your character, the dungeon, and all the monsters, etc. are represented on the screen using ASCII characters (a system that dates back to the original 'dumb' terminals on which Rogue was played and remains elegant and very usable today).
The ultimate aim of the game is to advance in skill and strength, collecting better and more powerful magical items until you are ready to face the Master of the dungeon: Morgoth himself!
Angband is probably the single most addictive game I have ever played - and that includes Tetris...
Where can I get it?
My port of Angband is available from my RISC OS Angband page and will work happily on any RISC OS 3+ machine with 2Mb or more of memory.
Angband Variants
There are different variants of Angband, each of which has taken the basic Angband game and added to it, or changed it. Some changes are small and others are large, but each variant attempts to offer something unique.
Some of the most popular variants (that are available for RISC OS) are:
Zangband, where the 'Z' stands for Zelazny. Zangband is (loosely) based around the Amber series of books and adds a lot to the basic Angband game. It's probably the most popular variant.
Kamband (which is itself derived from Kangband), which includes a completely re-worked magic system, more races and character classes, and a re-worked inventory system in later versions.
Sangband, in which characters do not gain experience levels but instead 'spend' the points they gain for killing foes on improving the various skills they possess. Thus the player can build up exactly the sort of character they want.
Oangband, which attempts to 're-balance' the whole Angband game by making combat more 'sensible', etc.
Cthangband, which takes Zangband, removes much of the 'silliness', and re-sets the game in a Lovecraft-esque mould. Hence the name: Cthulu-Angband.
All those variants are available from my RISC OS Angband page, although you'd be well advised to check the minimum system requirements before downloading them if you have a small/old machine.
Angband resources on the net
Here's a few sites you may like to visit... only one or two of them have specific information on RISC OS versions of the game, but all have information on the game in general.
My RISC OS Angband pages with basic information about the variants, RISC OS versions to download, etc.
Angband Bonanza - another RISC OS specific page offering different versions of the game to mine and also Omega - a similar game.
Thangorodrim, a very nice site which is also the home of Zangband. It contains plenty of information about the different variants and links to other sites. Highly recommended.
The Angband Variants FAQ, answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the various Angband variants.