A Roguelike is a game that is like Rogue. Rogue was a hack-and-slash dungeon-crawler that originally came out in 1980. Since then there have been dozens of roguelikes released, with more coming out every year. Roguelikes are loved by a certain element of the gaming community because they are the ultimate triumph of substance over style. Roguelikes may not have the latest 3D cutting-edge graphics, but they do have the best, most intricate gameplay around.
Want to get a general idea of how many Roguelikes exist, and what they are like? Check out these lists. I personally recommend NetHack if you've never played a Roguelike before
The really nifty thing about Roguelikes is that many of them are so minimal they can be played in a simple Telnet terminal. So you don't even need to download and install the game; simply use a Telnet client such as PuTTY to connect to a public server, where you can immediately start playing. Many servers offer the ability to watch other players' games. Here are some public servers to start you off.
| Website | Telnet Link | Roguelike | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alt.org | nethack.alt.org | NetHack | The largest public server around, nethack.alt.org is an excellent server to play on. It always seems to have at least a dozen players on it. |
| Nineball.org | sporkhack.nineball.org | SporkHack | This server runs SporkHack, a recently developed variant of NetHack. It has dozens of Ascensions on it so you know it's stable. |
This is a list of resources on roguelikes.