Moria as a 1991 comedy: gangs, mutants, aliens and a mafia Boss, from Seattle to New York.

BOSS (Robert Gulledge and Jason Black, University of Washington, 1991) is Moria turned into a science-fiction comedy. Magic becomes technology: potions stay, scrolls are floppy disks, wands are ray guns, spell books are tech manuals. You fight gang members, evil scientists, mutants and Daysian aliens on a trip across America: every town has its own 500-metre dungeon, and a bus takes you on to the next one once its dungeon is done, your loan is paid and the local Mob Boss is dead. The Boss himself waits under New York. There is a time limit, and death is permanent.

• About the game
• Keyboard controls
• Saving your game
• Tips
• New player's guide
• Playing in the browser

About the game

BOSS is Moria (the ancestor of Angband) rewritten as a science-fiction comedy, so it plays like a simpler Angband: one town, one dungeon under it, stairs that make a new level each time. The twists:

• There are eight towns, from Seattle to New York, each with a 500-metre dungeon (the last one 2500). When a town's dungeon is done, your bank loan is paid and the local Mob Boss is dead, the bus in the hotel takes you on. There is no way back.
• The names change but the items work as you know them: floppy disks are scrolls, ray guns are wands, alien devices are staffs, tech manuals and prayer books hold the skills.
• The game has a time limit (generous) and a calendar; the bank pays and charges interest weekly.
• Monsters can give you a disease: it blocks some potions until the clinic in the office building cures it.

Keyboard controls

Essential keys

Saving your game

• Saving is automatic. The game is stored in this browser (IndexedDB) between your commands (at most every two seconds). Reloading the page continues from there.
• Ctrl+Z saves and ends the session, as in the original; reload the page (or press Play again) to continue.
• When your character dies or you quit with Ctrl+Y, its save is deleted: death is final.
• The browser keeps every character's save (<name>.sav); the game lists them at the start. New game deletes them all.
• Export save downloads the current character's save file; Import save loads one (also a save from the Mac version).
• Private/incognito windows and "clear site data" delete the stored game. Export first if it matters.

Tips

• Start with a Wrestler or Ninja: the skill classes need more experience with the game. A Wrestler can go berzerk with b.
• Wield a light (the disposable flashlights you start with: i, then its letter) before going down. Without one you see nothing in corridors, and auto-explore stops.
• Don't kill townspeople: most give negative experience. Gang members are fair game.
• The office building has Danny Dollar's bank (deposits earn interest, loans must be paid back before you may take the bus), a hotel with part-time jobs and a medical clinic that cures disease.
• You can't go back to an earlier town, so shop well before you leave.
• Mixing potions (M) can make something stronger, or blow up.
• Q turns the -more- prompts off, W the patterned walls.

New player's guide

Your first steps

1. Pick a quality and a class (Wrestler or Ninja for a first game), spend the creation points on the stats screen with the cursor keys and </>, press Esc and type a name.
2. Open the inventory (i) and put on what you carry: armour, helmet, the baseball bat, and a flashlight.
3. Walk into the shop entrances (the letters in the building walls) to buy armour, food and healing potions. Keep some cash.
4. Press >: you walk to the nearest staircase and go down. Explore with g, fight what stops you, go down again when the level is done.
5. Save with Ctrl+Z (it also quits).

Staying alive

• Fight in corridors so only one monster reaches you. Close doors (c) behind you: many creatures can't open them.
• Carry healing potions and a Floppy Disk of Phase Door or Teleport to escape.
• Watch your light: flashlights run out, and D-cell batteries (F) recharge a lantern.
• Rest (R) to full health before taking the stairs.
• Don't take on the Mob Boss of a town until you are strong: he is the gate to the next town, not an early target.

Playing in the browser

• One 80×24 text screen, as on the VAX terminals BOSS was written for. A− / A+ on the Map title bar (shown on hover) change the text size.
• Keys: the number keys, arrow keys or numeric keypad move you; . + direction runs.
• Browsers keep a few shortcuts for themselves (Ctrl+W, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+N, and Cmd shortcuts on a Mac), so those never reach the game. Ctrl+P (repeat the last message) and Ctrl+Z (save) work.
• If the game ever crashes, a message appears at the top; reload the page to continue from the last autosave.

About this version

• Based on BOSS 0.80.2 by Laurence R. Brothers, maintained by Erik Max Francis (source archive boss-0.80.2-src.zip; its download source was not recorded).
• Our changes (curses shim, auto-explore, stairs walking, command menu, inventory cursor and item menus, web build) are local to this port; they are not published as a repository.