Advanced Rogue 5.8

Rogue with classes, spells and a quest, from Bell Labs

Date of birth1984 5.8 in 1985

CreatorsMichael Morgan · Ken Dalka AT&T Bell Labs

LanguageC ~27,700 lines

PlatformUnix + curses sold via AT&T Toolchest

Lineage

Advanced Rogue is built on the Rogue 3.6 source “with some additions from Super-Rogue”. A group of AT&T Bell Labs employees led by Michael Morgan and Ken Dalka developed it between 1984 and 1986; AT&T distributed it through its Toolchest software service.

5.8 is the early version. It grew into Advanced Rogue 7.7 and later XRogue; UltraRogue branched off it too. See the family tree.

Credits

Michael Morgan	Lead developer
Ken Dalka	Lead developer
AT&T Bell Labs group	Development, 1984–86
Roguelike Restoration Project	Restored 5.8.2 (arogue5.8 @ 49b1289)

Screenshots

Choosing a class — The start: choose fighter, magician, cleric or thief.

The first room and the quest message — First steps: “You have been quested to retrieve the Daggers of Musty Doit…”

Fighting a giant rat — A fight: “You swing and hit the giant rat.”

Inventory with a cursor — Inventory: a fighter’s food, chain mail and two-handed sword.

Trivia

Advanced Rogue was sold by AT&T through its Toolchest software service. (RogueBasin)
There was also a 5.8s version (maybe 1989) with special rooms like an orc den, ant hill, throne room and zoo; none of it made it into later releases. (RogueBasin)
Your quest is picked at random from eleven relics, and the Amulet of Yendor is only one of them. You might have to fetch the Mandolin of Brian or the Morning Star of Hruggek instead. (source: main.c, rogue.c)
Like Rogue 3.6, it refuses to start when the machine is too loaded, unless you are the wizard or the author. (source: main.c)

What's unique

Classes: fighter, magician (spells), cleric (prayers) and thief (stealing, traps), each levelling differently.
A random quest instead of always the Amulet, and you must carry it back up.
Miscellaneous magic in the style of D&D: boots of elvenkind, gauntlets of ogre power, the alchemy jug.
Trading posts, mazes and outdoor levels, and about 120 monsters.

Code dive

Language: K&R C, about 27,700 lines. Items, relics and spells are tables in rogue.c; monsters in their own table (NUMMONST = 120).
Environment: AT&T Unix System V and BSD, curses terminals.
This port: curses shim to X11 and WebAssembly, NetHack tiles. Source: memmaker/arogue5.8.

Stats

Thing	Count	Notable ones
Classes	4	Fighter, magician, cleric, thief.
Monsters	120
Spells	20	Magician spells.
Prayers	15	Cleric prayers.
Relics	11	Daggers of Musty Doit, Cloak of Emori, Ankh of Heil, Staff of Ming, Wand of Orcus, Rod of Asmodeus, Mandolin of Brian, Horn of Geryon, Flail of Yeenoghu, …
Misc. magic	22	Alchemy jug, beaker of potions, dust of choking, necklace of strangulation, boots of dancing, Keoghtom’s ointment.
Potions	12
Scrolls	17
Rings	24
Wands & staffs	20
Weapons	19
Armour	10

Manual

“The Dungeons of Doom” (AT&T Bell Laboratories), the guide shipped with the source: read it here (text).

Getting started

Open the game and pick a class (the fighter is the easiest start); accept or re-roll the stats.
Read the quest message: that item must come back to the surface.
Move with hjklyubn or the arrows; x explores; Enter lists every command.
Magicians cast with C, clerics pray with p.
All keys: the in-game guide.

Help

No walkthrough exists. Tips:

A fighter with a two-handed sword is the safest first character.
Spend gold at trading posts on armour; sell unknown items you don't want to test.
Your quest relic tends to be deep: grow first, then dive.
More: RogueBasin and the manual.

Cheats

Wizard mode needs a password on the command line: not reachable in this build.
You may re-roll your stats at the start as often as you like.
Save scumming: Export save / Import save.