Hengband

Lineage

Moria → Umoria → Angband → Zangband → Japanese Zangband 2.2.8 → Hengband → Chengband → PosChengband → ComPosband → FrogComposband. Mitsuhiro Itakura translated Zangband 2.2.8 into Japanese, on top of Sitoshin’s Japanese Angband 2.8.3, and added features of his own such as the auto-picker. Hengband grew out of that version in spring 2000: work began in late March, and 0.1.0, the first public version, came out on 19 June 2000. 1.0.0 followed in February 2001 and the first stable 1.0.7 in November 2001, which RogueBasin gives as its first release. It also took code from ToME, OAngband and other variants. Chengband forked it around 2010; the Japanese TinyAngband is a cousin through XAngband, not a child.

Who started it? RogueBasin names “iks” as developer; the game itself names Mr.Hoge. The game wins: its news screen credits “Mr.Hoge & Many others”, the FAQ says “Mr.Hoge wrote the first original part of Hengband”, and the licence names Mr.hoge as copyright holder of all Hengband changes. iks is a long-time team member (first commits in March 2002, over 700 in the repo) (TinyAngband’s author also goes by iks).

See the family tree. Sources: lib/file/news.txt, the FAQ, the licence, the official version history, RogueBasin and Japanese Wikipedia.

Credits

From lib/file/news.txt, the licence, the FAQ, git shortlog and the lib/xtra readmes.

Trivia

• The very first plan: bring weapon proficiency, dual-wielding and two-handed fighting into Zangband. (history of 0.1.0)
• The reason given for version 1.0.0 in February 2001, roughly: “since we’re at it, let’s make the major version 1.” (history of 1.0.0)
• 3.0.0 was due in February 2021 and was postponed; five years and a hundred releases later it is still called Beta. (history of 3.0.0, changelog)
• The monster list is a parody zoo: Bull Gates the applephobe, Steven Jobz, the Internet Exploder, King Koopa, Kenshirou, Dio Brando, a Metal Babble, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. (MonraceDefinitions.jsonc)
• An inscription starting with # makes an ordinary item look like an artifact; the help’s example is “a Long Sword of Hoge”. (Objects help)
• The licence lets anyone change and share the game, but a changed version must not send scores to the Hengband score server. (licence)
• Since April 2026 a website lets an AI play Hengband; RogueBasin calls its pace “glacial”. (RogueBasin)

What's unique

• Personalities: a third birth choice next to race and class, from Mighty and Shrewd to Lazy, Sexy, Lucky, Munchkin and the Chargeman.
• Odd classes: Samurai with sword techniques, Ninja, Mirror Master, Cavalry who ride their pets, Beastmaster, Magic Eater, Blue Mage who learns monster spells, Imitator, Smith, Sniper, Tourist.
• Fighting changes: weapon and riding proficiency, dual-wielding, two-handed grips, and learned sword techniques (Hissatsu).
• A bigger world: Zangband’s wilderness with several towns, 20 dungeons from the Yeek cave to R’lyeh and Heaven, 44 quests, a casino, a bounty office and a monster arena.
• Japanese first: written and discussed in Japanese; the English text comes from the same source, one _("ja", "en") call per message.

Code dive

• Language: C++20, about 287,000 lines in 1,943 files under src/, split into many small folders (cmd-item/, monster-race/, spell-realm/ …). The C sources became C++ in March 2021, during the 3.0 alphas.
• History: the git history starts on 12 January 2002 with 1.0.8 (imported from CVS) and has 21,699 commits.
• Data: JSONC files in lib/edit/ with Japanese and English names side by side (MonraceDefinitions.jsonc, BaseitemDefinitions.jsonc, ArtifactDefinitions.jsonc, DungeonDefinitions.jsonc, SpellDefinitions.jsonc, one file per quest), plus text files for vaults, egos and towns.
• Help: lib/help/*.txt with [[[[y|…| colour tags, ***** <Tag> anchors and lettered links; j*.txt are the Japanese originals.
• This port: WebAssembly build with a canvas z-term frontend, a choice of tile sets (Adam Bolt 16×16, Hengband’s own 8×8, Shockbolt, or text), eight sub-windows, sound and the game’s own music picked by its scene table (town, wilderness, travel map, dungeon depth), auto-explore (X), an Enter command menu and item menus; built without the score sender. Source: memmaker/hengband, upstream hengband/hengband.

Stats

Counted in lib/edit/*.jsonc, EgoDefinitions.txt, VaultDefinitions.txt and the src/ enums.

Manual

The full English in-game help (?, all of lib/help/*.txt and *.hlp, colours and links kept) is here: manual, including the Newbie Guide and the FAQ. Also: the changelog (every GitHub release note since 2021, mostly Japanese, then version.txt, the English history of 1.0–1.6) and the licence (Japanese original with a short English summary). Release notes of all versions since 0.1.0 are on the official site (Japanese).

Getting started

1. Open the game and make a character: a Human or Dwarf Warrior, or a Half-Troll Warrior, is forgiving. In the autoroller press n then 2 for each stat, then Enter.
2. Wear and wield your gear (w), then shop in Outpost: Cure Light Wounds potions, Phase Door scrolls, flasks of oil to throw.
3. Go to the Yeek cave next to Outpost, as the help suggests; > walks to known stairs and X explores for you.
4. The Enter key lists every command; i and e open item menus; C shows your character.
5. Read the game’s help page for keys and saving.

Help

We found no walkthrough: the dungeons are random. The goal is to kill Oberon on level 99 and then the Serpent of Chaos on level 100. Rules of thumb:

• Get Free Action, See Invisible and resist confusion and poison early.
• Always carry an escape (Phase Door, Teleportation) and Word of Recall; do not fight what you do not know.
• Read the Newbie Guide, Winning the Game and the FAQ.
• More: RogueBasin, the official site with its score server (character dumps of other players), and GitHub Discussions.

Cheats

Both modes are in this build but locked by an option: first turn on allow_debug_opts (= options, or " then Y:allow_debug_opts). Either mode marks the character as a cheater: no score.

• Wizard mode Ctrl+W: asks once, then on death the game asks “Die?”.
• Debug mode Ctrl+A, then a key: create objects, jump levels, edit stats, map the level, and more. Tested in the browser: Ctrl+A k casts a ball on yourself.
• Cheat options (with allow_debug_opts): peek into object, monster and dungeon creation (cheat_peek, cheat_hear, cheat_room), know all monster lore (cheat_know), avoid death (cheat_live).
• Save scumming: Export save / Import save on the game page.