The Slimy Lichmummy

“it's the Lichmummy that's slimy, not the manual” · the game's own README

Date of birth2006 released 31 December 2006 (backloggd); this build 0.40, 26 September 2012

CreatorUlf Åström happyponyland.net

LanguageC ~50,500 lines in 165 files

PlatformLinux, Windows, Mac, BSD curses console or Allegro 5 tiles

Lineage

No parent: TSL is Ulf Åström's own C code, a “hacklike” (Roguetemple) that borrows no code from other roguelikes; the only third-party code is the Mersenne Twister random generator. Versions 0.1 to 0.40 ran from 2006 to 2012 (CHANGES.TXT: 40 releases). This port is based on 0.40 from the 2025 GitLab upload of the ArchiveRL collection.

See the family tree (a standalone game). Sources: backloggd, Roguetemple, upstream.

Credits

Author	Ulf Åström (HPL, happyponyland.net): code, tiles, manual
Random	mt19937ar.c: Makoto Matsumoto and Takuji Nishimura (BSD licence)
Font	a modified Terminus (OFL)
Upload	Vitaly Zdanevich: GitLab copy of archive.org ArchiveRL.7z (2025)
Web port	memmaker/slimy: browser build (RVIP), tsl-go tile set, music and sound recipes by c0ze with permission

From LICENSE.TXT and README.md.

Trivia

The name answers a request to “make a giant slimy skeletal rat bat ghoul lichmummy with a severed hand and floating skull”. (Roguetemple)
The severed hand and the burning (floating) skull are both monsters in the game. (monster.c)
The licence says TSL “is not free software”: the source is there “so you can compile it on any architecture and verify what runs inside your computer”. (LICENSE.TXT)
0.40 rewrote the GUI in Allegro and added animation; 0.39 brought the Underpass, the Laboratory and the Communications Hub. (CHANGES.TXT)
A third-party Go port exists. (c0ze/tsl-go)

What's unique

Cyberpunk and fantasy mixed: technicians, sentinels, chrome angels and chainsaw ogres next to ghouls, mummies and a dragon.
No numbered depth: areas (the Dungeon, the Ominous Cave, the Drowned City, the Catacombs, the Dragon's Lair, the Chapel of Fallen Stars …) are joined by stairs in a graph.
Weapons have damage sequences you learn by using them; completing one identifies the weapon.
Facets and shapeshifting change the hero's body and abilities instead of experience levels.

Code dive

Plain C, ~50,500 lines in 165 .c/.h files, one directory. Two frontends chosen at compile time: curses (console.c) and Allegro 5 (allui.c, tiles and animation). The tile sheet is indexed directly by the gent_t enum (16 per row). The browser port keeps the console logic and draws the game's own tileset.png.

Stats from the code

Areas	15 slots (`LEVELS`), ten real areas plus a test level
Monsters	39 regular kinds plus 12 uniques (Argor, the Necromancer, the King of Worms, Cael'Tzan the Undertaker, Ghrazghaar, the Gaoler, the Lurker, Sulkor the Devourer, Cha'ajd the Mad, Sir Lognac, Ybznek, the Dragon)
Items	up to 200 item templates (`ITEMS`)
Oddest	the floating demon genitalia; a mimic that can pose as a stair or a medkit

Manual

The game's own manual, unmodified: README.md (introduction, building, quick start, customizing), and the full history CHANGES.TXT. The in-game help (?) is the real reference; the port's help page lists every key.

Getting started

Press ? for the in-game help and key reference.
Move with hjkl yubn or the numpad; x explores.
Enter opens the command menu, i the inventory.
> walks to the next stair; press again to take it.
S saves and quits; see the help page.

Help

No walkthrough or spoiler guide was found. Rules of thumb from the game: learn weapon damage sequences by fighting, keep a light source, and the win is found in the Chapel of Fallen Stars, reached through the Dragon's Lair.

Cheats

A debug menu exists (debug.c: create item, identify, reveal level, kill all creatures …) but has no default key: only a debug binding in .tsl_conf reaches it, which the web page cannot edit. Saves are deleted when loaded (no save-scumming in the game; the web version autosaves on level changes and removes the save when the run ends); the page's Export/Import could copy a save.