Rogue 3.6 grown bigger in 1984: stats, weight, trading posts, maze levels and magic pools.

Super-Rogue (1984) is Robert D. Kindelberger's expansion of Rogue 3.6. It adds strength, dexterity, wisdom and constitution, a carrying limit by weight and volume, a trading post, magic pools you can dip items in, more monsters and items, and a deeper dungeon: the Amulet of Yendor lies at level 35 or below. Its monsters and pools went on into Advanced Rogue. Carry the Amulet back up to win. Death is permanent.

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

About the game

Super-Rogue is a Rogue descendant: one screen per level, no town and no way back up until you hold the Amulet of Yendor. Levels are thrown away when you leave.

• No classes and no spells: everything comes from items, identified by use.
• Four stats and a weight limit, like a small Angband; the trading post is the only shop.

Keyboard controls

Essential keys

Saving your game

• Saving is automatic. The game is stored in this browser (IndexedDB) every two minutes while it waits for your next command, and whenever you switch to another tab or window. Reloading the page continues from there.
• S (answer y) 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 Q, the save is deleted: death is final.
• Each browser keeps one game. New game deletes it and starts over.
• Export save downloads the save file; Import save loads one. Use them for a backup or to move a game to another browser or computer.
• Window layout, zoom and the sound switch is stored in the same browser storage.
• Private/incognito windows and "clear site data" delete the stored game. Export first if it matters.

Tips

• Watch Vol and Carry on the status line: too much weight slows you down.
• Pools (") can bless or curse an item dipped into them (D); it is a gamble.
• A ^ on the map can be a trading post entrance: step on it to buy and sell.
• Some traps (\) drop you into a maze level.
• Eat when Hungry shows; the fainting stage is deadly.
• Rust monsters ruin armour; leprechauns steal gold and nymphs steal items.

New player's guide

Your first steps

1. You start with food, armour, a weapon, a bow and arrows, all already worn and wielded. x explores; fight by walking into monsters.
2. Walking over things picks them up. Gold (*) buys things at the trading post.
3. > walks to the known stairs and goes down.
4. Rest (.) or search (s) to heal; eat (e) when Hungry shows.

History & differences

Where it all started. Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman wrote Rogue at UC Santa Cruz in 1980, using Ken Arnold's new curses library to draw on the whole screen. Arnold joined them at Berkeley, and Rogue spread with BSD Unix. Its name now stands for the whole genre: random levels, permadeath, items identified by use.

This version. Robert D. Kindelberger took Rogue 3.6 in 1984 and made it bigger in every direction, numbering it 9.0. It is the first large Rogue variant and a source for Advanced Rogue.

The intention. Keep Rogue's rules and screen, but give it the depth of a tabletop game: stats that matter, weight, economy, special levels.

The big changes since 3.6.

• Four stats (strength, dexterity, wisdom, constitution) and a carrying limit by weight and volume (Vol / Carry on the status line).
• 52 monster kinds instead of 26: upper and lower case letters.
• Many more items: 21 potions, 26 scrolls, 26 rings, 26 wands and staves, 18 weapons, 10 armours.
• Trading posts, reached through a ^ in the dungeon; maze levels (a \ trap drops you into one); magic pools you can dip items into (D).
• A deeper dungeon: the Amulet appears only from level 35.

What is unique about it. It stays classless: every improvement comes from items and stats, not from a class you pick. Advanced Rogue took its ideas and added classes.

The family at a glance (numbers counted in each game's source):

Playing in the browser

• Windows: the tiled map on top; Messages (with history) and Status below on the left; Inventory on the right. Help, lists and menus pop up over the map.
• Resize windows by dragging the gaps between them; a window's contents shrink to fit when it is too small. Reset windows puts everything back.
• Zoom: A− / A+ on the Map title bar (shown on hover) change the size of the map tiles (up to 96 px); when the map is bigger than its window it scrolls to follow you. Hover over a text window's title to show its A− / A+ buttons.
• Sound effects are off until you switch them on under Audio ▾. They are synthesized for this port (Super-Rogue has no sound of its own); there is no music.
• Keys: hjklyubn, the arrow keys or the numeric keypad move you; capital letters run.
• 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.
• 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 Super-Rogue 9.0 (Robert D. Kindelberger, 1984; Roguelike Restoration Project release 9.0-1).
• Tiles: NetHack (default) or DawnLike by DragonDePlatino with DawnBringer's palette (CC BY 4.0), sprites picked by name via Tommy Ettinger's DawnLikeAtlas; switch with the Tiles button (DawnLike|a: animated monsters).
• Original source: RoguelikeRestorationProject/srogue, commit c693810
• Our changes (port, auto-explore, command menu, web build): memmaker/srogue, compared with the original