Underplayed Gems

Rogue: The Adventure Game (1983)

Rogue: The Adventure Game cover
Platforms
DOS
Where to get it
My Abandonware
The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

The game feels like a methodical, unpredictable dungeon trek where each step could be your last, driven by repetitive but tactical decisions.

retrodungeon-crawlingprocedural generationpermadeathsimplepunishingstrategic

About

Released in 1983 for DOS, *Rogue: The Adventure Game* stands as an early example of the dungeon-crawling genre on that platform. This title introduces core mechanics such as random map generation and permadeath to its players.

More games like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.