iPhone App: Rogue

July 9th, 2009

= 3 stars

Kill or be killed in a scary dungeon where the graphics are ASCII characters. Port of the old-school UNIX game of the same name.

The Good

Uses color (yeah!) ASCII graphics, just like the original. Your hero is represented by an “@” symbol, monsters various capital letters, tunnels with a “#”, etc. Events occur in text only. Yes, this is cool as far as I’m concerned.
Because the iPhone lacks an old-school keyboard, commands are given using multi-touch gestures. Tap the screen at any side to move in that direction. Swipe from the middle toward any direction to attack. Double-tap in the center to view inventory. But gestures get more complex than that: draw a capital “W” starting in the upper left corner to wield a weapon, or an “E” to eat food, etc. The gestures are listed via a “commands” button which pops up a scrolling menu. Thankfully, the game is turn-based so you have some time to decide your next move. If you have no desire to remember the gestures, you can launch them from the scrolling menu instead.
A new, randomly generated map for each game.
Even with simple graphics and being turn based, things move surprisingly quickly.

The Bad

Very tiny screen – the whole map is shown at once without any zoom in or scrolling. The characters are literally squint-worthy.
The multi-touch gesture / scrolling menu set-up is a bit awkward.
Crashed on me several times.
Extremely limited appeal to old nerds – most likely limited appeal to those with no memory of the original.

Conclusion

I downloaded this game out of sheer nostalgia and was actually surprised to find it still pretty playable, game-wise. The biggest downers are its poor use of the screen real estate and an awkward command system. But my complaints only have so much weight because: this app is free. Let the questing commence.

iTunes App Store Link: