Rogue-like

Rogue-like (plural Rogue-likes)

1. Alternative form of roguelike.
   • 1997, John Withers, Developing Java™ Entertainment Applets, Wiley Computer Publishing, →ISBN, page 93:

     Roughly a dozen different flavors of Rogue-likes have evolved over the years, but one of the most popular is Nethack.

   • 1999 November 2, Levi Kendall, “Diablo is a "Rogue-Like"”, in alt.games.diablo‎^[1] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     Diablo is not an RPG. I've been reading through the posts and some people agree with this, so just what IS Diablo (as far as game type). Well, I'd say Diablo is a "Rogue-like".

   • 2011, Michael J. Tresca, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 138:

     As with the Rogue-likes before it, Tunnels of Doom featured random encounters with monsters, wildly varying treasure, and a final quest that required the lost king to be defeated (Barton 2008:81).

   • 2013, Greg Costikyan, Uncertainty in Games, Cambridge, Mass.; London: The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 47:

     The main tool Rogue-likes bring to creating interesting gameplay through randomness is algorithmic complexity far beyond that provided by a few 1D100 tables in the back of the D&D rulebook.

   • 2014, Rob Strangman, Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman, →ISBN, page 334:

     DND just goes to show you that you don't need graphics to achieve greatness. I think the legions of people who still play Rogue-likes such as Nethack would agree.

   • 2023 June 10, CSS Dixieland, “Weights in various roguelikes”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack‎^[2] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     I do not think necessary to give the list of the most important microprocessors that were released in the 1990s, because by the 1980s dungeon games ('Rogue-likes') were already firmly established.

Rogue-like (comparative more Rogue-like, superlative most Rogue-like)

1. Alternative form of roguelike.
   • 1983 November 23, Chris%u...@sri-unix.uucp, “Rogue”, in net.micro‎^[3] (Usenet), archived from the original on 23 March 2024:

     I don't know if they are stepping on anyone's copyright toes, but a local group of enterprising young programmers have implemented a very Rogue-like game in pascal running on our Dec-20s.

   • 1997 February 17, Nikolai81, “MAG - a new (old) DOS rogue-like game”, in rec.games.roguelike.rogue‎^[4] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     MAG is Rogue-like.It's almost a brother to the game we all know and love.

   • 1999 August 13, William Tanksley, “Looking for suggestions”, in rec.games.roguelike.misc‎^[5] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     Close -- but while Hack is very Rogue-like, it's a fresh effort, not based on Rogue.

   • 2001 July 13, Jeremy Williamson, “Which game to play next?”, in rec.games.video.sega‎^[6] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     Lodoss isn't really "Rogue-like" in that it you retain status rather than lose it once you emerge from an era.

   • 2021 December 21, Spalls Hurgenson, “Free Games x5: Loop Hero”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action‎^[7] (Usenet), archived from the original on 4 January 2026:

     These days, a lot of games pick-n-choose from the Rogue-like feature set, so deciding if a game is "Rogue-like" or not can be difficult.