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are replenished by rest or by some other magical means. Gold accrues as the player steps on gems or currency. Experience accrues as the player performs various actions in the dungeon, mostly by killing creatures. The "miscellaneous abilities" are modified as each skill is performed and as the player
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The player begins the game with a limited number of items on a town level consisting of six shops: (1) a
General Store, (2) an Armory, (3) a Weaponsmith, (4) a Temple, (5) an Alchemy shop, and (6) a Magic-Users store. A staircase on this level descends into a series of randomly generated underground
332:
availability. One then selects the character's "class" from the following: Warrior, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Ranger, or
Paladin. Class further determines statistics, as well as the abilities acquired during gameplay. Mages, Rangers, and Rogues can learn magic; Priests and Paladins can learn prayers.
348:
that is a key strategy in most computer games that allow saving. However, it is possible to save the file that is generated by the game (MORIA.SAV in the
Windows version) to a backup location, then restore/replace that file after the character had been killed.
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mazes. Deeper levels contain more powerful monsters and better treasures. Each time the player ascends or descends a staircase, a new level is created and the old one discarded; only the town persists throughout the game.
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UMoria 5.0, released in 1989, unified these separate ports into a single code base, fixing many bugs and gameplay balance issues, as well as adding lots of new features; many of which were taken from BRUCE Moria (1988).
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The player has many characteristics in the game. Some characteristics, like sex, weight, and height, cannot be changed once the player has been created, while other characteristics like strength, intelligence, and
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The balrog (represented by the upper-case letter B) is encountered at the deepest depths of the dungeon. Once the balrog has been killed, the game has been won, and no further saving of the game is possible.
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begins with creation of a character. The player first chooses a "race" from the following: Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Dwarf, Half-Orc, or Half-Troll. Racial selection determines base
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754:"... I worked on one of the early VAX 11/780s no more games, and no more rogue! This was intolerable! So I decided to write my own rogue game, Moria Beta 1.0".
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systems, which had started to become popular by this date. To distinguish his release from the original VMS Moria, Wilson named it UNIX Moria, shortened to UMoria.
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As C was a much more portable programming language than VMS Pascal, there was an explosion of Moria ports for a variety of different computer systems such as
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In
February 1987, James E. Wilson started converting the VMS Pascal source code to the C programming language for use on
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During the early 2000s David
Grabiner maintained the code base, releasing only minor compiler related fixes.
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642:"Where Rogue always started players in the first level of the dungeon, Moria 2.0 dropped them in a town".
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UMoria was in continuous development for several more years, with UMoria 5.5.2 released on July 21, 1994.
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425:/780 minicomputer running VMS, which at that time had no games. Since no longer having access to
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Craddock, David L. (5 August 2015). "Chapter 7: None Shall Pass - Braving the Mines of Moria".
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318:, there is a persistent town at the highest level where players can buy and sell equipment.
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Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other
Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games
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in 1985 under a license that permitted sharing and modification, but not commercial use.
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v5.7 Windows / macOS executables, much historical information, and links to source code.
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The player's goal is to descend to the depths of Moria to defeat the Balrog, akin to a
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725:"Breaking ground in 1981, Koeneke built on the foundations of Rogue ..."
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In 1983/84 Jimmey Wayne Todd Jr. joined
Koeneke on the development of
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project was started, which is based on the UMoria 5.2.1 source code.
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843:"Moria / Umoria Release Highlights since 1981 - A Classic Roguelike"
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In 2008, through the work of the free-moria project, UMoria was
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530:. Work has since continued on the game, with regular releases.
415:, Robert Alan Koeneke became hooked on playing the video game
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was "intolerable" for
Koeneke, he started developing his own
800:"Here it is! A Unix version of the popular VMS game Moria".
421:. Soon after, Koeneke moved departments to work on an early
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can be modified by using certain items in a particular way.
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roguelike game, and influenced the preliminary design of
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During the summer of 1983, Koeneke rewrote his game in
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246:. The objective of the game is to dive deep into the
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727:Craddock, David L. (5 August 2015). "Chapter 7".
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478:UMoria 4.85 was released on November 5, 1987.
924:can be played for free in the browser at the
270:game, and the first to include a town level.
8:
26:
804:"Umoria - single player dungeon simulation"
1036:Video games developed in the United States
333:Warriors possess no additional abilities.
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34:
25:
756:Koeneke, Robert Alan (21 February 1996).
1041:Video games using procedural generation
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365:Character sheet for a level 34 elf mage
437:and gave it the name, Moria Beta 1.0.
266:(1986), is considered to be the first
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703:
7:
802:Wilson, James E. (5 November 1987).
676:"Secret Sauce: The Rise of Blizzard"
548:Free and open-source software portal
411:Around 1981, while enrolled at the
731:. Press Start Press. p. 246.
648:. Press Start Press. p. 246.
276:was the basis of the better known
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1001:Video games based on Middle-earth
457:Koeneke started distributing the
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540:
468:4.8, released in November 1986.
226:, usually referred to as simply
90:5.7.15 / 4 June 2021
58:Robert Alan Koeneke (1957-2022)
885: (archived 5 January 2021)
879:on David J. Grabiner's website
314:. Among other improvements to
1:
951:listing of all the different
1016:Curses (programming library)
674:Pitts, Russ (6 June 2006).
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829:free-moria.sourceforge.net
528:GNU General Public License
179:GNU General Public License
15:
464:The last VMS version was
383:increases in experience.
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79:
33:
23:1983 roguelike video game
784:"Moria Release Timeline"
758:"Early history of Moria"
16:For the PLATO game, see
1026:Open-source video games
1021:Cross-platform software
447:, releasing Moria 1.0.
181:v3 or any later version
18:Moria (1978 video game)
976:Acorn Archimedes games
895:Free Software Magazine
714:Free software magazine
413:University of Oklahoma
408:
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357:Player characteristics
312:procedurally generated
284:Blizzard Entertainment
1006:Roguelike video games
898:discusses efforts to
712:by Ben Asselstine on
619:"Umoria release page"
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364:
243:The Lord of the Rings
223:The Dungeons of Moria
92:; 3 years ago
61:Jimmey Wayne Todd Jr.
28:The Dungeons of Moria
996:Classic Mac OS games
594:since its rework in
254:. Moria, along with
955:ports and variants.
890:Freeing an old game
710:Freeing an old game
75:25 March 1983 (0.1)
30:
570:List of roguelikes
562:Video games portal
409:
399:: inspiration for
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124:/dungeons-of-moria
40:Screenshot from a
688:on 10 August 2013
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971:1983 video games
926:Internet Archive
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940:Online VMS/VAX
883:Wayback Machine
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72:Initial release
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850:. Retrieved
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825:"free-moria"
819:
807:. Retrieved
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761:. Retrieved
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716:(2007-03-12)
690:. Retrieved
686:the original
681:The Escapist
679:
669:
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626:. Retrieved
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588:Also called
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507:In 1990 the
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236:inspired by
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153:Available in
51:Developer(s)
41:
27:
991:Linux games
981:Amiga games
692:20 December
459:source code
433:game using
372:armor class
340:As in most
302:boss battle
260:(1984) and
1031:Unix games
965:Categories
870:Umoria.org
852:1 February
847:umoria.org
788:umoria.org
628:1 February
623:RogueBasin
606:References
526:under the
524:relicensed
380:hit points
342:roguelikes
326:statistics
304:. As with
203://www-math
111:Repository
97:2021-06-04
44:-like game
986:DOS games
914:MobyGames
900:relicense
892:" in the
809:28 August
435:VMS BASIC
268:roguelike
240:'s novel
209:/~grabine
167:Roguelike
763:3 August
534:See also
495:Apple II
491:Atari ST
296:Gameplay
193:.archive
931:Beej's
918:MS-DOS
881:at the
598:in 1987
510:Angband
387:History
279:Angband
232:, is a
186:Website
174:License
156:English
126:/umoria
95: (
903:UMoria
735:
652:
591:UMoria
483:MS-DOS
445:Pascal
423:VAX-11
289:Diablo
252:Balrog
211:/moria
201:/http:
120:github
953:Moria
942:Moria
933:Moria
921:Moria
909:Moria
877:Moria
576:Notes
487:Amiga
466:Moria
452:Moria
431:Rogue
427:Rogue
418:Rogue
405:Rogue
401:Moria
330:class
322:Moria
316:Rogue
307:Rogue
274:Moria
229:Moria
213:.html
205:.bgsu
42:Moria
935:Page
854:2024
811:2017
765:2017
733:ISBN
694:2012
650:ISBN
630:2024
493:and
473:UNIX
378:and
376:Mana
328:and
263:Larn
257:Hack
207:.edu
197:/web
195:.org
162:Type
122:.com
912:at
672:".
442:VMS
286:'s
191:web
967::
845:.
827:.
786:.
773:^
747:^
702:^
678:.
621:.
500:.
497:GS
489:,
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292:.
888:"
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813:.
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767:.
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696:.
658:.
632:.
596:C
407:.
99:)
20:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
