more roguelike definitions

[zenorogue]

Hi, in https://github.com/ScottBurger/going_rogue_podcast/wiki/What-is-a-roguelike-database there are no roguelike definitions before 2008 (unless counting the great article by Slash about historical origins). So here are some earlier ones that can be loosely called definitions (most of them are vague, but then, so is Berlin Interpretation).

• NetHack guidebook (1987): https://roguetemple.com/z/nethack.txt section 2
• not really a definition but the first use of the term I have found so far (1989): https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.rogue/c/BOaMw9tPuDs/m/MS86TWFRsE4J
• early version of the Roguelike FAQ (1993): https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.roguelike.misc/c/Ecff2YvuWXE/m/rpy1mpVQkDoJ
• late version of the Roguelike FAQ (1998): https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.roguelike.misc/c/yxXOiqEZfpU/m/yotQ03bc4zsJ
• Balrog (1999 or earlier): https://web.archive.org/web/19991103040910/http://www.mo.himolde.no/~knan/roguelike/what.htm
• Thomas Biskup's definition (2000 or earlier): http://web.archive.org/web/20000229085636/http://www.adom.de/adom/roguelike.php3
• Dungeon Dweller's definition (2002): https://web.archive.org/web/20020606195957/http://www.roguelikedevelopment.org/
• Jeff Lait's definition (2003): http://www.zincland.com/powder/index.php?pagename=about
• a thread from 2004: https://www.roguetemple.com/z/hyper/faq.php
• Kornel Kisielewicz (2005): https://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Diablo&direction=next&oldid=1027
• Slash (2008): https://blog.roguetemple.com/roguelike-definition/roguelikeness-factors/

Also I have written a few definitional texts in: https://zenorogue.medium.com/ and https://www.roguetemple.com/z/hyper/faq.php

[ScottBurger]

This is amazing! Thanks for the help with researching. I can't believe I didn't notice your raised issue until just now. I think your "thread from 2004" link is duplicated, though.

[zenorogue]

Great that you like it!

I think I meant this thread from 2004: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.roguelike.development/c/trdIfYPijAU/m/mnKZbJJF9rUJ

I have also learned how to search USENET effectively, so here are more pre-1993 uses: https://roguebasin.com/index.php/Early_Uses

[ScottBurger]

Added to the list! Let's just hope no more new definition debates happen on usenet after google groups shuts down support for it.

[zenorogue]

One more, very detailed, definition (by Petri Kuittinen, 2000): http://web.archive.org/web/20060112142029/http://users.tkk.fi/~eye/roguelike/intro.html#definition

(I have found it while checking when permadeath started being mentioned in the "roguelike" article in Wikipedia; it is linked in the older versions of this article. Here is the last one which does not mention permadeath: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roguelike&direction=prev&oldid=1372154 -- apparently none of the earlier editors thought it was important to mention; the next one does mention permadeath as something that roguelikes traditionally do and also how to avoid it, and some later one mentions Diablo. The article for Rogue does not seem to mention permadeath until 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rogue_(video_game)&direction=prev&oldid=707989480.)

[zenorogue]

Also, this is on topic: https://github.com/zenorogue/isitrl/

[zenorogue]

The year of Fulgur14 - HyperRogue FAQ is definitely not 2004. Fulgur14 has written the original FAQ in 2015, but it did not include a roguelike definition -- I have added it myself, in 2016.

[ScottBurger]

Updates added.