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Game News Ancient dungeon crawlers Temple of Apshai and Rogue released on Steam

Infinitron

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Tags: Epyx; Pixel Games UK; Rogue; Temple of Apshai Trilogy

Over the past few years, a minor industry has emerged around the acquisition and rereleasing of various antique video games. The latest company to join this field is a firm by the name of Pixel Games UK, who have apparently picked up the rights to the catalog of 1980s developer Epyx. That's what allowed them to release two very old RPGs on Steam this week - Temple of Apshai, the semi-realtime dungeon crawler originally released in 1979, and Rogue, the procedurally generated dungeon crawler from 1980 that gave its name to an entire genre. That said, both of the releases are based on later versions of the games published by Epyx in the mid-1980s. Pixel Games actually put together brief trailers for these, but since they don't appear to have a YouTube channel, I'll just post the descriptions. First, Temple of Apshai:

Relive the classic fantasy role play experience that spellbound players in 1985. This game was a remastered combination of the three games from the Dunjonquest series (Temple of Apshai, Upper Reaches of Apshai, and Curse of Ra).

Create a character, buy equipment, enter the dungeon and prepare for adventure. Explore and fight your way to hidden treasure and magical items. Gain experience, cure your wounds, recover from fatigue and survive to reach the next level.

All that lies before you cannot be foretold, even by the Oracle. I can tell you that the greatest adventure lies not in the din of sword or shield, or in the rapacious hoard of silver and diamond. Nor in the gleam of distant sunsets, or the firm visage of mailed warriors who guard ancient kingdoms. It lies within. Within Apshai. Within you.
And then Rogue:

In the early 1980s, a computer game emerged that changed the world of fantasy gaming forever. Randomly generated rooms meant that each journey into the infamous Dungeons of Doom was unique. The potent combination of random generation with perma-death proved to be intoxicating, and the game was so influential it spawned an entire genre: "Rogue-likes".

Now you too can experience the thrill of dungeon crawling for the fabled Amulet of Yendor in the original ASCII adventure.
  • Battle dozens of unique and powerful enemies.
  • Gather armor, weapons, food and other items to help you on your quest.
  • Scour rooms for secret hidden doors and traps.
  • Discover strange magical spells and potions, which have different wonderous effects every time you play the game.
  • Survive through 26 randomly generated levels, each more tricky and dangerous than the last, to find the Amulet, then escape... if you can!
How long has it been?

How many lifetimes have passed since I began my sojourn through this maze of underground passageways, of damp, dimly lit chambers? How long have I been alone, the only human among a menacing crew of hideous subterranean beasts, stumbling over forlorn reminders that others have passed this way before me... never to return!

Long before I forgot the warmth of the noonday sun or the refreshing coolness of the evening breeze, I forgot my name. Call me what you will. I am the Rogue.


For Rogue aficionados, you may wish to know that this particular version is Epyx Rogue v1.49 for the IBM PC.​

The Temple of Apshai Trilogy is available on Steam for $4, while Rogue is available for just $3 with a 15% launch discount until next week. I guess that's where they think the hype is.
 

Grauken

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lol at buying these, not even any extras like you get sometimes on GOG, no good reason to give them money
 

Theodora

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Reposting for those who are interested in playing Rogue and don't want the Steam version for the novelty:

'If you're going to use something else you should use the Retro Rogue Collection. (Or, Rogue Classic by Oryx Labs if you want a nice tileset; or import the tiles from it to RRC.)'

If you don't know what any of that means, probably just download the Oryx Labs version from itchi.io (especially if ascii isn't your thing). RRC has some Fancy™️ features like emulating an old CRT for that terminal feeling, but even choosing between the different versions offered in RRC is overcomplicating it if you're new to all of this.

Personally, I shamelessly spent the dollar or w/e. Mostly because, well, that box art is dope. u.u

ZqIaO1f.png
 
Last edited:

Giskard

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I have fond memories of playing Temple of Apshai on Apple ]['s at school when I should have been doing 'homework'.

lol at buying these, not even any extras like you get sometimes on GOG, no good reason to give them money

Being time poor is a good reason to pay a few bucks for some nostalgia...and yes, I could go all :obviously: and find an emulator, OS rom's and game images, but who has the time?

Not Me :negative:
 

Grauken

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Being time poor is a good reason to pay a few bucks for some nostalgia...and yes, I could go all :obviously: and find an emulator, OS rom's and game images, but who has the time?

Not Me :negative:

Are you fucking kidding me? It takes like 5 minutes to find this shit
 

KeighnMcDeath

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Lol. I have them on floppy even. Tbh, the amiga version is better. If you want the trilogy, play the originals before the trilogy as they have far more charm (i prefer the c64 temple of apshai and individual add ons esp with the shark music and eerie music/sounds).

We miss entirely the Hellfire Warrior series (includes Keys to Acheron & Danger in Drindisti)

Datestones of Ryn, Morloc's Tower and Sorcerer of Siva were omitted as well. Don't forget Rescue at Rigel & Star Warrior. Want a diablo-esque the there are a few versions of Gateway to Apshai. Pity Cliffs of Tyr was never released.

All that said... these games need a little bit of modern features without destroying old-school charm. This cash grab is uh... well sad.
 

fabrulana

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(i prefer the c64 temple of apshai and individual add ons esp with the shark music and eerie music/sounds).

This is the one I used to play as well, I will have difficulty playing the old PC version as the C64 one looked and sounded superior, never played the Amiga one though.
 

newtmonkey

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Temple of Apshai Trilogy Steam release is apparently totally broken:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=77242

Above thread said:
Overall I noticed in the version on Steam:

  • The monsters do very little damage
  • The game never gives any experience (always 0)
  • The game gives way more silver than items are valued at
  • Monsters don't move when resting (taking 0 steps)

It also apparently doesn't come with the room description book, which is akin to playing Pool of Radiance without the Adventurer's Journal...
 

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Temple of Apshai Trilogy Steam release is apparently totally broken:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=77242

Above thread said:
Overall I noticed in the version on Steam:

  • The monsters do very little damage
  • The game never gives any experience (always 0)
  • The game gives way more silver than items are valued at
  • Monsters don't move when resting (taking 0 steps)

It also apparently doesn't come with the room description book, which is akin to playing Pool of Radiance without the Adventurer's Journal...

Huh, it seems like it may have always been this way:

TDC has a Kryoflux image of a 720 KiB disk of the game. The files are identical to yours, with the exception of additional "AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "GO.BAT" files.

Unless somebody unearths a 360 KiB disk of the game with different files (such as this one or this one), I would say that the finding is just that the PC trilogy version (written in Turbo Pascal) was made a lot easier for some reason. For what it's worth, the original 1982 PC version (written in BASICA) is as difficult as expected.

Another crappy Enhanced Edition...from 1986.
 

KeighnMcDeath

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You can find pdfs of the manuals Online at a few places. I wonder if mysbandonware now says $$$ must purchase. Seems this is how cashgrabs remedy getting old games for free. I mean this is just bleck. For shame. Its not even worth 5 cents.
 

Flying Dutchman

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It's so weird they offer discounts on games that are being sold for such a low price.

"15% off, so get it now for $3!" I mean, like, what?
 

Daemongar

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Normally I'd buy something like this, as I liked Temple of Apshai. However, this is just a cheap cash grab with very little effort involved. That is, it appears they didn't add anything. How much effort would it be to reproduce Temple of Apshai in Unity or some other crappy engine and resell it? You know, classic version and enhanced version a la Wasteland? That's like a 120 hour job! By one programmer and artist!

Normally I would buy something like this, but I can't because Temple of Apshai and Rogue deserve much better. They haven't done anything for the intellectual property - this was their chance.

Just checked - Impossible Mission 2 is available also with no enhancements, nothing. That game deserves better as well.
 

Tweed

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Oh boy, the inferior version of the Apshai trilogy in all it's glorious non-composite CGA emulated glory, why wouldn't you want to pay money for this?
 

Tweed

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You can get the superior versions the same way, I prefer the C64 version.

Also a huge fan of Gateway to Apshai, one of the first games I ever played.
 

newtmonkey

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These shovelware companies are the worst... their whole business plan is just to scoop up cheap licenses and do the bare minimum to get a bunch of games on Steam. I would not be surprised if they just download their games from Abandonia or whatever and never even test if they work correctly. I don't understand how they are making any money doing this, though I suspect their true goal is to sit on dozens of licenses hoping that some large company decides it wants to revive some old game and therefore has to license it from them.
 

Dungeon Lord

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Thank you very much for posting these!
It looks, sounds and plays better than Baldurs Fate 3!
 

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