Ancient Domains of Mystery

Ancient Domains of Mystery is a roguelike video game in which your aim is to stop the forces of Chaos which are invading the world of Ancardia. Like most roguelike games, Ancient Domains of Mystery uses ASCII graphics to represent the game world.

The player can create their character as male or female, any of ten races and any of twenty character classes, giving 400 possible combinations requiring widely varying playing styles. During adventures, a player is likely to explore many different dungeons and complete multiple quests. Which quests the player chooses will likely depend on their character and on whether they are lawful or chaotic. The alignment of a player also effects which benefits (or curses) their god may bestow upon them, and how they are treated by NPCs. Ancient Domains of Mystery has a quest-centric, plot driven structure that borrows as much to old adventure games such as Zork (indeed, there are even Grue references to be found) as it does to the "purer" hack-and-slash of sister games such as Angband.

Ancient Domains of Mystery was written by Thomas Biskup, is currently at version 1.1.1 and can be downloaded from the official website. Although Ancient Domains of Mystery is freeware (technically postcardware), unlike most roguelikes, its source code is not available. However, some of the game's underlying equations and mechanics have been deduced via careful experimentation by players.

Biskup did not release the source because:
 * 1) He wants to keep a level of mystery regarding exactly what the game does.
 * 2) He does not want lots of unsanctioned variants spread around, as happened with Angband.
 * 3) He plans to someday release a commercial version of Ancient Domains of Mystery.

Dungeons
Ancient Domains of Mystery has an overworld and multiple dungeons. On MS-DOS and GNU/Linux, you launch Ancient Domains of Mystery from the command line into your text-only DOS or terminal window; thus Ancient Domains of Mystery must draw itself using text in the tradition of Rogue. Each dungeon level fits within the size of the screen, however Ancient Domains of Mystery will generate larger levels for those with bigger screens, to the extent that Ancient Domains of Mystery fails to open a saved game if you use a different window size. (In contrast, Rogue confines itself to a grid of 80 by 24 characters, even if you make yourself a larger xterm or DOS window, while Angband creates large levels that scroll off the screen.)

As is usual for roguelike games, Ancient Domains of Mystery randomly-generates its dungeons. Die and start a new game, and you will find different and unfamiliar dungeon levels (in the same places on the overworld). However, as long as the player's character stays alive, dungeons use persistent levels (as they do in Hack). If the hero leaves a dungeon level and returns later, the same level reappears. Save files contain all dungeon levels already visited.

The dungeon tends to contain rooms, hallways, and doors, but can also have special features such as shops. Stairs connect adjacent levels.

Characters
There are four steps to creating a new character for starting a new game.
 * 1) Ancient Domains of Mystery randomly chooses your birthday. This has some effects.
 * 2) You choose the gender, race, and class of the character, or let Ancient Domains of Mystery make a random choice.
 * 3) You can let Ancient Domains of Mystery adjust the stats randomly, or you can answer multiple-choice questions to adjust the stats.
 * 4) You select a number of talents for the new character. The number of talents depends on several factors, with a base of one, and additional talents from other areas. For example, some birth-months (see #1) give you an extra talent. Some classes get extra talents, and if the sum of your attributes is divisible by 7, you get an extra talent.

As you gain experience points by slaying monsters, you will level up, allowing you to boost three skills, and at times, to add new talents.

Controls
Ancient Domains of Mystery uses the "numpad" method; one uses the numbers 1 through 9 on the numeric keypad to move in eight directions. For players who have keyboards without a numpad, especially laptop keyboards, this can be difficult. There is no option to use "yuhjklbn" control as in Rogue.

As in other roguelike games, one can attack a monster in melee by trying to move onto its square.

In Ancient Domains of Mystery, one uses the inventory screen to wear and remove equipment. One presses [i] to access the inventory screen, then presses the letter of a slot to equip or remove an item. From the inventory screen, pressing [v] reaches the "stuff" screen, equivalent to the inventory screen in Angband.

Amiga (68k, PowerPC)

 * Published by Jochen Terstiege worldwide:
 * Version 1.1.1 at 23 November 2002
 * Version 1.0.0
 * Older versions: 0.9.9 Gamma 15, 0.9.9 Gamma 10, 0.9.9 Gamma 8, 0.9.9 Gamma 6, 0.9.9 Gamma 4

macOS (PowerPC, Intel)

 * Published by Jochen Terstiege worldwide:
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 5 at 27 January 2008
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 4 at 10 September 2006
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 3 at 25 May 2006
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 2 at 6 March 2006
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 1 at 5 March 2006

BeOS

 * Published by Jochen Terstiege worldwide:
 * Version 1.0.0
 * Version 0.9.9 Gamma 15

MS-DOS

 * Published by Thomas Biskup worldwide:
 * Version 1.1.1
 * Older versions: 1.1.0, 1.0.0, 0.9.9 Gamma 15, 0.9.9 Gamma 14, 0.9.9 Gamma 13, 0.9.9 Gamma 12, 0.9.9 Gamma 11, 0.9.9 Gamma 10, 0.9.9 Gamma 9, 0.9.9 Gamma 8, 0.9.9 Gamma 7, 0.9.9 Gamma 6, 0.9.9 Gamma 5, 0.9.9, 0.9.4 Gamma 4, 0.9.2, 0.8.4, 0.8.0, 0.7.1, 0.2.0

Java
Unreleased, but JADE "Java-based Ancient Domains Engine" is under development.

Microsoft Windows
This is the native Microsoft Windows port; one can also use the MS-DOS version.


 * Published by Jochen Terstiege worldwide:
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 4
 * Version 1.1.1 beta 3

GNU/Linux (x86)

 * Published by Thomas Biskup worldwide:
 * Version 1.1.1
 * Older versions: 1.1.0, 1.0.0, 0.9.9 Gamma 15, 0.9.9 Gamma 14, 0.9.9 Gamma 13, 0.9.9 Gamma 12, 0.9.9 Gamma 10, 0.9.9 Gamma 9, 0.9.9 Gamma 8, 0.9.9 Gamma 6, 0.9.9, 0.9.4 Gamma 4
 * Older versions in a.out, not ELF: 0.9.9 Gamma 9, 0.9.9 Gamma 8, 0.9.9 Gamma 6, 0.9.9, 0.9.4 Gamma 4, 0.8.4, 0.8.0, 0.7.1

JADE
JADE is Thomas Biskup's new roguelike game project. According to present knowledge, it is being developed with the Java programming language, will be open source, and will feature a larger and richer game world than its indirect predecessor, Ancient Domains of Mystery. More information is available on the official Ancient Domains of Mystery website.