How were You Introduced to Angband?

[Nick]

One of my workmates had the borg running as his screensaver. Eventually I got interested enough to try the game; that was about 2003.

[Siemelink]

Around 1990 I had Moria on a floppy (cloning Emperor Liches for loot). I also found rogue on the uni mainframe (usually ran out of food)

[Estie]

I honestly dont remember. A friend showed me Nethack in the times when we connected to the internet via acoustic line (300 baud). We played together with another friend through the nights, alternating player/commenter.

One of my oldest Angband memories is my friend finding Aglarang with his HT warrior. But whether he was the first to play, or I introduced him, I cannot recall.

[Grotug]

Hi, I've been playing Angband for 10 years now and I'm 43. In 2013 I don't recall how I stumbled upon Angband but I think I somehow learned about Rogue and I guess that eventually got me to Angband. I think I did try Colossal Cave Adventure but did not make any progress in it the first time I played it (I replayed it a year or two ago and did manage to find some things in the cave).

I think I tried Nethack and maybe one or two other roguelikes after trying Rogue but I naturally gravitated toward Angband since it was Tolkien related. I was blown away by the writing in the game: the descriptions of the monsters and, more so, of the artifacts. Every artifact seemed so {special}. I really enjoyed the lore of the legendary heroes who had wielded whatever weapon I had found (I remember the weapon artifacts having the best descriptions).

I was also really impressed by the depth of the game, especially as it related to all the different kinds of treasures and equipment.

Speaking of Commander Keen, I loved that game as a kid. Here is a little video of me climbing the impossible tower:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmx_iZcV2VA

[malcontent]

Sorry, I'm sure this is longer than it needs to be...

My first exposure was Moria at the University of Washington in Seattle on VAX terminals in one of the dormitories around 1987. My brother alerted me to a game that people were playing so I tried it. I was absolutely horrible at it, but I loved it. Looking back I shudder to think how far away I was from ever winning the game. I was only in the dorms for 2 quarters before moving out and didn't play again for about 10 years.

Around 1997 I built a computer (meaning I bought all the parts separately and assembled them) with the intent of running Linux like the uber geek I liked to think I was. I don't recall if Debian Linux had a Moria package or if I just built from source. I don't even recall what made me revisit the game. Then, with unlimited access and much more time, I got fairly consumed with figuring out how to win. Lots of visits to Beej's moria page, which you can still find (https://beej.us/moria/) and others that no longer exist. Eventually won, maybe twice, got burned out and accepted that there were other things to do in life.

20 years later, leading a team of developers at work that included some recent college grads that were into gaming, the inevitable discussion about "ascii games I played in my day" came up and I found some web-based version of Moria to show them to get a laugh. This sparked my interest a bit, which led me to Angband, which I now play way too much.

I think the staying power of Angband for me is the ability to vary the game parameters and the community around the game. Angband.live was a great resource but now I build on Linux (chromebook) and play on a big screen with 4 subwindows. It's very nice to not need an internet connection to play. I always, always play in ascii. I have always found other people's rendering of the characters and monsters a huge let down and prefer to let my imagination have fun. Due to my time away, and only recent re-discovery, I have only played 4.x versions.

[HallucinationMushroom]

I'm 44, found Moria around 1992 while rummaging through my brother's collection of 3.5 diskettes he brought home with him on holiday. I couldn't play Angband until 1999 when I upgraded my computer where I started playing 'in earnest' but lusted for it back in 1995 when my friend could run it on his 386. It had color, and artifacts, and rooms full of enemies, uniques, and color. I remember being freaked out when I first saw a unique orc with a horde of other orcs -- Moria is very sparse.

[sffp]

My university had it tucked away on one of it's large Unix machines back in the late 80's, early 90's.

[AceRimmer]

Originally Posted by sffp

My university had it tucked away on one of it's large Unix machines back in the late 80's, early 90's.

@sffp introduced me to it back in the early 90's.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

On a cross-country plane flight in the early '90s, the passenger next to me was playing angband on his laptop and talked with me about the game. He kindly gave me a copy on a 3.5" floppy disk, and I have played off and on ever since. Didn't ever legitimately win until I watched Fizzix's "Let's Play Angband" series on YouTube. Since then, my game has improved, but still lacks the real professional status of some of the greats.

[maboleth]

I don't remember actually, but I think it was late 90's or so.

I was one of the guys that supplemented Gervais titles back in the day, when they were the greatest and hi-res (I still love them most of all - I can only play @ in Gervais titles :-) ).
The tile set was missing many new monsters and items and was using ugly substitutes. I contacted Gervais, got his approval and refilled the map with all the missing items, drawing in his style.

Still warms my heart when I see my work & name in the tiles. Small personal stuff, but was proud then.