Angband
is a freeware, single player, dungeon crawling, ASCII 'graphics', D&D style adventure Rogue-like
game loosely based on the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. It was created based on another Rogue-like
game called Moria, and in turn it has spawned variants of its own (some are listed below). In
playing the game, you create a character choosing from several races and classes; gear yourself
with armor, weapons, and magic devices; and adventure into the underground caverns fighting
monsters and gathering treasure with the ultimate goal of facing and defeating the evil being,
Morgoth. Angband is available for many different Operating Systems inluding Microsoft Windows,
Unix, Macintosh, and Amiga. Many of the systems also support a graphics option if you don't like
the traditional ASCII 'graphics'.
Latest version: 2.9.2
Homepage: The Official Angband Homepage
Windows version download:
Primary Site,
Mirror Site
ZAngband
is one of the most popular of the Angband variants. It is based on Angband 2.8.1. ZAngband
introduces various aspects of author Roger Zelazny's 'Amber' series into the game. This variant
gives you more player races, more player classes, additional towns, an above ground wilderness,
hundreds of new monsters, quests, and much much more. Be warned, with the increased play comes
increased difficulty and some new abilities for familiar monsters. Like its parent, ZAngband
is available for many different Operating Systems and also provides a graphics option.
ZAngband is now produced by the ZAngband Development Team. Frequent *BETA* versions are available from the ZAngband homepage.
Latest version: 2.6.2
Homepage: The Official ZAngband Homepage at Thangorodrim
Homepage: The Official ZAngband Homepage at ZAngband.Org
Windows version download:
Primary Site,
Mirror Site
KAngband
is based on Angband 2.8.2 and introduces many interesting things into the game such as how new
terrain effects the player, wilderness, an Arena, quests, and more. Certain other aspects of the game has
changed from Angband, such as how to learn spells and having to be awarded your house by the
King. KAngband adds/changes a few more races and classes than vanilla Angband as well. Also
introduced are plots which are chosen at the time of character creation. These plots determine
the wilderness and quests the character will encounter. KAngband is also available for many
different Operating Systems and supports a graphics option.
Latest version: 2.8.3j Patch 1
Homepage: The Official KAngband Homepage
Windows version download:
Primary Site
RAngband
(Realistic Angband) is based on Angband 2.8.2 and introduces more interesting ideas into the
world of *band games, such as centering the map on the player, monsters leaving corpses that
you can eat (some effect the character), the re-addition of player ghosts, and more. Inventory
handling has been tweaked including the number of items one may have, item weights, and item
bulk. RAngband is also available for many different Operating Systems and supports a graphics
option.
Latest version: 1.05a
Homepage: N/A
Windows version download:
Primary Site
This is not a definitive list of the *band games but only a sampling. For a more complete
list, visit the Thangorodrim portal.