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{{game-major| name = Linley's Dungeon Crawl
|developer = [[Linley Henzell]], others
|influences = [[NetHack]]
|theme = [[List of roguelikes by theme#Fantasy|Fantasy]]
|released = 1995
|updated = 2005, v. 4.0.0 (beta 26)
|licensing = copyleft source, [[freeware]]
|language = [[Cpp|C++]]
|platforms = Binaries: Amiga, [[Mac OS | Mac Classic]], [[Mac OS X]], [[DOS|MS-DOS]], OS/2, [[Windows]]; Source only: [[Linux]], Solaris, [[Unix|*NIX]], *BSD.
|interface = [[ASCII]], [[keyboard]], [[mouse]] ([[Tiles|tile]] version only)
|length = 4 to 12 hours
|site = http://www.dungeoncrawl.org/
}}


Crawl began in 1995 as a personal project of Australian [[Linley Henzell]] (in fact, its full name is Linley's Dungeon Crawl), and, despite Henzell's departure from the project in the late 1990's, its development continued until early in this century and may well continue even further; it does have a dev team, although as of this writing (January 2005), it's been a long time since the last release. On the other hand, a series of patches from Crawler Darshan Shaligram have moved the game forward considerably.
==History==


Part of the trouble in releasing is the result of the horrible spaghetti code in Crawl. Henzell freely admits that:
'''Crawl''' began in 1995 as the project of Australian [[Linley Henzell]] (in fact, its full name is [http://www.dungeoncrawl.org/ Linley's Dungeon Crawl]). Following Henzell's departure from the project in 1999, a loose  coalition of developers officially maintained the game, though (as of 2005) visible development has stalled at version 4.0.0.


"Crawl started out in about 1995 when, having played [[Hack|PCHack]] and [[Moria]], I managed to get hold of [[NetHack]] 3.1.3. Although I liked the [[Random|randomness]] and the humour of it, there were some things I really wanted to fix - the [[Targetting system|targetting system]], for example - and I thought parts of it, like [[Spellcasting|spellcasting]], could be made much more interesting ([[NetHack]] still has very few spells which weren't wand/potion/scroll effects in [[Rogue]]). So I dusted off my old Turbo [[C++]] box and set about teaching myself [[C]], with only a rudimentary knowledge of Commodore 64 [[BASIC]] to get me started (I wasn't connected to the internet in those days).
The development slowdown relates in part to legacy coding practices, as Henzell himself suggests in telling of Crawl's [[NetHack]]-inspired origins:


Results were, predictably, quite horrible - the principles of good program design were as foreign to me as those esoteric entities known as 'pointers', 'structs' and 'header files'. But I stuck at it, and in 1997 Linley's Dungeon Crawl 1.0 was released. Encouraged by a steadily increasing influx of comments, [[Bug|bug reports]] and sometimes even large sections of [[Rewrite|rewritten]] code I worked on and off until early 1999, when I moved out of home and away from my parents' djgpp-capable computer. Since then the Crawl dev-team has been working on it and achieved a lot, given the spaghetti-like tangle of code they inherited from me."
:''"There were some things I really wanted to fix ... and I thought parts ... could be made much more interesting. ... So I ... set about teaching myself [[C]]. ... Results were, predictably, quite horrible ... but I stuck at it. ... The Crawl dev-team has ... achieved a lot, given the spaghetti-like tangle of code."'' — cited from [http://tvilsom.org/roguelike/50.html BALROG], by Erik I. Bolsøs.


-- cited from [http://tvilsom.org/roguelike/50.html BALROG], by Erik I. Bolsøs.
In 2006 Darshan Shaligram and Erik Piper forked Dungeon Crawl as [[Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup]]. The fork has semiannual releases, and tournaments and has received patches from over two hundred contributors. Today Stone Soup is broadly synonymous with Dungeon Crawl.


Soft Description:
==Soft Description==


A single-[[Dungeon|dungeon]] roguelike, a bit shorter than average, i.e. fairly long. ;-) Has a reputation for being devilishly hard (in truth, it does get easier as you learn the tricks), and quite a few unique approaches:
A single-[[dungeon]] roguelike with a reputation for being devilishly hard and for novel approaches to gameplay:


* There is very little room for [[Scumming|scumming]] -- normally, you won't be able to engage in anything like [[NetHack]]'s nurse dancing, [[ADOM]]'s stone-giant scumming, or [[Band|Bands]]' "skill gain". There's simply not enough out there to scum (and normally not enough food, either). (The exception is worshippers of Nemelex, but the god system is interesting enough that exploration of the other gods is sufficient motivation to not play many games as a Nemelexite.)
* Very little room for [[cheating|scumming]]. Normally, there's nothing like [[NetHack]]'s nurse dancing or [[ADOM]]'s stone-giant scumming.  It is not possible to stay in a region of moderate difficulty indefinitely, like one can in [[Band|Bands]]' when engaged in "stat gain".


* It's "[[Race|racist]]" rather than "[[Class|classist]]" -- most of the "molding" of the character you would expect from class in a roguelike come from race, while class merely sets how you start out (which can be quite important, but can often be overcome if one's chosen direction fits the aptitudes of the given race, e.g. an elven archer who evolves into primarily a spellcaster).
* It's "[[race|racist]]" rather than "[[class|classist]]" — most of the "molding" of the character comes from race, while class merely determines how your character begins his/her career rather than the final development of a given character's talents.


* You can't sell to [[Shop|shops]]. Who wants your crappy stuff, anyway?
* You can't sell items back to [[shops]].


* [[Skills|Skill]] rise through use. Although ADOM does this too, it also offers skill increases of your choice at levelup; in Crawl, rise-through-use is the only system. This sometimes leads to deformations like the "victory dance" of sitting around and spellcasting for no reason after tackling a high-XP monster, but otherwise it works great.
* [[Skill]]s rise through use. Unlike [[ADOM]], Crawl does not offer skill increases of your choice at levelup. This approach sometimes leads to quirks like the "victory dance" of spellcasting for no reason after defeating a high-[[XP]] monster, but otherwise works well.


* Fighter-mages are implemented more strongly and completely than in any other roguelike, there is not one or two such classes, but (going from experience rather than the class list) at least 6: fighters focussing on magic-enhanced unarmed combat (transmuters), magic-enhanced armed combat (crusaders) combat-enhanced armed magery :-) (enchanters), physical melee/magical ranged combat (reavers), necromancy-enhanced armed combat (Death Knights), and magic-enhanced stealth-based combat (stalkers). Some would also call warpers a real class as well. ;-) There are also two magic-like alternatives to [[Magic|magic]] -- invocations and evocations -- and thus fighter-evokers and fighter-invokers should also be mentioned.
* More complete fighter-mages implementation. Rather than one or two such classes, there are at least six: magic-enhanced, unarmed combatants (transmuters); magic-enhanced, armed combatants (crusaders); combat-enhanced, armed mages (enchanters); physical melee/magical ranged combatants (reavers); necromantic, armed combatants (death knights); and magic-enhanced, stealthy combatants (stalkers). There are also two alternatives to [[Magic|magic]] — invocations and evocations — and so fighter-evokers and fighter-invokers could be considered here, as well.


* Although Crawl has no corpse [[Intrinsic|intrinsics]] system, food and parameters related to it (what you can eat, what might happen) are handled inventively and interestingly, and permeate the game.
* Although there is no corpse [[intrinsics]] system, [[food]] and diet are handled inventively, permeating gameplay.


* A mutations sytem exists, but unlike ADOM's corruptions system, it's not an attempt at a clock, and unlike the ToME system, corruptions are often quite nice. They are also often quite nasty, and keep you on your toes.
* [[Mutation]]s. Unlike [[ADOM]], they do not enforce a time limit, and unlike the [[ToME]], are often quite nice. They are also often quite nasty, keeping players on their toes.


* [[gods|Gods]], gods, and more gods -- 12 of them, I believe, and most quite distinct from the others. Your choice of religion is almost as important as your choice of race, and perhaps more important than it.
* [[God]]s, gods, and more gods — twelve (twenty one in Stone Soup) in total, each distinct from the next. Choice of religion is almost as important as that of race.


* Players are discouraged, via various aspects of the ruleset, from getting too tied up in the ID game. Pushing it too hard may even send them to a fate arguably worse than Hell...
* Players are discouraged from investing too heavily in the ID game.


* Areas that are undoable by some characters. Not locked to them, just impossible (only summonings experts and a few other special cases, for example, can hope to tackle the Tomb). This does wonders for replayability.
* Areas far too challenging to certain play styles, which do wonders for replayability.


Hard Description:
==Hard Description==


You choose a race and, based on your race restrictions, a class, and, using or not using melee, missiles, spells, god-powers, innate abilities, and powers from magical items, you must dive 27 levels to the Realm of Zot, retrieve the Orb there, and ascend back to the surface. On your way you will need to make at least 3 side trips to branch [[Dungeon|dungeons]], such as the Snake Pits and the four Hells, to acquire the minimum 3 "runes," keys that are needed to unlock the gates of the Realm of Zot. Many characters with maxed level (at 27) and core skills (also at 27... hmmm...) have tried and failed. Will you?
You choose a race and, based on race restrictions, a class, then dive 27 levels to retrieve the Orb of Zot before ascending back to the surface. On your descent you will need to make side trips to branch [[Dungeon|dungeons]] to acquire "runes", keys needed to enter the Realm of Zot.
 
==New Documentation==
 
An effort is being made to write better documentation for the [[Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup | Stone Soup]] fork of this game.
You can see the documentation project [[Crawl: New Documentation|here]]
 
== Variants ==
* [[AxCrawl]]
* [[CrawlJ]]
* [[Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup]]
 
== Handheld versions ==
 
* [http://www.nightmode.org/dscrawl/ DSCrawl] for the Nintendo DS by Sasq. This is not just a straight port. Some effort has been made to make this port playable on a portable console - formatting the output into windows, designing an input system with shortcuts that is quick to use etc. (Note: the site seems to be down. Use Wayback to access an old version of the site. The last version of DSCrawl is v1.0)
 
* A more recent version of DSCrawl is available. It has been dldi patched by [http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=13311 errabes] to run on a greater variety of flash hardware. Download [http://errabes.free.fr/pogo2/ dscrawl_dldi-b1]
 
==External links==
* [http://crawlj.sourceforge.jp/down_e.html Dungeon Crawl Tile Version] (Last update: 12/2005)
* [http://enne.walker.googlepages.com/stonesouptiles Dungeon Crawl Tile Version for Stone Soup (Newer)]
* [http://www.digital-eel.com/13steps/ 13 Steps To CRAWL]
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/crawl-ref/ Stone Soup Development]
* [http://techlorebyigor.blogspot.com/search/label/Dungeon%20Crawl Crawl fan site]
* A [http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7421/dcflowchart.png foolproof plan] for winning at dungeon crawl
[[Category:Open source]]

Latest revision as of 12:42, 14 October 2015

Linley's Dungeon Crawl
Major Roguelike
Developer Linley Henzell, others
Theme Fantasy
Influences NetHack
Released 1995
Updated 2005, v. 4.0.0 (beta 26)
Licensing copyleft source, freeware
P. Language C++
Platforms Binaries: Amiga, Mac Classic, Mac OS X, MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows; Source only: Linux, Solaris, *NIX, *BSD.
Interface ASCII, keyboard, mouse (tile version only)
Game Length 4 to 12 hours
Official site of Linley's Dungeon Crawl


History

Crawl began in 1995 as the project of Australian Linley Henzell (in fact, its full name is Linley's Dungeon Crawl). Following Henzell's departure from the project in 1999, a loose coalition of developers officially maintained the game, though (as of 2005) visible development has stalled at version 4.0.0.

The development slowdown relates in part to legacy coding practices, as Henzell himself suggests in telling of Crawl's NetHack-inspired origins:

"There were some things I really wanted to fix ... and I thought parts ... could be made much more interesting. ... So I ... set about teaching myself C. ... Results were, predictably, quite horrible ... but I stuck at it. ... The Crawl dev-team has ... achieved a lot, given the spaghetti-like tangle of code." — cited from BALROG, by Erik I. Bolsøs.

In 2006 Darshan Shaligram and Erik Piper forked Dungeon Crawl as Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. The fork has semiannual releases, and tournaments and has received patches from over two hundred contributors. Today Stone Soup is broadly synonymous with Dungeon Crawl.

Soft Description

A single-dungeon roguelike with a reputation for being devilishly hard and for novel approaches to gameplay:

  • Very little room for scumming. Normally, there's nothing like NetHack's nurse dancing or ADOM's stone-giant scumming. It is not possible to stay in a region of moderate difficulty indefinitely, like one can in Bands' when engaged in "stat gain".
  • It's "racist" rather than "classist" — most of the "molding" of the character comes from race, while class merely determines how your character begins his/her career rather than the final development of a given character's talents.
  • You can't sell items back to shops.
  • Skills rise through use. Unlike ADOM, Crawl does not offer skill increases of your choice at levelup. This approach sometimes leads to quirks like the "victory dance" of spellcasting for no reason after defeating a high-XP monster, but otherwise works well.
  • More complete fighter-mages implementation. Rather than one or two such classes, there are at least six: magic-enhanced, unarmed combatants (transmuters); magic-enhanced, armed combatants (crusaders); combat-enhanced, armed mages (enchanters); physical melee/magical ranged combatants (reavers); necromantic, armed combatants (death knights); and magic-enhanced, stealthy combatants (stalkers). There are also two alternatives to magic — invocations and evocations — and so fighter-evokers and fighter-invokers could be considered here, as well.
  • Although there is no corpse intrinsics system, food and diet are handled inventively, permeating gameplay.
  • Mutations. Unlike ADOM, they do not enforce a time limit, and unlike the ToME, are often quite nice. They are also often quite nasty, keeping players on their toes.
  • Gods, gods, and more gods — twelve (twenty one in Stone Soup) in total, each distinct from the next. Choice of religion is almost as important as that of race.
  • Players are discouraged from investing too heavily in the ID game.
  • Areas far too challenging to certain play styles, which do wonders for replayability.

Hard Description

You choose a race and, based on race restrictions, a class, then dive 27 levels to retrieve the Orb of Zot before ascending back to the surface. On your descent you will need to make side trips to branch dungeons to acquire "runes", keys needed to enter the Realm of Zot.

New Documentation

An effort is being made to write better documentation for the Stone Soup fork of this game. You can see the documentation project here

Variants

Handheld versions

  • DSCrawl for the Nintendo DS by Sasq. This is not just a straight port. Some effort has been made to make this port playable on a portable console - formatting the output into windows, designing an input system with shortcuts that is quick to use etc. (Note: the site seems to be down. Use Wayback to access an old version of the site. The last version of DSCrawl is v1.0)
  • A more recent version of DSCrawl is available. It has been dldi patched by errabes to run on a greater variety of flash hardware. Download dscrawl_dldi-b1

External links

Retrieved from "http://roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Linley%27s_Dungeon_Crawl&oldid=41082"