ROGUEish is a fresh rogue-like adventure for the Commodore 64, crafted with clear nods to classics like Rogue 64 and RogueCraft, with a slight twist of influence from the now-defunct Marvel Avengers Alliance. Designed to run on real hardware or through emulation, this release aims to give old-school players a dungeon-crawling challenge that feels both familiar and new.
At its core, ROGUEish is about one thing: climbing a tower as far as you can before something ends you. No epic lore dumps. No cinematic cutscenes. Just you, a joystick, and a steadily increasing chance of dying horribly. Loot is collected simply by walking over it, while combat plays out in true rogue-like fashion—bump into enemies for melee attacks or use ranged weapons when distance makes more sense. The joystick in port 2 handles all the action, including switching between movement/attack modes.
The game features a demo version with two full levels to explore—available as a free download for anyone curious before buying the full release. There’s also a help file available if you want to figure out the mechanics without trial-by-death.
Created by Syntax Error Software, ROGUEish fits firmly into the adventure genre but doesn’t try to reinvent the format. It builds on what works and throws players into a world where progress is measured by how long they can outlast the chaos. With the full version on the way, it’s worth checking out the demo to see how far up the tower you can get before something bites, bludgeons, or blasts you into oblivion.
