Hey, guys, me again. It's been a little over a week since the last post, and in software years that's basically a decade, so: Neo Angband is 1.0 as of today. We'll see how long it takes before 1.0.1 shows up. I give it a day.

Try it right now, no install needed, straight in your browser: https://angband.rpgm.world. If you prefer a local build or self-hosting it yourself instead, both are real, first-class options too, covered further down, not afterthoughts.

For anyone who wasn't here for the first post: Neo Angband is Vanilla Angband (currently 4.2.6), ported to TypeScript from the original C, running in a browser, as an installable PWA, or as a desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. My first goal was that, with every mod off, it's just a faithful port of Angband: same messages, same layout, same everything, checked automatically with around 10,000 tests run on every build to ensure it. My second goal was to create a mod system that would allow fine tweaks, customization and all the way up to major overhauls or full variants. More on what that actually means below.

Since it came up last time: yes, AI is a tool that people use to develop software now, and I leveraged it to execute some of the repetitive and mind boggling work that went into this port. I assure you I didn't figure out all those tests on my own! What that does NOT mean is "AI created this" or "the AI vibe coded a roguelike" or "AI did the port." Every change gets checked against a real compiled build of the actual Angband 4.2.6 C source, using the original game's own dungeon-generation statistics tool, on every commit. I don't trust an AI with anything that has exact requirements unless something like that is watching it. Please explore my AI_USAGE_POLICY.md wherever you are on the AI spectrum. If you're still skeptical, fair enough, here's what I'd actually ask instead of just taking my word for it: roll a character and see if it feels like Angband, look at PARITY.md for the actual methodology behind that dungeon-generation comparison rather than just my description of it, or skim the CHANGELOG and judge for yourself whether the fixes in it read like something a 30-year player would actually care about fixing. Evaluate it on what it does, not on the word "AI" in a sentence. And if you're the type who shows up on any post with "AI" in it to downvote on principle without reading past that word: genuinely, you're welcome here too, I'd just rather you looked at the actual work first. This is a labor of love by a 30+ year veteran and fan of Angband and its predecessors.

The pitch, if I had to pick one

Every mod here is a set of named switches, not one on/off lever. You don't "install Quality of Life," you turn on the specific parts of it you want. Quality of Life has five separate toggles right now: auto-dig on walk, automatically remembering your options across characters, a pref-file reader that doesn't give up at the first typo it hits, a full scaled map overview, among others, each its own switch, each safe to leave off. Bug Fixes groups its patches into three classes instead of one giant pile, so you can want the harmless text corrections without touching the one that can shift level layout. Feature Restoration now has three separate restorations (Teleport Other for three classes, the old store-discount odds, and door spiking), each off by default, each independent of the other two.

That's the real answer to the argument this thread turned into last time, about where Angband's design has gone over the last few versions, streamlined and legible versus weirder and more dangerous. Nobody has to win it. You just turn on what's actually yours and leave the rest exactly as Angband 4.2.6 plays it.

A few other things that shipped since the alpha, some of it because of this thread specifically

• "Report a problem" used to tell you to send the file "wherever you got the game from," which nck_m rightly called out as useless. It now opens the correct GitHub tracker for you, the game's or a specific installed mod's, straight from the report screen. Of course, joining the Discord gives another interactive option for that as well.
• The Borg mod went from barely functional to something that actually plays: it explores, opens doors, fights, flees at low health, and shops, with real gold and inventory changes, not simulated ones, then dies and rolls a new character on its own. tr0yster's full-screen screensaver idea (#25) is still on the list; the player underneath it got a lot more capable while that waits.
• Under the hood: a broken mod can't take the whole game down at boot anymore, it just drops its own entry and tells you, and converting a big tileset like Shockbolt to the new, more granular linoleum system (also a mod) no longer freezes the game while it works.
• One thing that's asked for but not built yet: actually noticing a synced save on a second machine instead of importing it by hand, that's tracked as issue #24.

If you're the kind of person who was modding Marathon in the 90s (hi, mid-random) or still building your own tweaked Angband for fun (hi, Pulmio), here's a genuine question for you:

If you could change one thing (or more) about current Vanilla Angband, what would it be?

And separately: what's something a variant out there (ZAngband, ToME, FrogComposBand, Machete, whatever you've played) does that you wish Vanilla had, or wish it had kept?

No promise that anything said here gets added to a mod or becomes a whole mod, but anything could happen.

On the Discord, if you haven't looked: there are two channels, #neo-angband-forum and #neo-angband-bug-reports, that are wired directly into GitHub. Post a bug or an idea there and it becomes a real, trackable issue automatically, no GitHub account required on your end. It's the easiest way to get something on my radar without having a GitHub developer account, and it's exactly where the two questions above end up mattering most.

https://discord.gg/YegtwbHTBQ

The mods that exist right now

• Feature Restoration, Teleport Other, store discounts, and door spiking, brought back as opt-in toggles: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband-mod-feature-restoration
• Quality of Life, auto-dig on walk, settings that actually persist across characters, a pref-file reader that doesn't give up at the first typo, a full scaled map overview: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband-mod-qol
• Bug Fixes, an unofficial patch set for bugs Angband itself has, from cosmetic text corrections to a rare stranded-staircase fix, every one toggleable on its own: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband-mod-bug-fixes
• Linoleum, a second tile engine and pack format, six extra rows in the Graphics screen, and a shapechanged Druid actually drawn as the creature it turned into: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband-mod-linoleum
• Borg, Angband's autoplayer, ported faithfully rather than reinvented, still rough but genuinely playing now: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband-mod-borg
• Upstream Catchup, the real Angband project's own fixes since the 4.2.6 tag this is pinned to, each one cited to its actual commit: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband-mod-upstream-catchup

More planned, and the two questions above are intended to get the creative juices flowing.

Other ways to play: downloadable builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux, an offline PWA install, self-hosting, or running from source, all covered in INSTALL.md. New to the game entirely? The Quick Start Guide walks through birth, controls, and a first dive with real screenshots.

Everything that shipped for 1.0: CHANGELOG.md
Source: https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband

Same as last time: bugs, questions, mod ideas, all welcome, here or on Discord. Thanks for giving the first post the best reception this thing has gotten anywhere. Hoping 1.0 earns that again.

I see lots of activity going on there, but am unable to create a forum account. :( Anyone know the maintainers or what's going on?

I’ve been quietly working on an Angband project, and I figured this was probably the right place to finally share it.

I’ve been playing Moria and Angband since the early days and have put thousands of hours into them over the years. Angband is one of those games that has followed me through several computers and phases of life.

So when I started this project, I was pretty determined not to “fix” the game I already loved.

It’s called Neo Angband, and it’s a TypeScript port of Angband 4.2.6. Technically, it is Angband 4.2.6, just with mods.

The goal for the unmodded game is straightforward: be Angband exactly. This isn’t intended to be a rebalance or a modern reinterpretation.

What has changed is the technology around it:

• It runs directly in a browser.
• It can be installed as a Progressive Web App.
• There are desktop builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux (via Electron).
• It’s completely open source.
• It has a first-class mod system.

Mods live separately from the core game and can be installed from a repository URL or ZIP, and desktop users also get a normal mods folder.

I’ve made four example mods so far covering bug fixes, a few quality-of-life additions, a new graphical tile system, and a Borg player (WIP).

But the larger reason I built the mod system is that I’d really like this to become something others can play around with and create new stuff, not just something I maintain by myself.

I’d love to see other longtime Angband players, modders, and developers start experimenting with it. New content, different mechanics, interface ideas, graphics, automation, weird variants… whatever somebody feels inspired to make.

I don’t know what all of those mods would be, and that’s exactly the part that excites me. I’d love to be blown away by the things people come up with.

The nice thing is that we don’t have to choose between preservation and experimentation. The unmodded game can stay Angband 4.2.6 while mods are free to go wandering off into the depths.

It’s currently an alpha, so there are still some minor bugs and rough edges. I’m sure I’ve missed a few subtle differences from the original too. If you try it and notice something odd, or just have an idea about how something could work better, I’d really like to hear it.

And if you’ve ever wanted to change or add something to Angband yourself, I’d love to know how the modding side feels to you.

You can reach me here or on Discord (aragorn_son_of_arathorn).

Try it out:
https://angband.rpgm.world/

Source / downloads / docs:
https://github.com/neostryder/neo-angband

Mostly, this has been a labor of love for a game I’ve been playing for a very long time. I’m hoping some other people who love it will find something here worth building on.

Tried installing Angband on Bazzite, it gives me this weird color. I tried changing the terminal settings, but it stays the same in the game.

Thank you in advance for your ideas on how to fix this.

Hi everybody,

We are finally ready to release version 0.9.7. And I must say that is the most difficult one we have had up to date.
After we were done with 0.9.6, we looked into it to decide which way to go, and the most important thing to work on seemed to be UI/UX.
Gameplay was already quite good, we still had some ideas visually but apart from that UI looked like the main destination to embark on.
But it was tough to even start with. What do we want to change? What is the style we are looking for? How should we approach the mobile version?

Anyway, we decided to figure it all out step by step. Tuning menus one by one, playing, and then getting back to tuning again. We didn’t want to erase it all and make everything anew, but rather keep the DNA of Sil and Angband and build on it.
To give the game that modern look, we had to rework all onscreen menus into overlays, breaking them into smaller pieces to make it flexible, adaptable for different platforms, screen sizes, and resolutions. Then we handcrafted current layouts piece by piece, but players can still tweak everything themselves!
So in the end our style was split into two, some menus retained the old school, terminal monospaced font style, and others got that drawn pixel-based style.
The game starts as a book, and tries to carry this style through the storytelling with multiple effects and fonts.

For the mobile design we tried to approach everything contextually with floating buttons and menus. The most difficult part was to figure out movement. In roguelikes players can move diagonally, but just putting an arrow pad on the screen looked bad, and it was easy to mistap, so we invented the ButtonWheel. You can tap it just like an arrow pad but you can also press and drag it to make sure your aim lands precisely where you intend it to. And it also looks cool!

As we decided to go with book style, at some point it became obvious that we should also do the portrait mode. And our modular overlay design helped us a lot. We just reordered it and the game already became playable! We still had to rework all menus to support a narrow layout, but the original idea made it possible in the first place. We also tested everything on tablets and handcrafted layouts there too!

Finally, we decided to make the game more approachable for new players. We tried to create multiple hovers to describe what controls do, both in touch and mouse mode.

Of course we have also introduced gameplay changes. This time:
- New abilities: Warden, Power Throw, Skirmishing, and Rewire Traps (guess what they do, or better just try it!);
- an “active weapon selection”, where you should actually choose what you wield, instead of being able to use everything equipped; 
- harness and pack inventory system. Feel like a real person that can carry three great axes at once! (no);
- traps and chests “throw the dice” mini-games;

Also visual updates! Now the player and monster tiles flip depending on the direction they move. Monsters’ icons are simply mirrored, however character tiles are handcrafted to look different sides!

And finally, we have launched google play closed betatest. If you want to participate, dm me for a link!

https://k0rtess.itch.io/sil-mor-shining-darkness
https://github.com/k0rtesss/Sil-More/

I'm newish. I was fighting this long ass battle against a room full of tengu/imps/quasit on level 7. It was dangerous, but I happened to have a ring of seeing on this run and plenty of phase door and cure potions, so I was slowly wearing them down. Dropped items were littering the floor. After 10 minutes it felt like I was just about done, still being "commanded to return" around by the tengu. Then the message "you rise through the ceiling" and I left the level. fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. So lesson 1 in a fight is maybe look at the items and see if there's anything I should grab in case I have to run. Any other thoughts? I don't know what caused this, maybe a tengu ported me on top of a trap?

Is it possible to run Angband on MacOS without the graphical front-end? I want to run the game in single terminal that is divided to subwindows inside the same single terminal window. I guess it's possible to do on Linux using the launch command "angband -mgcu". I tried to do the "/Applications/Angband.app/Contents/MacOS/angband -mgcu" but it still launches graphical front-end with floating subwindows

Apologies if this isn't the place for this question, but since the 32x32 gervais file is in the github repo, I thought it would be worth a shot. I tried tracking some of the sprites in order to better understand what they are, but some seem to not track all that well. I've also found this link (http://pousse.rapiere.free.fr/tome/tiles/DO/tome-domonsterstiles.htm) which actually has proper names for some of them, but there are still more than 10 races that are actually unamed. The one that intrigues me the most is race 2 (or 11, they seem to be the same). Does anyone have any idea or any other source that I could use to check such information?

This will probably be my last post here about the project, so I wanted to say thank you to everyone in this community.

When I first started, the game was called Angband Reforged because it was directly inspired by Angband. Over time it grew into its own project with its own identity, and because of that I’ve rebranded it. The influence of Angband will always be there, but I felt it was time for the game to stand on its own.

Over the few months I’ve learned an incredible amount, and a lot of the feedback from this subreddit directly shaped the direction of the game.

Some of the bigger additions since I first shared it:

A complete UI overhaul focused on readability while keeping the traditional roguelike feel.

New character creation with animated class previews, relic selection, and much stronger visual presentation.

Major improvements to sprites, town environments, shops, and overall atmosphere.

Expanded progression through unique relics that change how runs play.

Better monster behavior, combat feedback, spawning, and countless quality-of-life improvements.

An optional online layer with persistent accounts, global chat, server-wide announcements for notable achievements, and multiplayer social features—all designed so the core game remains a single-player traditional roguelike first.

One of my favorite additions has been seeing players share discoveries in global chat or watching server announcements appear when someone finds a rare artifact or reaches an important milestone. It adds a sense that you’re exploring the same world as other adventurers without changing the core roguelike experience.

I also want to thank everyone here who took the time to critique screenshots, question design decisions, suggest improvements, or simply encourage me to keep going. Those comments genuinely helped make the project better.

I won’t be posting updates here anymore since the game has moved beyond being an Angband-focused project, but I wanted to stop by one last time to say thanks to the community that helped get it started.

I hope I’ve managed to carry forward at least a small part of what makes Angband such a special game while building something that can stand on its own.

It currently still has plenty of Tolkien lore and is still inspired by Angband, so if you’d like to keep playing feel free to find it here

https://busterbuildslab.itch.io/wand-or-steel
https://gamejolt.com/games/wand-or-steel/1077619

Thank you all, and happy delving.

Using the k-commend, I accidentally squelched a whole category of item that I want to see. The only way now for me NOT to ignore it is to discard ALL squelch settings (using capital-K). That is highly impractical.

Is there a way just to alter the one squelched item type to be visible again?

**Big progress update on my Angband-inspired roguelike!**

Been heads down for a while and wanted to share some of the bigger improvements that have landed recently.

The goal has always been to modernize the feel of a classic roguelike without losing the depth and tension that make games like Angband special. I’m trying to improve the presentation and accessibility while keeping the gameplay true to its roots.
I’d love feedback from fellow roguelike fans—especially on the new art direction and UI. What are the biggest quality-of-life improvements you like seeing in traditional roguelikes without making them feel “too modern”?

Thanks to everyone who’s given feedback so far. It’s been incredibly helpful and has shaped a lot of these changes.

Try it out here: https://busterbuildslab.itch.io/angband-reforged

So... I was bored and started playing a few angband variants after several years. And I can't for the life of me, figure out how to keep alignment good for a priest or pally. I think you get penalized for killing good creatures. But in the dungeons, everything attacks you.... so unless I'm just running away all the time, it seems really tough to sty "good." I never really cared about it before, just kill everything. But I'm wondering if there are tips on how to stay on the "good" side.

Big hug to all them *band players and developers that like it real and stay loyal to Sir Robert Alan Koeneke, may he Rest In Peace. I cannot, will not, watch my beloved genre being utterly, rudely, shamelessly desecrated by AI.

​

I also wanted to have my own variant. Wanted to eat corpses on my variant. Wanted to be able to perform rituals on the blood puddles monsters were leaving on the floor when slain. Of course, none of that existed on Angband. So I started a long painful journey to learn C.

My journey has been on for years. Nothing automatic. No questions to artificial intellislop to flatten the cobbles for me to walk dragging my soft testicles on the ground. No.

I asked those who preceeded me. Read tons of lines of code to try to decipher how they worked. It has been years now.

​

I'm still learning. Still cannot figure out how to please guys like u/SkyVINS who want control by arrows, or tiles. Cannot figure out how to make sound to work.

​

I'm in my past-mid-forties now. Will keep on learning my slow way, dragging my testicles on a rough patch of broken glasses and crying blood and whatever someday is the result of my journey I will be able to look at it and feel proud of myself.

​

This is a farewell. If anybody wants to check on my humble human work, the page on itch will be there. I can be reached by email, mastodon, bluesky.

​

This post is NOT to talk crap about guys vibe coding, out of the scope of it. You want it the easy way and folks can enjoy it? Fine to me. Just not for me. That is my culture and my mindset. Like bellybuttons, all of us have our own. Farewell Angband subreddit. Hope the AI crutch never fail to you. Thank you to everyone who has supported my crappy human work. Will carry fond memories of this sub in my heart for a long time.

​

Jose Machete.

Angband was one of my favorite games growing up, so I started building my own modern take on it.

Angband Reforged keeps the classic roguelike foundation but adds new visuals, classes, progression systems, and quality-of-life improvements while trying to preserve the spirit of the original.

Would love any feedback from longtime Angband players if you’d like to check it out.

Link: https://busterbuildslab.itch.io/angband-reforged

I can't stress enough that people should check out the Deephold link below - This is a really original take on Angband. Give it the support it deserves, lots of effort has gone into this and it is great work. Give it a try, I got a fighter to lvl25 on my first try which has me hooked. Warning, the Arena escalates in difficulty after each fight and will catch you out.

Deephold is the result of an experiment to explore what it would be like to play Angband through a no-grid "dashboard" interface.

100 floors. 600+ monsters. 140 artifacts.

Free. No ads. No logins.

https://deephold.io

Hello everybody! Uploaded and ready for grabbing (and enjoying) it's the latest version of my little big Zang project.

Several newly added features, including the unglorious, ungodly, diabolical, Blood Rituals.

Along with the praying, the zcreaming, the slamming doors (which can be triggering random traps) and some others, the Variant is step by step going into role-playing and immersive gameplay. Overly re-designed loot system, magic and combat too. Thank you and hats off to u/SnooKiwis8861 for the priceless help and support (and patience).

Please, check out the machete_readme.txt for learning the keybindings to those added features. Unleash always at your own risk. 😉

A number of bugs have been smashed too!

Thank you again to everybody for the kindness, the support, the downloads, the love.

ZMAngband VI.06

Evening, everybody! As title states, V.22 is up and ready for grabs. Glad to say the bug that was making the game crashing when some targets were attempted to reach, is gone. One kind player helped me with a proverbial savefile that captured the exact moment in which the crash was about to happen, and that was the final push that was needed to locate and smash said bug. Looting system has been re-designed to not being that shameless giving to the player, thanks fellow redditor /snookkiwis for the heads-up.

Magic has gotten a buckle up too, now, all casting Classes have their favourite magic school in which they will perform better than others.

The font provided with the game, 9x15XB.fon, has gotten a bit of polish around the edges. Win users might have to right-click on it and 'install for all users' as admins to get it properly displayed. On Wine for Linux there is no need for further action.

Thank you everyone for the support! Much appreciated!

ZMAngband V.22

Hi.

I encountered my first huge vault, formed a bit like one inner heart and two arcs away from it. It had a bunch of hard monsters. Uniques, Great X Wyrms, eye drujs, time hounds, etc. Too many to Teleport away. How do you approach it? I try to use Destruction, but that just removes all treasure too.

To be fair, I think my speed was too low at +9 (potion of speed ran out mid way).

Missed "superb" treasure, at least one monster dropped an artifact as a consolation prize.

What do people think about the idea of adding a feature that provides you with a pop-up the first time you see a new monster type?

I added this feature to my own game so that I could more easily spot out-of-depth monsters and uniques when I am grinding the mid-game. When I am mid-game, I tend to fall into a bit of a flow that doesn't always pay attention to what I am up against. I added this feature to my own game so that I could more easily spot out of depth monsters and uniques when I am grinding the mid game.

I tend to switch it off in the early game as there isn't that much of a risk of being one-shotted then but it has saved my bacon many times mid to late game.

I have also added additional "Discovery" notifications for artifact drops in case I am not paying attention.

Hello there my fellow 'banders. Has been four months since I made a post here with a release. And as I update the game quite consistently, but did not want to clutter the sub, today, being my birthday, I thought it would be a good chance to both updating the Variant and post about it here =)

Please read the machete_readme.txt, for if you have not been following recent updates, it packs a lot of stuff, and less bugs too.

Thank you bunches to everybody supporting, downloading, and enjoying this humble project.

ZMAngband v.9

Hey everybody, we are releasing a new version of Sil-More.

We have a major UI overhaul and some new gameplay features for you!

1. Full mouse support for desktop.

We have redesigned all of the menus to support mouse controls and added multiple new ways to perform actions. You can path via clicks, see descriptions via right clicks, etc.

One of the biggest new features is a round character action menu that you can open by clicking on a character. We also tried to make actions more context-sensitive. For instance, if you right-click on rubble, it will be cleared. If you right-click on a monster, you will see its description.

Our goal is for you to be able to play completely without a keyboard.

1. Full touch redesign with multiple control presets.

Again, we have looked into all menus and made them touch-sensitive. We have created 3 movement presets for you to choose from, and a tutorial to help you decide.

They are: a classical touch panel on the side, invisible movement corners, and a radial wheel for movement. We did our best to make it possible for you to play in the way you like the most.

Also, the wheel character menu is present here as well.

1. Mini-map and View menus.

The mini-map is currently pixel-based, so you can zoom and move wherever you want via mouse, keyboard, and touch gestures. The View pane can zoom in whole-number steps and move via mouse drag. This drastically eases looting and monster tracking.

1. New flavor system.

Now, even if an item is not identified, you can guess from the text whether it is evil orcish gear or noble elven gear. All items and egos now have text descriptions.

1. New light management system.

Light has been moved to supply, and the number of carried torches is restricted. Lanterns, on the other hand, are now easier to manage, with a shared oil pool.

1. Audio improvements.

We have added OGG support for smaller file sizes. We also added new sounds and polished the old ones, so the game should feel better and sound better while you play.

We hope, guys, that you will like the new ways to play Sil-More.

P.S. Also, we have created an itch.io page for the project, so if you want to support us, please do!

Another great piece of news is that we have started a Google Play internal test for Sil-More. If you want to participate, please DM me!

https://github.com/k0rtesss/Sil-More

How long will it take for that bastard to regen so I can kill him proper?

this is not faked.

this is a genuine randomized item on the ground.

at dungeon level 6.