# @Play
@Play is a "monthly column by John Harris which discusses the history, present and future of the Roguelike dungeon exploring genre.". It is published on Gamesetwatch.com, with some more recent articles published on @Play Collected. The articles so far are:

#

Title

Date

Summary

1.

An Introduction To Some Rogue-s

August 6, 2006

An introduction to the roguelike genre.

2.

What the hell does Q do again?

August 20, 2006

A summary of the keys.

3.

Rogue and its Inspiration

September 3, 2006

A view on the original roguelike game, Rogue.

4.

Giant Eel Stories, Volume 1

September 18, 2006

Interesting stories of NetHack ascensions posted on rec.games.roguelike.nethack.

5.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue &amp; Red Rescue Team

October 2, 2006

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team.

6.

ToeJam &amp; Earl, The Roguelike That's Not An RPG

October 15, 2006

ToeJam &amp; Earl.

7.

Thou Art Early, But We'll Admit Thee

October 29, 2006

The many ways to die in NetHack.

8.

A View of the Field

November 13, 2006

NetHack, Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM), and Linley's Dungeon Crawl.

9.

Hack Hacks

November 27, 2006

NetHack patches.

10.

A Coward Dies A Thousand Deaths, My Computer, Several Billion

December 10, 2006

Rog-O-Matic &amp; Borg, the automatic roguelike player bots.

11.

I Never Meta Rogue I Didn't Like

December 25, 2006

Metagame elements, or How the match may continue between the games.

12.

Giant Eel Stories, Volume 2

January 8, 2007

Interesting stories of NetHack ascensions posted on rec.games.roguelike.nethack.

13.

Mapping the Infinite Cavern

January 22, 2007

Dungeon generation algorithms.

14.

ADOM, Nethack With A Goatee

February 6, 2007

Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM).

15.

Tips For Travel In Gridland

February 19, 2007

Moving safely in the grid of any roguelike.

16.

Before Learning to Walk, One Must First Crawl

March 6, 2007

Linley's Dungeon Crawl.

17.

I Believe It Not!

March 20, 2007

The funny features of NetHack.

18.

Storytelling, Bah!

April 2, 2007

The declining state of storytelling and interactivity in gaming.

19.

Doom, doom, doom, doom

April 16, 2007

DoomRL.

20.

Hack's Lost Brother

May 8, 2007

HackLite.

21.

Things to Do While Visiting Ancardia

May 22, 2007

ADOM quests.

22.

Spoiled for Options

June 5, 2007

Wishing and knowing what to wish for.

23.

Architecture of the Mystery Dungeon

June 27, 2007

The Mysterious Dungeon series.

24.

Taloon's Mystery Dungeon, In Great Detail

July 9, 2007

Taloon's Mystery Dungeon.

25.

A Journey to Table Mountain, Part 1

July 24, 2007

Shiren the Wanderer.

26.

A Journey to Table Mountain, Part 2

August 7, 2007

Shiren the Wanderer.

27.

Fei's Problems

August 21, 2007

Shiren the Wanderer.

28.

Balancing a game that looks balanceless

September 6, 2007

The game balance of NetHack.

29.

7DRL: Seven Day Quest

September 24, 2007

The Seven Day Quest.

30.

Starting Out In POWDER, Or 'Beware The Kiwi Bird, My Son'

October 9, 2007

POWDER.

31.

Homebrew Roguelikes On The DS

November 7, 2007

Playing homebrew roguelikes on the Nintendo DS.

32.

A Quick Look at the Nethack Sources

December 15, 2007

The source code of NetHack.

33.

Angband - At Last!

January 19, 2008

Angband.

34.

Nethack Intensified

March 9, 2008

SLASH'EM.

35.

The Delights Of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer DS

March 28, 2008

Shiren the Wanderer (the DS version).

36.

Larn, Or, I Hocked The Car To Buy A Lance Of Death

April 26, 2008

Larn.

37.

Roguelikes And OD&amp;D

May 16, 2008

The origin of roguelikes: Dungeons &amp; Dragons.

38.

Towards Building a Better Dungeon

June 2, 2008

A comparison between roguelikes and Dungeons &amp; Dragons.

39.

Super-Rogue, Banished to the Deeper Regions

June 20, 2008

The lost roguelikes and the restoration of Super-Rogue.

40.

Izuna, Legend of the Roguelike Ninja

July 1, 2008

Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja.

41.

Brought to You Today by the Letter....

July 18, 2008

The limitation of representing monsters as letters.

42.

Modeling Motion on a Dungeon Grid

August 4, 2008

Timing and speed in roguelikes.

43.

Eye of the Vulture

August 28, 2008

Vulture's.

44.

Phenomedom, Da Dee, Da-Dee-Dee

October 2, 2008

Legerdemain.

45.

Much About Monstania

October 21, 2008

Monstania.

46.

Ten Years Of The devnull Nethack Tournament, Part 1

October 31, 2008

/dev/null/nethack tournament.

47.

Ten Years Of the devnull Nethack Tournament, Part 2

November 3, 2008

/dev/null/nethack tournament; interview with the organizers.

48.

Objects of Collection

December 3, 2008

Different types of items in roguelikes.

49.

Cause For Incursion

January 2, 2009

Incursion.

50.

Spelunk, Spelunk, Spelunk

February 6, 2009

Spelunky.

51.

XRogue Has Not Yet Ceased To Be

March 8, 2009

Advanced Rogue and XRogue.

52.

2009 7DRL Winners, Part One

April 2, 2009

7DRL Contest 2009.

53.

2009 7DRL Winners, Part Two

April 21, 2009

7DRL Contest 2009.

54.

How To Win At Nethack

May 6, 2009

NetHack strategies.

55.

The Rights to Rogue

May 14, 2009

A brief history of roguelikes and licensing.

56.

2009 7DRL Winners, Part Three

June 3, 2009

7DRL Contest 2009.

57.

Fatal Labyrinth, or, "LOOK! A PIT!"

June 26, 2009

Fatal Labyrinth.

58.

Introducing Sporkhack and UnNethack

July 3, 2009

Two NetHack variants that address game balance issues: SporkHack and UnNetHack.

59.

The Python Strikes! You Are Being Squeezed!

July 27, 2009

The Python programming language and its use in roguelike development.

60.

Q&amp;A with Keith Burgun of iPhone Roguelike "100 Rogues"

August 5, 2009

Interview with Keith Burgun, the lead designer of 100 Rogues.

61.

A Date With Asuka

August 28, 2009

Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren Gaiden: Jokenji Asuka Kenzan!.

62.

Item Design, Part 1: Potions and Scrolls

October 25, 2009

Disposable (i.e. one-use) items.

63.

Dreamforge's Dungeon Hack

November 25, 2009

Dungeon Hack.

64.

The Berlin Interpretation

December 18, 2009

What makes a game a roguelike?

65.

Crawlapalooza Part 1, Skills and Advancement

January 15, 2010

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (the successor to Linley's Dungeon Crawl).

66.

Crawlapalooza Part 2: What's With All These Skills, Anyway?

February 4, 2010

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

67.

Crawlapalooza, Part 3: Beogh Liturgical School For Orcs

February 18, 2010

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

68.

Crawlapalooza, Part 4: Travel Functions &amp; Play Aids

March 3, 2010

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

69.

Wii-ren the Wanderer

March 24, 2010

Shiren the Wanderer (the Wii version).

70.

Enjoy A Coffee Break Of Victory With Desktop Dungeons

April 7, 2010

Desktop Dungeons.

71.

Purposes for Randomization in Game Design

May 12, 2010

Randomization of game elements.

72.

Chocobo's Dungeon for Wii

May 29, 2010

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.

73.

Introducing Mayflight - Using Roguelike Design Lessons in a Non-Roguelike

September 2, 2010

Mayflight (a game made by John Harris, the author of @Play).

74.

The Implementation Specifics Of Mayflight

September 20, 2010

Mayflight.

75.

Sprinting Rapidly Through The Dungeon

October 13, 2010

Dungeon Sprint (a variant of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup).

76.

Check And Mate

November 11, 2010

On roguelike design issues.

77.

The Eight Rules of Roguelike Design

January 22, 2011

What properties a roguelike should have.

78.

Excerpts from a Roguelike Encyclopedia, Part 1

March 20, 2011

Several articles from a general encyclopedia of roguelikes.

79.

The Re-return of ToeJam &amp; Earl

February 27, 2015

ToeJam &amp; Earl and its sequels, revisited for its Kickstarter campaign.

80.

Welcome back to the Dungeons of Doom

March 11, 2015

Discussion of the definition of a Roguelike.

81.

Rogue's Item ID in Too Much Yet Not Enough Detail

April 26, 2015

Rogue's Item Identification system.

82.

The Talks of the International Roguelike Developers Conference US, 2015

June 30, 2015

TBA

83.

HyperRogue

February 11, 2016

TBA

84.

The Rescue of Meta-Zelda

March 8, 2016

TBA

85.

A Talk with Digital Eel, Makers of the Infinite Space Games

March 19, 2016

TBA

86.

Interview with Dr. Thomas Biskup, Creator of ADOM

July 10, 2018

TBA