How to Play Crawl and Other Roguelikes

So you want to play Crawl...

No problem! This guide will walk you through the several easy steps required to play Crawl, Nethack, Rogue, ADOM, and other awesome games.

STEP 1: Download PuTTY (Link to Putty Download Page is here)

PuTTY is a TTY interface--a program designed to send text and symbols between computers. This is how most Roguelikes, including Crawl, are played.

Putty supports both Telnet and SSH, the two most common protocols used for TTY interfaces.

STEP 2: Download mIRC. www.mirc.com

IRC is "Internet Relay Chat" and like TTY it goes way back to the pre-Web days of the internet. mIRC is the most commonly=used program for accessing IRC.

You will need IRC because several of the games--especially Crawl and NetHack, have IRC chatbots which players are meant to use as a database. Additionally, you can chat with other Crawl players, ask questions, recieve guidance, etc. The chatbots annouce all the deaths, so you don't want to miss out on IRC.

STEP 3: Telnet to crawl.akrasiac.org

This is CAO, the North American Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup server. Telnet over and you can create an account, play the game, and watch others play as well. For other games, search the web for the game's website and find it's appropriate server configurations.

STEP 4: Sign on the IRC server irc.freenode.net

In mIRC, type "/server irc.freenode.net" minus the quotations into the chat bar, and you should be connected to the server.

STEP 5: Join ##Crawl, #SR, #8bitcity

You have to join channels on IRC, so go ahead and join ##crawl.

You can join a channel, for example, by typing "/join ##crawl" into the chat bar.

You should also join #SR and #8bitcity to meet up with the other 8bitcity readers and Shrenwold Revenants! You can also join #nethack if that's your poison instead of crawl.

STEP 6: Begin Your Quest!

This is just a quick and dirty guide to getting your ass off of the xbox and onto Crawl. I have several advanced tutorials I'll be working on, such as interacting with the chatbots and playing Crawl successfully. These games are tough, but have fun playing and after a hundred tries or so you'll be getting better! Happy Crawling!

Check out ##Crawl, #nethack, and #8bitcity on irc.freenode.net!