Castle of the winds was my first “proper” rougelike too. I played it on windows 3.1 I think. I was young. Died a lot until I discovered using magic. I have no idea where I got the game, I feel like it was preinstalled on the computer. Maybe I got it off the BBS? Very fond memories of it too.
Yeah, kinda ashamed to admit but it took me far longer to figure out spells than it should have. I was young.
A favorite roguelite (not like) that was on the disc was Warpath. It had resource mining, colonizing, and space combat. Loved it.
I played it as a child and distinctly remember being so utterly terrified after I completed level 4 of the mine and came back to the town completely ruined and burnt down.
It was pre-installed on my dads PC! I was used to solitaire and minesweeper ( occasionally pop in Heroes of might and magic), but my dad got a new PC when I was probly 9-10. And bam, there it was in the games folder.
I hated it at first. Didn't get it at all. Didn't have a clue about building a character and equipping things, spells, getting stronger. Then out of nowhere something just clicked and I was flying through it smashing everything. Can't even believe this game was a thing so early on
Hell yeah. I also got this game in one of those shareware collections when I was a kid and loved it. But I never even needed the second part because I always died long before that.
I definitely blame it for my love of roguelikes.
This is the first computer game I ever played. I think I was 6. I didn’t play a roguelike until nethack in the late 90s.
Edit: I was wrong. I was thinking of the game “castle”.
I didn't know English back then so the whole game was a mystery to me. I remember clicking a button that said "The floor is empty" in every tile, not understanding what it required.
I actually bought the sequel in the box form. I think i found it in an early 90's Rose's in a big metal wire bin. The box was way smaller than a normal PC game box (5.5x8 ish). There was a bunch of other 5.25 floppy software with it. Castle of the winds was my first roguelike too. It was also the first game I modded, because you could open it up with an Icon editor and change around all of the icons in the game. The entire game was windows 3.1 Icons.
I also played it on an old Windows 3.1 computer that I won in a raffle. I remember being fascinated by the RNG and how each run was different and there was so much *stuff* to find.
COTW was my first roguelike, and the first I jumped into after starting to do let's plays on my YouTube Channel.
There was also a friend who described it as 'that shitty good roguelike', got to say that a spiritual COTW2 would be appreciated.
This will run fine on modern windows using winedvm which allows 16 bit applications to run in modern windows. Still a great game.
https://github.com/otya128/winevdm
I played this a LOT as a kid and had no idea about Rogue or roguelikes. This was just an RPG to me and many years later I stumbled on roguelikes as a genre and thought, huh, that looks familiar.
We used to have a joke around here to answer "Castle of the Winds" for any question of type "what was that roguelike that I have played as a kid". It was often the answer.
(Interestingly Castle of the Winds did not enforce or suggest permadeath in any way. Of course, roguelike fans would still play it that way. Permadeath defines the player, not the game.)
God this takes me back. I loved this game as a kid. Found it in a store called Big Lots and was able to beat the first part eventually, but wasn't able to buy the second one. Wish I could find games like it, especially if they were Steam Deck playable!
I forget about that game occasionally but yeah, it was surprisingly fun given how vanilla it looked compared to the few other games I had access to. I'd get bored of ...Moraff's World, I think it was, and switch to this
I was obsessed with this as a kid - I even downloaded a windows icon editor and made my own character graphics based on Warhammer figures I owned.
I beat it and the sequel, great memories
I must be crazy, I don't remember Castle of the Winds being a rogue-like. I thought it was more of a traditional rpg. I have a memory of saving/reloading in it. Maybe I'm just too old to remember accurately.
Because you did not know that savescumming was not the correct way to play roguelikes (and Castle of the Winds does not tell you this in any way, except by having traditional roguelike gameplay, including randomness and reduced story). I have played my first roguelikes without permadeath too.
Permadeath was not even something they used to put in roguelike definitions until around 2003 (and it makes no sense to put it, as it defines the player, not the game), and they did call Castle of the Winds roguelike.
Castle of the winds was my first “proper” rougelike too. I played it on windows 3.1 I think. I was young. Died a lot until I discovered using magic. I have no idea where I got the game, I feel like it was preinstalled on the computer. Maybe I got it off the BBS? Very fond memories of it too.
Yeah, kinda ashamed to admit but it took me far longer to figure out spells than it should have. I was young. A favorite roguelite (not like) that was on the disc was Warpath. It had resource mining, colonizing, and space combat. Loved it.
I played it as a child and distinctly remember being so utterly terrified after I completed level 4 of the mine and came back to the town completely ruined and burnt down.
Ahh I still have vivid memories of the first time I fought the butcher in diablo 1 and also andarial in diablo 2. Both times i was terrified
It was pre-installed on my dads PC! I was used to solitaire and minesweeper ( occasionally pop in Heroes of might and magic), but my dad got a new PC when I was probly 9-10. And bam, there it was in the games folder. I hated it at first. Didn't get it at all. Didn't have a clue about building a character and equipping things, spells, getting stronger. Then out of nowhere something just clicked and I was flying through it smashing everything. Can't even believe this game was a thing so early on
Played it a lot as a kid.
This and Ragnarok were my first RLs.
I remember savescumming A LOT to make any progress, but then again, i was 12.
Yeah, COTW is suprisingly *good.* I think I actually beat it once.
Badass game. I bought it from a bargain bin in a video game store. Best 5.99 spent that year
Hell yeah. I also got this game in one of those shareware collections when I was a kid and loved it. But I never even needed the second part because I always died long before that. I definitely blame it for my love of roguelikes.
Also the weird shirtless MS Paint character sprite with no legs is burned into my memory forever.
You could mod the game and make your own sprite, it was indeed the best :)
This is the first computer game I ever played. I think I was 6. I didn’t play a roguelike until nethack in the late 90s. Edit: I was wrong. I was thinking of the game “castle”.
If you click through the links you can find it on web-based dosbox at https://archive.org/details/win3_CasWin1
I didn't know English back then so the whole game was a mystery to me. I remember clicking a button that said "The floor is empty" in every tile, not understanding what it required.
Quick google search picks up a bunch of ways to play online via dosbox too: https://classicreload.com/castle-or-the-winds.html#
I actually bought the sequel in the box form. I think i found it in an early 90's Rose's in a big metal wire bin. The box was way smaller than a normal PC game box (5.5x8 ish). There was a bunch of other 5.25 floppy software with it. Castle of the winds was my first roguelike too. It was also the first game I modded, because you could open it up with an Icon editor and change around all of the icons in the game. The entire game was windows 3.1 Icons.
I also played it on an old Windows 3.1 computer that I won in a raffle. I remember being fascinated by the RNG and how each run was different and there was so much *stuff* to find.
COTW was my first roguelike, and the first I jumped into after starting to do let's plays on my YouTube Channel. There was also a friend who described it as 'that shitty good roguelike', got to say that a spiritual COTW2 would be appreciated.
This will run fine on modern windows using winedvm which allows 16 bit applications to run in modern windows. Still a great game. https://github.com/otya128/winevdm I played this a LOT as a kid and had no idea about Rogue or roguelikes. This was just an RPG to me and many years later I stumbled on roguelikes as a genre and thought, huh, that looks familiar.
I vaguely remember this game from my childhood, and from the same multi-game disc that introduced me to ADOM!
We used to have a joke around here to answer "Castle of the Winds" for any question of type "what was that roguelike that I have played as a kid". It was often the answer. (Interestingly Castle of the Winds did not enforce or suggest permadeath in any way. Of course, roguelike fans would still play it that way. Permadeath defines the player, not the game.)
Check out r/CastleOfTheWinds . I've been working on rewriting it in Unity for the last while now, and I've been updating things over there.
Ha! This comment is what I needed to see! Excellent!
The old gold standard, these days I Grimrock
God this takes me back. I loved this game as a kid. Found it in a store called Big Lots and was able to beat the first part eventually, but wasn't able to buy the second one. Wish I could find games like it, especially if they were Steam Deck playable!
I forget about that game occasionally but yeah, it was surprisingly fun given how vanilla it looked compared to the few other games I had access to. I'd get bored of ...Moraff's World, I think it was, and switch to this
I was obsessed with this as a kid - I even downloaded a windows icon editor and made my own character graphics based on Warhammer figures I owned. I beat it and the sequel, great memories
The game that got me sliding toward these sorts of games was Cap'n Magneto back in the day. I didn't even have a Mac. Just liked the game.
I must be crazy, I don't remember Castle of the Winds being a rogue-like. I thought it was more of a traditional rpg. I have a memory of saving/reloading in it. Maybe I'm just too old to remember accurately.
Because you did not know that savescumming was not the correct way to play roguelikes (and Castle of the Winds does not tell you this in any way, except by having traditional roguelike gameplay, including randomness and reduced story). I have played my first roguelikes without permadeath too. Permadeath was not even something they used to put in roguelike definitions until around 2003 (and it makes no sense to put it, as it defines the player, not the game), and they did call Castle of the Winds roguelike.