Install angband with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• angband

Project history

The official version document traces Angband's lineage from VMS Moria by Robert Alan Koeneke in 1985 to Umoria by James E. Wilson in 1989. Angband 1.0 was created in 1990 by Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand at the University of Warwick, based on Umoria 5.2.1 and expanded with more Tolkien-derived monsters, unique monsters, artifacts, and dungeon features.

Maintenance passed through several eras. Charles Swiger cleaned up and released versions in the 2.5 and 2.6 series in 1993 and 1994. Ben Harrison took over at the beginning of 1995 with Angband 2.7.0, carrying out a major cleanup that made ports easier and helped the game spread across Unix, Macintosh, X11, IBM, OS/2, Windows, Amiga, and Linux systems.

Robert Ruehlmann took over around 2000 after the 2.8 series, incorporating popular patches and continuing the 2.9 line. The modern 4.x series keeps the classic roguelike structure while adding quality-of-life work, build-system updates, new front ends, tests, and balance changes.

Adoption history

Angband spread through FTP archives, platform ports, and the roguelike community before GitHub-era distribution. The official history notes how key portability work and front ends helped releases reach many operating systems, which is why Angband is still packaged by Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, MacPorts, Nix, and Alpine.

The game also became a base for variants. The official version document explicitly notes that Ben Harrison's cleaner code gave other developers room to build many Angband variants, an important part of roguelike culture and of why the package remains recognizable to package maintainers.

How it is used

Users run `angband` to play a dungeon crawler rendered with textual characters or optional graphical tiles. The official manual documents customization through options, keymaps, visuals, colors, inscriptions, subwindows, and user pref files.

Package users often care about terminal compatibility, save-file handling, user preference directories, and whether a package builds the desired front ends. The official customization docs list user pref locations for Linux, macOS, and Windows, matching the paths package metadata needs to preserve.

Why package nerds care

Angband is the sort of package that exposes a distribution's opinions about games, terminal UI, save paths, data files, optional graphics, and legacy portability. It is old enough to carry pre-Git history, yet active enough to keep receiving releases and build-system maintenance.

For package nerds, it is also a reminder that a package can be culturally important without being infrastructure: Angband packages preserve a playable lineage from Moria, Rogue-like terminal games, FTP-era source sharing, and modern reproducible builds.

Timeline

• 1985: VMS Moria by Robert Alan Koeneke precedes Angband.
• 1989: Umoria brings Moria to Unix.
• 1990: Angband 1.0 is created at the University of Warwick from Umoria 5.2.1.
• 1995: Ben Harrison publishes Angband 2.7.0 and becomes maintainer.
• 2000: Robert Ruehlmann takes over maintenance around the 2.9 series.
• 2020s: Angband 4.x continues with active bug fixes, front-end work, and gameplay updates.

Related projects

• Moria and Umoria are the direct ancestors named by the official history.
• NetHack and Rogue are related roguelike reference points named by Angband's README.
• Angband variants form a large related ecosystem built from the portable Angband code base.

Sources

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angband/angband/master/README.md
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angband/angband/master/changes.txt
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angband/angband/master/docs/customize.rst
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angband/angband/master/docs/version.rst
• source_facts.package-manager