For ARRP 2010 a very old game was resurrected. BOSS is a variant of Moria. Its last official release was for ancient computers. Having this gem back is very nice. However, in spite of lack of science fiction themed Angband variant BOSS generated minimal attention. Answer to why is that is fairly simple.
Playing BOSS could be considered retro gaming even by roguelike standards. Monochrome ASCII display combined with interface significantly inferior to those seen nowadays can take a great deal of dedication to overcome and get into. With competition in genre so great one would rather play something else.
Curiously the game has several things noteworthy to offer. Player has computer equipment slot where he may put his Commodore Vic-20, Boysenberry Laptop or other such machine. Shops in town offer various services. For example you can have your sex changed for five hundred dollars. Among things you might find are Vogon Commanders reciting poetry at you, refitted Jarwangian Armor pieces, Daisyian Screwdrivers and Daisyian Umbrellas.
In past days Moria overshadowed Angband while it was still in development. Today for BOSS to break through something more than a port is needed. BOSS needs active maintainership to regain its beauty. Maybe not a whole rewrite like NLarn developers attempt but a solid set of changes and interface overhaul.
Temple of The Roguelike 
Pretty much agree—-the old lions still likely have solid ideas within them that could do with a modern infusion of improvements and activity. Like much of gaming, this history is so very young that it isn’t like we’ve arrived at a place orders of magnitude so far beyond things made a couple mere decades back.
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Another excellent review, if I could make a suggestion though, I would like the screenshots to be a size where their contents can be observed 🙂 I know it’s cool to have them all journalistically aligned with paragraphs, but I’d like to be able to look at them without having to click on each one and browse to it. Or open them in a new tab. Much obliged guvner!
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Thanks for comments guys.
I was mulling over screenshot issue but could not really decide whether to place less but bigger images or keep it the way it is. I’ll give it a try in next review to see how it is going to look.
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Howdy,
do I miss something or have I just overlooked it:
Is there an active maintainer or not? It looks interesting and I would like to give the source a closer look.
Thanks in advance
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Yes, there is. You could have learned it from BOSS startup screen. What can I do for you?
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