Philippe Lafortune (a.k.a The Geek Connoisseur), is a die-hard retro-gaming fan from Quebec who runs the RetroGamersHub community. Recently, he has been working on a side project to create a board game inspired by an old game called “Rogue”.

Rogue: The Board Game concept is an immersive and challenging board game that immerses players in a treacherous 10+ level deep dungeon labyrinth filled with dangers, treasures, and quests. As adventurers, you must navigate through a series of modular dungeon levels, each brimming with its own unique rooms, corridors, and secrets, capturing all the intricacies of a classic dungeon crawl. This can be played in either Solo or in a 2-4 player Co-op gameplay mode.

The project is on an early stage, as the geek is working on it “as time allows, amidst other priorities and responsibilities”. However, he informs us “a detailed rule book draft has already been meticulously crafted with all my ideas and its unique gameplay details.”

Initially, my idea revolves around developing a Roguelike Core Board Game Set, centered around the classic ‘Amulet of Yendor’ quest. However, I’m also planning other unique and diverse quest add-ons, offering more flexibility to interchange them as desired. These add-ons will enhance gameplay with new elements, creatures, magic weapons, armor, and various game items, accumulating between expansion packs.

Moreover, I’ve been documenting my ideas about gameplay mechanics, its details, and rules. My aim would be to create an engaging and adaptable gaming experience, designed primarily for solo adventures but also capable of accommodating 2-4 players in cooperative mode. Of course, rigorous game testing will be necessary to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience in both scenarios.

The next step involves giving life to the game board artwork, crafting the various decks of cards planned, designing the game mat and reversible dungeon tiles, and dice, designing miniatures, finalizing the rules, and polishing up other graphical elements. I’m also in the process of creating a digital playable prototype using one of the tabletop simulators!

He has recently teased us with an homage to Rogue’s cover art. No, not THAT box art but the original B&W “Artificial Intelligence Designs” made for Rogue’s initial forays outside the mainframe world, back on 1983.

I’ve brought the original monochrome with a touch of red game artwork, from the pre-Epyx era, back to life with a full-color digital mockup. Although there are still a few tweaks to fine-tune, I’m quite satisfied with how it’s shaping up.

The best way to get updates about the project is to follow The Geek Connoiseur in Facebook. I will do my best to keep you updated as well!

I’ve kept a higher resolution copy of the recolored cover in the archive.

BONUS: Here’s a random musing from the very Michael Toy about the cover art

That’s pre-Epyx so that is me and Jon Lane and Mel Sibony who made up AI design, I think AI Design was, at the time of that box, running out of Jon and Mel’s house in Sunnyvale, in true Silicon Valley style.

After some time, they moved into more of an office located at 201 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View. Here’s some info I gathered from the very Glenn Wichman as well:

Yes it looked very different in the 80s. It used to be a mall and office park. John Lane probably knows the most about it. I’m pretty sure they tore down the building we were in.

As I recall they were subletting space from a guy who sold Unix servers. But it was all a long time ago.