Roguelites from the past

I've been a long time fan of the roguelike genre ever since I found nethack, a fantastic game built around exploring and risk assessment.



Played off and on for years before branching out to DCSS, umoria, and many others that I've forgotten. What makes a roguelike has always been a loose definition with quite a few passionate debates coming up when a game is presented as a "roguelike" with the inevitable "that's not a roguelike" comment added on in short order.

The basics of the argument is some people think certain features in a game make it a roguelike, while others say it has to have the "feel" of the original rogue game. Whichever camp you land on the rush of newer games like Rogue Legacy and FTL which fit most of the requirements started being called the grayer term "Roguelites" in order to quell the endless forum arguments of what should be called a roguelike or not.

While this seems to be a good descriptor going forward, it also got me thinking of games in the past, games that would have been called a "roguelite" had the term been around at the time. For my personal definition I need:

Randomly or procedurally generated gameworld
Permadeath
Customizable main character (or characters)
Player choice (optional risk)

The Oregon Trail

Probably the first roguelite everyone in primary school during the 90 played. You create and customize your party, select your supplies and get moving. While it certainly didn't have the standard overhead movement aspect of roguelikes it had pretty much everything else. Procedurally generated "world" with hazards like wheels breaking or rivers and choices to go with those hazards. lots of risk assessment (do I bring extra wagon wheels or more ammo for hunting?). And permadeath is probably what most people remember about the game.

Lufia II (gift mode)

I bet you're thinking "Lufia II the classic RPG? That clearly wasn't a roguelite CowFu." But there was a game within Lufia II called "gift mode" where you only played the Ancient Cave, a mode with randomly generated levels, permadeath, and a customizable party. With a ton of risk assessment for skipping enemies and going deeper or trying for some easier EXP. Lots of tactical thinking, and honestly comes close to a true Roguelike in my humble opinion.

I'm sure there are many others that I'm just not seeing, but if nothing else it's fun to think about how long these game mechanics have been around, and I'm excited to see what future developers can come up with.