Ancient Domains of Mystery

Ancient Domains of Mystery
	ADOM Title Screen
Developer(s)	Thomas Biskup
Stable release	1.1.1 / 2002
Operating system	AmigaOS, BeOS, DOS, Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2, Windows
Type	Roguelike
License	Postcardware
Website	http://www.adom.de/

Ancient Domains of Mystery, or ADOM, is a roguelike game by Thomas Biskup first released in 1994. The player's aim is to stop the forces of Chaos that invade the world of Ancardia.

Like most roguelikes, ADOM uses ASCII graphics to represent the game world. It features a wilderness map that connects different types of dungeons. The dungeons are randomly generated on first entering and — with one exception — do not change when re-entered during play.

Story

ADOM takes place in the fictional world of Ancardia, specifically in a mountainous region known as the Drakalor Chain. For 6,000 years, the planet has known relative peace, but recently large and dangerous dungeons, along with frightening chaotic monsters, have been reportedly forming in the Chain.

Khelavaster, a wise sage, discovers an ancient prophecy regarding the Coming of Chaos and propagates it to the intelligent peoples of the world. The prophecy speaks of a champion that will defend the world from the forces of Chaos in the Drakalor Chain. Hearing of the prophecy, many would-be heroes set out to the Drakalor Chain. You are one such adventurer.

Gameplay

ADOM presents an initial choice of one (male or female) player character from ten races and twenty character classes, the combination of which strongly affect gameplay. Character development includes experience levels, statistics, and skills. Version 1.1.0 introduced a talent system.[1]

During adventures, a player is likely to explore several dungeons and complete multiple quests. Which quests the player chooses may depend on character attributes and alignment (lawful, neutral, or chaotic). Alignment also affects which benefits or curses a god may bestow, and how NPCs treat characters.

ADOM offers multiple ways of winning, which vary in difficulty. Its quest-centric, plot-driven structure owes as much to adventure games like Zork as to the hack-and-slash of sibling games like Angband.

Death of individual characters is meant to be permanent. The game exits on saving, and savefiles are really player profiles rather than gameplay restore points.^{[citation needed]}

Significant features

Randomized dungeons of multiple types and features
Vulnerability of high-level characters to specific monsters
Deity relation system with religious championship
Character improvement of items

Development

Core development on the game has slowed since the release of version 1.1.1 in 2002. Beta-quality ports to Mac OS X of this version appeared in 2006.[2] Plans for future versions have not been announced.

Although ADOM is freeware (technically postcardware), unlike most roguelikes its source code is unavailable. Biskup chose to reserve it for himself in order to:

retain some mystery about how the game operates.[3]
curtail the spread of unsanctioned variants.[4]
permit possible future commercial release.[5]

However, players have deduced some underlying mechanics through careful experimentation.

Cultural references

In World of Warcraft, in the high-level dungeon 'Blackrock Spire' there is an uncommon loot named an "Eternium Lockbox". In its expansion Burning Crusade, Eternium is an Outland-based, mineable metal used to make rare and epic items. Eternium is a craftable metal introduced in ADOM.^{[citation needed]}

References

Biskup, Thomas. "The ADOM Version History". Accessed September 27 2007.
Biskup, Thomas. "ADOM 1.1.1 available for Macintosh users!". Accessed September 27 2007.
Biskup, Thomas. "Readme.1st". Accessed September 26 2007.
Biskup, Thomas. "Licensing ADoM". Accessed September 17 2007.