The Arcade · 1986
Larn 1986
A town, a dungeon, and a reason to come back up — if you can.
- Town and cave
- Roguelike odds
- Spellbooks
- Arcade pass
The taxman waits in town. The dungeon does not.
In this game
A 30-day pass to The Arcade — a cabinet of playable titles. You buy access to the collection, not the games themselves.
About this cabinet In the cabinet
Noah Morgan released Larn for Unix in 1986. It is one of the first roguelikes with a persistent town above the hole: a bank, a shop, a trading post, a college that burns both gold and time, and a tax office that will find you. Below are a dungeon and a volcano. Your daughter has dianthroritis. The only cure is a rare potion, and you have about 300 mobuls before the clock runs out.
Letters are monsters. The @ is you. Capitalization matters — (r)ead a scroll is not (R)emove gems from a throne. The latter tends to summon a gnome king. Come back up. Pay the taxman. Try again.
How to play
| h j k l | West, south, north, east (Rogue layout). |
|---|---|
| y u b n | Diagonals. |
| H J K L | Run in that direction. |
| . | Wait a turn. |
| , | Pick up an item. |
| i | Inventory. |
| E | Enter a building, the dungeon, or the volcano. |
| c | Cast a spell. |
| ? | Help — the full command list is long on purpose. |