The Legendary ‘Epyx Rogue’ Is Now On Switch, But Players Have Noticed A Severe Bug

Welp

Epyx Rogue, the game that effectively helped coin the term ‘roguelike’, is now available on the Nintendo Switch eShop for a paltry £7.99 / $7.99, and while this would normally be cause for celebration, it seems as though some players have noticed a severe bug that effectively soft-locks the game.

To start with the positive, however, Rogue is a remarkable game that, if the opening paragraph didn’t give it away, had a massive influence on the medium after its launch in the ’80s. An Amiga port launched in 1986 and this version of the Switch seems to be a direct port of that specific release.

Here’s a look at the official description:

“In the 1980s a computer game emerged that changed the world of fantasy gaming forever. Randomly generated rooms meant that each journey into the infamous Dungeons of Doom was unique. The potent combination of random generation with perma-death proved to be intoxicating, and the game was so influential it spawned an entire genre: ‘Rogue-likes’.

“Now you too can experience the thrill of dungeon crawling for the fabled Amulet of Yendor in this pioneering game. Delve deep into this recreation of the original graphical port of Rogue by strategy game giants Epyx, that replaced the earlier text-based interface with pixel-art for the first time.”

However, players have noted that an item within the game – the Scroll of Wild Magic – soft-locks the experience due to an inability from the player to actually interact with it. You’re presented with two options with the scroll: either read it or leave it alone, but you can’t choose either of them.

The theory here is that because the original Amiga version required the use of a mouse, Publisher Pixel Games UK neglected to offer any feasible way of interacting with the dialog box on the Switch, thus creating a game-breaking bug.

We’ve reached out to Pixel Games UK to determine whether the issue is known and if a fix is in the works, but we have yet to receive a response at the time of writing. We’ll let you know of any updates as and when we hear more.

Have you tried Epyx Rogue on Switch? Did you encounter the aforementioned bug? Let us know with a comment in the ususal place.

Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry.

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