Editing Moria (1983 video game) (section)

== History ==
[[File:Roguetree2.svg|thumb|Family tree of [[rogue-like game]]s: inspiration for ''Moria'' goes back to ''Rogue''.<ref name="FSM">[http://freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/freeing_an_old_game_moria/ Freeing an old game] by Ben Asselstine on [[Free software magazine]] (2007-03-12)</ref>]]

Around 1981,<ref>"Breaking ground in 1981, Koeneke built on the foundations of ''Rogue''&nbsp;..." {{cite book |last=Craddock |first=David L. |title=Dungeon Hacks |publisher=Press Start Press |date=5 August 2015 |page=246 |chapter=Chapter 7 |isbn=978-0692501863}}</ref> while enrolled at the [[University of Oklahoma]], Robert Alan Koeneke became hooked on playing the video game ''[[Rogue (video game)|Rogue]]''. Soon after, Koeneke moved departments to work on an early [[VAX-11]]/780 minicomputer running [[OpenVMS|VMS]] operating system, which at that time had no games. Since no longer having access to ''Rogue'' was "intolerable" for Koeneke, he started developing his own ''Rogue'' game using [[VSI BASIC for OpenVMS|VMS BASIC]] and gave it the name, Moria Beta 1.0.<ref name=MoriaHistory>"...&nbsp;I worked on one of the early VAX 11/780s [so] no more games, and no more rogue! This was intolerable! So I decided to write my own rogue game, Moria Beta 1.0". {{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.roguelike.angband/gFiS2tV_-AA/Gp7g-TfuJmUJ |title=Early history of Moria |accessdate=2017-08-03 |last=Koeneke |first=Robert Alan |date=1996-02-21}}</ref>

During the summer of 1983, Koeneke rewrote his game in [[OpenVMS|VMS]] [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]], releasing Moria 1.0.<ref name=MoriaHistory />

In 1983/84 Jimmey Wayne Todd Jr. joined Koeneke on the development of ''Moria'', bringing with him his character generator, and working on various aspects of the game, including the death routines.

Koeneke started distributing the [[source code]] in 1985 under a license that permitted sharing and modification, but not commercial use.

The last VMS version was ''Moria'' 4.8, released in November 1986.<ref name=MoriaReleaseTimeline>{{Cite web|url=https://umoria.org/highlights#umoria-basic|title=Moria Release Timeline|website=umoria.org}}</ref>

In February 1987, James E. Wilson started converting the VMS Pascal source code to the C programming language for use on [[Unix|UNIX]] systems, which had started to become popular by this date. To distinguish his release from the original VMS Moria, Wilson named it UNIX Moria, shortened to UMoria.

UMoria 4.85 was released on November 5, 1987.<ref name=UmoriaRelease>"Here it is! A Unix version of the popular VMS game Moria". {{cite web |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.sources.games/umoria/comp.sources.games/kSX-_emh0Xs/9cX4kCaZa0EJ |title=Umoria - single player dungeon simulation |accessdate=2017-08-28 |last=Wilson |first=James E. |date=1987-11-05}}</ref>

As C was a much more portable programming language than VMS Pascal, there was an explosion of ''Moria'' ports for a variety of different computer systems such as [[MS-DOS]], [[Amiga]], [[Atari ST]] and [[Apple IIGS|Apple II<small>GS</small>]].

UMoria 5.0, released in 1989,<ref name=MoriaReleaseTimeline /> unified these separate ports into a single code base, fixing many bugs and gameplay balance issues, as well as adding lots of new features; many of which were taken from ''BRUCE Moria'' (1988).

In 1990 the ''[[Angband (video game)|Angband]]'' project was started, which is based on the UMoria 5.2.1 source code.

UMoria was in continuous development for several more years, with UMoria 5.5.2 released on July 21, 1994.<ref name=MoriaReleaseTimeline />

During the early 2000s David Grabiner maintained the code base, releasing only minor compiler related fixes.

In 2008, through the work of the free-moria project,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://free-moria.sourceforge.net/|title=free-moria|website=free-moria.sourceforge.net}}</ref><ref name="FSM"/> UMoria was [[Software relicensing|relicensed]] under the [[GNU General Public License]]. Work has since continued on the game, with regular releases.<ref>{{cite web |title=Moria / Umoria Release Highlights since 1981 - A Classic Roguelike |url=https://umoria.org/highlights/ |website=umoria.org |access-date=1 February 2024}}</ref>