So what does Máhanaxar mean anyway? Well, study your copy of The Silmarillion and find out!

So instead of writing an essay on Angband history I will explain how I turned from pretty normal guy into a angbandoholic.

I was about fourteen years when I first saw a rogue-like game. The game was Moria and the player was my older cousin Daniel. Without exaggerating I wasn't very impressed. In fact, I hated what I saw and tormented my cousin and told him that he was total loser for playing that lame game. I mean, look at the character and his opponents, they're all so small! Quit playing that crap!

Instead of listening to me, Daniel continued his travelling in the world of rogue-like games and his next stop was a certain game called Angband. When he showed me Angband I was as impressed as when he showed me Moria. At the time I didn't have a computer of my own and while visiting Daniel I thought it was a waste of valuable Amiga time to play that crappy game. I wanted to play kiddie games, such as Super Frog.

I don't know when and I certainly don't know how but somehow Daniel convinced me to play Angband. For a start I refused but I figured; What the hell...a quick try won't kill me. My Angband debut was with a Half-Troll Warrior named Vedder. At first I didn't like the game att all. I could't keep the commands from eachother and Vedder died and died and died. Quite surprisingly I started to enjoy the game and found it tricky to tell Daniel that because of my earlier comments on it.

Daniel was very patient and and after a while he had tought me how to play the game. As earlier mentioned Vedder had this habit, he died and died and died. I found Cave Spiders very hard to beat. The weeks went by and after a while the Vedders reached level ten quite often. At this point Daniel made backups of my savefiles so I could continue without starting all over again. Looking back at it I think that this horrible form of cheating tought me the game really well.

...the story continues...

In August 1996 I was 16 years old which for me meant High School. Daniel lived about 70 kilometres away from me so I couldn't play Angband that often. This fact bugged me and I was very happy when I found out that one(!) computer at my new school had an Internet connection. The computer was a 486 with a 14.4 modem. I was new to the Internet and knew nothing about it. I don't know if I it was a wild guess or if Daniel told me but I figured that Angband must be available on the Internet. A weird computer freak at school told me that there was a place on the Internet where you could search for a specific word. The place turned out to be Altavista. With the help of Altavista I found a copy of Angband. I don't know which version it was but it was either 2.7.7 or 2.7.8. I saved the Zip file to a disk and brought it to one of my father's sisters who had a PC. It took me like three hours to get Angband running (cannot find the required directory c:\angband\lib). Wow! Now I could play Angband more often!

I continued to play with a Half-Troll Warrior. I also continued to make savefile backups. I never killed Morgoth with my Vedders. After thousands of deaths as a Half-Troll Warrior I got inspired by Daniel and created a High-Elf Mage. It was after many hours with my Mage I found Angband really breathtaking. I made it official; I was an addict(further information on this matter).

Daniel was the one who tought me to make savefile backups and he also was the one who cured me from this nasty habit. I continued to play with a High-Elf Mage and did pretty well without the savefile backups. Now I had a computer at home which made my Angband sessions longer and of course more funnier. I made savefile backups occasionally "just in case" and I used one when I got toasted by The Phoenix after reaching level 41 or 42. I did defeat Morgoth with that character but I can't say that I won the game because of the savefile abuse. That was the last time I used savefile backups.

...the story leading further down the rogue-like drain...

In the beginning of 1998 I finally became an Angband ***Winner***. It took quite a long time but it felt great. My winning character was a High-Elf Mage and his name was Legolas. He showed potential very early on and did well all the way.  After winning the game four times as a High-Elf Mage I realized that it was as easy as stealing candy from a kid. That GOI spell is too good.

My next character was a Dwarf Priest named Gimli. I played quite a few Dwarf Priests and learned how to behave with the new race/class combination. Playing as a priest was very fun until the first Gimli who really showed potential got killed by a Dracolisk on dungeon level 43. I was pissed and refused to play Angband for atleast three days. When my mourning was over I created a new Dwarf Priest named Turin. Playing with Turin was great fun and rather unsurprisingly he crushed Morgoth to a pulp!

...the story of the end of a human being and the birth of a chronic Angband junkie.

I find it challenging to try new races and classes. I've just completed my third race/class combination; a Dunadan Paladin.(summer 1999).
The last days before school started (1999) I managed to win the game with a Half Elf Rogue.

Well what can I say? I'm an addict. I guess you are too. If not you wouldn't have survived this text. Stay calm, there's a place for people like you: Angbandoholics Anonymous.

Please Steal 1999 Jonathan Garnegård

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