I recently found two interesting games… remakes of old classics.
Dracula's Shadow
http://members.tripod.com/~archimede77/download.html
It's pretty much a clone of that great old game for the NES, Simon's Quest. Evidently the author, while developing the game, thought it would be nice to add on to the original idea. It is both more difficult and more fun.
You can control any one of three different characters, changeable via the pause menu. You start with two. This works as a kind of continue feature if you should (and you probably will), perish. Plenty of secrets abound; just use your holy water in suspicious areas. You'll find clues and ingredients for magic potions, plus who knows what else. There's a potion system for making new items.
The graphics have been upgraded as well. Once flat backgrounds now have added depth thanks to additional tile layers.
Doom the Roguelike
http://doom.chaosforge.org/
If you have ever liked games like Nethack or Rogue, or you have liked Doom (or Doom II) and are looking for a totally new kind of challenge, here is Doom ― implemented as a turn-based text mode game.
Don't worry, there is no typing involved… all moving is quite intuitive, you just need to learn a few hotkeys. Arrow keys move you, "g" picks up an item, "f" fires a weapon (optionally choose a target with arrow keys), "i" goes to inventory, "r" reloads the weapon, and so on. "?" brings up the help screen(s).
Like RPGs, it has a levelling system, which improves your various stats according to your wishes as you kill more and more enemies. It is not a requirement to kill all enemies in a stage to go to the next stage.
Unlike in original Doom, in Doomrl you can carry a multitude of weapons at the same time. For example, ten pistols. Of course, there's a limit to how much you can carry, so you need to organize sometimes. I found myself having to discard heaps of ammo occasionally and dozens of empty weapons routinely.
Complete with original sound effects and music tracks, this remake manages to capture the essence of Doom very well despite the obvious limitations of the text mode, while it also extends it by introducing new concepts such as healing machines and new weapons.
