yes the rules are created with having an option to play how you want in mind, that's why so many classes. not playing restricted 1 character only game

But you miss the point...there are OFFICAL Solo Play modules for AD&D, made by the people who wrote the rules. It was meant and possible to use the AD&D rules in a single player only game. This is a game meant to reflect the rules as well as they can and allow one person to play one character on a Dungeon Crawl....simple as that. I have and will again play single player D&D games as I am with my partner at the moment.

D&D is meant to be played any way you like, the rules give the DM full control, in fact he can change the rules in the book as he feels fit. If you want to put the effort in you can play by yourself or with twenty other people.

The second edition solo play modules (by solo play I mean one on one. The kind with no DM were really just glorified gamebooks) were balanced for a specific class, they usually had names like "Fighter's Challenge" or "Thief's Challenge" just to make it more obvious. If a DM were to make his own adventures for a single player, they would be tailored around that player's needs.

There really weren't any character classes that could hack it for very long on their own, if you just dropped them in a module not specifically designed for them. D&D has its roots in squad level wargames, the classes are designed to fill a necessary combat role (optional classes like ranger, paladin or bard may fill multiple roles with varying degrees of proficiency):

Fighter - frontline combat
Cleric - frontline support
Mage - archery/artillery/backline support
Thief - engineer/scout

If you break up the squad ("split the party") you do so at great cost to individual survivability.

Dungeon Hack isn't supposed to play like D&D though, it's an intro level roguelike which uses the AD&D license, and the resemblance to the paper game is almost superficial. The nuts and bolts of this game only have the same names as those in the Player's Handbook, it's a way different game. This game is meant for one person and one person alone, and it was designed that way. Again, it's not using the AD&D game, it's using the license. It doesn't matter if AD&D is suited for this style of play or not, since it's not really AD&D.

If you want to give a caster a shot, the best way to enjoy this game is to look at it as sort of a gentler little brother of Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and learn to not get too attached to your character for a few levels. After a few tries, you'll eventually get a pc that will get over the hump and get better spells, and the more confident you get as a player, the funner the game gets.

Personally, I love Dungeon Hack. I've been playing it every so often since it came out back when I was in middle school. It's one of my chicken soup games.

This talk of certain classes being inappropriate is foolish. Certain classes are more like challenge classes, as far as this game is concerned. If you've played any Roguelikes, think Tourist from Nethack, or Farmer from ADOM. They're meant to be part of a team in PnP, but in this game, they're classes that provide a greater challenge.

This game runs incredibly slow for me. Is there a way to speed it up?

Are you using Dos Box?

Try download Dos Box and put the Dos Box icon on your desktop, then open your Dungeon Hack directory and drag the file HACK.BAT to the Dos Box icon then the game will start. It runs fine for me.

One of my favorite Roguelike games.

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This is not a roguelike! It is a classic D&D RPG PC game! :omg:

Dungeon Hack's not really a roguelike after all.

Right, so, necroposting to an extent, and not at all continuing the "current" direction the posts have taken, but shouldn't this game have the "Dungeons & Dragons games" genre?