Thanks for the suggestion; Just had a go. It was a blast. Things seemed to be going well until I ate a giant mushroom, got confused and then eaten by some kind of hybrid giant mutant plant bunny or some such. Bookmarked.

Would recommend.

All roguelikes have an element of "losing is fun". My memory of playing IVAN is one where losing is often hilarious.

I love IVAN due to its difficulty(spend hours building character, get killed by invisible landmine) and polish(got a banana? Make a banana sword!). The little carcastic plot is fun as well.

Oh man, I haven't played IVAN in a decade! That was a lot of fun back in the day, I wonder if I still suck at it :).

rogue, not rouge :-)

pedant, not pendant :P