Family trees

A similar-looking dungeon does not prove that two games share code. These small trees distinguish implementation ancestry from a design relationship. They are selected routes through the history, not a complete census of variants.

Code passed along

 Moria
   |
 Umoria
   |
 Angband
   |
   +-- Zangband
   |     |
   |   PernAngband
   |     |
   |   Tales of Middle Earth
   |
   +-- NPPAngband
         |
        Sil
         |
        Sil-Q

The Moria-to-Angband history is documented in the Angband manual. The ToME family passed through variants before Maj’Eyal began as a new implementation. Sil descends specifically through NPPAngband, as its manual records.

 Fenlason's Hack
       |
 Brouwer's Hack
       |
 Hack ports and changes
       |
    NetHack

NetHack’s credits explicitly describe Stephenson combining work from several versions. A straight line is only a shorthand for that merge.

Hack

NetHack

 Linley's Dungeon Crawl
       |
 Crawl 4.0 beta 26
       |  + selected 4.1 work
       |
 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Original Crawl

Stone Soup

The founding developer’s account

 Whales' Cataclysm
       |
 Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Cataclysm: DDA

Ideas passed along

 Rogue
   :  design inheritance
   +.. Moria
   +.. Hack
   +.. Brogue

 DRL
   :  spiritual successor
   +.. Jupiter Hell

 Earlier ToME games
   :  new code and setting
   +.. Tales of Maj'Eyal

The dotted relationships describe influence or succession. They do not claim that the later program is a fork. For broader connections, compare the mechanics in the entries rather than treating every resemblance as documented influence.

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