'Moria' creator Robert Alan Koeneke has died aged 64
Robert Alan Koeneke, the creator of the influential early roguelike Moria, has passed away aged 64.
Koeneke’s obituary was posted on dignitymemorial, confirming his death (via PC Gamer).
As the name suggests, Moria was inspired by J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, specifically the Mines of Moria location within the novels. The goal of Moria is to travel through the mines and eventually defeat the fiery Balrog. The game was also inspired by the mechanics of Rogue, making it one of the first roguelikes.
Koeneke began development on Moria while studying at the University of Oklahoma using VMS Basic. However, he wasn’t satisfied with the game until he discovered the programming language VMS Pascal, with which he re-wrote the game and released Moria 1.0.
Koeneke then partnered with colleague Jimmey Wayne Todd Jr, culminating in the release of Moria 4.5 in 1986. Koeneke was working on version 5.0 when he left the university for a job, though he made Moria open source so others could work on the project (via Umoria).
https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/moria-creator-robert-alan-koeneke-passed-away-3275012
I spent many, many hours playing this, a wonderful game. The latest version can be downloaded free here:
https://umoria.org/download/
Thanks Robert! RIP 