Did a 1980s UNIX game indirectly inspire Minecraft?

Let's follow the trail...

1980, Rogue.

Rogue was created by University of California/Santa Cruz Students Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman. It was initially developed on a PDP-11, then a VAX-11, and eventually released on BSD 4.2. Your character, represented by an @ symbol, explores a 51-level dungeon, fighting monsters represented by letters A-Z.

The levels are created randomly, within certain constraints, using a process called "procedural generation". The character enhances their traits by collecting potions and scrolls, denoted by the ! and ? symbols. Michael Toy's obsession with working on Rogue lead to him being expelled from UCSC. Subsequently, Toy got a job at Berkeley, where he met UNIX contributor Ken Arnold, who assisted with improvement and optimizations to the game.

The creator of the C programming language and co-creator of the Unix system, Dennis Ritchie, claimed that Rogue "wasted more CPU time than anything in history."

Rogue inspired an entire genre of games, known as "Roguelikes", which themselves inspired graphical dungeon-crawlers such as Temple of Apshai and Diablo.

You can try it out the MS-DOS version at: https://donnierussellii.github.io/JSRogue.html Turn off "Tiles mode" for a more authentic experience.

1982, Hack.

Hack was created in 1982 by high school student Jay Fenlason with the assistance of Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jonathan Payne. It is essentially a clone of Rogue with a few new features. Its greatest significance lies in laying the groundwork for the later game, "NetHack".

1983, The Dungeons of Moria.

Created by Robert Alan Koeneke in 1983, Moria adds D+D inspired character traits and was the first roguelike to have a "Town" level where you buy weapons, spellbooks, potions, and other items. Thematically, it is inspired by Tolkien, creating a sub-lineage within the Roguelike line.

1985, Nethack.

Nethack was created by Mike Stephenson in 1987, alongside a growing cast of collaborators that enjoy cult-like status among their fans. Nethack is where the genre expands into insane complexity. It includes a sprawling encyclopedia of objects, pop culture references, and puzzles to be solved. 

It is lighthearted in its tone, and debuts companions in the form of a pony, kitten, or dog. There are Easter eggs and in-jokes. Nethack also introduces some limited territory outside the dungeon. Nethack's flexibility encourages players to engage in counter-intuitive actions, such as getting your pet to enter a town and shoplift for you. Solving Nethack requires patience and devotion. And then it's time to do it again.

1990, Angband.

Angband was created by Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand at the University of Warwick, UK in 1990. It continues the lineage of Tolkien themed Roguelike games. It's expansive, and can take months to finish. Not much is added in terms of game mechanics ,but it is broader in scope, and committed to being true to Tolkien's world.

1994, ADOM: Ancient Domains Of Mystery.

ADOM was designed and developed by Thomas Biskup, and released in 1994. It introduces a new and complex interface. It is quest-driven, plot-driven, and provides multiple ways of winning. It also adds an expansive world outside of the dungeons, consisting of Oceans, Forests, and Mountains. While Nethack is a game built for the little details, this game emphasizes the big details.

1997, Dungeon Keeper.

Dungeon Keeper was developed by Bullfrog Productions, under designer Peter Molyneux in 1997. In Dungeon Keeper the player is tasked with creating and managing a dungeon designed to keep out treasure seeking adventurers. It's a Real-Time-Strategy game, and distinctly not a Roguelike game. Although it's not a Roguelike relative, it's still family.

2006, Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress

[Deep breath]. Where does one begin? This is the culmination of the Roguelike complexity arms-race. Dwarf Fortress, as it is more simply called, was created by Brothers Tarn and Zack Adams and released in 2006. Inspired by Roguelikes, as well as Dungeon Keeper, and Tolkien's Hobbit, it's both a simulation and a world-building game.

It's enormous and sprawling with great attention to detail, and near infinite possibilities. The Adams brothers have deliberately stuck with ASCII graphics to free them from graphical considerations, and allowing them to focus on mechanics. This game is all about the mechanics. Items within the game have elaborate properties, and players have much latitude in how they use them - So much it's even possible to simulate simple computers *within* the game.

The brothers have dedicated themselves to this wonder for 12 years now, and see 30 years of work ahead of them. DF is entirely supported by donation. To them it is their life's work, and to the players it is a delicious madness to lose themselves in.

2009, Infiniminer

Look familiar?

Infiniminer was release by Zachtronics Industries in 2009. It's a block based digging/building game, and originally intended to be team-based and competitive in nature.

According to Gamepedia: ".... However, as the game gained popularity, players decided it was much more fun to build things than to compete for points. Zachtronics discontinued development of the game less than a month after its first release after discovering a major source leak which allowed hackers to make illegal modifications to the game".

However briefly it was around, it was long enough to catch the eye of one particular gamer, Marcus "Notch" Persson...

2011, Minecraft

Minecraft was released in 2011 by Markus "Notch" Persson. Notch has been a lifelong gamer and game developer. Minecraft is a culmination of several abandoned projects of Notches, re-animated with inspiration from others' work.

Initally, Notch developed a game known as "RubyDung", a world-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress. Little is known about it, except that it was abandoned in dissatisfaction.

After coming across the block-like graphics of Infiniminer, Notch realized that this is what he wanted his game's interface to look like. He resumed development on RubyDung, added in some influences from Dungeon Keeper, and thus Minecraft was born.

About: The author enjoys watching his kids play Minecraft, while he plays Rogue. He's never actually tried Dwarf Fortress, knowing that if he did, he'd never be seen again.

References:

https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/RubyDung

https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Infiniminer

https://notch.tumblr.com/post/227922045/the-origins-of-minecraft

https://www.wired.com/2013/11/minecraft-book/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress

https://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/