Yes it did. I think it was not 50/50, but you can certainly recruit some:
The game on the screenshot is Ishar 2, I played quite a bit of it. I think it’s not bad, but by today’s standards it’s probably lacking. A lot of wandering around and killing, not a lot of roleplay. Don’t expect an Elder Scrolls experience here.
But it does have a certain charm, I think. It’s impressive how much they could do with the resources at the time.
For those who want the rogue experience on steroids (i.e. letters on ASCII screen, but longer story-line), the game one is looking for is nethack (www.nethack.org).
It’s still being maintained (although next release they’re ditching Amiga support) and I still play it irregularly, lo these 35 years later.
There’s even a competition to create the best Rogue-like in a week. Some of them are really playable and fun. I’ve spent way too many hours going through these games and playing them when I should be sleeping. It’s been a few years and I honestly can’t remember which ones were best. Just check out the page of stable roguelikes and play away. I might have to get back into this.
After actually looking at the article it seemed like a slightly different type of game than I was expecting. One that came after and one I think I didn’t really play.