Unicode roguelike

Why not have a Unicode roguelike? It'd be the best roguelike ever. Just think of all the stuff you could represent with the dozens of thousands of characters there are. It'd require a large font like Code2000 (which can be obtained for free), and an engine to display these characters in a fixed-width fashion if the font isn't. Or a special terminal emulator. Or a very good Unicode terminal font. I've picked a few examples; just a few, to show you what can be done. Requires a good browser and a good collection of Unicode fonts on your part.

♘ Horse
☹☺☻ Townsfolk
〠 Village idiot
♗ Bishop
♔ King

Ȣ Scarab
༪ Butterfly
ഴ Fly
⧞ Mosquito
⁙ Swarm
ਲ Giant bug
♉ᛝ∝ Other insects
౪ Crab
៚ Chameleon monster
ൠ Frog monster
ɗ Snail
༽ Earthworm
ऽςᴈᴤ Snakes
δ Cobra
༗ Anemona
⍾ Squid
Ѫ Octopus
ᴥ Kraken
Ж Cerberus
Л Mammoth
✈ Monster bird
৫ Ghost
☃ Snowman
ɨ Animated statue
Ϫቓቖቿኝ Devils
☬ Major devil
☿ Succubus
ڜ Muslim terrorist
৬ Fire elemental
Ȝ Wind elemental
⚡ Thunder elemental
ኇ♃≬ℑയതမဗၐᤑ₰ Other monsters (just some examples)

♠♣ᚡϘ Trees
≈♒ʬ Water
♨ Hot springs
ȹ Fountain
ᢆ Slime
☄ Comet
☀☾☁ഹ Landscape
۝۞※ Warp gates
⌘⌬ Magic places
ᛟ Gemstone
☖☗ Runestones
✝ Tomb
Λ Tent
⌂ House
⏏ Gazebo
۩ Temple
♖ Tower
⎆ Tunnel entrance
⍐ Elevator
ʭ Steps
¤ Trap activator
༕ Guillotine
⁌⁍ Missiles
ʘ๏⁐‿⁀ↂ Special effects
☤♥☂☠☢☣☫ Spells
༖ Decoration
⚐ Flag
⇧⇩⇦⇨ Arrows
ఱ Couch
π Table
⅄ Fireplace
⌹ Cupboard
⌚ Clock
ƿ Harp
░▒▓█─┃┊┐┝┷╚╜╭╮╯╰╱╳╻╿▛ Walls (just some examples)

¢⦄ Bows
ᛠᛡ Wands
ᛙᵠ∫ Staves
Г Orcish weapon
↑ Pike
† Sword
ᛘ Trident
‣ Nail
ፅ Fruit
ȸ Grapes
ↀ Pill
࿈♟ Potions
¬ Key
࿄ Bell
⌛ Hourglass
Ƣ Monocle
ϙ Hand mirror
౧ Bracers
ᴑØЮ Rings
⚓ Pendant
ƔɣɤƱʊ४ Necklaces
Ψψᴪ Goblets, Grails, Phials
Ѧ Triforce
♕ Crown
❦♓☥☯࿂࿃࿋ᛯᛨ⎈◉ Other items (just some examples)

Comments.

I'm kind of halfway there -- http://rigelseven.com/schism/
It does bitmap font drawing so that it can fake console font remapping tricks, but we've been talking about adding support for real Unicode fonts on top of that. Essentially it'd use its own internal BIOS-ish font if it has the character, and failing that, fall back to a Unicode font.

This is still all theoretical, though, and I'm not sure if I even want to go that route because it'd muck up the code a lot.