Have been really enjoying Brogue lately. Besides the difficult, turn-based gameplay (decision making is more cerebral than reactive), I think ASCII graphics are part of what makes these games so enrapturing. Our brains are incredible at constructing rich narratives from limited information.
Going Rogue
31–40 of 72 posts
Re: Going Rogue
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Newcomers to old-school roguelikes may find Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup more accessible as an entry point to the genre, which can be played in a graphical interface in your web browser via https://crawl.develz.org/play.htm or via classic SSH interface at joshua@crawl.akrasiac.org (password "joshua").
I've been playing DCSS super casually, on-and-off, for well over a decade now, and the last time I checked in, it felt like they've perhaps sanded too many of the sharp edges off. I enjoyed the hunger system. butchering creatures into chunks for my kobold to eat was fun. throwing potions was cool. the identification minigame was good classic roguelike fun, and cursed equipment was fun. I could go on and on. I underst…
The online servers for DCSS often host old versions if you'd prefer to play those; crawl.akrasiac.org hosts versions back through 0.11 (released in 2012). Given that it's so easy to play old versions, I'm happy that the devs are open to toy with getting rid of sacred cows in the new versions.
Also, item identification still exists, even if everything else you mentioned has been changed in some way. :P
Re: Going Rogue
#33Brings back fond memories of stumbling across moria on some unix system I was using when I was an intern for the Air Force back in 91 or so. There's something about that style of gameplay that immediately draws you in (that is, if you're the type that "gets" it).
Also, filfre.net is a treasure.
Re: Going Rogue
#34For me the funnest way to play nethack was with a copy of the source nearby. It's cheating of course, but it is the fun sort of cheating. I always thought of it like being a monk or wizard, journeying forth armed with the hidden secrets of the world. I never did beat the game, but My most memorable experience was once when I was messing around in wizard mode(a sort debug/creative mode to try things out in) and summon…
In my opinion, source diving and using spoilers aren't cheating, if only because the games are so thoroughly randomized. You can know everything about your inventory, but one misstep and you're toast. Any ascension is as much a matter of luck as it is of skill. > Juiblex, the faceless evil, on dungeon level level 2. LOL! Wands of polymorph can result in interesting monsters showing up in early-level bones files. Noth…
When I was a student, a lot of people played on one guy’s machine. I got lucky with a polymorph trap and by dog became a Xorn. Inevitably I died and that bones file became the absolute bane of the other player’s existence.
Someone finally beat it and then, of course, conscripted me to spend the next half hour trying to remember what exactly I’d dropped.
Re: Going Rogue
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is all I need, I'm already trying to break my Larn addiction. (/s)
I liked Larn (and Omega). I wasted many hours on Larn. Author didn't go into the fact that some of these games arrived with PCs; AFAIK there was never a Unix version of Larn.
That’s not at all true. I played Larn on an Ultrix VAX 8600 circa 1987.
Re: Going Rogue
#36As a rogue addict, nice read. But rogue is a gateway drug to the nethacks :) * ssh nethack@alt.org * ssh nethack@hf * ssh play@server.gnollhack.com * ssh slashem@slashem.me
Newcomers to old-school roguelikes may find Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup more accessible as an entry point to the genre, which can be played in a graphical interface in your web browser via https://crawl.develz.org/play.htm or via classic SSH interface at joshua@crawl.akrasiac.org (password "joshua").
You can install it locally as well and play in your terminal.
Re: Going Rogue
#37Nethack was promoted to me as a good way to learn how to cursor around in vi (hjkl keys)
I always played the Tourist and managed to get all the way to Level 3 after I learned how to use the +3 Nikon effectively. Everyone knew who the ghost belonged to as well.
Re: Going Rogue
#38For me the funnest way to play nethack was with a copy of the source nearby. It's cheating of course, but it is the fun sort of cheating. I always thought of it like being a monk or wizard, journeying forth armed with the hidden secrets of the world. I never did beat the game, but My most memorable experience was once when I was messing around in wizard mode(a sort debug/creative mode to try things out in) and summon…
In my opinion, source diving and using spoilers aren't cheating, if only because the games are so thoroughly randomized. You can know everything about your inventory, but one misstep and you're toast. Any ascension is as much a matter of luck as it is of skill. > Juiblex, the faceless evil, on dungeon level level 2. LOL! Wands of polymorph can result in interesting monsters showing up in early-level bones files. Noth…
> Any ascension is as much a matter of luck as it is of skill.
There are people who can consistently ascend on nearly every run, if they pick a favorable class.
It requires extremely careful play and encyclopedic knowledge of all the little tricks to avoid danger. There are a lot of them in the game, and so long as you remember that the game is turn-based and that so long as you are careful, you can almost always just leave if things look hairy.
Re: Going Rogue
#39Have been really enjoying Brogue lately. Besides the difficult, turn-based gameplay (decision making is more cerebral than reactive), I think ASCII graphics are part of what makes these games so enrapturing. Our brains are incredible at constructing rich narratives from limited information.
Brogue is genuinely beautiful. I know pure roguelikes should be white ascii on black, but it's incredible what a little color can do. And the way it handles dynamic events in its environments. Really makes the cave "biome" come alive.
Re: Going Rogue
#40Very interesting read.
I didn't expect to also end up reading about the Digital Antiquarian's take on Mao's Cultural Revolution, but I simply had to follow his link in the opening paragraphs of this article.