Just a short one, today.

[active_apathy]

And this is because there wasn't a lot to talk about from my Monday. Sad but true.

So, what is there? Firstly, there was a Dianetics ad on TV earlier. I was amused by this, since they're selling it as a self-help book. A self-help book by an author who famously claimed that the easiest way to make money is to start a religion. I'm considering offering an alternate title - maybe Jumping On Couches For Dummies.

But! That's of secondary importance. I've started playing NetHack again, and it's more fun than ever. Not that it ever wasn't fun, but every time I start playing it again I realise how much I've missed it. Just need to get out of the Gnomish Mines intact, one of these days. And maybe even Ascend, but that's not for ages and ages yet.

I've got a notion to play Rogue again. If you have a link for a win32-friendly Rogue binary, or for the Rogue source (how hard can it be to find a C compiler?), then please, please post it here.

And that's it for the moment. Off to go and set foot in the Dungeons of Doom all over again.

Comments

[eighthcloud.livejournal.com]

yay for [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]-ness. :)

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

This page has Linux source code and an MS-DOS binary: you could try the DOS binary under compatibility mode (if you're on XP) or by using DOSBox; or if you feel really adventurous you could try and compile the Linux source in Cygwin

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I'm using 2k, but there's a fun little hack from NT4 that convinces things they're running under 9x. DOS emulation is certainly another fun possibility. Thanks!

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Whee! Though it looks a shade unloved at the moment.

[eighthcloud.livejournal.com]

It's early.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

That's not quite what I meant. Still, whee!

[eighthcloud.livejournal.com]

Oh. Hm. Did you mean the "rolls eyes" comment?

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

DOSBox is my favouritest DOS emulator ever: mostly because it works properly on AMD64, unlike certain other systems (like DOSEMU). Mostly I use it to play UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka XCOM: UFO Defence).

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I only know it as UFO: Enemy Unknown, from before even Terror From the Deep. They were fun, then Apocalypse came along and made a right mess of things.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, yes. Which is a grand example of missing the point, in my opinion.

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

XCOM: UFO Defence was the US title: I wasn't sure what they released it as in Australia.

Yeah, Apocalypse was bad, and Interceptor was worse: it wasn't even a good space-combat sim, because the controls were too jerky. Give me TIE Fighter any day.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

UFO: Enemy Unknown was the title here; the XCOM name only popped up starting with TFTD.

I <3 TIE Fighter, and Xwing vs TIE Fighter. Needless to say, I never played Interceptor.

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

Same naming system as in the UK then.

I miss TIE Fighter: maybe when I get home from work I'll hunt around and see if I can find a free version. And then try and make it work with my joypad (my one bitch about TIE Fighter was the really bad joypad/stick support: I only ever found one joypad that it worked with, and that was borrowed from a friend who wasn't massively understanding about me wanting to borrow it for months at a time).

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

There was one particular model of $AU20 joystick that worked perfectly with TIE Fighter. I broke about three of them through excessive use.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I have the Windows versions of the first 2 X-COM games laying around here, actually...

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I might still have my original DOS version of TIE laying around, actually...

And I don't know what you mean, it worked beautifully with every joystick I used on it. Then again, they were the really basic no-drivers, no-bells-and-whistles 2 button joysticks, but they worked. And I loved that game so damn much.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any Win32 versions of Rogue, but the source is out there, and there are numerous ports, including online playable Java and Z-Machine versions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_%28computer_game%29

Knock yourself out.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I found a large-ish assortment of them (well... three) last night, thanks. And then, satisfied with my experiment, I went back to my trusty copy of NetHack.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Well, you found more than I did, but admittedly I didn't look very hard.

Call me ungeeky, but I was never able to get into Roguelikes, including NetHack. Or Text Adventures, really. For all that I'm liable to be the first person to say "You are likely to be eaten by a Grue", I've never even STARTED Zork. I own it, I know of the AIM bots Infocombot1 (and 2 and 3) that let you play Infocom games (including the Zorks) through AIM... I just never have.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I quite like NetHack, and I'm fond of IF.

I have a vague idea of how to write IF in Inform. I need to get copies of Zork 1-3 again, and a large set of other IF titles I rather like. I haven't actually played Zork (since mazes (and guess-the-verb games) are irksome), but I have an appropriate fondness for brass lanterns and elvish swords.

I also feel a little tempted to see if the Discworld MUD is still about, but that means finding a decent telnet client all over again.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I have the Lost Treaures of Infocom CD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Treasures_of_Infocom

All those games are less than 4 megs together, if you want me to zip them up for you.

AB10.exe from here: http://ifarchive.flavorplex.com/if-archive/starters/
A good starter kit IMO.

More stuff here: http://www.microheaven.com/IFGuide/IFGuide.pl?step=6&c=0

You probably liked Maniac Mansion, didn't you?

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I've never played Maniac Mansion, so I can't say either way.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Forgot to mention that all the Infocom ones are for DOS, but you may be able to use the DAT files in a Windows interpreter...

*tests*

Indeed you can! I just opened Zork 1 inside WinFrotz 2.32

Yay.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Indeed you can. All Inform games are interpreted, which makes the games themselves platform-independent long before the idea caught on elsewhere.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

Maniac Mansion basically falls between Sierra graphical adventures and regular IF.

It still used an object-verb style parser for interface, but instead of guessing or typing, you used the mouse cursor to select objects from inventory or the scene, and selected verbs from a predefined list.

This meant you never had to sit there trying different nouns, wondering what the name for that plant on the wall was for months (only to realize, a year later, that it was a plastic fern). If something couldn't be interacted with, it didn't register with a mouseover. On the flipside, a gazillion red herrings DO register with mouseovers, but that's half the fun.

A modern fan-remake of Maniac Mansion is availiable here for free. It's a great game, has countless paths to victory, multiple endings... multiple ways to win in fact. All dependent on which characters you choose to play with. And it's not "all paths eventually lead to the final scene", but "the game can end as a result of radically different things" ranging from getting the villain arrested, to publishing his autobiography and making him famous.

Yeah, download, right: http://www.lucasfangames.de/games_eng.htm

It's well worth playing.