DOS Games Discussion

I just stumbled across this cool looking roguelike in development.

Ultima Ratio Regum
http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/

Something I find interesting about roguelikes that they lose when you skin them with graphics or tiles is how they are symbolic without being iconic. Graphics invariably make the game more iconic, and both gains and loses something that way. I've wondered about using more symbols than just ASCII, but not switching over, and this is the first game I've seen that does this. Triangles and plant parts and more line types and doors all visible in the screenshots, without becoming an Ultima tileset, very interesting.

And the busy nature of the screens reminds me more of Dwarf Fortress than more traditional roguelikes, though this one is not that grown up yet.

Speaking of Roguelikes, have you seen this one? <a href="http://blackshellgames.itch.io/srpg">SanctuaryRPG</a>

The base version is "Name Your Price" for the download (you can grab it free if you want). There's also an expanded version on Steam for a few bucks. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty awesome.

Jesus Christ!hehe

Both games look like they took massive amounts of work. Great coverage.

No, Sanctuary is new to me, looks sweet! Nice.

URR has pretty cool graphics! I'm not sure if I heard about that one before.

So I've spend a little time with each URR, Sanctuary, and more on Ascii Sector. Lots more learning curve just to know what I'm really up to, but lots of fun for the time spent!

And musn't forget ADOM, of course, fiddling about with this and that when I get a chance.
A nice set of Ascii & Roguelike distractions.

Jesus Christ!hehe

Quadko, that is pretty cool. I am starting to go back to pure assembly instead of mixed with C. I can do text off the top of my head in pure assembly however graphics I have to think a bit more. In fact, the controller routine you gave to me I have to probably look up. So that is going to be easy as long as I have a reference. Just as long as I have adequate backups I am fine and do not lose any of my work in case like my dad says. My mother tells me to be kind so I have to say I still keep you in mind in my credit screens so far hehe Those controller interrupts are tricky. So are those VGA graphics mode through David Brackeen. I have yet to figure out the sound port in assembly. However, I am used to text, assembly although I am relatively new to it, and C is pretty easy to me. What I am proud of is my ascii output today in pure assembly so maybe I can make a game like the above mentioned. However do not count on it. hehe

Thank you Jesus that I earn enough to support my entire family for the rest of my life in luxury and class. At least I hope so anyways with the invested education that I have with becoming a developer after 40 years hehe

I played a bit more with Sanctuary Black this weekend, continues to be fun. It's interesting that at least as far as I've gotten, there are no maps and no "walking simulators". It plays a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure ascii-graphic text adventure with fighting. It's nifty and different, that's for certain!

And "walking simulator" is one of my peeves in games any more, from roguelikes to MMOs, but I loooove maps. So Sanctuary getting rid of walking is great, but getting rid of maps (far as I can tell) is a bit sad. But I'm still trying to figure out how to balance both in a game, so no complaints about them! Fast travel "all the time" is the closest I've come to a good solution; show a cool map, but don't waste player time getting from A to Q. (Though wandering around Asheron's Call way back when just to sightseer was a lot of fun, but that's different. Actually similar with FarCry; it's fun just to wander around when I've got the time. But the more you have to zone, the worse wandering gets.)

Also, I picked up Ziggurat on Steam (developer site) on sale, and it's quite fun. Reminds me of a better graphics old doom/quake/heretic clone; random maps, fantasy setting, glowing colors, simple rooms; FPS action-rpg "roguelike", sure, I'll buy into that! And a kick in the pants fun for the brief time I put into it at least. Even if you don't want to play, a quick peek through Youtube at it could be fun.

Jesus Christ!hehe

I feel like old times again kinda feeling the fun WITH you hah

However I live vicariously through words.

Strange as it may seem I like the spiritual side of things in my life

I never forgot my father's words, "You can't take it with you when you die!"

As for my mom I got scared today.

I was reading some Christian lady's writings and had a strange sense.

I was told by God that her mom died before actually being told.

After I read the dedication page it is right there in front of me.

Her mother passed away of cancer.

So it scared me because I am an old man now.

I still depend on my mom and never know when she passes.

So Thank you God I take perfect care of my family!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know even as a kid if you listen to your parents you have no regrets.

The only regrets you have for listening to your parents is they are gone.

Your parents only wish is the kids grow up all happy and successful#!

I think one day I might have a daughter and know how it feels.

I want to leave EVERYTHING to her when I pass away.

I want to give her the BEST that could ever be achieved#!!

Quadko wrote:Also, I picked up Ziggurat on Steam (developer site) on sale, and it's quite fun. Reminds me of a better graphics old doom/quake/heretic clone; random maps, fantasy setting, glowing colors, simple rooms; FPS action-rpg "roguelike", sure, I'll buy into that! And a kick in the pants fun for the brief time I put into it at least. Even if you don't want to play, a quick peek through Youtube at it could be fun.

I've read about Ziggurat a while ago at IndieDB, seems like a well designed game. Is it Steam exclusive though?

I don't see anything saying "Steam exclusive", but I don't see them offering any other way to buy it other than the Steam link on their dev site. More might be coming, but who knows. It was early access on Steam, so they might just have rolled into easy release there, with more to come later. (Maybe after some contractual period? Dunno.) I don't see discussion either way with a quick search.

It was released last October, so they've had some time already; maybe defacto exclusive?

Ah but I see discussions of discussions on Gog.com indicating the Dev just doesn't want to mess with paths other than Steam:

The developers see it as a bit of a pain to deliver manual patches as opposed to Steam, and there's also Leaderboards and Achievements in the way (because they rely on the Steam api).

It really itches me how devs blindly program their games around Steam and ignoring alternative methods.

So, game was built around Steam, not just bolted onto Steam. Too bad, I'm fine with Steam, but like self-contained portability, otherwise emulation is hard in years to come and I like longevity. That consideration alone makes Steam apps less valuable - but not buying games from Steam is about like not buying books from Amazon; you can do it, but you miss out on some cool stuff!

Cogmind sci-fi robot roguelike in development! Blog. Another promising one I'm keeping my eye on.

Interesting, recent blog posts mention tileset only, so I'm not sure what all the ASCII art being shown is about, exactly. Intriguing.

While browsing roguelikes at IndieDB I stumbled upon a game called StarJunk. While it doesn't seem like a typical roguelike game, the concept is quite interesting. Newer versions are available at Gamejolt.

StarJunk looks interesting, I took a look when you posted but forgot to mention it.

Lots of fun activity in these roguelike inspired spaces, lately. Very nice!

If you don't mind, I would like to sorta hijack this thread for general roguelike discussion.

I've got quite interested in the genre lately. Browsing old sites preserved by the Wayback Machine, like Roguelike News or Roguelike Review, reveals some very interesting games, often not widely known today.

For example, Rogue's Quest by Pearson Wung, a graphical roguelike initially developed for Win16 and then ported to Win32. The Wayback Machine preserved the latest (Win32) version, which should be playable on modern systems: rq10m-p1.zip. Also here's a review/description of this game.

Over is another interesting graphical roguelike project, which apparently has not been developed beyond v0.09. There's an active game page with working downloads.

Fine by me! I love the genera, but I'd only played Rogue and ADOM back in the day with any time spent. I'd also occasionally played Moira and Omega (?) as BBS or at my uncle's, and somehow I knew about but missed Hack/Nethack development. Knew about lots more - Castle of Winds, Larn, Stone Soup - but that's about it for experience.

So recently I've been playing with those and more, especially loving some of the recent great fun stuff. I wish I was deep into Dwarf Fortress but who has the time? And I'm a great dabbler, but not OCD enough for some of these things, too. Unreal World, too, not sure if that counts but is in the grey areas around the margins.

I've never heard of these two, cool links, added to my 'check-it-out' list!

Rogue's Quest also has add-on scenarios (dungeons) which were created by players using the supplied scenario editor. The site linked to above had a zip file with all scenarios but it was not preserved by the Wayback Machine. However, another site had separate file downloads which are available:
o Arena: arena.zip
o The Basements of Terror : basement.zip
o The Big "B": bigb.zip
o The Brussel Underground: wbcellar.zip
o The Crypt: crypt.zip
o Demon Blade 1: blade1.zip
o Demon Blade 2: blade2.zip
o Demon Blade 3 : Gaurdian's Revenge: blade3.zip
o Demon Blade 4 : Hidden Castle: blade4.zip
o The Dungeon of Doom: doom.zip
o The Dungeon of Doom 2: doom2.zip
o The Dungeon of Motmagande: dark.zip
o The Dungeon of the Vampires: daves.zip
o The Dungeons of Death: lincoln.zip
o Earthquake 2: earthquake2.zip
o The Goblin Guard: goblin.zip
o The Goblin Guard 2: goblin2.zip
o The Haunted Tower of the Sonic: sonic.zip
o The Isle of the Holy Order: holyo.zip
o The Labyrinths under Marsh Mansion: labyrnth.zip
o Levelless Land: levelless.zip
o Lohman Dungeon: lohman.zip
o The Night of the Living Dead: livdead.zip
o The Quest for Anduril: anduril.zip
o Search for Krispo: krispo.zip
o Sterimus' City: sterimus.zip
o The Tomb of Arthur: toa.zip
o The Tomb of the Conquerer: tomb.zip
o The Tomb of the Conquerer 2: tomb2.zip
o Valekra: valekra.zip
o Zulgil's Horde: DemonRealm.zip

I wonder if that's the "arena but not Elder Scrolls" game everyone was looking for a while back. Cool stuff, I'm on the go right now, but look forward to digging in and commenting later!

Quadko wrote:I wonder if that's the "arena but not Elder Scrolls" game everyone was looking for a while back.

I think it was this game: arena21.zip

But there's also another text-based game with the same title IIRC.

Ah, I missed the point that those were add-on dungeons to Rogue's Quest. I've got them downloaded, will hopefully have time to check them out later this week.