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Engrave: Elbereth

DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
edited December 2008 in Social Entropy++
Some of us escape our miserable lives by playing video games. Most times, these games will allow us to become heroes in far away lands, shoot alien horrors and save mankind, or command armies on the glorious road to victory. Other games make us appreciate reality just because those games are so brutal, and we feel as if we are fairly accomplished individuals after the 500th time the character on the screen dies within the first few minutes. Roguelikes fall into the latter.

Roguelikes are designed for the masochist. It's that thing you see the weird nerdy guys with the long, unkempt hair doing at the college computer lab that resembles an arcane screen full of spat out code. We play them because we hate ourselves. Yet, at 4 am, rolling a new character after your level 6 Ghoul Necromancer Fry Cook bites the dust seems like a good idea. The challenge of playing nethack or crawl and the work it demands from the player might as well be a second job.

Yet there is something appealing about the genre, the dense gameplay and completely unforgiving randomization mechanics. There is also something undeniably cool about a game that demands you use pretty much the entire keyboard just to do basic commands.

nethack.gif

Plus the visuals are pretty awesome.

Some popular roguelikes are:

Nethack

Crawl

IVAN

Dwarf Fortress

ADOM

Angband

Who else enjoys directing around a @ symbol through imaginary mazes?

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Davoid on
«13

Posts

  • Dely AppleDely Apple Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Hey, you're not Moriveth! Moriveth does these. At least, he used to. Now I have no idea where he is. Probably happier than dying in Anuberak or whatever poor dungeon he forced himself into to stall time before Janson arrived. The point is that there is no such thing as Anuberak.

    Dely Apple on
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  • FandyienFandyien But Otto, what about us? Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    i get confused and frustrated by roguelikes

    Fandyien on
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  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Fandyien wrote: »
    i get confused and frustrated by roguelikes

    As the designers intended I'm sure

    Davoid on
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  • RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited December 2008
    i beat dwarf fortress

    Rankenphile on
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  • FandyienFandyien But Otto, what about us? Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Davoid wrote: »
    Fandyien wrote: »
    i get confused and frustrated by roguelikes

    As the designers intended I'm sure

    This one time I totally got like twelve dwarves to dig a hole

    then something straight fucked them up

    Fandyien on
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  • beavotronbeavotron Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    i used to play muds
    those were kinda neat
    text-based adventure time!

    beavotron on
  • sarukunsarukun RIESLING OCEANRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    You are a liar.

    sarukun on
  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I've never played Muds, I should try one sometime

    Davoid on
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  • SilmarilSilmaril Mr Ha Ha Hapless. Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    sarukun wrote: »
    You are a liar.

    No no no.


    The moon really is made of cheese.

    Silmaril on
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  • beavotronbeavotron Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Davoid wrote: »
    I've never played Muds, I should try one sometime

    they were alright
    back when i was a mega nerd, i even went so far as to play a dragonriders of pern muck
    those don't even have objectives
    you're just pretending you're a dragon rider

    actually that one might have been a MUSH
    there were some achievable objectives, and you leveled up but it was a class thing and it was determined by your "weyr leader" whether or not you obtained a level, you had to like role play out these scenarios

    oh jesus
    i hope to god humble does not read this thread.

    beavotron on
  • WrenWren ninja_bird Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Davoid wrote: »
    I've never played Muds, I should try one sometime

    I don't even know what good ones are around anymore that aren't pay to play. because I guess the 200kb a month bandwidth and typing stuff in notepad development costs are just so high.

    I liked the forest's edge and the clones that came after it closed. nothing came close. I mean I played a few others that were good, but I was still left wishing they were TFE. cept the warcraft one which was crazy awesome. little working ascii minimap and ranged attacks that went over several rooms and junk. good stuff

    I even tried being a mapper for one but the head immortal dude was a total dick.

    Wren on
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    TF2 - Wren BF3: Wren-fu
  • sarukunsarukun RIESLING OCEANRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Silmaril wrote: »
    sarukun wrote: »
    You are a liar.

    No no no.


    The moon really is made of cheese.

    Crackin' toast, Grommit!

    sarukun on
  • FandyienFandyien But Otto, what about us? Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    sarukun wrote: »
    Silmaril wrote: »
    sarukun wrote: »
    You are a liar.

    No no no.


    The moon really is made of cheese.

    Crackin' toast, Grommit!

    I was just going to say this

    so now I will just tell you i love you

    Fandyien on
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  • MonkeyfeetMonkeyfeet Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Does anyone know what "agenbite of inwit" means?

    Monkeyfeet on
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  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    beavotron wrote: »
    Davoid wrote: »
    I've never played Muds, I should try one sometime

    they were alright
    back when i was a mega nerd, i even went so far as to play a dragonriders of pern muck
    those don't even have objectives
    you're just pretending you're a dragon rider

    actually that one might have been a MUSH
    there were some achievable objectives, and you leveled up but it was a class thing and it was determined by your "weyr leader" whether or not you obtained a level, you had to like role play out these scenarios

    oh jesus
    i hope to god humble does not read this thread.

    I know I am not as big a nerd because I am looking up some of those terms in an effort to appear relevant.

    Davoid on
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  • SilmarilSilmaril Mr Ha Ha Hapless. Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    sarukun wrote: »
    Silmaril wrote: »
    sarukun wrote: »
    You are a liar.

    No no no.


    The moon really is made of cheese.

    Crackin' toast, Grommit!

    THERE IS A NEW ONE THIS CHRISTMAS!!!

    WALLACE AND GROMMIT IN A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH.

    Silmaril on
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  • QuothQuoth the Raven Miami, FL FOR REALRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    i used to play LoRD

    on a BBS

    god i'm so old

    Quoth on
  • beavotronbeavotron Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    here it is
    this is what i used to do in my free time
    i was really young when i played this, probably 11 or 12, it was one of my first internet adventures

    http://www.pern.org/

    beavotron on
  • LednehLedneh shinesquawk Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Speaking about nethack, to quote whoever originally said this on bash.org I hope whoever invented the mysterious force gets his or her penis caught in a gear :x


    But speaking of text games, who played Federation on AOL before it left AOL and went pay to play

    That shit was the BEST

    Ledneh on
  • RankenphileRankenphile Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited December 2008
    Quoth wrote: »
    i used to play LoRD

    on a BBS

    god i'm so old
    hi5

    LoRD and Drug Wars were the shiiiiit

    Rankenphile on
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  • FalloutFallout GIRL'S DAY WAS PRETTY GOOD WHILE THEY LASTEDRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    HELL YES

    roguelikes fucking own as hard as a thing can own

    Fallout on
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  • beavotronbeavotron Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Quoth wrote: »
    i used to play LoRD

    on a BBS

    god i'm so old
    hi5

    LoRD and Drug Wars were the shiiiiit

    lol i also played drug wars for a bit. on a texas instruments calculator.

    beavotron on
  • SilmarilSilmaril Mr Ha Ha Hapless. Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I think everyone played drug wars.


    Officer Hardass you bastard.

    Silmaril on
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  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I used to play dope wars all the time. My dad showed me it, claiming it would teach me the basics of thinking economically.

    Davoid on
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  • beavotronbeavotron Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Davoid wrote: »
    I used to play dope wars all the time. My dad showed me it, claiming it would teach me the basics of thinking economically.

    was dope wars the one you played online that was based off drug wars?
    i think i tried that too
    but i only really played drug wars because you could play it on a ti-84

    beavotron on
  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    beavotron wrote: »
    Davoid wrote: »
    I used to play dope wars all the time. My dad showed me it, claiming it would teach me the basics of thinking economically.

    was dope wars the one you played online that was based off drug wars?
    i think i tried that too
    but i only really played drug wars because you could play it on a ti-84

    Yea, I remember there was a multi-player aspect to it.

    Someone in my calc class had super mario, some scorched earth type game and tetris on his ti.

    Davoid on
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  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Ragnarok was my first Roguelike. I enjoyed the heck out of that. Still dredge it up every couple of years.
    Castle of the Winds was a nice little wimpy Roguelike.

    Tofystedeth on
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  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I am mostly playing Crawl again recently because it's cram week, and it's good to have some sort of stress relieving game that only takes a few minutes to play between study sessions.

    Davoid on
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  • DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
    edited December 2008
    we used to have all sorts of rad games on our calculators

    Unknown User on
  • LednehLedneh shinesquawk Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    ... fuck, now I really miss Federation :(

    Ledneh on
  • OmegaTofuNinjaOmegaTofuNinja Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I started playing IVAN again thanks to this thread.

    It's kind of really easy to die

    OmegaTofuNinja on
    Facebook Wii: 7912 0299 8667 6601 I tweet sometimes Poetry?!
  • TossrockTossrock too weird to live too rare to dieRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Davoid wrote: »
    beavotron wrote: »
    Davoid wrote: »
    I used to play dope wars all the time. My dad showed me it, claiming it would teach me the basics of thinking economically.

    was dope wars the one you played online that was based off drug wars?
    i think i tried that too
    but i only really played drug wars because you could play it on a ti-84

    Yea, I remember there was a multi-player aspect to it.

    Someone in my calc class had super mario, some scorched earth type game and tetris on his ti.

    I had Tetris

    I wrote a DDR clone

    obviously there was no sound or songs, but arrows would fall from the sky and you had to hit them at the correct time to fill a point bar at the bottom, etc

    Tossrock on
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  • WeretacoWeretaco Cubicle Gangster Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Quoth wrote: »
    i used to play LoRD

    on a BBS

    god i'm so old

    LORD was alright.. but nothing compared to fuckin Usurper

    Also, trade wars.. so many hours

    Weretaco on
    Unofficial PA IRC chat: #paforums at irc.slashnet.org
  • UnreadableHulkUnreadableHulk Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Castle of the Winds was my favorite. I spent far more time playing the shareware demo in 10th grade computer class than I did actually working on projects.

    UnreadableHulk on
  • Synthetic OrangeSynthetic Orange Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Dwarf Fortress is not a Roguelike.

    It is a pain simulator.

    Synthetic Orange on
  • Synthetic OrangeSynthetic Orange Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    In the current unreleased iteration of Dwarf Fortress, the writer has discarded not only hit point systems, but the limb damage systems he previously had.

    Now there's some fucked up body parts system that tracks internal organs, bones, the volume of blood left in the body, body tissue layering, hair growth and even how many teeth you have left and which ones they are.

    Synthetic Orange on
  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I just finished the new Prince of Persia, that was a different kind of pain.

    Blake T on
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    In the current unreleased iteration of Dwarf Fortress, the writer has discarded not only hit point systems, but the limb damage systems he previously had.

    Now there's some fucked up body parts system that tracks internal organs, bones, the volume of blood left in the body, body tissue layering, hair growth and even how many teeth you have left and which ones they are.

    how much weed did he smoke to think that was a good idea

    PiptheFair on
  • DavoidDavoid Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    In the current unreleased iteration of Dwarf Fortress, the writer has discarded not only hit point systems, but the limb damage systems he previously had.

    Now there's some fucked up body parts system that tracks internal organs, bones, the volume of blood left in the body, body tissue layering, hair growth and even how many teeth you have left and which ones they are.

    how much weed did he smoke to think that was a good idea

    I was totally ready to believe this was a joke, until I read the developments page on the site.

    Davoid on
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  • JarofmoldymayoJarofmoldymayo __BANNED USERS regular
    edited December 2008
    My favorite rogue like is the doom rogue like cause I can get past the third fucking level.

    Jarofmoldymayo on
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