Strafe Left: Catacombs of Zascii

Amidst the many roguelike comics out there, Strafe Left has just republished the best ASCII sight gags ever. Giggle to yourself contentedly here.

Thanks, Rock Paper Shotgun. You can make love to my undead tadpoles anytime.

ASCII Dreams Jumps the Shark

I can has resisted the LOLCats meme up until now. But this is impossible to resist. Fnargh!

Temple of the Bamlike

Temple of the Roguelike, who in a previous statement of brotherly love referred to Ascii Dreams as 'our sister site', has changed it's name. This follows revelations on gamesquarter and publicised by TIGSource that there is a roguelike that pre-dates Rogue: Beneath Apple Manor.

While I applaud Slash's integrity in making this decision, I feel that he's premature in assigning Beneath Apple Manor primacy in inspiring the genre of games we develop.

Henceforth, Ascii Dreams will be renamed Blocky Dreams, and will be found at ponglikedeveloper.blogspot.com. Blocky Dreams will be centred on discussion of the ponglike genre, and the critical relevance of ponglikes to the games community at large.

In other news, development of JADE, Thomas Biskup's follow-up to ADOM has begun. You can read his development blog for further details.

How to make the DVD drive on a Intel MacBook DVD region free

I've finally found the Achilles heal of using an Intel Apple MacBook. Note that I never noticed this with my Intel Apple MacBook Pro, but we had a region free DVD player in the house which cost approximately £20. No more however.

I've just emigrated from Europe, which is Region 2, to Australia, which is Region 4. I do a lot of DVD purchases via the States using Amazon: the States is Region 1.

Apple lets me change the region code on the DVD player 4 times. That's 4 times total. So for example, I can watch one region 1 DVD player, then one region 2, then one region 4, then another region 1. And then no more DVDs on this machine ever, except for whichever region I end up selecting last. That means approximately 2/3rds of my DVD collection will be unavailable to me.

Now, the savvy amongst you will suggest using a region free software DVD player like VLC. Unfortunately, on the Intel Macs this doesn't work. The Matshita DVD player itself compares the DVD region of the disc to the DVD region held in the firmware, and prevents any access to the disc if the regions differ. This means any access, including at a data layer - you just end up with read/write errors using any of the suggested workarounds you may have found on various Mac forums.

The only option is to download a hacked firmware downgrade that changes the DVD player from an RPC-2 player to an RPC-1 player. This of course immediately means the hardware is unsupported - and you risk the OS/X software updater overwriting the downgraded firmware, potentially cause system instability, brick the DVD drive etc.

Here's how you do it:

1. Download the DVD info utility from MacUpdate here.
2. Run DVD info. You'll get output of the form shown at the end of the article.
   
3. Check this thread and this thread on RPC1.org to see if you've lucked out, and a hacked firmware is available for your particular make and model of DVD player.
   
4. If it is, download the firmware and install it.
5. If it isn't, you need to follow a slightly different process. This only works if you have DVDs of 4 or less regions.
6. Take all the DVDs of your current drive firmware and rip them using Handbrake, DVD Backup or another DVD ripping software. You'll probably want to DivX or Xvid encode them to reduce disk utilisation.
7. Locally back them up to your Buffalo TeraServer.
8. Remotely back them up to isohunt.com using Vuze or another bittorrent client. By doing this you ensure the files are available later - effectively an offsite disaster recovery solution.
9. Repeat steps 6-8 for the remaining three regions worth of DVDs that you have.
   
10. File a suit with the World Trade Organisation against Matshita, Apple, the DVD Forum and other suitable bodies for violating the WTO agreement against region based restraint of trade. The Australian and New Zealand governments may support you, as may Antigua.
    

Thanks for your patience. This is a public community service announcement. Please note that I strongly support copyright and believe a 14 year copyright term should be the maximum provided for in law. Please ensure before proceeding with any actions outlined here that you are covered by the fair use conventions of your relevant jurisdiction and you are not circumventing a copyright protection mechanism.

DVD Info X v1.0.2, by xvi (xvi@rpc1.org)

WARNING --- DVD Info X will only list DVD drives that have some WRITE
capabilities, like combos, DVD-R, DVD-RW, etc...
DVD-ROM-only drives will NOT be listed.
WARNING --- You also must eject any inserted medium to list the drive.

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: CD-RW CW-8221
Firmware: GA0J
RPC-2 (region locked)
State is SET
4 vendor resets left
4 region changes left
Region 2

An Analysis of Shopping In Angband - Post-Script

In a brief followup to my earlier analysis of shopping in Angband, I've found a source of inspiration for the Unangband money game here in an article about Freshly Picked: Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland. From the article:

In most adventure games the cost of items is clearly established. Need to buy a shield? Some armor? A golden chicken? A village merchant or town elder tells you what you must give to get what they’ve got. In “Tingle” the non-player characters will rip you off. Want a 10-ingredient pot in “Tingle”? Don’t know how much it costs, because the lady cook won’t tell you? Well, make an offer. In a miserable twist to classic bartering, most of the game’s character to whom you make a lowball offer will pocket the money you offer them. And then they will start negotiations over from scratch. So when I found a character who promised a great secret if only I could pay him “four figures,” I made a mental note (only possessing three figures of rupees at the time). I came back to him later in the game when I had about 3000, offered him 1000 , got laughed at and left with just 2000. Did anyone else know that Nintendo published games this mean?

There's more money game goodness if you read the rest.

Co-op Portal - Part Two (Help Wanted)

I've come up with a complete design for a Co-op Portal level (see part one for some of the initial thinking around this). Now I need help.

If you're a Half-Life 2 mapper, I'd like to hear from you. Co-op Portal will be a single map consisting of 7 rooms. It will be be built on the existing Half-Life 2 Death match engine using only existing design elements from Portal (plus rocket launchers, which I've found a better use for). I'm quite happy to work on the scripting side, but I have no experience with Hammer.

It's important that you realise that Co-op Portal does not and will not be using the Portal gun.

If I don't hear from anyone, I'll start working on this myself, but obviously it'll take a lot longer.

Also I'd like to spruce up the design document before presenting it, by including the various visual elements. Does anyone have a good recommendation for design software (preferrably freeware) that could be used to get the same visual look as the Portal in-game artwork? I'd prefer to use isometric projection if possible. And does someone have the Weighted Companion Cube in a Visio template form?

[Edit: Looks like you can't put up help wanted on the Valve Developer Community without a mod, and they recommend you don't create your mod page until you have screen shots. Hmm... a little Catch-22. Besides which Portal is probably a registered trademark. Let's call the mod Lab Rats from now on].

Leave Neal Stephenson Alone!

I mean, look at what he's done for you. Saying he's a pastiche of Thomas Pynchon and pointing out he likes to finish stories abruptly is like comparing Christopher Marlowe to Shakespeare and, besides, you know, he should have learned to knife fight.

Sure, you loved him when he came out with Snow Crash, and put him up on a geek-culture pedestal, but now you're just using him. I don't know whether it was the fact the Cryptonomicon was too much like Gravity's Rainbow, or the Baroque cycle meant you had to learn all these new words and brush up on your 18th century history of geekdom. Or maybe you discovered Iain M. Banks and Alistair Reynolds, and have ended up in the post-singularity cyberthulhu chick-lit that is Charles Stross. Sure, you bag on Iain M. Banks too: for not writing enough Culture novels - but you just say each book wasn't as good as the previous one, or that he's just ripping off Orion's Arm - and Alistair Reynolds is, you know, rewriting the same great novel again and again and again. But nothing feels as good as kicking the big guy. Heck, you might just go deface his pretentious art house wiki again.

So leave Neal Stephenson alone!

(To be read while crying on Youtube, preferably in front of a sheet)

Recommended reading:

Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash
Cryptonomicon
The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World

Thomas Pynchon
Gravity's Rainbow

Charles Stross
The Atrocity Archives
The Jennifer Morgue
Halting State
A Colder War (free to read online)

Alistair Reynolds
Revelation Space
Redemption Ark
Absolution Gap
The Prefect

Iain M. Banks
Consider Phlebas
Use of Weapons
Inversions

(This is just a selection of the above authors work. My apologies for any hurt that may have been involved in writing this review.)

An open letter to Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Hi,

I've been deeply worried by a lack of Concerned references on your blog. I mean, we're both clearly in love with Half-Life, you and I, and yet you haven't mentioned http://www.hlcomic.com/archive/ at all.

Why?

Is it because it's another Internet meme that has been around for a while? (Wait, you just did 'Half-Life and Half-Life 2 in sixty seconds'...)

Is it because the only people who'll be laughing at it afresh are our poor console brothers who've only just been exposed to the thought-virus that is Orange Box?

Or is it because the death of Frohman is still, after all of these years, painfully fresh and you don't want to re-open the wounds?

Add some dangle to your angle.

Yours,

Another Concerned citizen

Co-op Portal

It seems that we are never likely to get a multi-player version of Portal - or at least one with the Portal gun. I'm suggesting instead a multi-player game with Portal's sensibilities: think of it as a cross between Sven Co-op, Cube (the movie) and Paranoia.

Here's some design suggestions:

Room 1: A button, a door triggered open by the button, and an exit on the other side.

Solution: Straightforward. One person has to stay behind. The trick is persuading which volunteer to do so.

Room 2: A button, a door triggered open by the button, and an exit on the other side. A pile of pistols.

Solution: As per room 1. Alternately, you can kill whomever elects to stand on the button first. This solution is a little non-obvious - in the Source engine you cannot pick up or move bodies.

Room 3: A button, a corridor with two doors both trigged open by the button, and the exit on the other side of the second door. A timer button on a pedestal in the first room triggers a turret in the corridor which kills any one who has crossed through the first door and hasn't made it to the second door.

Solution: Again, as per room 1. The 'dumb sap' sitting on the button can get off at any point, trapping people between the two doors though. He can then wander over and activate the pedestal button and kill them at his leisure. Alternately, any one else can spam the corridor with turret fire. So, who do you trust?

Room 4: A button, a door triggered open by the button, and an exit on the other side. There's a weighted companion cube next to the exit. There's a rack of rocket launchers next to the cube.

Solution: Straightforward. One person has to stay behind. The trick is persuading which volunteer to do so. Usually you can do this by saying 'I'll bring the cube back for you' and then skipping by it, whistling, as you run out the exit. The rocket launchers are for killing anyone who is dumb enough to try to take the companion cube back.

Room 5: An impassable pit of water with a platform that moves backwards and forwards to allow you to cross it. The platform is stationary on your side. A button on your side moves the platform to the other side. A button on the other side moves it back.

Solution: Different tools. Same game.

Any other suggestions? I'm sure there are elements of the game that can be built up to set up Prisoner's Dilemma type solutions, which are a little more subtle than this straightforward killing off process I've outlined. I also like the idea of having a limited number of lives (Clones in Paranoia parlance) which you can come back as and take your revenge with.

[Edit: I've come up with a complete design. Now I need help. See part two for details.]

Conducts

A few people commented on the wip7b change release notes, that I appear to be moving towards Nethack in the kinds of features that I am implementing. That preempted an announcement I was planning to make, which is the Unangband conduct system. I'll be implementing the following conducts in the next version of Unangband:

• Fly - The only food or drink you may eat must be produced by you vomiting on corpses.
• Basejumper - As per ironman, but you must jump in all chasms you can find. Note that this includes the roofs of all towers.
• Prince Charming - Start with 100 social class. You may not use the wield or take-off commands.
• Itchy - You may only kill cats.
• Lepidopterist - You may only kill monsters by using alcohol
• "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" - Start as a non-specialist warrior. Only use a thrown knife or unarmed combat to kill monsters. The only magical devices (rods, staffs, wands) you may use must be from a Six Demon bag.

Note that with the exception of "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?", these are not mutually exclusive, and should all be achievable with a winning character.

Any other suggestions?

The Magical Bag dialogs - part IV

Please start with part one, then part two, part three and before those, unless you've read them, the Mushroom Dialogs.

=== A Malicious Scandal Sheet ===

Rumour has it that the so-called 'wizards of the magical
bage company' are a front for a foreign outfit called
variously Valve or Appeture Science or some other such
nonsense. While their product seems good, I had a close
shave with an apparition who only called himself the G-man
after endeavouring to put my head through the entrance of
one of these bags. I therefore recommend that you keep
limbs, heads, and other body parts well clear until I can
investigate further.

I am using some of Mr. Maggots slimming and digestive
mushrooms to lose the additional pounds required to fit
myself through one of these Portals. While the effects
are unpleasant and similar to those potions of Salt
Water, but from both ends, I am sure that I'll be able
to make it through in a few days. Wish me luck.

- M.B.

PS: Is there any credence to the 'Please report any crashes
with magical bags' notes I keep finding?

The Magical Bag dialogs - part III

Please start with part one, then part two, or if you haven't read them, the Mushroom Dialogs.

=== A Manufacturer's Warranty ===

(You noticed this sewn in the lining of a magical bag)

This olde and veritably useful bag is one of the wonders of
our moderne age. It is guaranteed to never be damaged or
stainede by the impediments or age or deleterious effectes
and its contents are likewise protected from maleovolent
entities which would draine magik or damage your valuables.

Do not fret if you shoulde lose this bag, as you will
discovere a truely wondrous thinge. Should you find
another bage of the same nature, the contents of the two
bags are twinned and identycal - what you put in one, you
shalle take from the other. This is due to the miraculous
propertyes of the 'publyk keye dna quantum entanglemynt
pocket dymensional appetures' that the fabryk of the bagge
is woven from and a patent is pending on this and other
magiks.

- The wizards of the magical bage company.

The Magical Bag dialogs - part II

Please start with part one, or if you haven't read them, the Mushroom Dialogs.

=== A Quick Post-script ===

(Oops. You just read the other side of that crumpled note).

PS:

You can use a scroll or spell of Test Magic to work out which
type of bag holds an item. For instance, if you test magic
on a scroll of Read Magic, you'll see that it belongs to a bag
of Scrying.

Similarly, a bag will swallow items that you may not have
identified yet. This can clue you in to the nature of the
item. You'll also notice that these items always end up in
the same pockets, something your ancestors may have recorded
for posterity.

The Magical Bag dialogs - part I

This is a follow-up to the Mushroom Dialogs, posted earlier. I've received feedback that magical bags are a little hard to understand. I've also been researching why people are too busy to play Unangband. The two got a little intermingled...

=== A Crumpled up Note ===

Ah, so you've found a magical bag. These are one of the most
useful objects you can have in a dungeon, because they let you
carry virtually an unlimited amount of items in them, without
getting any heavier than they already are.

Each magical bag has twenty pockets or so, and each pocket is
designed for one kind of item. So you might find magical
bags for various kinds of wands, or useful supplies, or scrolls
and so on. The bag will automatically swallow any such items
that you have in your inventory or which you pick up.

To see what you have in a bag, just inspect or examine it, just
as you would any other item. And to use the contents of a bag,
just select the bag when you would any other item.

Good luck with your new find,

G.

Why every programmer should play Unangband

While messing around and failing to get the last story dugg, I've found a great article on why every programmer should play Nethack. And while we're at it: Rogue-likes, the Nerdiest of All.

The Mushroom Dialogs - Part IV

Please start with part one then read parts two and three.

=== A Short Cut to Mushrooms ===

To whom it may concern,

Farmer Maggot, or as he styles himself, Mr Maggot Esq, is
a pompous and boring old fool who needs to be put out of his
misery. His misinformation campaign about the safe and deadly
properties of mushrooms hereabouts has cost more than one
adventurer their life, and don't have any regrets about re-
turning the favour to Mr Maggot in kind.

So here's the skinny: as you've no doubt discovered, many
mushrooms appear in patches which need to be subdued first
before you are able to harvest the mushrooms in turn. These
newer breeds appear to be able to launch the spores at a
distance - I'm not sure that this was the best idea to breed
them that way, but it seems to have increased the virility of
the patches themselves, so that you can almost always harvest
a mushroom or two, and usually a good collection of spores
as well.

The spores, you can throw in turn, and they explode just
like potions, but with an effect similar to the original
mushroom patch. You can keep these spores in your quiver,
which hopefully you've learnt how to use elsewhere, and its
a great idea to keep a few of these around, particularly for
those pesky faeries which are otherwise so hard to kill.

The mushrooms themselves can be used in a variety of ways:
you can eat them, but they're usually poisonous, or at least
the ones dropped by most mushroom patches are. This means
the best bet with harmful mushrooms is to apply them to
an edged weapon, arrow or bolt, and use them against the
enemy. Mushroom coatings are 'nerve agents' which mean that
they only affect living monsters, but otherwise they are
similar to potions in how they work.

You can throw mushrooms, but only an enemy stupid enough
to pick them up and eat them will be affected, and many
insects have built up a resistance to ingesting them.

As for the 'changing colour every season' nonsense, this
only appears to happen for mushrooms that don't grow big
enough to be threatening in patches. If you find a mushroom
patch, and you can harvest mushrooms from it, you'll see
these are the same colour every season from now until we
all travel to the West. You can use this as a good guide to
what not to eat, at least when you start out.

There are useful mushrooms around, and most of the harmful
ones are dropped from patches, so once you've learnt about
mushroom patches, you can experiment with a little more
confidence.

- M.B.

You'll probably want to read the Magical Bag dialogs next.

The Mushroom Dialogs - Part III

Please start with part one then read part two.

=== An Authoratative Guide to Mushrooms - Postscript ===

For the would-be adventurous types, who would endeavour to visit
my farm uninvited, trespass in my cellars and steal Mrs Maggot's
best pies, please note that I have secured an additional guard
dog to accompany Grip and Fang on their wide-ranging, ravenous
and otherwise unwelcoming run of my property.

I've not yet thought of a suitable name for him. My initial
thoughts were Tinkerbell, but he seems a little more feral than
the others and perhaps something closer to his beastial nature
is appropriate.

I am also offering a reward for the capture, injury or otherwise
hindrance of one M.B. and his accomplice P.T. who seem to have
taken a liking to my mushrooms out of proportion to the regards
of their own physical wellbeing and safety.

- Mr Maggot Esq.

The Mushroom Dialogs - Part II

Please start with part one. I've removed the ASCII art accompanying this. You can find the original here.

=== An Authoratative Guide to Mushrooms - Part II ===

=== The White Mushroom ===

Pictured here, the White Mushroom can be
found in chilly caves and cellars in the
Hobbiton region. While I cultivate some
of these for professional reasons in my
Nearby farm, you should not attempt to
trespass as this is one of the many
dangerous varieties of mushroom I keep
in my cellars.
The White Mushroom is also known as
Agaricus refrigeratus due to the chilling
effect that its spores has. I am
investigating the use of this mushroom
for the preservation of food, in particular
Mrs Maggot's best pie dinners.

You can find out about more mushrooms by purchasing my authorative
and illustrated guide (in colour) which will soon be available from
my publishing agents at a very reasonable price.

- Mr Maggot Esq.

The Mushroom Dialogs - Part I

I'm in the proces of writing in-game tips for Unangband. Here's one sequence of these tips. Currently and former Angband players may find this amusing as well.

=== An Authoratative Guide to Mushrooms ===

Mushrooms come in a variety of colours and flavours, which can
change with every season. Your only reliable guide to mushrooms
is Farmer Maggot's Mushroom Emporium, where you can find the
latest and most fashionable mushroom flavours at affordable
prices. Do not eat mushrooms you find in the wild.

A forthcoming illustrated guide in colour will also be available
from my publishing agents in due course.

- Mr Maggot Esq.

You find a scroll of Genocide titled "Pol Pot"

Amidst the news that Brian Eno is producing procedural music for Spore, I find myself a little worried.

When are we going to get our first procedural equivalent to the hot coffee mod? All it will take is a randomly generated in-game nipple or instrument which sounds like one of six banned words, and one offended parent, teenager (or younger) to record it.

How is the ESRB supposed to review content that hasn't been generated yet, and potentially may never be?

The title, for this article, by the way, comes from a mis-remembered discussion about inappropriate scroll titles. I thought this had been actually generated in game in Angband, but it appears that it wasn't.