I've started playing nethack....

[Skanky Burns]

I've tried playing this a few times, but haven't really done too well. I starve or get killed very quickly, from memory.

[snoopy369]

Buy rations of food

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by nostromo
You sense the presence of monsters!!!

I was trying to get a screenshot of such, but i was too lazy to move around until i could get that quote

[Sparrowhawk]

Help me out, I remember getting surrounded by letters (each letter representing a monster, small and CAPITAL different types) and using the keypad to attack. You mapped out the area as you moved around and showed more of the room(s).

And as I type this, Moria and Rogue were both this type of game correct??

/me

[snoopy369]

Yes. Rogue was the "original" (not the actual original, iirc, but the most famous original) and Moria essentially a superfamous variant.

And yes, you got surrounded by letters and then moved to attack them. Control set varied, though.

[General Ludd]

Crap, I think I've found a new addiction. This game would be perfect for my crappy laptop that can't run anything more advanced than the original railroad tycoon. (which is what previously been wasting my time with)

I have such poor will power.

[Jamski]

Nethack Everyone loves it.

I reccommend you play with the valkyrie class to start with, and expect to fail to complete the game 999 times out of 1000.

[snoopy369]

You can complete Nethack? In a reasonable amount of time?

Moria was like 50+ hours of gameplay, and Angband I presume is 150+ ... assuming you don't die and have to start all over ...

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by snoopy369


Technically you can't. Rogeulikes have no persistent save - ie, if you die in the game, your character is dead, start over again.

That said, it's possible to duplicate the save that it makes when you exit the game (ie, copy/paste) and 'reload' from that. That's sort of considered cheating, by hardcore players, but most people do it, i'd guess.

most people?

tell me that isn't true...

I haven't done it once (even when it was something stupid that killed me, like me not realising I was being attacked) nor been tempted to

JM

[Jon Miller]

There are two main types, the nethack and variants, and the rogue and variants (although all are called roguelike)

nethack is a lot more about exploring and having weird effects happen to you, if you read a spoiler you are really taking away the fun of the game

rogue (and variants, my most recent favorite (from 2 years ago?) was Zangband) is more of a diabloesk dungeon crawl

JM
(played lots of Angband and Moria also, not as much Nethack)

[Urban Ranger]

Some other interesting rogue-like games to try:

Omega (the best, IMO)
adom

[snoopy369]

Wow, I never realized how different nethack is from angband...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Rogue was the "original" (not the actual original, iirc, but the most famous original) and Moria essentially a superfamous variant

You sure? I remember rogue being the first ASCII character based random dungeon crawl game.

[snoopy369]

It may actualy be the original... i assumed there was something before it, perhaps just a small game or something. But certainly Rogue is the first game anyone remembers, one way or the other

[General Ludd]

I started with angband but it is too dungeon crawly for me. I'm trying nethack and am enjoying it alot more - it's much more adventerous.

The first game I played I started with a ring of polymorph. I tried opening a door and it resisted - this struggle with the door apparently triggered the ring and I turned into a monster, so I kicked the door down and brutalized a newt. Shortly after the polymorph wore off, however, I suddenly died of "system shock" without warning. Was that related to the polymorph?

Oh, and how do you intereract with fountains?