ASCII

So, yeah, here at PTT! we tend to be game design snobs and think about games from a design rather than implementation perspective (I spit on your novel and original visual effects! pfaugh! brainless eye-candy!). Yet occasionally, you run into something and say: Sweet! What a cool technical hack.

Asciiroth is, you know, a conventional Rogue-like, and while not a bad one, not the best either. BUT... It's developed using the Google Web Toolkit, which basically allows you to write in Java and compile it to Javascript, so it'll run in the browser without requiring the user to install desktop Java -- and then uses Adobe Air, which can take an AJAX application and turn it into a downloadable desktop app.

So you wind up with a Rogue-like that uses a host of AJAX-y features, like popups when you position the mouse over something on the screen that tells you what it is, the ability to use the mouse instead of directional keys for movement (should you so wish), etc.

Drawbacks? Yeah, some; the web version doesn't allow saved games, unless you install Google Gears (JavaScript can't normally save anything to your hard drive, and a good thing too, btw). And because the code is big (for JavaScript), and IE runs JavaScript absurdly slowly, it won't perform adequately except in Firefox.

And of course if you want to play the downloadable version, you have to install Adobe Air, which kind of sucks because you may very well never use it again for anything in your life (unless I'm totally wrong about how useful and universal it will wind up being, which I could be). On the other hand, Air is a cross-platform technology, so it'll run under Windows, OS X, and Linux as well.

As for the game? Pleasant enough Rogue-like, too many Sokoban-style puzzles and not enough good old monster-bashing for my taste, but then, that's my taste, which may not be yours.

Dwarf Fortress is an amazing game. I mean "amazing" at the level of Sim City and Civilization, as amazing to encounter today as they were when first released. I'm not sure I can offer higher praise.

And yet--it is also frustratingly difficult to get into, and utterly obtuse in terms of its UI.

Dwarf Fortress is a game from an alternate universe. Clearly, no one in his right mind would have created it in our own. I deduce this from its main characteristics, and I think can very clearly describe the alternative universe it came from--let us call it "Earth B."

Hundred Years' War is a game involving dozens of players, played out over a period of months, in which each player represents a nobleman of France, England, or one of the surrounding countries--except for the four who represent the Kings of England and France, the Black Prince, and the Dauphin, and to whom most of the rest of the players report. There are two complementary sides to the game--the economic game, which you can play with occasional updates to your fiefs' orders every few days, passing on money and troops to your liege; and the military game, which is played out in realtime, with players on one side messaging each other to coordinate the movement of armies across France and England.

There's nothing like this anywhere. BUT. This is basically a pure-text game, and one that requires a serious commitment to play.

Only two games have been on the hard drive of every computer I have owned since I first encountered them: Civilization, and NetHack.

Technically, NetHack is a "Rogue-like game," Rogue being the first game of this type, originally implemented for academic minicomputers before there was such a thing as a home computer. Rogue-likes are D&D-ish dungeon crawls, with randomly generated dungeon levels, and wide variety in terms of monsters, weapons, armor, spells, and magic items. Rogue wasn't a bad game--but there's nothing like NetHack.