Nethack...

[Darklord]

I know a lot of you old time gamers remember Nethack and all of its various clones
and offshoots.

Well, we've got a version running on The DarkForce BBS now, and it's pretty cool (and
very detailed!).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(1983_video_game)

https://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-st/moria

Here are some screenshots of it actually running on the BBS:

Capture01.JPG

Capture02.JPG

Capture03.JPG

Capture04.JPG

Testing it at the moment but it seems pretty solid so far...

[Smonson]

Oh man, I remember playing vanilla Nethack on the ST back in the day. Ran a little slow, but it was great!

[Darklord]

Yeah, I loved all the variations.

I had Rogue on the ST (actual graphics!), a version I played on my 'Nix boxes,
the ST version and the Falcon version.

Cool stuff.

Moria is incredible detailed (like most versions were). I'm looking forward to
exploring it.

Now where's that Balrog!? :)

[Darklord]

Well....I guess I spoke too soon.

The game refuses to load any saved file but that of the last
person who called/played. I've been through the docs and
can't find anything about this.

I didn't catch it because I only played my character. When
someone else tried it, it loaded up *my* character.

I'll have to think this over but for now, it's a no-go. :(

[Aeberbach]

Moria's a brutal game! I still like Nethack but it has blown out into a many hour proposition if you're going to try and win it. I like an older version that came out on Fred Fish disk 65, it was descended from the original Hack but included only around 30 levels. Winnable. It's not unlike Epyx Rogue but I think Rogue was completely random - you could meet very dangerous monsters right away, Hack at least gave you a chance to level up.

[AndreaM]

Nethack in its various versions came close to eating my life a couple of times, never tried Moria but did play its offshoot Angband on occasion. Rogue-likes can be massively addictive, and now I've been reminded of them... oops. :lol:

[derkom]

When someone else tried it, it loaded up *my* character.

I'll have to think this over but for now, it's a no-go. :(

I don't know anything about your BBS software, but how are its script capabilities? Maybe a possibility to run a login script on every user login to swap in their savefile? Or perhaps do that as part of a batch file that starts up the game?

[Darklord]

I don't know anything about your BBS software, but how are its script capabilities? Maybe a possibility to run a login script on every user login to swap in their savefile? Or perhaps do that as part of a batch file that starts up the game?

BBS Express! ST has good scripting abilities. It's somewhere between BASIC and Pascal, according to the docs. Just feels
like BASIC to me. :)

Point is, DarkForce wouldn't be where it is without it. The scripting language gives the SysOp the ability to adapt things
to their hearts whim and do things otherwise not available to the base package.

I'm already using a startup script to launch Moria. I had already been bouncing the idea around that you brought up. I
will have to figure out where/how it's saving, if there's more than 1 save file, etc, and then see if I can come up with
a solution.

Thanks! :)

[Darklord]

Okay, still testing but I think I've got it.

I adjusted the startup script and it seems to be working so far. We'll see. :)

If anyone is interested, this is what I did (remember, BBS Express! ST is somewhere between BASIC and Pascal, according to the manual, and I
am a mediocre programmer at best):

Code: Select all

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCRIPT
CLEAR SCREEN
NO ABORT

define user_selection        ;First Segment
define cd ;
DEFINE Local_remote = '&29'
DEFINE DELAY
DEFINE USER_NUM
USER_NUM = &31
INTEGER RC

RC = FILE_DELETE 'C:\BBS\MORIA\MO0000.SAV'

TOP:                         ; Second Segment
clear screen

PRINTE
printe
printe 'Welcome To MORIA ST' CENTER
PRINTE
printe 'For BBS Express! ST' CENTER
printe
PRINTE
printe '( \g1\b ) Enter Moria - A New Game' CENTER
PRINTE '( \g2\b ) Enter Moria - Saved Game' CENTER
printe '( \g3\b ) View Adventurers Scores ' CENTER
PRINTE '( \g4\b ) Ancient Scrolls Of Moria' CENTER
printe
printe '( \rX\b ) Return To The Games Menu' CENTER
printe
PRINTE

Retry:
print 'Please Enter Your Selection: ' CENTER
input user_selection 5 noreturn

If user_selection = '1' then
cd = file_chgdir 'c:\BBS\MORIA\';
RC = FILE_DELETE 'C:\BBS\MORIA\MO0000.SAV'
CLEAR SCREEN
tos 'c:\BBS\moria\x_way.tos' ;
TTP 'c:\BBS\moria\moria.ttp' ;

EF USER_SELECTION = '2' THEN
CD = FILE_CHGDIR 'C:\BBS\MORIA\' ;
RC = FILE_DELETE 'C:\BBS\MORIA\MO0000.SAV'
RC = FILE_COPY 'C:\BBS\MORIA\SAVE\[USER_NUM].SAV', 'C:\BBS\MORIA\MO0000.SAV'
CLEAR SCREEN
tos 'c:\BBS\moria\x_way.tos';
TTP 'c:\BBS\moria\moria.ttp' ;

EF user_selection = '3' then ;   
CLEAR SCREEN
VIEW 'C:\BBS\MORIA\SCORE.TXT' SHOWALL PAGEBRK ;

EF USER_SELECTION = '4' THEN ;
CLEAR SCREEN
VIEW 'C:\BBS\MORIA\MORIA1.TXT' SHOWALL PAGEBRK ;

ef user_selection = 'X' then
RC = FILE_COPY 'C:\BBS\MORIA\MO0000.SAV', 'C:\BBS\MORIA\SAVE\[USER_NUM].SAV'

CLEAR SCREEN
PRINTE \N\N\N\N\N
printe 'Thank You For Exploring Moria' CENTER
PRINTE
PRINTE
PRINTE 'See You Next Time &1!' CENTER
PRINTE
FOR DELAY = 1 TO 2000
ENDFOR
GOTO EOF
else
goto RETRY
endif

printe
printe 'Press <\gReturn\b> To Continue..' CENTER
input user_selection 1
goto top

EOF:
CLOSE
DEFAULT_PATH
EXECUTE ('C:\BBS\MENUS_80\GAMES.COM')
EXIT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[rubber_jonnie]

Oooh, haven't visited in a while, need to login again soon.