Messages

1

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Cavern

« on: August 08, 2015, 05:20:01 PM »

Just in case anyone hasn't seen it, I can highly recommend the "Cavern" roguelike on iOS, for anyone looking for portable roguelikes

http://www.cavern2.com/

Since I discovered it I've been playing it at every opportunity in work, and quite a lot at home too, it's that good (in my opinion). I think the biggest draw for me is having a town that you can teleport back to where you can sell your unwanted stuff and upgrade your gear, along with the Diablo-esque generated items that you come across.

I emailed the author with some feature requests for the next version (there is another version on the way), so hopefully some of those might be incorporated. Unforunately the next version will rqeuire iOS 7, which is too new for my iPod Touch 4, but I'm seriously considering upgrading to iPod Touch 5 just so I can play the next version, which seems will be even better.

I also asked the author if an Android version was in the works (I have a much newer Android device), but it seems like that is on hold, for now at least, but that it could be possible in the future.

But yes, an excellent portable Roguelike in my opinion, certainly the best one I've come across so far.

2

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: November 17, 2014, 07:10:34 PM »

Never mind, x200s with 4GB RAM ordered 

3

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: November 16, 2014, 09:26:10 AM »

I've come back to this, and I'm now looking at getting the Lenovo x200 or x200s (with 4GB RAM), both of which have 1280 x 800 screen resolution. Presumably that would be enough for displaying most Roguelikes?

Which would just leave the num pad issue. But then I'm sure I could redefine the keys, and if not then I could use a function key to change the arrow keys to diagonal movement, which I actually think could work quite well once I was used to it.

4

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Deep Roguelikes on iOS and Android?

« on: October 24, 2013, 05:24:15 AM »

Yeah, BrogueX doesn't work well on an Android phone, because it hasn't been designed with the small screen in mind. It displays everything at once (map and character, messages etc), so if you pinch and zoom into the character, then you can't see the messages. Shame, because it looks like a good game. Might be time to buy a laptop.

5

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Deep Roguelikes on iOS and Android?

« on: October 21, 2013, 05:50:38 AM »

Thank, Brogue bought and downloaded now.

And actually, I've found that many Roguelikes work pretty well on phones. The keys can quite easily be replaced by a menu, and the menu can pop up when you tap the character. And movement and attacking can be done by tapping in that direction. Admittedly an iPad would be better suited because of the larger screen, but I don't really want one of those. I may be picking up a super cheap refurbished old laptop though at some point, so I can play all the Windows Roguelikes, and with a keyboard. But until then it's iPod or Android.

6

Classic Roguelikes / Deep Roguelikes on iOS and Android?

« on: October 20, 2013, 02:02:49 PM »

I've seen lists online of some of the more popular Roguelikes for iPhone (I have an iPod Touch 4G) and Android (I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2). But most of them (particularly the iOS ones) seem to be very simple and basic i.e. you kill monsters, pick up stuff, and so on. I've played a few of the more shallow ones, and I end up getting bored and playing something else instead. So does anyone know of any Roguelikes on iOS or Android which have a bit more depth to them?

So far I've looked at these links:

iOS - http://www.cultofmac.com/221748/the-best-roguelike-games-on-mac-ios-feature/
Android - http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Android/Top+10+Android+charts/feature.asp?c=48025

Brogue apparently has "deep environment effects", which I like, but that's iPad only I think. "Sword of Fargoal" apparently has an "excellent contextual action system" e.g. items like shields degrade over time (I would like degrading weapons, because it would keep things fresh having to keep finding new ones), but the game itself sounds fairly shallow. I could also be interested in quests (like ADOM apparently has). And I could also be interested in other genres. I'm loving the look of Rogue Survivor at the moment because I love the zombie apocalypse genre, but that's only PC, and I'm guessing will stay that way. So to sum up, I'm interested in:

Depth
Environmental effects
Contextual actions
Quests
Other genres

Also, does anyone know how things are going on the portable Roguelike front? Are people still making new ones?

7

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 19, 2013, 09:26:12 AM »

Yeah I think you're right, I could agonise over this forever. And it's only so I have a nice little portable machine for Roguelikes, so it's not a big deal really. And I'm sure DF will run with smaller worlds at least.

Thanks for the advice everyone! 

8

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 18, 2013, 09:55:46 PM »

What I was getting at it that the reviewer believes that the D430 will run GTA Vice City, which although it is old game now, it's still a fully-fledged 3D graphical game with large maps etc. So if it can run the likes of that, then surely it should be able to comfortably run all Roguelikes, including Dwarf Fortress (which sounds like it is the most demanding)? I mean, can any Roguelike really be more demanding on the processor/memory/graphics card than GTA VC?

9

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 17, 2013, 08:35:07 PM »

I've been looking at the laptops in my link, in particular the graphics cards, what with processor, memory etc all being similar, and all but one have Intel GMA 900 integrated graphics, which is what you would expect for machines that are meant for business use. Incidentally the one that does have dedicated graphics is the D810, which has a dedicated ATI RADEON X600 128MB chip, and by all accounts can run some great games on really good settings. But the sacrifice is made by the fact that it's much bigger and heavier. Anyway, the poor graphics on the other ones is demonstrated by the performance graphs at this link:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Dell-Latitude-D430_Laptop_review_performance-graphs_Page-5

But what's confusing is this link where the D430 is reviewed, where it says the following:

"With a score of 348, it is obvious that the D430 will not be playing the latest games. Sure, it will play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Final Fantasy VII & VIII, the original Neverwinter Nights, and maybe even the original Halo game. But anything that is not at least a few years old is going to choke this card. Halo is pushing it, as at the lowest settings it is barely playable, so I think I'll stick to Solitaire thank you very much."

Now surely if the D430 can run GTA Vice City and the like, it must be able to handle Rogue Survivor, Dwarf Fortress and the rest of the Roguelikes mustn't it?

10

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 17, 2013, 04:26:20 PM »

That's quite a bit more powerful than the ones I'm looking at actually, so I'm not surprised it runs RL's so well! I have the Baldur's Gate Collection and Icewind Dale collection, but I've never gotten around to playing them, I must do that one day.

11

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 17, 2013, 11:59:32 AM »

Do you think I should go for better processor (Intel Core Duo 1.2Ghz with 1Gb RAM) or more RAM (Intel Pentium M 1.86Ghz with 2Gb RAM)?

12

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 17, 2013, 11:46:01 AM »

I have a 13" notebook which is pretty fine. It's not too heavy, the screen's not too small for me - my eyesight isn't the best (1366x768), you can type and surf the net and pretty much do everything, and it runs RLs and Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights 2.

Can i ask what the make and model is?

13

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 17, 2013, 07:05:51 AM »

Yeah my home PC ran it with DirectX 9c too, so that should be fine. And good to know that they should run SP3 and .NET.

I too want something nice and small portable, because it will be for trips, and possibly playing on my lap. I'm now leaning towards the Dell D410, because it has Win XP Pro, 2Gb RAM (upgraded from 512Mb it seems), and a 1.86GHz processor. And it's only 276mm x 239mm x 33m, and only 2.2kg. And 12.1" screen seems about right to me (1024x768 too).

And Googling batteries, they seem to start at £20. I'm sure they will be 3rd party ones, but hopefully they would be ok.

14

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 16, 2013, 02:00:27 PM »

Interesting. All the netbooks on that link seem to be 1024x768 or higher, so I'm guessing they would be ok on that front. They also have a screen size of 12.1" or more - I'm guessing that would be enough. So if processor, RAM, and HD space don't matter too much, I suppose that just leaves software.

I know that Rogue Survivor needs the most recent versions of DirectX and .Net Framework, and Dwarf Fortress needs Windows XP SP 3 (all the netbooks on that link have "XP SP1" or "XP" or "XP Home".

Do you know if these netbooks are able to cope with the latest versions of DirectX and .NET Framework, and Windows XP Service Pack 3?

15

Player's Plaza / Re: Roguelikes on a netbook?

« on: October 16, 2013, 09:08:59 AM »

There are various refurbished options here, starting at £99 (the £49 one is for spares):

http://www.thelaptopcentre.co.uk/cheap-refurbished-laptops.html

It's odd that there are so many all at £99, but that they vary in processor speed, memory, and HD space. Surely everyone would go for the more powerful ones?

I've also noticed that with many of them they can't guarantee that the battery will hold a charge, so it looks like overall it would cost more like £150 including delivery and buying a new battery elsewhere.

A few of them are widescreen too, such as the Dell D620, which is a little bit more expensive at £129, but has a resolution of 1440 x 900. Would that avoid the resolution and display problems maybe? Does anyone know what kind of resolution is good for roguelikes on laptops and netbooks?

Does everyone think one of these would do the trick in terms of performace and resolution for roguelikes? I know that Rogue Survivor is quite picky about what version of Directx and Microsoft .NET Framework you have, so whichever one it was would need to be able to have these up to date. But they all seem to be XP, and my current 8-year-old PC is Windows XP too, so hopefully that wouldn't be a problem.