You are the Norrendrin dev?
Yes...quit playing and start coding. I've not played but I keep hearing about it. I'm not the end all and be all of RL news, but amongst future 'major' candidates you and SIL are being talked about.
I really should try Alphaman. I realize there are just so many great games out there.
I'll get right back to coding in a minute, but first I'll talk about Alphaman. You probably need dosbox to run it, but it's worth the trouble. I realized (years after I first played it) that it does a lot of things right: Berries are like potions (some can be thrown), with the added feature of berry aging - they gradually change color from red to purple, with the effect getting stronger toward purple. Red stat berries permanently reduce your capabilities, while purple ones are permanent boosts, but a purple acidic berry can do quite a lot of damage if you eat it. It makes the berry ID game pretty interesting.
Then, you have the tech devices. Since the setting is post-apocalyptic, that gun-shaped device might be a laser blaster, or a hair dryer. You can generally try repeatedly to figure these out, with a chance of the item being activated, and a smaller chance of it breaking.
Each character starts with a physical and a mental mutation, and they're fun to play around with. I'll admit to start-scumming quite a few times in this game. (I've just realized that a lot of this information is on the RB page:
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Alphaman . There's also a wiki, incomplete but still useful:
http://alphaman.wikia.com/wiki/Alphaman_Wiki )
The UI was ahead of its time, I think. Inventory, character info, world map, known items, etc., each get their own screen accessed with F1 through ~F5. Overall it's pretty sensible.
And then there's the humor: tech devices like lava lamps and answering machines (in addition to phasers and chainsaws), and mutant enemies like prairie chickens and gazelles that fire lasers. The first part of your mission has you find Elvis while fighting off Elvis impersonators.
It has multiple difficulty levels. Normal mode is quite difficult(I've never beaten it legitimately), so I think I'd recommend starting lower. Good luck. I'll get back to coding now.
