playing roguelikes on linux FULL SCREEN

[Tassadar]

I am running linux and i want to play my roguelikes FULLSCREEN!!  As in nothing else on the the screen.  no borders, just 80 x 25 characters. 

Why don't X terminal emulators emulate the X terminal?!?!

I tried playing them in the actually terminal but all of the colors don't show (like gray and yellow)...

If anyone know of a program that can do this please HELP!! 

[Adral]

Not exactly X terminal, but with Konsole you can go fullscreen with ctrl+shift+F, and then hide both the command menu (via preferences) and the tabs menu (by left-clicking). With an appropiate font configuration, you can play 80x25 fullscreen that way. Not exactly the thing you ask, but it might serve as well.

I hope that helped.

[Anvilfolk]

You can do that on a gnome terminal too! F11 for fullscreen, then ctrl-plus or ctrl-minus to increase front size... something like that. Try giving it a go I was exploring the terminal preferences just the other day, for that same reason

Haven't been playing a lot of roguelikes though, with university having started

[Z]

For me, using the text mode console works, and there is no problems with colors (maybe unless the game does not use the default 16 colors). This is activated by Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or Ctrl+Alt+F2 etc if you want to play several roguelikes at once).

[Slash]

Wow, that works great Z!

[Anvilfolk]

I did try that once, with ADOM, but then I had problems quitting, or changing back from the actual gnome desktop. Can't remember exactly what, but it was great playing it in full-screen! Much geekier! 

[Slash]

Yeah, I had to try several commands to go back to desktop, Ctrl Alt F7 did the trick

[Z]

And in Windows, use Alt+Enter for full screen mode (assuming that the game uses the real console via Curses or something instead of simulating it... I actually hate those roguelikes who simulate and do not provide the real thing, that's probably one of the main reasons why I did not try Incursion or DF to a greater extent yet). Unless the game provides a shortcut like DoomRL and Frozen Depths do, the colors are quite bad -- it's hard to tell dark gray (aka black) from gray, for example -- but they can be changed by right clicking the window titlebar and finding the appropriate option (and probably also by stealing the shortcut from DoomRL).

[Anvilfolk]

When I eventually, one day, maybe, in the far future, in a galaxy far far away, code my roguelike, it won't be pure Curses, and it should be simulated... I do know what you're saying, but I feel it only to a lesser degree, I guess.

Personally, I wanted to get to know a 2d library, and second, it can make the interface easier to use. I plan on having mouse-over menus and that sort of thing, just to ease the access to information. Overlaying stuff can really help, and usually, with the text output from every turn plus the char stats, you usually take up a lot of the screen. In a game where you might need a pretty constant and detailed update of what enemies are around you, using 'L' & arrows to find the enemy you want, then entering a new screen just for his info can really bring the game down.

Then again, it's not really the case for most roguelikes. There's also the eye-candy factor, but... we're playing roguelikes *g*.

[Z]

I don't know if you are talking about a graphical roguelike, or you want a game where an orc wearing a flaming armor is depicted with a burning o, but if you throw the standard ASCII terminal away because you want to display more than it can show, that's OK I think as long as it is not ugly. If every orc warrior is able to use special equipment, and some of these equipment sets require specific strategies from the player, then the standard roguelike ASCII display might no longer be the answer. (Actually it is so in newer versions of Stone Soup, where ordinary orcs can have blowguns instead of melee weapons, but they look the same. But still some orc colors are unused, so ASCII is sufficient)

[Anvilfolk]

IVAN doesn't seem like the best known roguelike, but in my opinion, it is one of the best.

Everyone ought to try it - it is graphical, and even though the squares are pretty small, after awhile you end up recognizing everything. Then you get all sorts of blood spatter, and see the different equipment on the enemies and allies (and yourself).

So you're right. Most of the times it's not necessary, but terminal displays make it rather hard to overlay information. Besides, there's the personal thing of learning a graphical API

[Ex]

In linux there is more than one text terminal you can access at any one time by pressing CTRL+ALT+F(whatever) F9 on my system is XWindows, but that may be different on your system.

[corremn]

IVAN doesn't seem like the best known roguelike, but in my opinion, it is one of the best.

Everyone ought to try it - it is graphical, and even though the squares are pretty small, after awhile you end up recognizing everything. Then you get all sorts of blood spatter, and see the different equipment on the enemies and allies (and yourself).

IVAN rocks, I think it is one of the best RLs around, and its graphical.  Once you get past the graphics and limb system you might appreiciate the effort put into the graphics and gameplay.  It is a relatively short game and very challenging.  I have never got past the big necromancer level. It has also given me lots of ideas for my future projects.

So you're right. Most of the times it's not necessary, but terminal displays make it rather hard to overlay information. Besides, there's the personal thing of learning a graphical API

All my RLS use simulated console either for ascii or graphical tiles. The code to switch between ascii and any tiles I like is very minimal. Plus the option to use antialiased true-type fonts really outweights any benefit to using a console library.   I use openGL btw.  While strictly not a 2D library it is a joy to use as anything is possible. 

[Slash]

I wouldnt be so light to discard the advantages of console mode; it has certain benefits like telnet/ssh connectivity, accesibility for blind people, ability to run the game on low end systems... the thing is you cant stick to just console mode, a nice architecture would support using a console library in addition to emulated console and tiles.

[corremn]

Guess I am not a nice architectect.   I am still not supporting anything but win23  , because I am lazy.

Good points though, too bad I am lazy.