Jolt Country

I guess it's on.

Favorite room I've been teleported into so far:

Good thing Bruce had a decent run, I was running out of Jaws characters.

I'm seeing a lot of quick deaths with RODNEY.

Nope. No interest whatsoever.

This morning I decided to try a different approach. Normally I check every room in every level, but I decided to just start taking the stairs down every time I found them. When I arrived in level 2, the stairs were in the same room so I just went on down. I only collected gold and other items while I was searching for the stairs. I thought this was a ridiculous way to play the game, and I ended up getting the third highest score on my high score list so far. Harumph. The issue with this technique is by the time you reach the lower levels you start running into Centaurs and Quagga who will wipe you out because you haven't built up many hit points.

I'm interested to hear what "strategies" other Rogue players use.

I clear every room, and will always do so.

I didn't remember that you couldn't go upstairs in this game. That was an important later addition to the genre.

I have never actually found the amulet, but I understand once you do you have to go back up all the stairs at that point.

I dunno, the abandonware version already has a leaderboard that says one guy "won on level 26".

This is from a really old FAQ (originally posted on Usenet) so I'm not sure if it applies to this version or not. There are a lot of different versions of Rogue.

2.4 Winning:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The purpose of the game is to get the Amulet of Yendor from within the depths
of the Dungeon, and return to the surface using it's levitation ability. But
the truth is more specific than that. The Amulet of Yendor begins appearing on
the 26th floor of the Dungeon. One you get it, you must take the upward
staircases to the top. The level you return to on the upward voyage recreate
themselves, so if you previously explored a whole floor it will be different
and unexplored on the way up. You will have to play at least 51 floors to beat
the game.

Welp, shows what I know. I will never get there anyway.

Well like I said, it's possible that on this version you don't -- and if someone won the game on level 26, it kind of points to that. I'm with you though, I haven't even hit level 20 yet. F'in ur-viles.

Even in Usenet days people didn't fucking understand homonyms.

pinback wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:49 am If you would like to run it in a window instead of full-screen, and at a resolution higher than the tiny 320x240 default, let me know! I am now an EXPERT at configuring this thing for modern audiences!

Ok, I give up -- I WOULD like to know this. Please help!

In the directory Steam installs the game, there are files called "rogue.conf" and "rogueresume.conf". You need to modify both of them the same way.

At the top of these files are options for starting in full screen or not, which if you want it to start in windowed mode, set it to "false", and an option called "windowresolution", which you will want to set to whatever resolution you want. The format is width, the letter "x", and height. So: "1600x900", for example.

You have to modify both of them because one of them is used if you resume a saved game, and one of them is used if you start a new game.

One problem pin-whack. You ran out of people.

Quint was the first clue. Jaws. JAWS. The 1974 film produced by Steven Spielberg. And you continued it with all the others.

Except Bruce. Doesn't quite fit does it? Next time you think people aren't paying attention, think again. There's a standard set and that ASCII character you become on level 2 in Rogue may just not be smiling next time.

===)---------- FLACK'S TIPS TO PLAYING ROGUE ----------(===

01. Visit every room.
02. Drink every potion when you find it so you'll know what they are. Save healers.
03. Save every scroll until you find a ring or a wand. Then read scrolls, look for identify, identify rings and wands.
03a. I identify rings, then wands, then potions, then armor, then weapons.
04. Upgrade weapons and armor. Drop bows and crossbows and just throw arrows/bolts/daggers/spears.
05. Travel every room with the least amount of steps possible. Move diagonally when it makes sense. If a room is 4 dots wide, you only need to travel it twice to cover the whole area. Each step you take uses food.
06. If you really want to do well, read an FAQ and learn what all the scrolls do by the hints (glowing red hands = monster confusion, for example). Some of them (you hear growling) aren't as bad as they sound (that one detects food on the level, if there is any).
07. If you have time, take off your armor before fighting an Aquator. Or magic up some leather armor since it can't rust.
08. Don't eat until you start fainting from lack of food; except, don't enter a fight weak. You might faint and get killed.
09. Learn how rooms/maps are built. No wall has two doors.
10. If you're planning to quaff a healing potion in a fight, don't wait until the very end. Your enemy will strike first and can kill you before you get a moment to chug.
11. Watch your hit points during big fights. If they're getting low, figure out plan B.
12. Engage Leprechauns at your own risk, especially if going for a high score. A good technique for them (and many monsters) is to stand across the room and throw arrows at them. Hopefully they'll be weak by the time they arrive at your face.
13. If your hit points are super low, you can stand in one spot and hold down the period key, which passes turns but lets you heal. Just be careful and watch for monsters so you're not standing around passing turns as a Quagga is gnawing on your face.

===)---------- LIKELY ROGUE OUTCOMES ----------(===

01. DEAD BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Our adventurer begins with a measly 12 hit points, and sometimes luck just isn't on your side. None of the enemies you're likely to face on the first level are terribly difficult, but every now and then the rolls don't go your way and a Kestral or Emu will take you out before you had a chance to level up. Don't feel bad. Lots of people die each year in emu attacks.

02. CURSES. FOILED AGAIN.
Rogue is filled with lots of magical items -- some good, some bad. Most of the negative scrolls and potions have annoying but not long-lasting affects, like confusion and poison. Pick up the wrong weapon or put on the wrong armor though, and your game will become a nightmare. You may end up wielding a sword that can't hit anything or cursed armor with an armor class so low that it's like walking around the wrong part of town with a "Kick Me" sign taped to your back.

03. SOMEONE FORGOT TO PACK A LUNCH
All items (and dungeon designs) are random, which means occasionally you'll end up in a game where there's no food. There's nothing more frustrating than getting 15 levels deep only to starve to death while pressing the space bar every time the game tells you you've fainted from lack of food. In a dungeon full of flaming wands and dead animals, nobody should starve to death.

04. DUNGEON GANGBANG
A dozen levels in, the stakes will raise as Centaur, Trolls, and Yeti begin to hunt you down. With a two-handed sword and some decent armor you should be able to hack away these enemies, but there's nothing worse than walking into a room and facing one of them only to have another one show up behind you in the hallway. Without a teleport scroll or some other means of magic, this three way sandwich will usually end with the man in the middle winding up underneath a tombstone.

05. WON'T YOU TAKE ME TO COCKYTOWN
You're a real badass now, aren't ya, with your plate mail armor and your two-handed sword? No matter how many rings, scrolls, potions and rations you're carrying, don't forget -- you're always two hits away from a keyboard-smashing event. Good luck, fellow Rogues... you'll need it.

uruzrune wrote: Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:21 pm Even in Usenet days people didn't fucking understand homonyms.

Well, back then, there were a lot of religious nuts who thought they wre an abomination and... oh wait, you said homonyms. I though you said... oh wait, never mind...