The Tungsten PDA

The adventures called RPG (role-playing games) today, are known to everyone, but not many people know what was its origin. Adventure games in text mode already appeared in the early years of the 80s, when computers could only display terminals characters in black and white. However, offset its simplicity in terms of game play with excellent graphics. Titles such as Rogue, Moria, Ularn, NetHack, Angband, Omega, an all events were at the time, and in fact today, more than twenty years after its creation, there are still groups on Usenet devoted to them, and a lot the people he plays.

When I searched for the word "Rogue" on the web, I really did not expect to find so many sites, I just wanted to know a little bit more about The Game I've always been addicted to. I was really surprised by the 42 websites that were found. So, I figured out that I could reach the original programmers, now I can thank them for making this game! I started playing Rogue in 1992, on my first IBM PC. Hey, I'm only 23, I did not see the earlier versions of The Game. I kept on thinking, 'Am I the only one that's sick enough to play a DOS-1983-ASCII game? " Now I see that I'm not. So, this is for you, sick ones, who still play The Adventure Game.

Flávio Sabbagh Armony, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2933 gold pieces. Killed by a phantom on Level 17.

Just because recommend testing these games, because it would be worth this post. Guarantee hours and hours of entertainment, though not at first glance may seem. But the real surprise is that it has ported three of the best games of this season to PalmOS, with the names of iRogue, iLarn, and kMoria. I'm going to talk to iRogue, which was the first to take place, and is the simplest of the three. Recently I discovered these games, so the other two, which are more complex, are still in beta on my part.

What is worth this parchment?

In iRogue take the role of an adventurer who enters the Dungeons of Doom (Dungeons of Doom) in search of the coveted amulet of Yendor, hidden deep in the labyrinth. We will have to go through all its plants (27 levels in total, although we continue to where we want), struggling with all sorts of monsters, and using a multitude of weapons, armor, potions and scrolls, some useful and others cursed, that we will find our way . Once we find the amulet, we will again go through all levels to the end to return to our home with him and thus end the game.

In this game stimulates the imagination much. At first we will see how funny monsters are simply represented by letters, symbols and objects as "=" (rings) or "o" (food). Until our character is represented by a simple "@". But when we play we realize that the game gives a lot of it. We simply move to tap on the screen, marking the address as if it were a compass. You can take the character to run until you find an obstacle, or only a square for every time we do tap (I recommend that option). It is also more comfortable doing the movements on our character, not simply interpreted according to what quadrant of the screen have done tap (it is difficult to explain without seeing all of this is set in the preferences of the program).

In the area of information we can see at what level we (L), starting on 1 which is the top. HP are the points of life, when we come to 0 deaths. The strength (Str) indicates how strong are our attacks. Armor (Arm) is our protection, and the higher will receive less damage in the fighting. Experience (expr) indicates our level (first number) and the total experience points (second edition).

To start playing, just know that our goal in each level is to find the stairs "%", which will allow us to get off to the next level by pressing "down". On our way we will find monsters, which can attack simply by moving toward them, or dodging (if not persecute us!). The objects were also caught walking on them, and they are automatically added to our inventory. There are also gold "*", which is not true for anything more than the final score when just the beginning. When you finally get to level 27 and find the amulet, we will have to go back to the stairs, but now going up level by level, until returning to the surface. To do this, press "up". If they kill us on our way (very likely), we can continue the game from the beginning of the level at which we were, but we can steal all the gold that we had, or a bit of strength. We can also load and save games when we want.

In full battle

The development of the game is full of details, which are so much fun again:

• According to overcome the monsters that we find ourselves, we will experience points, and upon reaching certain thresholds, going up to level, which means that our points of life (HP) maximum increase. These points are emptied when they suffer damage in the fighting, but they can be recovered just in time or through spells or healing potion.
• Spells (?) And the potion (!) Appear throughout the maze. But when we found, we are told only their color. We do not know what is its purpose. Therefore, we will have to assess whether we risk using them, and that the same can upload our points of life that leave us blind. Once we know what it is worth, and we find that the following will be identified. There are also spells to identify what we have in the inventory, without arriesarnos to prove it.
• As we move through the levels, we will be us getting tired. To recover, we will need to eat something, and the food is very scarce. Therefore we must be wise and save as much as possible to recent levels, where we will need much, but considering that the inventory can not exceed a certain size, which is proportional to the force that we have.
• The dungeon consists of rooms interconnected by corridors. But they are not always in sight. There are secret doors that can only be found through the search option. Sometimes we have to choose to search several times in a row to show the door!

And there are many more things that make this game a whole addiction. To learn more about the game, we can find a multitude of information on Rogue on this page. It tells the story of the game, the basic concepts, explains the magic, monsters, the objects that we find, and so on.

Learning to play these games requires that we devote a few minutes to read the instructions. But then outweigh. They are the most addictive games I've tested in recent months, at the Space Trader. My advice is that echéis a look at the preferences of the game, to set it to your liking, and that some actions asignéis (open inventory, rest, search, etc.). With the buttons on the Palm, to make the game easier.

A trap! A room full of monsters

Finally, I will discuss how to make these games are in color: for iRogue, we have to paste the contents of this file into a Memo of our Palm. Then activate "color" in the preferences, and that's it. I recommend activating the option to "invest", ie a black background with white characters, as it makes the game more faithful to the original. The more detailed instructions on how to activate the color are on this page.

By: Mark Gonzalez Troyes in Palm Analysis
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Labeling: adventure game, memory, palm, pda, rogue, text

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