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[Captain Trek]

So I decided to have a crack at Angle of Light Travel on HNTR and I was (as far as I was concerned) doing fine... I had decided to go down the dualgunner route so I could get away with carrying less ammo and by the time I had reached level 10 (a "hellish caves" level) and cleared out the few demons inhabiting it I had (including what I was wearing/wielding at the time) two intact suits of blue armour, two pistols (one modified with a weapon damage mod), a pair of protective boots, 2x 100 rounds of 10 mm, 1 x 80 rounds of 10 mm, three large med-packs, a rocket launcher modified with a reload mod, about a half-dozen rockets and an envirosuit pack...

But then I see this...



What... the... fuck? Now, my rockets can't destroy the walls, so that flight of stairs is offically unreachable (and in case you're wondering, no there aren't any homing phase devices lying around...)

Oh and while I was typing this and logging in to Photobucket to upload the picture, the program then decided to crash on me, even though it was idle... And then it turns out the game managed to salvage the game and I ended up on a completely different level ten (just a regular level, in fact, with no "level feelings"), with my envirosuit still active, the rockets I wasted still gone and me staring down a hell knight and a former captain on the far side of the room...

I'll say it again... What... the... fuck?

EDIT: OK, you really need to do something about these crashes... I kept playing through the same game and when I got to Phobos Hell 4 or 5ish, BFG9000 in tow, guess what? It crashed again! This time, however, I wasn't quite so lucky as last time and lost the game... I'm actually starting to get sick of this game... The constant "unlucky" deaths I can take... just barely, but I can take it, particularly now that I've figured out the two golden rules that make the game enjoyable to a degree (those being, pistols pwn and don't pull levers that are either near barrels or not near doors), but I find it rather hard to tolerate a game as remarkably unstable as this one is...

[Thomas]

SOLUTION: Use numpad instead of arrow keys (You should be doing this for horizontal/vertical movement anyway. Is this your first roguelike?) and you can move diagonally.

Oh and while I was typing this and logging in to Photobucket to upload the picture, the program then decided to crash on me, even though it was idle... And then it turns out the game managed to salvage the game and I ended up on a completely different level ten (just a regular level, in fact, with no "level feelings"), with my envirosuit still active, the rockets I wasted still gone and me staring down a hell knight and a former captain on the far side of the room...

Generating a new level is what's supposed to happen, it's basically to make sure that people don't abuse crashes to allow saving mid-level. As for the actual crash, I think it might be DoomRL reacting to the screenshot, the game sometimes screws up when people screenshot it.

This time, however, I wasn't quite so lucky as last time and lost the game.

Now THIS is weird. Did you get a screenshot of that or copypaste the error strings?

I've figured out the two golden rules

There's only two now? I thought roguelikes were essentially a big list of golden rules that you had to creatively apply to every situation the game threw at you until it decided that trying to kill you got boring 25 levels ago.

Heck, I could list around 20 of the ones I follow religiously, if anyone cared.

EDIT: Merry 300th post, myself.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

1) Vista is not officially supported, for I have no access to a Vista box, nor the desire to unleash that bug-ridden monster upon my lovely PC
2) Remember the NumPad
3) the game is free, and I work on it for free, you can't expect commercial grade stability from it

[Captain Trek]

3) the game is free, and I work on it for free, you can't expect commercial grade stability from it

Actually, yes, I do expect stability from the games I play, wether they've been created by one person or a team of professionals, as stability is one the essential things that makes the game playable... Many commerical games fall flat in this respect too, being just as unstable if not more so than DoomRL is... I mean, Battleships Forever was created by just one guy as well and it's almost perfectly stable...

http://www.wyrdysm.com/games.php

...but as it is, the game is virtually unplayable (at least on Vista)... I do have other computers though, so tell me, is the game more stable on XP, ME or 98? I only ask because I don't want to try it out myself first, only to discover that I was wasting my time...

[Thomas]

Far more so, I would assume. Approximately 1% of my games on XP (Which is supported, as are the OSes you listed) crash, and none of them were inrecoverable.

[Captain Trek]

Far more so, I would assume. Approximately 1% of my games on XP (Which is supported, as are the OSes you listed) crash, and none of them were inrecoverable.

I see... Well, I'll have to try it on the other computers some time then...

[skarczew]

To all the Vista haters: if you can't keep your system stable, do not use computers. This system is not cure for every ilness, but it is not as bad as you wish it were.

[Captain Trek]

To all the Vista haters: if you can't keep your system stable, do not use computers. This system is not cure for every ilness, but it is not as bad as you wish it were.

I personally don't understand why some people despise Vista so much... Having used Vista for over a year now, I've been quite pleased with it... At the very worst it's no worse than XP and you've got to admit, Microsoft's vastly improved the interface... I've found it's a lot more pleasant to use than XP...

Admittedly Internet based individuals developing small megabyte sized titles like this one and Battleships Forever have fequently found that they have to retool their programmes to make them run (or at least run stably) on Vista and I've found many old titles don't run (or at least don't run properly) on Vista, but that's pretty much a given... I have games on my 98 right now that won't even run on my XP, let alone my Vista... Should we not have moved to DVDs just because DVD players can't run VHS tapes?

Seriously, why do you think some people hate Vista so much, skarczew?

[skarczew]

I have no problems running DoomRL, AliensRL, Battleships Forever on my Vista.

Speaking of Windows 98 (and 95 too) - it was a DOS (a bit downgraded & changed compared to versions 6.20/6.22) in reality, with graphics interface that was hidding its true nature. Thats why 95% of DOS games did not have problem with it

WinXP, Vista are different systems, that originated from WinNT.
If you want to run DOS games, use DOSBox (google it). It emulates DOS pretty well, making possible to run games that are 15-20 years old.
As for "small windows games" and their developers, it is not their problem only. Most old drivers from XP do not work on Vista. But I am beyond the knowledge what the changes were and why M$ did that.

[ParaSait]

Reaction on post #2:

The game sometimes crashes when taking screenshots? That didn't happen to me before...

[Captain Trek]

If you want to run DOS games, use DOSBox (google it). It emulates DOS pretty well, making possible to run games that are 15-20 years old.
As for "small windows games" and their developers, it is not their problem only. Most old drivers from XP do not work on Vista. But I am beyond the knowledge what the changes were and why M$ did that.

Err... yea... the games I'm thinking of aren't that old... I'm actually thinking more of games that came out for the PC in the late 90s and 2000 (and maybe 2001, but probably no later than that), such as Civil War Generals 2, the first Zoombinis game (which I occasionally play for nostalgic reasons), Axis & Allies (that is, the late 90s PC adaptation of the board game of the same name, not the 2004 RTS), Star Trek: Starfleet Command I and II and the first two Homeworld titles (I consider Cataclysm a seperate game)... I know I could probably get all these games to work on Vista by messing around with Vista's ability to emulate earlier versions of Windows and so on, but why bother when I can just leave the room, walk down a short corridor, entre another room and find a completely original (except for the keyboard and mouse, but we do still have the original keyboard and mouse and they work), fully functional Windows 98, plugged in, ready to be booted up and soon to celebrate a decade of loyal (and very reliable compared to the other computers) service (we bought it in '99)...

By the way, can any of you suggest ways for keeping the 98 in good shape? It doesn't access the Internet (and hasn't done so in quite a number of years), though I have transfered DoomRL, WinTrek and an earlier version of Battleships Forever (which didn't work) to it from my other computers... There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with its operation or its software... Hasn't been defragged in years though (I just never think of defragging it for some reason) and now that I've thought of defragging it I can't help but wonder if it's a bad idea, given how long it's been since its last one...

On the hardware front, all of it (again, except for the keyboard and mouse) is completely original, the only problem we can decern being that the floppy drive's door broke a while ago and we had to remove it... We had to take the cover off to get sufficent access to the floppy drive to get the door off (as it was it was stuck on a diagonal and you couldn't get a floppy disk inside the drive) and while we were there we vaccumed up the nine years worth of dust that had settled on the bottom of the case and had a go at clearing the dust from the fan area as well... Right now the CPU is sitting on a clever little adjustable plastic stand that keeps it raised up off the floor...

So, yea that about covers it... What would you suggest, if anything?

[skarczew]

Keep Win 98 away from internet and it will be pretty safe :) .

Defrag may take some time - the best is just to start it and leave it alone while doing so. It may help mainly if your disc is packed and used extensively.

As for Win games - sometimes it helps to use "compatibility" thing available under RightMouse-Button->Properties. Sometimes ...
Right now, it seems easier to run DOS games via DOSBox, rather than some Windows ones on WinXP/Vista (I had some problems running systemShock 2 - I found some kind of solution for it in forgotten pits of less-known-internet).

[ParaSait]

I wonder what would happen if you connect a windows 95 or 98 to the internet now... It will probably be virussed like burning hell in seconds o_O

[Captain Trek]

I wonder what would happen if you connect a windows 95 or 98 to the internet now... It will probably be virussed like burning hell in seconds o_O

It depends on where you go on the Internet... Actually, I've seen at least a few people claim that they've used the Internet for years without any form of virus protection and have never seen a virus... I'd imagine any computer (protected or not) would be pretty safe as long as you stayed on the beaten path...

Anyway, I might try the compatibility thing at some point... However, where do you go to activate it? There's no "properties" option if you just right click on the desktop background (only "personalise"), so where do I go?

[skarczew]

You need to click on a file (application).