Source Code To Dungeon Master Java Released 189
Jonathan Jessup writes "This is an update to a story you reported on about two years ago. There were many requests for Alandale to release the
source code to Dungeon Master Java and now he has released the source code on the Dungeon Master Java site.
Dungeon Master was an all time classic RPG game first released in 1987 that made monumentous improvements in user interface design in gaming, and many other improvements. If you read the slashdot comments on the last article, there are a few good posts on what the game changed for the industry and its lasting legacy." I loved Dungeon Master.
The death of $lashdot (Score:1, Funny)
An explanation: I used to be a good, noble poster. Carefully wording every article to provide insight and wisdom to my fellow posters. Slowly, I acculumated karma, giving me the artificial peer respect that made such things worthwhile. Yes, I knew that karma is an arbitary value, but it made my contributions worthwhile.
And then one day I got bored. It was an article about European Patents I think. Something dull and boring... I think I got the first 15 or so posts on that one as an AC. It was fun.
In the end, the article accumulated a grand total of 2 relevant posts, the remainder offtopic. One of the irrelevant posts that I made was a couple of paragraphs under the title of the Linux Gay Conspiracy.
To my surprise, my post was followed up by other suggestions as to the latent homosexuality contained within the Open Sauce movement. And I felt encouraged. So I gathered together these additions, made some of my own, and kept posting.
And posting. And posting. Every sick, depraved act I could think of was included. Before long, the LGC grew to be one of the most comprehensive documents detailing the carnality and perversity of the IT industry. And, be honest now, it was funny. Crude and childish, but funny. A necessary counterpart to the morbid seriousness of some of the other posters.
In the meantime, I carried on with my regular account, posting away. Being diligent in my real contributions to the community. And then the main account got bitchslapped.
What was the need for that? Did it act as a deterrent to the anonymous trolling? Of course not. If anything, it just demonstrated the petty minded fascism of the Slashdot editors. The LGC was posted at '0', usually modded down within seconds. Wasn't that enough for them, to know that such a posting would disappear into the ghetto?
Of course, the LGC has now taken a life of its own, and my original account got back up to an acceptable karma level. Mainly by whoring and cutting and pasting high scoring posts on previous articles. Originality is discouraged by the Slashdot gestalt after all.
After a while, I strived for a new challenge, or failing that an excuse to spout obscenties like some Tourette's induced retard. Hence the birth of ringbarer. Suddenly, Slashdot has become an enjoyable experience again.
For all the wrong reasons.
So no, I won't be paying for Slashdot. I'll be installing junkbuster instead. Let the site fall to the fucking ground. It is, after all, symbolic of the crumbling OSS empire, where everything is free until they force you to pay for it.
My gift to the Trolling community? The Linux Gay Conspiracy v2.0. With even filthier acronyms and anagrams.
Quality.
Troll 76 of 208 from the annals of the Troll Library [slashdot.org] .
JAVA ... ? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:5, Informative)
This game was a pioneer in the 3D first-person genre. More than just mindless hack-and-slash, there were lots of puzzles which really made you think. Floor-plates, hidden triggers, keys, etc.
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:2)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:1)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:2, Informative)
It was ported to other machines, and utilized those machine's capabilities (eg, Mac and Amiga versions at least had stereo sound, and I'd be super surprised if the IIGS port didn't also - Atari ST didn't support stereo).
This game was a lot of fun, and as other posters mentioned, did a good job of scaring the shit out of you.
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:2)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:1)
Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:2)
Great (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks, Hemos. That's wonderful. I love Mexican food. Isn't that cool?
Re:Great (Score:2)
Ya he was a cute little guy.
Other article (Score:4, Informative)
"I loved Dungeon Master" (Score:5, Funny)
Why he would get a +25 saving throw against anything.
Why he would find a buttload of platinum in every chest he looked in.
Why he was 'given' a vorpal sword by some made-up god.
I KNEW there was something fishy going on.
Do not play D&D with this guy.
Re:"I loved Dungeon Master" (Score:1)
gah.
"buttload of platinum" (Score:3, Funny)
Now you've made it seem dirty.
Re:"buttload of platinum" (Score:2)
Or a Sneaky Bastard Sword (In joke for Munchkin players)
Re:"buttload of platinum" (Score:1)
Re:"buttload of platinum" (Score:2)
Yes. It's a riot, but feel free to get used to the base game first. You'll enjoy the expansion more if you get used to the original first.
Of course, if you generally play with enough people, you might want to get the expansion just to add more cards, so you don't have to shuffle the deck as often.
My deck contains Munchkin, Unnatural Axe and Star Munchkin all mixed together. It's loads of fun but some people prefer to play without Star Munchkin, or just play Star Munchkin alone.
Still, I loved the moment where I played Paradox in a box to escape from an ancient, cybernetically enhanced, enraged dragon from a parallel universe who was the last of his species.
Then some jackass used the kneepads of allure to force me to help them in combat.
Grumble.
And yes, the rumors of the D20 conversion are true.
OMG (Score:2, Funny)
Dungeon Master.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dungeon Master.... (Score:1, Funny)
Actually, I lost my virginity to a Frost Giant, but I really don't like to talk about it...
DM Java? Is that like... (Score:1)
if {
website==/.'ed,
then FindBetterHost=True;
}
or something.
Slashdotted... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Slashdotted... (Score:2)
this is a pre-emptive "ssshhh" (Score:5, Informative)
The contents of the linked page (well, the larger frame) are as follows:
Dungeon Master Java is a remake of the classic FTL game Dungeon Master. It is written entirely in Java, and is designed to run as a stand-alone application rather than an applet in a web browser. It has high-resolution graphics that simulate a 3D environment. Most of the graphics are rendered in the free ray-tracer Pov-Ray. Item graphics and character portraits are done by hand with a paint program, though many are simply taken from the original and its sequels and touched-up.
Gameplay is very similar to the original, with real-time action, 90-degree turns, and step-by-step movement. One major change from the original is that monsters are not "stuck" in groups: they are completely free to wander, sometimes occupying a square with other monsters and sometimes not.
Dungeon Master Java Has Been Released!
Last Update: January 14, 2003
There. That should satisfy those who can't read the article (through
Google cache (Score:5, Informative)
Way to use frames, guy (Score:1)
Please get Netscape 3 or Explorer version 3 or higher and come back. Thank You.
Museum piece (Score:4, Insightful)
What kind of impact will this have? It's a Java port of a 15+ year old game!
I'm sure students will have fun reading through the code, but there have definitely been better games out there since this came out.
Watch--next we're getting the code for Pong opened up!
Re:Museum piece (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Museum piece (Score:2, Interesting)
One doesnt 'code' a ripple counter or a half adder.
Unless you want to stretch the definition of 'code' to include the 3 way light switch I installed in my hallway last weekend.
Re:Museum piece (Score:3, Interesting)
But there's nothing particularlly silly about considering a digital circuit as just a mechanincal implementation of a program. True, if you have the hardware it's probably faster, but the program version can be more flexibly tweaked.
A distinction re: "code" (Score:3, Interesting)
I am fully aware the roots of modern Hackerdom lie in wiring complex switches for model trains at MIT (those wacky geeks who started to find other things to do with circuit analysis once phones and mainframes entered their realm). But wiring is not coding: I would say the work of wiring a circuit is more like being a machine-language translator... the "coding" part was coming up with the circuit diagram.
Re:Museum piece (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Museum piece (Score:2, Interesting)
Try turning on your old Amiga and going through all those old games today. Sure they're nice for a trip down memory lane but I sure as hell wouldn't spend a lot of time playing them.
I think it was in that article you're referencing to that it was pointed out by a developer that today we [developers] don't have to think so much about what is possible to do, but what we want to do. Unfortunately it is a lot more expensive to develop games today, so it's hard to find the money for your own little pet project.
And it's not like in the "glory days" when one man in a closet was a "game producer".
Re:Museum piece (Score:1)
What about playing DM on your java-enabled phone?
(disclaimer: I'm not going to
Re:Museum piece (Score:2)
This might come as a shock to you.
This will not have any impact! That's right! None! The world will spin just as it ever has! You will go to work tomorrow, just as you did today! Your coffee will taste exactly the same tomorrow as it did yesterday!
Except that Slashdot isn't "Earth-shattering news for nerds". It's just things that nerds find fairly interesting. "Stuff that matters" doesn't mean "stuff with insane gravity." Just stuff that piques the interest of a few guys.
So, lighten up. Smile. Download the free game.
Re:Museum piece (Score:2)
While closely situated there doesn't appear to be an AND, OR, XOR or NOT in there. So I think they could be two distinct statements.
This one definitely falls under News for Nerds. Not sure about the 'Stuff that matters' though.
In a way though, something like this *is* news because it gives us a sense of nostalgia -- roots that nerds all over the world cling to dearly. "This is the game that made me want to write my own code!" etc. etc.
Jocks have their first touchdown, headbangers their first Maiden or Priest concert, and geeks have a game/simulation/porn movie that became a life changing experience.
Good point though. No flames directed your way in this.
Re:Museum piece (Score:2, Interesting)
This game was revolutionary; it was a little like Wizardry, but went far, far beyond that. It was in real-time, meaning that your life or death depended at least in part on your reflexes. It was brilliant at teaching you how things worked by leaving hints and requiring you to use skills you'd just gained. Dungeon Master was among the first, if not THE first, to offer the interface rule of 'pick up an item directly out of the world and place it or use it on something'. Example: pick up an apple off the floor in front of you. Drop it in your backpack to store it, on your face to eat it, on the floor to set it down, or in midair to throw it. It had a unique, syllable-based magic system. It let you make potions. It had hidden switches on the walls and hotspots where dropping particular items caused specific effects.
All these things are pretty passe nowadays, because EVERYONE does them. ALL of the FPS-type dungeon games are still doing what Dungeon Master did, with prettier graphics. Wizardry 8 (a great recent game) would be instantly recognizable to anyone who had played Dungeon Master.
For me at least, this was the first truly, viscerally immersive computer game. I wasn't sitting at a computer, I was fighting for my life in a very hostile environment.
After all these years, I clearly remember creeping around in that dungeon, one or two characters dead and the others badly hurt, trying to find a resurrection altar. I heard one of the nasty scorpion things scuttling closer. I was looking in all directions, trying to spot it so that I could flee in the opposite direction. I looked the wrong way just a little too long, turned around, and *exactly* as I realized it was there, it struck. I shrieked like a girl and ran like hell. (I think I escaped with one living character, and eventually did get everyone resurrected.).
This game was 1985's equivalent to Evercrack. It wasn't just a game, it was a way of life. Instant conversation-starter at the user group meetings.
After all, think about it. It's been FIFTEEN YEARS and the release of the source code for this game made Slashdot. That alone ought to tell you there's something special here.
Re:Museum piece (Score:2)
An AC put it in perspective. If you don't understand, you cant.
/. an edu (Score:3, Funny)
Re:/. an edu (Score:4, Funny)
Re:/. an edu (Score:1)
Slashdotted... Google cache... (Score:3, Informative)
The code must be ugly... (Score:5, Funny)
There is one big problem, though: it's UGLY. I mean really really really really really really UGLY.
It seems that whenever any code author releases something to the public, they always say this. Maybe they should just add this standard text to the GNU license ;-)
Re:The code must be ugly... (Score:1)
The source code has been available for some time, but maybe some extremely bored Slashdot reader will try to help.
Re:The code must be ugly... (Score:2)
Re:The code must be ugly... (Score:2)
Re:The code must be ugly... (Score:1)
Really, I do.
whoops! (Score:5, Funny)
Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:5, Insightful)
for those of you carping on about ooohh "286" or whatnot, keep in mind that the games we're playing now are an evolution of those earlier games. Some of you may be perfectly happy playing pong, while others of you enjoy the overblown graphics engines of today's games.
Dungeon Master was pretty revolutionary on both gameplay, graphics and sound.
1> Stereo sound on the Amiga and Atari systems was used for directional sound. If a monster was off to your left, the sound came out of the left hand speaker.. You could also hear things albeit muffled through walls. Not quite the HRTF/HTRF that we have today, but it was a step forward.
2> Graphics were somewhat 3d - with sprite-based monsters. Hmm, what other game came out like that? Sure, you were restricted to moving on a grid... But hey it was a step forward.
3> Gameplay for an RPG it was pretty basic in terms of "role playing"... However, it did have one of the earliest "if you practice a skill it will get better" systems. Meaning that any character could learn and advance any skill.
4> Gameplay for spell casting was pretty unique for the day. You had a runic panel whereby you could click through a series of runes (the first one determined the power level) and cast spells by selecting the correct runes in sequence.
5> Gameplay for combat was pretty good too. It was "real time" - and various attacks and weapon types took more or less time to recover from. You had 4 characters so 2 were in the front swinging their hand-to-hand weapns and the ones in the rear could cast spells or pelt the enemy with ranged weapons.
Believe it or not games like Morrow-wind, and other first person RPGs are at least somewhat derivative of this one. Not to mention the entire "Eye of the Beholder" series from SSI.
Re:Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:4, Interesting)
And may I note that the volume levels of the sound were very important too. The monster noises were very quiet, but definately audible as you entered the level. A dull "thump thump chreep" kinda noise, which would grow in volume as they grew closer. This added quite a bit of tension to the game. Once the monsters attacked, or if your party fell into a pit the volume would be suddenly loud (and scary!) enough that everyone I've seen playing the game would jump out of their chairs...
Re:Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:2)
I also found a legit way (no cheating) to get the staff without closing off the bottom two levels of the dungeon, and I've never seen the trick mentioned anywhere.
Re:Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:2, Interesting)
3> This was true except for that brute who couldn't practice magic because he had no mana. Maybe there was an object which gave some mana, but it seemed like he had a problem with it.
4> Very cool, but slightly painful for anything except the spells you already discovered. Ultima Underworld later had this too, right?
5> Also cool - when you were surrounded the poor back characters automatically turned to fight the baddies there, which could mean dead spellcasters.
There was also:
6> Each character had a time limit after they did something (cast spell, shoot arrow, hit baddie)before they could do something else. I've seen that a lot nowadays
7> without keyboard shortcuts it also could become a clickfest when you wanted everyone to attack at the same time.
8> An inventory system with a paperdoll, ammunition, AND backpacks/bags/etc. which could hold other objects!! It took Bioware a while to implement that feature
8-PP
Classic maybe, first of its kind no (Score:2)
Re:Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:2, Informative)
Quibble: the sound on the Atari ST was mono. But in perspective, the PC/DOS world at the time was CGA/EGA and sound was the PC speaker.
Re:Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:2)
I dunno man. I never got the sound direction to work properly. My sound came from the right when the monsters came from the left and vice versa. I still have nightmares where the monsters appear from the other side.
What is wrong with you guys? (Score:5, Insightful)
Leave the poor poster alone. So what if he loved the game. Big deal. We all have our opinions. He isn't even saying anything trollish or stupid. He just loved the game.
Does it make you all feel big to say something completely irrelevent to try to make another guy feel stupid (even though I see no proff in the post) just so you can make yourselves feel better about not having a girlfriend?
No one is as elite as you make yourselves out to be.
Mod me down because I don't give a shit anymore. I always think its funny that the worst offenders are some guy named "Anonymous Coward". Man that guy is an asshole!
Re:What is wrong with you guys? (Score:1)
I usually don't even bother reading what this guy Anonymous Coward has to say... I mean, after all, if it was so important, he'd want everyone to know who was saying it, now wouldn't he!
Re:What is wrong with you guys? (Score:2)
Another useful tool for using the anonymous coward option is for posting information that'd otherwise be miscontrued as "karma whoring." It'll still get moderated to +5 for the reader's benefit, and the thread won't be littered with "Mr.SlahdotUser is KARMA WHORING!" posts.
Re:What is wrong with you guys? (Score:1)
Yes I know I can set my threshold higher. It gives you a better all around view of what the other dumbasses are thinking though. Its like building software. You need to design it for the dumbest guy you know, not the smartest.
Ahhh, good times. (Score:5, Funny)
throwing (Score:1)
hmm, in hindsight... (Score:1)
Re:Ahhh, good times. (Score:1)
Re:Ahhh, good times. (Score:2, Funny)
I was tired one evening and started a fast session to get some adrenaline. The other guys in my room came up behind me to see why I was laughing and laughing. I was driving back and forth in the shallow water on the beach... (those pesky pedestrians run so slow in the water, he he!)
They looked strangely at me for a while. Could have something to do with me being their boss right then.
After I fell asleep in my chair once, I joked that they probably kept hair gel in their bags waiting for the next time -- so they could make me into a PHB for real! They looked guilty, probably thinking "He looks through our bags when we're out -- he is evil!" :-)
Re:Ahhh, good times. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ahhh, good times. (Score:2)
java is open? (Score:1)
"Monumentous?" (Score:1)
Return To Chaos-Why let the chaos stop? (Score:4, Informative)
The impetus - Return to Chaos, George Gilbert's much-appreciated rehack of DM. DM PC doesn't do much sound, so this is a godsend for all of us who missed the atmosphere of this game. I never forgot the chill generated by this classic.
http://www.ragingmole.com/RTC/
Props to Mr Gilbert for a top hack. Now back to getting my crew nearer Archmaster everything. Level 6 fireballs ahoy!
OMG YES YES YES (Score:2)
Chaos Strikes Back is my #1 all time fav RPG ever!
Summary (Score:5, Funny)
{
public native void launch();
public void main() {new DungeonMaster.launch();}
static {System.loadLibrary("DungeonMaster");}
}
Just kidding ;-)
Dungeon Keeper was better (Score:2)
Re:Dungeon Keeper was better (Score:2, Informative)
Big sloppy mess and bad design (Score:1)
On the download page [pitt.edu] of "Dungeon Master Java" Alandale writes that the code is a big sloppy mess and it is badly designed. I would like to know what are the biggest design mistakes he made writing the game, and how would he designed it today?
Maybe he is reading Slashdot and can reply to my questions.
Thank you very much.
Re:Big sloppy mess and bad design (Score:1)
p2p link for download (Score:3, Interesting)
Or search for DMJava1.05.exe on Gnutella 1 or 2
magnet [magnet]
gnutella [gnutella]
For best results, use Shareaza [shareaza.com].
java version p2p link for download (Score:2)
magnet [magnet]
Well, its nice... (Score:1, Informative)
Btw, other nice Java tries can be found at Javagaming [javagaming.org].
And: Compared to a lot of actual games the gameplay is still very good.ack (Score:1)
There's no funny documentation! (Score:3)
I remember the day when I got Dungeon Master. Not only was it a very cool and amazing and interesting game (yeah, I got it many many many years after the release, but it was still true and still is!), but the documentation was also funny.
The story was decent enough. Magic stuff was interesting. The game docs had odd stuff in it, including a mention in the box that broadcasting of the game without specific approval of the copyright holder was illegal.
Actual quote from the manual: "To begin your adventure, remove the game disk from the box."
And people these days complain that tutorials are stupid... sheesh.
Offtopic, but I can't resist (Score:2)
While trying to load the DMJava site in a separate tab in Moz, I noticed that the original tab's title is
Original had great copy protection (Score:4, Informative)
Except that, if you'd copied the floppy on the ST, the door wouldn't open. The game would load up, it would let you waste an hour of your life picking the characters, it just wouldn't let you actually play anything at the other end. And it never told you why either - if you had no access to the originals, then you'd never know what you'd done wrong.
Appealed to my twisted sense of humour, that did.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Original had great copy protection (Score:2)
You see, Dungeon Master was the whole reason I bought an ST. I found a ST 520 (not the FM, external floppy) used, along with boxes of original game disks for relatively cheap back around 1989. Dungeon master NEVER worked for me. For some reason, the original, labeled disks didn't work, and triggered the "protection".
The ST was basically stolen from me by a (fly-by night, I discovered) Consignment shop. Never got a cent for it and they went out of business. As I was in college and DIRT poor at the time, I couldn't really pursue the issue (the machine was in consignment for a LONG time), but the owner of that shop, well he'd better pray he never meets me in a dark alley.
Anyhow, at least now I can PLAY the game that I read so much about. Dungeon Master II never ran correctly on my PC back then (probably DR Dos or the Cyrix 4x86 were the cause).
DM was the first and last great dungeon game. . . (Score:4, Interesting)
You could pick up and throw anything in that game! And I swear, sitting there, 15 years old or whatever I was, in my basement bedroom at 4:00 in the A.M. after having started playing shortly after getting home from school the previous day. . . (Heck, I even skipped Letterman!), partly due to the still undigested dazzling newness of the game's graphics and design, partly because of the incredible stereo sounds, (and partly because I was already in a basement), I looked up and blinked at one point, realizing that my body and senses had adjusted so that they really believed they were 18 levels deep beneath the earth. Like leaning during a flight sim, but on a grand scale. . , No game has ever done that to me before or since. Possibly being 15 had something to do with it as well.
Dark Forces was also incredibly cool from a newness and game play perspective, (Doom was just a little too dumb and morbid for me to really care; It never asked me to do anything I would have honestly given my life to achieve, steal the Death Star plans! I mean, holy shit! Leia and friends were counting on me! --Remember, Dark Forces was pre-crap Star Wars). And Command & Conquer was pretty mind-blowing as well. And Half-Life was the best written one of the lot. But I swear, DM is still perhaps only the third-last watershed innovation in computer gaming, which is saying an enormous amount considering when it came out! Nearly everything since has been a photocopy of a photocopy with little more than better graphics and broader scope to offer.
It is probably a personal perspective thing to some degree, (and what isn't?), the latest game experience may be similarly spectacular and exciting for a young kid with his first computer, --though how can young kids today ever know the experience of discovering computers?; rather, these days one is born into computers. So that variety of 'Newness' isn't really something a kid can live through in quite the same way. . , (Like the early days of the industrial/scientific revolution when people were not jaded, and Sherlock Holmes would cry with a sparkle, "Watson, with me!" and throw a revolver into his pocket before leaping out into the land of wonders, where magic and science still co-mingled; where all of the world had not yet been explored.), but for me at any rate, the days of basement bedrooms turned dungeon, and open-eyed awe for the sheer brilliance of computer innovation are long, long gone.
Ah sweet innocence! I tell you, the 70's was the last great decade to be born in.
-Fantastic Lad
Re:DM was the first and last great dungeon game. . (Score:2)
Kinda off-topic, and possibly flame-bait and troll in one, but I would disagree...I was born in 1980, and I still remember the early days of computing. I started with an old TRS-80, and I still have several games that I'll run on my computer from the old text-based adventure "era".
And I fully agree that kids brought up in the younger generations just don't have the appriciation of the older games. I was showing one of my friends younger brother Adventure (yes, I still have a working copy
I swear...kids today.....no imaginations.......
Just my 2% of a dollar worth....
Ah, memory filters. . . (Score:2)
Ah, a Monkey child!
Welcome, Blue Warrior!
--The 80's for a teen, (me), was a plastic-coated, Michael J. Fox inspired, Top-Gun, Indiana Jones & Lucasfilm, John Huges & Coin-op sort of decade where the A-Bombs could still fall at any moment, Anime was still called Japanimation because it was so utterly new that only the coolest of the cool geeks even knew it existed, the music was souless, peppy & candy-coated, and it was still possible to go outside without sun protection and not turn to into a strip of bacon in under twenty minutes. And with fucking Reagan teetering at the helm, the whole thing seemed rather like a surreal theme-park ride. --And theme-parks are certainly fun, especially if you were a teen.
What was it like being under 10 years old during that period? I've never really asked anybody.
Cuz, after all, every decade has its unique delights and horrors to offer its own.
-Fantastic Lad
Re:Ah, memory filters. . . (Score:2)
One thing I do remember though, is that Thundercats and Voltron RULED!!!!!
License? (Score:2)
Playing hints (Score:3, Informative)
A hint when it comes to picking characters - rasing your magic skills are the most difficult, and I believe you get an exponential mana increase for every level, so pick characters with high initial magic skills. I believe it was the big hairy monster, the little blond kid, one of the ladies (a priestess or druidess?) and one more...a shadowninja type? Not the coolest characters, but they will be the most powerful in the end.
Ninja skills are increased simply by throwing things, any things. You don't have to hit any monster, at least not in the original. So just dump all your things in a big heap at the end of a long corridor, select one character and start tossing things back and forward until you are bored out of your skull.
Warrior skills are increased more quickly when you are hitting a monster. A good area is the 2x2 square room a couple of levels down which spawns an infinite number of those squeaking broccoli things. Open the door and start bashing on them, and pick up their parts when they die. When you need to heal, just close the door again, feed broccoli parts to your characters and start practicing your healing potions.
Alternate Ending (Score:2, Interesting)
In addition to all the other innovations mentioned elsewhere, Dungeon Master was one of the first games to have an alternate ending. Yes, every game now ships with four or five different endings, but in 1987 this was considered extremely cool. It was also somewhat "hidden", in that most people who played the game never found it.
The "real" storyline of the game involves finding a staff, finding a gem, fusing them together and then killing Foozle the Wizard. But the actual quest layed out in the manual only mentions getting the staff and returning it to the "good guy" wizard who sends you on the quest.
Do that, and you get a brief and somewhat surprising alternate ending to the game.
Re:OT: Strange thing, Slashdot bug here (Score:1)
Re:OT: Strange thing, Slashdot bug here (Score:1)
Seriously, I've never noticed it before. Even with my posts that are modded to 0. Maybe I will do some tests to see. Or maybe it's in the faq.
Thanks for the response. Which, by the way, was at the bottom of the page, where responses to under-threshold comments usually are. It wasn't attached to my original or followup post. Stranger and stranger.
Re:OT: Strange thing, Slashdot bug here (Score:1)
Ah, there's your problem. You need at least a +3 Keyboard of Posting to be successful.
Re:Was that a precursor (Score:1)
Re:Boot Times and proportionality (Score:2)
Step 1. Machine fine.
Step 2. Patch, no reboot.
Step 3. 6 months later, reboot.
Step 4. Wonder when stuff broke.
You _are_ putting on patches, right? A patched system is better than a high uptime system, in most cases.
Re:13 MB????? (Score:3, Funny)