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Java Programming Entertainment Games IT Technology

Source Code To Dungeon Master Java Released 189

Posted by Hemos from the released-into-the-world dept.
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.
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Source Code To Dungeon Master Java Released More

Source Code To Dungeon Master Java Released

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  • The death of $lashdot (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wouldn't pay for this shit. I don't think ANYONE with half a brain would.

    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] .

  • But i thought JAVA was invented in early 90s ?

    • Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:5, Informative)

      by nstrom ( 152310 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:33PM (#5425479)
      Dungeon Master was a 1987 game from FTL, Inc. released for the Apple IIGS, IBM PC, and Amiga. Dungeon Master Java was a recently-made clone written in Java.

      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)

        by terrymr ( 316118 ) <terrymr@@@gmail...com> on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:35PM (#5425494)
        Dungeon Master was a 1987 game from FTL, Inc. released for the Apple IIGS, IBM PC, and Amiga.

        ... Atari ST too !
      • i played my version on an atari.

      • Re:JAVA ... ? (Score:2, Informative)

        by sloth jr ( 88200 )
        DungeonMaster was originally released only for the Atari ST. To say it was a success would be a huge understatement. People bought Atari STs JUST for DM (I worked retail selling them at the time). This was a bit of a last ditch effort for FTL at the time, as SunDog, great game as it was, wasn't paying many bills. DM put them in a place where they didn't have to worry about money, if not ever, then at least for a while.

        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.

    • 1991 to be specific, though not released till 1995. And to answer your implied question: Java DungeonMaster is a remake of the game released in 1987, so it is irrelavent when Java was created.

  • Great (Score:5, Funny)

    by govtcheez ( 524087 ) <govtcheez03@hotmail.com> on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:32PM (#5425469) Homepage
    I loved Dungeon Master.

    Thanks, Hemos. That's wonderful. I love Mexican food. Isn't that cool? ;)

  • Other article (Score:4, Informative)

    by L7_ ( 645377 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:35PM (#5425496)
    The comments that the poster is talking about can be found here [slashdot.org].

  • "I loved Dungeon Master" (Score:5, Funny)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:37PM (#5425511) Journal
    Well that explains a LOT.

    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.
    • see, now he's going to receive mail from thousands of lonely DM's, inviting him to come "roleplay" with them.

      gah.
    • "vorpal sword"

      Now you've made it seem dirty.

      • Not as dirty as a Bastard Sword

        Or a Sneaky Bastard Sword (In joke for Munchkin players)
        • I just bought Munchkin yesterday (after playing it a few times at school) - is the Unnatural Axe worth picking up?
          • is the Unnatural Axe worth picking up?

            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)

    by dledeaux ( 174743 )
    Those freakin ghosts ... scared the bejeebees outa me.

  • Dungeon Master.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:38PM (#5425521)
    ... helping people stay virgins since 1987.

    • Re:Dungeon Master.... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      ... helping people stay virgins since 1987.

      Actually, I lost my virginity to a Frost Giant, but I really don't like to talk about it...
  • ...the interactive NWN toolset?

    if {
    website==/.'ed,
    then FindBetterHost=True;
    }

    or something.

  • this is a pre-emptive "ssshhh" (Score:5, Informative)

    by sczimme ( 603413 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:39PM (#5425527)

    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 /.ing or out of habit) and complain that the original game was not written in Java...

  • Google cache (Score:5, Informative)

    by CaptainBaz ( 621098 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:40PM (#5425533) Homepage Journal
    Browse the google cached pages from here [google.com] :-)

  • Museum piece (Score:4, Insightful)

    by petronivs ( 633683 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:40PM (#5425536) Journal
    I know I'll get flamed for this...sigh
    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)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:42PM (#5425552) Journal
      There is no code for Pong, it was completely done with logic. No CPU, no program, no code!

    • Re:Museum piece (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Newer doesn't mean better. Nine of the best 10 video games ever made are at least a decade old. Just yesterday, slashdot had an article about what's wrong with the video game industry today.

      • Re:Museum piece (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Hast ( 24833 )
        You only think that because you haven't played the old games lately.

        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".
    • I don't know if that's the case, but we've heard of "old classics" that are going to have a new life thanks to "cell-phone" porting.

      What about playing DM on your java-enabled phone?
      (disclaimer: I'm not going to :-)
    • What kind of impact will this have? It's a Java port of a 15+ year old game!

      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. :)
    • Well, the tagline for Slashdot is "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters."

      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)

      by Malor ( 3658 )
      I guess you had to be there. :-)

      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.
    • You sound just like the guy who answered one of my Doom Source posts yesterday. I was commenting on all the great stuff that has been done with the engine, and the responder was like "why?".

      An AC put it in perspective. If you don't understand, you cant.

  • /. an edu (Score:3, Funny)

    by killernate ( 564602 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:43PM (#5425556)
    Some alumni need to help that school out. Can't handle a little /.

    • Re:/. an edu (Score:4, Funny)

      by That_Dan_Guy ( 589967 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @03:00PM (#5425663)
      I can just imagine the look on the poor Network administrator's face when he finds out his server has been swamped by requests. Wonder if he'll figure out who's to blame before he reads it on /.
    • Professor: Why did you submit your assignment late? Student: The server was down. Professor: OUR severs NEVER go down. --A COE student that is glad it is Spring Break here in Pittsburgh!

  • Slashdotted... Google cache... (Score:3, Informative)

    by $$$$$exyGal ( 638164 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:44PM (#5425560) Homepage Journal
    Here's the google cache:

  • The code must be ugly... (Score:5, Funny)

    by $$$$$exyGal ( 638164 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:48PM (#5425590) Homepage Journal
    The author of the code writes:

    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 ;-)

    • Well, in the specific case of DM Java, the code does suffer from some severe memory leakage. Probably the biggest complaint about the game in its current state is that it will always crash when it uses up all available memory.

      The source code has been available for some time, but maybe some extremely bored Slashdot reader will try to help.
      • I thought Java was the magic "never worry about memory because we have GC, hah hah, take that you C++ nerds" language?
        • As long as it's possible to travel references to a given object, it will not be garbage collected. Something that runs in a continous fasion, e.g. this game, has the potential to run out of memory just as easy any C++ program. The "magic" that you speak of is never having to write a destructor except for rare circumstances.
    • Ah, but in this particular case, I really think it is really, really, really, really... UGLY.

      Really, I do.

  • whoops! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:49PM (#5425600) Homepage Journal
    For a minute I thought this story was about S&M, and I didn't want to meet whoever 'Java' was...

  • Dungeon Master Was a Classic. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Woodie ( 8139 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:51PM (#5425609) Homepage
    Hey -

    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)

      by Telastyn ( 206146 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @03:12PM (#5425734)
      1>

      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...
    • Yeah, it always pissed me off that SSI's Eye of the Beholder series was a straight ripoff of Dungeon Master, only adapted to the D&D rules. DM's spellcasting system actually MADE SENSE. Although I never did find the zokathra spell, I found out about it through my roommate.
      • I discovered it very early on by just trying different combinations out. For the longest time I had no idea what to use it for though - it made a doo-dad that looked a bit like a PizzaHut table candle when set on the ground, but other than that seemed perfectly useless. I'd create dozens of them just to use as markers.

        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.
    • 1> Distance, too: you move a lever, hear it move, and hear a door move in the distance, or a fireball "foom", or a slew of new skeletons appear!

      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

    • Take a look at Wizardry on the Apple ][. Thats the game Dungeon Master perhaps aspired to be.
    • Stereo sound on the Amiga and Atari systems was used for directional sound.

      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.

    • >> 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..

      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)

    by dragontooth ( 604494 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @02:53PM (#5425624) Homepage

    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!

    • If you set your /. threshold to 1, you cast a magic spell that makes this evil Anonymous Coward disappear (most of the time, anyhow).

      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!
      • There are circumstances where it's nice to be able to write anonymousely about an "incident" that happened at one's work. This adds to the discussion by giving out inside information, but at the same time it protects the employee from retribution.

        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.

    • 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)

    by fleener ( 140714 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @03:00PM (#5425666)
    Dungeon Master was the first and only game to give me homicidal tendencies after prolonged use. I vividly remember walking out of my darkened room, encountering my brother in the hallway and having the impulse to throw a club at him.
    • I just had the impulse to throw screamer slices ;)
    • ...perhaps my brutal attack on my brother with a club would have benefitted from an excuse like that. damn why didn't i think of that?
    • So you've decided to try to grab some more karma again [slashdot.org]? :)
    • Dungeon Master was the first and only game to give me homicidal tendencies
      Carmageddon... :-)

      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!" :-)

    • Dungeon Master taught me to take advantage of a game's skill system. I sat for hours facing a wall throwing morning stars to increase my rouge skills.
  • Besides from licensens and such, isn't java kind of open already (p-code)? So for those who have been intressted in reading the code before now, this isn't directly a breakthrough, is it?

  • "Monumentous?" (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is that a word?

  • Return To Chaos-Why let the chaos stop? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lucius Sour ( 636091 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @03:30PM (#5425864) Journal
    Weird! I've just got back into the hack 'n' slash of DM again on my Losedows boxen (not my fault - I need them for work until the excellent Rosegarden is a drop-in replacement for VST)

    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!

  • Summary (Score:5, Funny)

    by dubbayu_d_40 ( 622643 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @03:42PM (#5425969)
    public class DungeonMaster
    {
    public native void launch();
    public void main() {new DungeonMaster.launch();}
    static {System.loadLibrary("DungeonMaster");}
    }

    Just kidding ;-)

  • There is just something fun about creating dungeons for intrepid adventurers to explore and die in :D


  • 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.

    • I finally got through and was able to download the source code. A brief look at it shows that the main java class source is 841KB. The map editor is another 222KB file. There are a few other classes that are big enough that could probably use some refactoring into either more general classes or have the functionality split out better. Then on the other end of the spectrum I see several classes with names like XXXData.java. They just only contain a few attributes that would be better served in a data file. Mind you this is only my first five minutes look at the code. It doesn't look very maintainable. Most of the functionality seems to be globbed in a few select classes. Use of packages, inheritance and interfaces would be one of the first things I would do if I was taking on the code. Packages for seperation. Inheritance/interfaces for code reuse.

  • p2p link for download (Score:3, Interesting)

    by havaloc ( 50551 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @04:16PM (#5426246) Homepage
    Here are some links to download the windows copy of the game.
    Or search for DMJava1.05.exe on Gnutella 1 or 2
    magnet [magnet]
    gnutella [gnutella]
    For best results, use Shareaza [shareaza.com].

  • Well, its nice... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I mean really, compared with other Java games it is realy nice!

    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.
  • cant sleep, the purple worms will eat me.

  • There's no funny documentation! (Score:3)

    by WWWWolf ( 2428 ) <wwwwolf@iki.fi> on Monday March 03, 2003 @05:34PM (#5426925) Homepage

    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.

  • While trying to load the DMJava site in a separate tab in Moz, I noticed that the original tab's title is

    "Slashdot | Source Code to Dung..."

  • Original had great copy protection (Score:4, Informative)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @05:47PM (#5427089) Homepage
    At the beginning of the game, you have to wander around the Hall of Champions and pick your four adventurers. Depending on what sort of game you wanted, this could take quite some time. Once you'd chosen to perfection, you then stepped on a pressure plate to open the door to the dungeons beyond...

    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

    • Ah yes. The first copy protection scheme ever to piss me off.

      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)

    by Fantastic Lad ( 198284 ) on Monday March 03, 2003 @08:32PM (#5428782)
    Dungeon Master was the best first-person D&D adventure experience I ever had on a computer.

    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

    • Ah sweet innocence! I tell you, the 70's was the last great decade to be born in.

      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 :p:p) and the old text-and-ASCII version of NetHack, and all he could ask was, "How can you play that? You can't see anything!"

      I swear...kids today.....no imaginations.......

      Just my 2% of a dollar worth....
      • I was born in 1980, and I still remember the early days of computing. I started with an old TRS-80,


        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

  • And what license would this be under? I can't find it in the source files (grep -i "license" *java"), nor can I find it on the website or the message board. It'd be nice to have this in Debian, but without a license it can't be done.

  • Playing hints (Score:3, Informative)

    by LarsWestergren ( 9033 ) on Tuesday March 04, 2003 @03:20AM (#5431050) Homepage Journal
    Cool, I can't recall how much time I wasted on this game as a kid.

    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)

    by Maple Leafs ( 655144 )
    I'm late on posting this, but oh well...

    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.

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