Nethack?

[Dzz]

My report (based on a few minutes of playing, having no experience with nethack):
The "name chooser" is not very intuitive. I know the correct buttons are listed below it, but using "b" to select a letter would be much more intuitive. I think the emerging standard for GP2x interfaces is:
B -> small confirm
start -> large confirm
Well, the "start" behaviour is standard for other gaming consoles anyway. ("quit" for start is just bass-ackwards)

Could you give me the assignments you thing would be a good idea for all of the possible options in that dialog? (select default string, select letter, select currently entered string, erase)? If I change it i'll need to carry the changes through to other menu things as well but there's no reason i HAVE to use the choices I made here.

The "alignment" chooser only lists Lawful and Neutral. Chaotic appears to be missing.

It depends on which character class you choose. Only certain alignements are legal for certain classes.

I see you've mappend non-picking-up moves to the buttons. Nothing wrong with that; I was getting kinda tired of carrying corpses around everywhere . But there's no "pick up" item on the menu if you stand over an object. By hitting all buttons I figured out that stick-press was mapped to "pick up", but it should be in a context menu somewhere as well.

I can add "pick up" to the context menu when appropriate.

Could the "things that are here" popup be made non-modal? This may be a bit much to ask but it's much easier if you get a "things that are here" popup just shows and you can immediately proceed with pickups and whatever without having to dismiss it first.

I can put that on the list but it would be major surgery to the Nethack codebase.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Dzz]

Ok, I'm releasing version 0.2 of my Nethack port for testing. Here's what's new:

* The gnomish mines bug (and hopefully related bugs dealing with special content) should be fixed
* The bug with wearing rings has been fixed
* An auto-repeat has been added to the joystick button so you can search or rest many times easily
* Menu flickering with 2.0 firmware fixed
* You can add custom 32x32 or 16x16 tiles.

The download ships with a set of tiles that Allan found to show you how to put your own tile sets in. Basically they have to be called "tiles32.png" and "tiles16.png" and must have the graphic locations in the proper spot.

If you look up a few posts, you'll see my todo list which may or may not ever get fully cleared out. If you want to vote for which things should get done sooner, please do. Any further bug reports or additions are of course very welcome, and feel free to make any other comments. Now that I have this stupid 'nhdat' problem hopefully solved I can work on more stuff.

http://gp2xgamer.com/nethack02.zip

Thanks!

 

[Dzz]

Could the "things that are here" popup be made non-modal? This may be a bit much to ask but it's much easier if you get a "things that are here" popup just shows and you can immediately proceed with pickups and whatever without having to dismiss it first.

Oops, I misunderstood what you meant by this; I should be able to do this with a bit of effort, it'sa good idea.

 

[hitbyambulance]

the most important things are to be able to play the game like the original.

C) Columns lining up in multi-column menu dialogs

bugfix - worth doing

D) Odd graphic display in some menu dialogs

bugfix - also should be done

G) Extend keyboard for keyboard-specific commands:
H) Engrave command
I) Wish
J) Name
K) Polymorph control
O) Add Dip and Quaff to context-specific menu on fountains

these are very important

Q) High Score table
R) RIP screen on death

and i think these are vital to the Nethack 'atmosphere'.

 

[RiX0R]

Could you give me the assignments you thing would be a good idea for all of the possible options in that dialog? (select default string, select letter, select currently entered string, erase)? If I change it i'll need to carry the changes through to other menu things as well but there's no reason i HAVE to use the choices I made here.

Why certainly.

B -> select letter
X -> erase letter (already there)
start -> done
select -> select default, but without confirming, so you can review

If you want to add different character sets (capitals, symbols, ...), I would use maybe use L and R to page through them, BUT intensive use may lead to an accidental hit of the L+R exit combo.

Thanks for the new version! But why don't you just add it to the file archive?

Edit: Ew the new default graphics are ugly

 

[Muncher666]

Edit: Ew the new default graphics are ugly

They're CLASSIC, dammit! Bear in mind that Nethack used to be an ANSI based game.

The other tileset is much more graphically pretty, but the pho-ansi one warms my heart cockles.

EDIT: Started playing the new beta, much props to dzz - one little bug that I forgot to mention earlier, when you choose to pick up gold from a menu it automatically assumes that you only want to pick up one piece. This means that you must clear a pile of stuff of anything but the gold to pick it all up without going insane. I believe this affects all object multiples.

Allan.

 

[Dzz]

the most important things are to be able to play the game like the original. ...

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Dzz]

B -> select letter
X -> erase letter (already there)
start -> done
select -> select default, but without confirming, so you can review

Unless somebody objects I will change it roughly to that. It doesn't require me to change any other assignments elsewhere in the game.

Thanks for the new version! But why don't you just add it to the file archive?

I want to wait until I get to a point where a version is good enough before distributing it beyond this small group of testers. I'm thinking it should get there by 0.4 or 0.5.

Edit: Ew the new default graphics are ugly

These tilesets are probably a matter of taste. For a general release I'm not sure exactly how to deal with it... probably I won't distribute any extra tiles but will have some instructions about where to get alternate tile sets. I just wanted to include some with this build so they could be tested. Just to make sure it's clear, you can just delete those png files to go back to the default tiles.

I'm not going to release the other two tile sets that Allan gave me yet -- they both need a feature that I haven't put in yet, which is to make the tiles for the creatures and objects "transparent" -- not quite sure how i'm going to do it but they don't look very good right now. If Allan wants to he could release them but I think testers would be disappointed in the results.

EDIT: Started playing the new beta, much props to dzz - one little bug that I forgot to mention earlier, when you choose to pick up gold from a menu it automatically assumes that you only want to pick up one piece. This means that you must clear a pile of stuff of anything but the gold to pick it all up without going insane. I believe this affects all object multiples.

Thanks for the report. I'll update the todo list soon to reflect these new reports.

 

[jbrodack]

the menus still seem to flicker with firmware 2.0.

 

[Dzz]

the menus still seem to flicker with firmware 2.0.

Does anybody else see this behavior? I certainly do not... Thanks for the report, let's try to nail this down.

Oh one thing to check, if you look at the bottom line on the first few screens it gives the version number, could you make sure that it's version 0.2 that is showing the flickering?

Thanks!

 

[RiX0R]

Does anybody else see this behavior? I certainly do not... Thanks for the report, let's try to nail this down.

Oh one thing to check, if you look at the bottom line on the first few screens it gives the version number, could you make sure that it's version 0.2 that is showing the flickering?

Confirmed, v0.2 does flicker, albeit a lot less than 0.1. I'm seeing it right now on the character class selection screen. The flicker isn't as bad as it used to be; the top half of the screen flickers every 2 seconds or so.

Also, is there an efficient way of dropping multiple items?

F. ex. I want to drop my stash of 30 rocks, because I'm burdened and not using my slingshot anyway. The way it is now I have to drop rock by rock...


Edit: the time between the flickers seems to depend on the amount of text that is shown for the character description. More text equals more flicker. Compare: Priest, every few seconds, to Knight, almost none.

 

[Dzz]

Confirmed, v0.2 does flicker, albeit a lot less than 0.1. I'm seeing it right now on the character class selection screen. The flicker isn't as bad as it used to be; the top half of the screen flickers every 2 seconds or so.

Ah, okay, this would be a different kind of flicker then

I will look into it. Is it so annoying that it will keep you from playing or testing this version? If so I'll figure it out and release a new version, otherwise I'll wait for 0.3. I think I have an idea what might be causing it.

Also, is there an efficient way of dropping multiple items?

Good suggestion, I'll work on it. I don't want to interfere with the flow for the "normal" case where you just want to drop something. I think what I'll do is if you have more than one of a thing I should write a new little dialog that lets you choose how many.

 

[sardaukar]

Confirming flicker here too, on FW 2.0.0 - and also, during gameplay, not just at the set-up character screens.

The new tileset is ... different. :lol: I believe, for sake of choice and since v0.1 was so popular that we could have a tile selector for v0.4... please...

 

[Astropath]

Nethack v 0.2, GP2X Firmware 2.0.0

On flicker - I had LCD setting slider in "Settings" to approximately middle of slider bar (as I'm not bothered by scanlines), and the flicker was considerable - though it was more homogenous than in 0.1 Nethack version (in 0.1 it flickered irregularly, now it flickers with regular intervals, which is less irritating for the eyes).

Then I moved LCD setting slider to the leftmost position (as it is recommended if you want to eliminate scanlines) - flickering dropped down almost to nil. But is is still very noticeable. And it's occuring on the top-screen grey bar too (not just in the dialogs).

Therefore, I'm afraid we all will have to agree on what LCD slider position we shall test against flickering, because it seems to vary greatly.

Thanx to Dzz again, and congratulations on becoming Official Guru!

 

[Dzz]

Nethack v 0.2, GP2X Firmware 2.0.0

On flicker - I had LCD setting slider in "Settings" to approximately middle of slider bar (as I'm not bothered by scanlines), and the flicker was considerable - though it was more homogenous than in 0.1 Nethack version (in 0.1 it flickered irregularly, now it flickers with regular intervals, which is less irritating for the eyes).

Then I moved LCD setting slider to the leftmost position (as it is recommended if you want to eliminate scanlines) - flickering dropped down almost to nil. But is is still very noticeable. And it's occuring on the top-screen grey bar too (not just in the dialogs).

Hmm, this is certainly odd. The only time I'm able to get a flickering effect is if I push the LCD slider all the way to the right and in that case I also see flicker when viewing detailed images in the picture viewer for example.

If you have a minute, could you fetch http://www.gp2xgamer.com/nethack.gpe and try that one? I made a small code change that might help, but I'm not sure. Thanks! Just copy that nethack.gpe over the one in the 0.2 distribution.

 

[Astropath]

Hmm, this is certainly odd. The only time I'm able to get a flickering effect is if I push the LCD slider all the way to the right and in that case I also see flicker when viewing detailed images in the picture viewer for example.

If you have a minute, could you fetch http://www.gp2xgamer.com/nethack.gpe and try that one? I made a small code change that might help, but I'm not sure. Thanks! Just copy that nethack.gpe over the one in the 0.2 distribution.

Okayz, great, no flicker!!!!!
Just downloaded and installed as you told me - no flicker at all!

Lemme just try this with different LCD settings (now it's all the way to the left).

Thanx!!!

Uh, oh

It started crashing (I havent moved the slider yet, so it's not connected).

After I select the name, class, race, sex and alignment, the game falls out back into system (before message from your god).

 

[Dzz]

Hmm, this is certainly odd. The only time I'm able to get a flickering effect is if I push the LCD slider all the way to the right and in that case I also see flicker when viewing detailed images in the picture viewer for example.

If you have a minute, could you fetch http://www.gp2xgamer.com/nethack.gpe and try that one? I made a small code change that might help, but I'm not sure. Thanks! Just copy that nethack.gpe over the one in the 0.2 distribution.

Okayz, great, no flicker!!!!!
Just downloaded and installed as you told me - no flicker at all!

Lemme just try this with different LCD settings (now it's all the way to the left).

Thanx!!!

Uh, oh

It started crashing (I havent moved the slider yet, so it's not connected).

After I select the name, class, race, sex and alignment, the game falls out back into system (before message from your god).

Thanks for your continued testing. Could you do me another favor and tell me the exact size in bytes of the 'nhdat' file that is in the same place on your SD card as the nethack.gpe that you are testing?

 

[Astropath]

Okay, I deleted "repeat.dat", and started from scratch, and it still crashes after alignment selection.

I think, that for tiny fraction of a second I saw some message appearing before crash, but there's no way I coudl read it.

No flicker, though (on any LCD setting).

Respect!

Thanks for your continued testing. Could you do me another favor and tell me the exact size in bytes of the 'nhdat' file that is in the same place on your SD card as the nethack.gpe that you are testing?

Okay, I checked the size of nhdat = 606,208 bytes
And the favour is entirely yours, thanx for doing this for us all!

 

[Dzz]

Okay, I checked the size of nhdat = 606,208 bytes

Hmm, now I'm more confused than ever! I think the only nhdat files I have distributed are 603,870 and 601,332 bytes in size. I wonder if the archive might have been corrupted somehow. Could you do me another favor and redownload the distribution from http://www.gp2xgamer.com/nethack02.zip

Thanks, we'll get to the bottom of this. The symptom you see where it bombs back to the menu after the character creation thing happens when the program doesn't recognize the nhdat file, either because it is the wrong version or because it is weird in some way.

 

[Astropath]

Okay, the forum is back.
I'm still here for testing for another half-hour, and back tomorrow at 10:00 am (GMT +3:00)

Respect

Okay, it works, and no flicker either.

Do you want me to send you the old nhdat file? One that's 606 thousand bytes large?
If so, PM me your e-mail.

Thanx!