Nethack

[Kannibaal]

I'm not sure if this is a bug or it's intentional, but you can't move diagonally from a door square.

Also, is it meant to be possible to get trapped and not be able to proceed further downwards? 3rd floor down and a boulder blocked the only unexplored passage

Great port though! Really enjoying it.

Nethack sees the doorway as a special case due to the shopkeepers blocking the entrance when you did not pay your items. If you would move diagonally you would move past the shopkeeper (who would call for the keystone cops to get you!)

When a boulder is blocking your passage not all is lost.
Normally you can search your way through the level, you can "ahum" undress yourself and try to slide past the boulder. You could get a pick-axe, you could....

The saying goes: "The nethack dev-team is thinking of everything!" try things like zapping a wand of stone to flesh and eating through the boulder (I did not try this, it probably does not work but who knows :rolleyes: )

If you cannot go down further, look around for statues or other things to move, who knows what you find underneath

Marco

 

[gaterooze]

Thanks for the hints, Kannibaal!

Dzz, I would like to request a feature -- when you die, can it return to the opening instead of quitting back to the GP2x menu?

 

[Ze_ro]

Hm, I tried to go down some stairs, and my game crashed back to the GP2X Menu. Now I can't seem to load my save <_<

NetHack deletes your save file when you load it. Unlike other RPG's out there, when you die, you are officially dead and it really is game over. Unfortunately, this also means that in the event of a crash, your save file is gone for good and it's game over.

--Zero

 

[Kannibaal]

DZZ at the moment I do not have problems moving diagonally. (I have a MKII)

The only thing which could be convenient for me is when you have the dialog "which direction" after selecting shooting, zapping, or throwing to have an option to highlight the 8 directions (maybe the tiles around the player can show an arrow pointing to the choosen direction) after which you can shoot or zap in that direction.

Example,

Zap wand, - which direction (choose with joystick, view direction on screen) press B to Zap in choosen direction.

I've noticed that when I'm going to the gnomish mines that it is not reflected in any change of the tiles shown. Normally the mines are cavelike. Could it be that the tiles do not support them or is there a flag not set? I assume that other levels "Planes, Gehenna etc." should also change tiles although I've never been there yet!

I've been playing for years and still haven't been further then dungeon level 10 or so...

Marco

 

[Astropath]

First of all - my continued thanks to Dzz for great project!

Since there are already two ports of Nethack for the gp2x though, you could consider doing one of the other popular roguelike games (moria, angband, etc).

Another REALLY GREAT Roguelike is Valhalla AKA Ragnarok. It's unbelievably fantastic .
Unfortunately, the author of the game disappeared a few years ago (at strange circumstances, too) so my attempts to find the source code were to no avail.

 

[Astropath]

Of course, if the item is cursed, then you're finding out a little late. If you want to play it safe, you can use a scroll of identify.

A cheap way fo checking whether the item is cursed or not is thru your pet - pets won't step on cursed item, so you can drop your newly found items somewhere in the doorway and see whether the kitten (little dog) is stepping on it or not.


for Dzz

Here's the feedback:

I noticed that the port doesn't offer "context list" of items when prompting for item to choose for some action.

I.e. - When you do "Quaff", original Nethack lists only drinkable items - i.e. poitions (with an option to see all of the inventory in case you want to try something strange).
In case of "Read" - it only shows you readables (scrolls, mail daemon messages, spellbooks).
In case of "Apply" - it only shows you "tools", etc.
Again, in all above cases there's an option to see all of the inventory (for instance, if you want to try applying a sword to youself )

At the same time, when "wearing" - original only shows you armor (and no other options), cause AFAIK you cannot wear anything other than armor.

The ported game, however, lists the whole inventory every time, which is "unusual" for me at least.

the second most irritating gameplay feature is the way that the joystick can slide from horizontal to diagonal while trying to take one step, which results in two steps being taken. I intend to experiment with changing this so that you have to move the joystick back to the center to change directions.

This is what worries me in the background - while at the moment it's not that critical (while we all are still on top levels of the dungeon), but when you'll be going deeper into the dungeon, wrong step may result in GP2X smashed against the wall in a fit of rage. For this situations, maybe it's good idea to have a "Precision move" option, which will highlight the 8 tiles around the character, so you could select the one you definitely want to move on by cursor (or it can be done like in a "far look" fashion), so when you are fighting bunch of black dragons on a narrow walkway you'd have definite control of where you move.

 

[Kannibaal]

Small problem found in my lunchbreak.

When you drop everything (swords, food, scrolls etc.) and the inventory is empty you can still choose drop in the menu.

Then when choosing drop again the message window will go in a loop (something like you want to drop something, select blabla, you want to drop something, select bla bla, etc) The menu\'s still work but that is all, you need to shutdown the GP2X to exit.

There is somewhere a ascii tileset which I would like to use, I\'m used to ascii and an Ascii tileset would be a nice compromise I think.

For the rest, I\'m enjoying nethack more on my GP2X then on my desktop/laptop!!

Marco

 

[Dzz]

I noticed that the port doesn't offer "context list" of items when prompting for item to choose for some action.

Thanks for the feedback! I did this as a temporary measure to handle the case where you want to apply an action in a nonstandard way. For example, throwing food. What I want to do for 0.4 is go back to the smaller selection list like before, but add another entry at the bottom for "Show All" which will bring up the whole list (which is exactly what you suggested).

Thanks Kannibal for the bug report about the drop menu after you drop everything, i have never tried it

I have an idea for handling those rare cases where you really need to be sure you move to the correct square, but I need to think it through a bit more.

 

[Dzz]

Dzz, I would like to request a feature -- when you die, can it return to the opening instead of quitting back to the GP2x menu?

That would be nice, I agree. It looks like it would be rather difficult though... all of the program variables would have to be reset to their starting values. I have it on the wish list but I'm not too optimistic about it.

 

[Astropath]

I have an idea for handling those rare cases where you really need to be sure you move to the correct square, but I need to think it through a bit more.

In no way I am in a position to impose, but IMHo, selecting a square by cursor could be easy, no?
Especially as you already have cursor implemented in "far look"?
Or, will the "illegal move" be a problem then? (having to write a code that will check whether the square can be moved on legallly and in one turn?)

 

[Dzz]

I have an idea for handling those rare cases where you really need to be sure you move to the correct square, but I need to think it through a bit more.

In no way I am in a position to impose, but IMHo, selecting a square by cursor could be easy, no?
Especially as you already have cursor implemented in "far look"?
Or, will the "illegal move" be a problem then? (having to write a code that will check whether the square can be moved on legallly and in one turn?)

Yeah. What I want to do is make a new "choose a direction" mode which would be used both for this and for specifying direction for direction-based commands like "open", "zap", and so on. For this "Move" command, it will have to go into a menu somewhere which makes it a little inconvenient to get to but since you don't need this kind of definite precision very often that should be acceptable.

 

[DavidBeoulve]

I have avoided Nethack on the PC over the years because my Left Brain doesn't work very well - so coming up with words or meanings of symbols evades me. I can recount whole tales of WWII history and not recall a specific date (other than range) nor name a specific General (other than a few) - so Nethack and its ASCII symbols eluded my ability to play it. Then came the tilesets! Finally, visual references!

So I am quite enthused to try Nethack on my once and future GP2X which is currently being held by Jack Baur of the Counter-Terrorist Unit ("24" fame) arrives. I'm happy that my first real experience with Nethack will be on the GP2X because everything will be new to me - I won't be wishing something worked like it did on the PC - but I'll be able to tell if something needs tweaking for a handheld.

Plus it sounds like the kind of thing a guy could sink hours into so...

Thank you for this latest release, Dzz, publically!
I usually don't check e-mail/forums on the weekends.

Edit: Added the word arrives.

 

[Vynx]

I've been having a lot of fun with nethack - I havn't discovered anything interesting yet, except that I should really stop eating jackal corpses, nearly every time I've died so far has been from food poisoning :lol:

Are shopkeeper buy/sell rates random? Because he bought a green gem from me for 7 gold pieces, and wanted thousands to buy it back :blink:

Should have killed him...

 

[paulobecker]

I had never played NetHack before but was once addicted to Castle of the Winds, which seems very similar. If only NetHack had towns as CotW had... But even without towns, it seems like a very enjoyable RPG experience. Or so says the time when I died when trying to mount my pet. Now that gave me a good laugh. Thankfully I was only on the second level o.Ô

 

[Astropath]

Well, if you've never played NetHack before... Oh, well, it's 2006 on the yard, is it? Well, then, I guess I'll have to be telling you "a tale of an old man and Nethack" (if the floodmasters do allow me, and if my bad English won't be too BAD as to diverge a listener from my humble story).
First I played it was way back in 1993, when I officially worked for Apple Computer, Inc (&reg; and stuff)) and had a Macintosh IIvx as a best machine of a class for that year (AsFarAsIcanRemember).
I was amazed.
I am still.
Nethack is the deepest RPG you can ever have, bar Valhalla AKA Ragnarok and Moria 3 AKA Demise, Rise of Ku'Tan. And even there, Nethack is better, deeper, more complex, more hardcore, more hardcore, more hardcore, more hardcore, better, deeper option.

Just try reading through Nethack Spoilers (don't worry, the game is so massive, that reading the spoilers won't ruin the fun for you, as you'll never be able to get as many storyline outcomes, that spoilers list).
The Google word is "Nethack Spoilers"...

But getting back to my experiense, last thing I remember about me back in 1995 playing Nethack was I running away from a Behemoth, throwing shurikens at it from around the corner, while trying to avoid my Little-Dog-Polymorphed-in-Green-Dragon-Pet getting in a way, because every step was so crucial (my SP was just a fraction above Behemoth's SP, so I was just able to throw a shuriken at it, then run away, then throw a shuriken, then run away, and on it went as hours flew by.
I, then, remember how I died during that attempt: it was a Caphedral level, where traps were everythere, where my pet turned against me, where several colored Dragons emerged from the corners, where floor tiles crumbled when I walked, when the game no longer was "game"...

Oh, sorry for being sentimental - Nethack is just so great...

 

[hitbyambulance]

finally downloaded this last night.

i missed my stop on the bus this morning cuz i was playing this... going to take some time to get used to the GP2X UI, but i'm liking what i'm seeing, so far. the scrolling is great.

 

[Ze_ro]

Dzz, I would like to request a feature -- when you die, can it return to the opening instead of quitting back to the GP2x menu?

That would be nice, I agree. It looks like it would be rather difficult though... all of the program variables would have to be reset to their starting values. I have it on the wish list but I'm not too optimistic about it.

Instead of actually building that functionality into the program itself, it might be easier to just make a script... I'm not sure what return values Nethack has, but say it returns with one value when the player dies, and a different value for if the player quits... then in the script, just have a loop that continuously runs the binary until it exits with a value that indicates that the user chose to quit.

--Zero

 

[Astropath]

Okay, more feedback:

1) Cursor in "far look" doesn't work (cursor unseen) if "far look" activated from the menu. If activated by L+X - it works okay.

2) Sometimes during "far look" the cursor paints my avatars wherever it goes. This happened twice.

3) Something wrong with the scroll of genocide (or extinction). When I read it, it seems to fail to receive the input (monster name), so it gives me a few "Such creature doesn't exist in the world" messages (I don't know how many as they scroll up instantly through message bar), then gives out "That's enough tries" message and poofs. All this happens instantly. I'm sure I didn't press any key (always careful when reading unknown scrolls).
This happened once.

 

[Dzz]

Okay, more feedback:

1) Cursor in "far look" doesn't work (cursor unseen) if "far look" activated from the menu. If activated by L+X - it works okay.

2) Sometimes during "far look" the cursor paints my avatars wherever it goes. This happened twice.

3) Something wrong with the scroll of genocide (or extinction). When I read it, it seems to fail to receive the input (monster name), so it gives me a few "Such creature doesn't exist in the world" messages (I don't know how many as they scroll up instantly through message bar), then gives out "That's enough tries" message and poofs. All this happens instantly. I'm sure I didn't press any key (always careful when reading unknown scrolls).
This happened once.

Thanks, I'll look into these things. The genocide scroll issue is because none of the commands requiring text input work in 0.3; they will work in 0.4.

 

[Hellequin]

Sweet merciful heavens. When I first heard about the GP2X and its open source/homebrew capabilities, one of the first things that popped into my head was "Arooo? Mobile nethack?" Lo and behold I glance at these forums and see this wonderful thread.

I think I'm almost definately going to need to buy a GP2X now.

Also, an Omega port would be a great idea. Oh! and ADOM! That was a great game, as well.