DnD - ah, classic RPGs!

[Quadko]

Just scrounged up an old DnD copy.

It starts out grandly, and I remember the magic:

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     Welcome to DND, a computer fantasy role playing game inspired by
Dungeons and Dragons.  This game is not for everyone.  As Gary Gygax explained
in the foreward of the original edition of Dungeons and Dragons, those...


          "...  who lack imagination, those who don't care for
     Burroughs' Martian adventures where John Carter is groping
     through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard's
     Conan saga, who do not enjoy the deCamp and Pratt fantasies
     or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting their
     swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find
     Dungeons and Dragons to their taste.  But those whose
     imaginations know no bounds will find that these rules are
     the  answer to their prayers.  With this last bit of advice
     we invite you to read on and enjoy a 'world' where the
     fantastic is fact and magic really works."


     If you dare, I will take you to such a world, but beware!  You will
find that this is somewhat more than just a clever computer game, that
the characters you create may contain a tiny bit of yourself, and that
the urge to return and explore just one more level down, if not
carefully controlled, can begin to take precedence over work, family,
eating, sleeping...

     If you still wish to go on, I will help you create a character who
will bear your weapons and armor and accompany you into a labyrinthine
dungeon filled with fearsome monsters, fabulous treasure and frightful
perils.

     If you are patient and skillfull, your character will live to grow
in power and wealth, and will be able to explore deeper and deeper into
uncharted regions from which few return.  But be warned! If you are too
bold or too greedy, you won't survive long.

     As long as it remains alive, your character will remain in the DND
character file, waiting for you to return and bring it to life.

And I start the game itself, it greets me so warmly:

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Welcome to DND

For those who would'st tread within,
know ye well the best of your kin,
for fearsome battles have they fought,
to win a place among this lot.

I create a character, am presented with the dungeon entrance, and my script looks like this:

You are standing in the entrance of the dungeon.
(E)ast to enter, (W)est to leave.

DND> East
You have encountered a level 2 Ghoul.
It did 2 hit points to you.
Do you wish to (C)ast, (F)ight, or (E)vade?

DND> Cast (magic missile)
You did 9 hit points to it.
It died. You gain 87 experience points.

You have discovered a pile of Gold.
Press <CR> to pick up or <DEL> to ignore it.

DND> <CR>
It's worth 192 gold.

You have discovered a pile of Silver.
Press <CR> to pick up or <DEL> to ignore it.

DND> <CR>
It's worth 36 gold.

You have encountered a level 2 Balrog.
It did 29 hit points to you.
You died.

I moved <b>one step</b> from the doorway and met a Balrog hiding under a pile of silver. I started with 15 hit points, he immediately hit me for twice that and killed me. Oh, I remember the magic now, all right!

I created a few more characters, and one got all the way through the first room and into the hallway where he met a level 1 dragon that also hit first for around 30 hit points, slaying him instantly.

Cavers of Zoarre was my poison back in the day, though I was totally confused by it when I was 14, and never very good at it. But it hinted at such mysteries, more even than Rogue, though that was more my speed. I could live more than a few turns, at least! Ah, the days! I wish I could capture that good feeling without the frustration and put that in a game; if I could communicate it well, I think it would be enjoyed.

[Quadko]

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Just having some fun, after enjoying the ANSI loaders from this discussion, I thought I'd put one together for myself for DND. The "Instructions and Introduction" program had useful info, but I wanted a one-click run for the game. I used PabloDraw to draw this first version and put the batch file together. Works a treat. I'm very happy with it, and more proud of myself than I should be.

I noticed that whatever color I used last was used during the whole game, so I had to clear the screen back to white. But then I thought maybe I'd make a version 2 where you could select white, amber, or greenscreen to play the game in... but haven't put the time in yet. Amusing thought.

I also wanted to use line art (like the Rogue walls) for the green border, but couldn't figure it out in PabloDraw. Weird, is just some of the upper ascii characters so I'm surprised it isn't there, but maybe I'll figure that out later, or maybe look at a different tool. Always more to do, even on little hobby projects!

[MrFlibble]

I also wanted to use line art (like the Rogue walls) for the green border, but couldn't figure it out in PabloDraw.

You can look up the OEM character table in the Windows Character Map by selecting the Terminal font.

[Quadko]

And it looked like there were empty 'slots' in PabloDraw, so hopefully I can assign them there somehow. Or maybe I'm just in the wrong mode in PabloDraw, it had some 'target platform' options. I thought I picked DOS, but...

A quick google refresher on ANSI codes also let me hack about manually to do some tweaks. I got the play in Amber/Green options all set, so I'm at "version 2" as of last night. Fun!

[Quadko]

Aha! I found the line drawing characters, they had just successfully hidden from me before. I thought I was on the first set of characters, only pressed down in the character palette yesterday, never pressed up... today, pressed up and there they were! So PabloDraw, very cool tool, did everything I expected and more, worked great with dosbox taking an ans file and converting it to a bat file by adding ECHO to each line (ECHO. for blank lines), plus a little header @Echo Off and my batch 'choice' code appended to the end. Called that from dosbox.conf's autoexec section, and life's good!

I assume dosbox can change to the ~40 and ~50 line modes, not just 80x25, so could play with that someday as well. Doesn't make sense for this project, though, since DND is an 80x25 text game. Onward!