Nobody has told you about the
neat part of Angband:
ASCII graphics!
Dwarf
Priest ##################### ######################
Curate # | ! P #### # #
LEVEL 27 ## # ^ # # $ # ###
EXP 44584 ^^# ## ## ## hp ## #^^#
AU 10746 ## ## ## ## TT C T## ## #
## ## ## ^##TTT ## ## #
STR: 18/10 ## ## ## d ##TT ## ## #
INT: 6 ## ## ## $ T## T## T## #
WIS: 18/80 ^ ## ##### d #### ## #
DEX: 11 $ ## ##< ## ## #
CON: 18/20 ##^^## ## ##^^## ,#
CHR: 11 ## h ^## ## ## ## ## ##^ ###
## ^^ ## ## ##oo ## ## ## ^^ ## #
Cur AC 96 ## ^^ ## ####ooo #### ## ^^ ##oo#
Max HP 240 ooo##^^ ## ## ooo ## ## ^^##o o###########
Cur HP 240 ooo ## ## ##ooo ## ## $ ##oooo#@...
Max SP 82 ooo ## ## ##n ## ## ##oo oo#.#########
Cur SP 81 ooo ## ## ## X## ## ##o oooo#.#
ooo ##^ d ## ####z ## ^## ooooo#.#
o ^# ## ## #^ o s#.##
#############################################..#
Fast (+3) Study Lev 27
Now, I know, some of you really hate ASCII art. Well, you can leave now, or read on. This is not ASCII art. This is the actual playing screen of the game. Every character on screen has a meaning, it's not just there to build up a pretty picture:
- @
- Me, the player: a Dwarf Priest.
- #
- Granite walls. I'll need to be strong, or use a shovel, to dig through the wall to get into this vault.
- <
- Up-going stairs. I could use them to escape if I had to do so.
- ^
- Traps. Can be a problem; I'll disarm them before I accidentally fall through a trap door, or step on a summonning rune.
- $
- Gold, of course, or other valuable mineral easily converted to cash. You can see I have a lot right now (AU 10746), but it goes quickly in the Black Market.
- !
- Potion. Could be poison, could be life.
- |
- Edged weapon, probably a kind of sword. As a priest, I'm forbidden to shed blood, but I might be able to sell this to a shopkeeper in town and use the gold to buy a better mace.
- o
- Orcs, often called goblins. Not dangerous to me.
- T
- Trolls. Might be a little tough.
- d
- Small dragon. Not a worry, but if it breathes acid, I might lose something.
- C
- Probably a Hellhound. Will almost certainly breathe fire and burn up a scroll or staff. Nasty.
- p
- Possibly a priest or mage. Probably weak and inexperienced.
- h
- Hobbit or Elf. Might be very dangerous. I'll find out.
The point of the ASCII graphics is that
Angband is
portable to a huge number of
platforms, and best of all, it is blindingly
fast. No time is wasted drawing animated
little cartoon warriors swinging little cartoon swords at you. You run into something, hit it, it hits you, somebody dies. You get in far, far more play time, actually doing something, than in any other computer game. And it's not a
twitch game; it is strictly
turn-based, so if you have to go take the teakettle off the burner, you haven't died by the time you get back.
Angband is also a testimony to the right way to do open source. It is quite simply one of the finest, most stable, best documented, most configurable pieces of software in existence -- of any kind. I strongly urge you to try it today.