Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

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Dbug
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Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by Dbug »

Since there was some interest in my old 1996 Oric demo/prototype of Dungeon Master, I spent a bit of time making a video presenting the state of the project, why it stopped, the challenges, and some new stuff.

The video:


and the associated article:
http://osdk.org/index.php?page=articles&ref=ART15

And while making the video, I actually captured 50 minutes of play through the first level, on an actual Atari STe:
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jbperin
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Re: Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by jbperin »

Thank you :-)

Article is hyper interesting, video is nice and the source code is of great interest.

Just two little remarks on the article:
  • In the provided script to convert the picture to an assembler source, there's a useless repetition of options "-u1 -m0"

    Code: Select all

    SET PICTCONV=%OSDK%\Bin\PictConv -u1 -m0
    %PICTCONV% -u1 -m0 -f0 -o4_SwooshData% data\swoosh_data.png code\swoosh_data.s
  • The picture showing : "X <- The treasure is here" is so funny .. does it come from the original game ?

    Image
As for the idea on how to replace use of mouse, I suggest to use keys like G (for Grab) or P (for Pick) followed by the number of the characters and then use Tab to successively select amongst possible places to put the object at .. and then validate by pressing Enter.
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Dbug
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Re: Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by Dbug »

Glad you liked it :)

I fixed the PICTCONV line, guess that's what happen when you only spend a week end working on it...

Regarding the treasure picture, I don't remember, it was with the other pictures so I added it, but yeah I made that 24 years ago, don't remember :D

Ok for the items, what would you suggest for:
- Click on a button on the wall to open a hidden hatch
- Click on a door button to open it
- Take an item and put it on a pressure plate
- Take an item and throw it
- Use a rope to climb down from an open trap
- Fill the water-pouch at a fountain
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jbperin
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Re: Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by jbperin »

I don't know if it makes sense and if it is realistic from the playability point of view, but the idea that comes to me is:
  • Use of Tabulation key to go from one selectable object to another (the selected stuff is either blinking or surrounded).
  • Once the thing is pointed out .. use a letter key (or space) to convey the action that is to be performed
If the action implies a target (either a place in the inventory or an ennemy or whatever ..)
  • Use Tab again to select the target
  • Press enter to perform the action
Pressing Enter redo the last action as long as it is possible and no other key is pressed.
It's a bit like when someone has to use windows with a dead mouse beside the PC. It turns to Tab, Ctrl-Tab, Alt-Tab, Alt-Space, and so on ..

I hope for you that some more experienced gamers will give you some smarter advices :D .. cause I'm a very cheap gamer
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Symoon
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Re: Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by Symoon »

There's no tabulation key on Oric :p

What about ijkl to move in the labyrinth, and esdf (saves the AZERTY/QWERTY mess for real Oric or emulators) to move a pointer, with space as action key according to the pointer place ? (press, throw, etc, like the mouse button did)?
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jbperin
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Re: Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by jbperin »

Symoon wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 9:15 pm There's no tabulation key on Oric :p
:shock:

But .. I mean .. how were people doing when their mouse was broken ? :?:
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Chema
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Re: Dungeon Master on the Oric: 24 years later

Post by Chema »

Use the arrows and space bar (and let the user redefine the keys maybe)

Then maybe use some shortcuts for usual actions, something such as SHIFT+T for Take...

Similarly to what I did in Blake's7 :)
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