tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43956452222736802892024-02-07T06:29:52.246+00:00graspee's bloggraspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-58879240170177866692012-03-20T16:19:00.000+00:002012-03-20T16:19:20.008+00:007drl reviews: Asylum RLAsylum RL by <span style="background-color: black; color: white;">scotchfield</span><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><a href="http://scootah.com/asylumrl/">Available here</a></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU3xSr4XgT6HwMQjLm3Ti5Uu78A4kfECDvp-aNg6BtOBv5Hr2a4h4SOUa3IeElXuMLNLjbJ1RVuwNvATu3JUW4CxCipgp7lqLmz0kynxgpyOjbKOuSdlELT0_nmnFxiakctIZEtMs673w/s1600/asylum.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU3xSr4XgT6HwMQjLm3Ti5Uu78A4kfECDvp-aNg6BtOBv5Hr2a4h4SOUa3IeElXuMLNLjbJ1RVuwNvATu3JUW4CxCipgp7lqLmz0kynxgpyOjbKOuSdlELT0_nmnFxiakctIZEtMs673w/s1600/asylum.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Well here we have a roguelike written again in Python with libtcod. I don't want to say too much about it because it would spoil it for people but basically you are in an Asylum and escaping. It's very big on story and atmosphere and includes lots of sound and text. Judging from the journal pages you collect while playing I don't think it's going to be too long.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately I didn't complete it due to one very silly little thing that made it hard for me: there's no auto-repeat on movement. You have to move across these big maps, some fixed, some randomly generated, and you have to press a key once for every movement square. You might say "so what?" and "that's the same as a lot of games". I don't know, but I really felt my arm muscles hurting after playing this for a bit and I didn't notice on any other games. You're restricted to using exactly WASD too; there's no way to change that.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-35137786563328619012012-03-20T15:35:00.002+00:002012-03-20T15:35:55.562+00:007drl reviews: Dead Night Forest 2: The Lost Caravan<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Dead Night Forest 2: The Lost Caravan by Edwin DeNicholas</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/edenicholas/roguelikes/thelostcaravan">Available here</a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhwxFlQmKHKYwz8OXF07JBYdmJX1a-yjszD61SEyUq8Wf1Ib0WePAs9pXMQ48GKTtmLOmTvRC_ED5KVoqfWgZuEs0_tsBn209FXAOohvY5PWq0HgGF_We10hCtrWmsmolOa5nJK5-CqFQ/s1600/dead+night+forest+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhwxFlQmKHKYwz8OXF07JBYdmJX1a-yjszD61SEyUq8Wf1Ib0WePAs9pXMQ48GKTtmLOmTvRC_ED5KVoqfWgZuEs0_tsBn209FXAOohvY5PWq0HgGF_We10hCtrWmsmolOa5nJK5-CqFQ/s640/dead+night+forest+2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Well um, wow. This roguelike has full 3d model graphics, blood splatters on the screen, fps combat with swinging sword, lovely starry sky, campfires that blaze merrily, trees and so on. Also full sound effects.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But is it really a roguelike? There's no ASCII graphics, the combat isn't turn-based. I think the levels are procedurally-generated but that's about the only box ticked.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Maybe not helped by spending the last week or so playing turn-based games, I failed hard at the real-time combat and kept dying hard and fast.(And this is on the easier mode of the game, without hunger!) It is well done though, with the ability to hold the mouse button to power attacks, and the type of attack being determined by the last direction the mouse was moved (like in Mount and Blade). Attacking upwards flips your opponent satisfyingly into the air. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I'm sorry that I don't have more to write about it. It's certainly very impressive and shows what can be done with Unity in just a week. It's just that instead of feeling like I'm playing a roguelike, I felt like I was playing a cheap version of a different sort of game. It really brings home one of the features of ASCII roguelikes: they are created by people who don't have to worry about the graphics. Usually the creators are programmers and not artists. By having ASCII graphics everyone is "equal" and it's the gameplay not the graphics that is important. Games like this cross the line and aspire to greater things, graphically speaking. Although they have much, much better graphics than the ASCII games though, suddenly you're comparing the graphics to Mount and Blade or Skyrim and they are falling short and looking like the hobbyist creation that they are.</div>graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-48794471537267970902012-03-20T14:48:00.001+00:002012-03-20T14:48:42.439+00:007drl reviews: Ascension of the Drillworms!Ascension of the Drillworms by <a href="http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/User:Kieselsteini" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #5a3696; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;" title="User:Kieselsteini">kieselsteini</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/Ascension_of_the_Drillworms#Downloads">Available here </a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6Hi_yA609r-Sx8ZaUL_7evkAftYNgCCiY3fsJ_wwjxE5VApkoqG3Vs2XRfKS2MWjXRrfDMA6UrQmM6-gJQxZqyzIb_GVPPY3QOcyMuFbgoMxLR3eMlzzVGccSmMrZzgorjRYfQ5UbnQ/s1600/drillworms.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6Hi_yA609r-Sx8ZaUL_7evkAftYNgCCiY3fsJ_wwjxE5VApkoqG3Vs2XRfKS2MWjXRrfDMA6UrQmM6-gJQxZqyzIb_GVPPY3QOcyMuFbgoMxLR3eMlzzVGccSmMrZzgorjRYfQ5UbnQ/s320/drillworms.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKxJH2wLG2vYlrqSCQwie9q1HLbTbBv9rzSUqTdEDtXBh5pD9cRQxTGYpWngBC4sez-sj0N6HZhNQ2sduAlEmMNSrF80JZmtbTMUfvwAWZE3LWf9Lcm8IXIx644LFIWYzdovhhzW1wEKI/s1600/drillworm3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKxJH2wLG2vYlrqSCQwie9q1HLbTbBv9rzSUqTdEDtXBh5pD9cRQxTGYpWngBC4sez-sj0N6HZhNQ2sduAlEmMNSrF80JZmtbTMUfvwAWZE3LWf9Lcm8IXIx644LFIWYzdovhhzW1wEKI/s320/drillworm3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5uY_GBwmAguPB2qlE8QpIg5BTjtedJJJzTW9Ss-XC8fWgV3CQPcxRRYp9dSJzes1tPa8NIvxjsmUgTvbqBK-MaNrdaapFaygRPrBn-jOfrXLb-NolQKYM4UHIQpKNLfKQHtqHrpQtifc/s1600/drillword+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5uY_GBwmAguPB2qlE8QpIg5BTjtedJJJzTW9Ss-XC8fWgV3CQPcxRRYp9dSJzes1tPa8NIvxjsmUgTvbqBK-MaNrdaapFaygRPrBn-jOfrXLb-NolQKYM4UHIQpKNLfKQHtqHrpQtifc/s320/drillword+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Ascension of the Drillworms is a really good game. It has cool, atmospheric music, and a graphical tiles presentation that reminds me of old ZX Spectrum games. It's written in C using the Allegro 5 game library.<br />
<br />
You can find items, equipment and weapons.Part of the strategy involves which 4 gadgets you will choose to equip and which 4 "programs" you will run. There are things that will shield you, add to your damage, add to your accuracy and so on. Combat is ranged combat using your gun and your accuracy starts out bad so you miss a lot. The enemies shoot back at you. They start out as spidery crab things; later there are boss crabs that spawn smaller crabs; a new humanoid enemy appeared once I had cleared a few maps too.<br />
<br />
To transition to the next map you simply find a cave entrance graphic and go in although sometimes you just stay there and don't go to the next map and have to come out, so I'm not sure if there's some task you have to perform on each level first or if some caves are just like that. Maybe they recover your stats.<br />
<br />
You have three stats: armour, oxygen and energy. Armour is basically hp and can be fixed by spanners, Oxygen goes down with time and can be fixed with oxygen tanks. Energy is the weird one. Various devices you find use energy but I'm not sure if it's an ongoing cost or a "one time installation charge". All I can tell you is that before I worked out there was an inventory and character screen I had full energy, but then later, when I installed lots of stuff I never seemed to have any energy.<br />
<br />
Anyway, it's a great game. I think two things would improve it though: one would be a couple of simple little sound effects for shooting and being hit and so on; the second thing would be a score of some kind or an indication of what level you were on.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-26157094854402243532012-03-20T11:10:00.001+00:002012-03-20T13:03:15.405+00:007drl reviews: CogmindCogmind by <a href="http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/Kyzrati" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #5a3696; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;" title="Kyzrati">Kyzrati</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://cogmindrl.blogspot.co.uk/">Available here</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfNFLmNzztEdd_g0z3UafrRwFoTWAFtodUNSyKQ1AnEhXTch4GXc_lYFRAI0Amxi5VHEGLF5RuGzFyyNOrfJga67lPE2XoHWobvChWy0tP5iCuOSWYbPb1zRUVAW_P50a3nxF3zC_5NG0/s1600/cogmind.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfNFLmNzztEdd_g0z3UafrRwFoTWAFtodUNSyKQ1AnEhXTch4GXc_lYFRAI0Amxi5VHEGLF5RuGzFyyNOrfJga67lPE2XoHWobvChWy0tP5iCuOSWYbPb1zRUVAW_P50a3nxF3zC_5NG0/s640/cogmind.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
OK, well this is a good game. SF setting, you are a robot. I'm sure there's a plot but I'm tired of typing them out, honestly! Basically you go about, being robotic. There are all these parts to pick up which are equipment for different slots. There's also other robots going about doing stuff, including excavating robots which excavate the level, which is like time-lapse procedural generation of the level and therefore pretty cool.<br />
<br />
Although the presentation is absolutely excellent (written in C++ with sdl) the display can be a little confusing and intimidating to begin with. It's obvious that there is a lot of complexity both beneath the surface and on it. Pressing F1 shows the keys, of which there are a lot: dropping items, detaching pieces of equipment from yourself, activating and deactivating equipment, firing, moving, etc.<br />
<br />
There's even sound effects in the game, although a limited selection, so you may find they grate after a bit, but having any sound at all marks a roguelike above its fellows. The text appears and disappears with a cool effect too.<br />
<br />
The items in the world are also confusing to start with. You start off in an area with tons of stuff around you, all different letters, symbols and colours, and you can't make sense of it all. It's not like say nethack where you start off with a limited number of things around you so you can gradually learn what's what. Fortunately when you are over something on the floor it shows what it is in the "scan" section of the screen, and pressing x allows you to mouseover or key over items in the world to learn what they are.<br />
<br />
The first level you start on (I think it's the scrap heap) gets you used to picking things up and equipping them and also combat. It felt slightly wrong to shoot the poor little other robots since they weren't attacking me, but I was stuck for what to do at the time and the excavators seemed to have finished excavating the level. They do blow up satisfyingly into their constituent parts.<br />
<br />
Eventually I found the stairs and went to the real first level and wow, that's when the action begins. You can't take 5 paces without getting your wheels shot off! Fun and cool, although rather tough! It's rather exciting and different to have multiple enemies chasing you around shooting at you.<br />
<br />
Then I hit a bug while equipping an assault rifle and it was all over. NOoooooooooooo!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrC5H7GFHLpDHsHqpFHpPDQMVNLAz8ZR6MdORMk0h2Rr3Jbf4X1Ae97zvnFXGsZKNA-9T8U7HuY0Ms838irm4NGn7Jni8FJkQ46paNDCcyKTHYhEeUmZBEQxzT8_zJT9NM3TR1D5js2A/s1600/cogmind+dead.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrC5H7GFHLpDHsHqpFHpPDQMVNLAz8ZR6MdORMk0h2Rr3Jbf4X1Ae97zvnFXGsZKNA-9T8U7HuY0Ms838irm4NGn7Jni8FJkQ46paNDCcyKTHYhEeUmZBEQxzT8_zJT9NM3TR1D5js2A/s640/cogmind+dead.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
What a shame! I hope the author can fix this bug because it's a great game, and random crashes hurt great games. What am I typing today! It's like a robot reconfigurized my brain!<br />
<br />
<br />graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-11426315923965535472012-03-20T08:13:00.000+00:002012-03-20T12:58:37.286+00:007DRL reviews: The ChallengeThe Challenge by Xlambda<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/weirdrogue/7drl-2012">Available here</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-r_Jx5oFX7Dx12K3bq1Nw42cJgwW2n4EbqJ4BEXDfm5uXXX1fOcZif-aJwDwc8yUHFh8goilEkkk4BMvFCX-xX55UUqLSDiOc0gGS1MDkDq2VyIvhBtqRcK5PHBwaTBG5azTP66NtzM/s1600/challenge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-r_Jx5oFX7Dx12K3bq1Nw42cJgwW2n4EbqJ4BEXDfm5uXXX1fOcZif-aJwDwc8yUHFh8goilEkkk4BMvFCX-xX55UUqLSDiOc0gGS1MDkDq2VyIvhBtqRcK5PHBwaTBG5azTP66NtzM/s400/challenge.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
OK The premise for this game is amazing and apparently came out of a lively forum discussion. I'll let the author explain it:<br />
<br />
"Play a young and hopeful programmer trying to write a 7DRL as he faces certain doom in the Dungeons of Development! Get through the dungeon before the Seven Days of Magic are over! Wield powerful weapons such as vi and emacs! Run from bugs and segfaults! Drink massive amounts of coffee to increase your laziness! And other stuff."<br />
<br />
So, the game is written in Java with the help of a ui library and an fov library. It's a great premise as I said, the ascii presentation is good. There are objects to pick up, ranged and mêlée combat and everything fits in nicely and sometimes humorously with the theme.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately there is a big problem with the game in my eyes. Despite the author promising: " Lots of fast-paced dungeon-crawling fun." the game is actually very tedious and slow when it comes to combat.<br />
<br />
1. There is no diagonal movement.<br />
2. It takes quite a lot of hits to kill a single creature with mêlée (like 5 or 6) and there's no visible indication on screen that anything is happening (like letters could have flashed or something) so you end up getting bored of spamming the key to attack and hold it down until something happens. That isn't good or fun.<br />
3. Even worse, if more than one monster is attacking you you can't even hold the attack button down because you get a promt "more" and you have to press space each turn, which means you have to get into a direction-space key spamming cycle. Awful.<br />
<br />
I'll be honest, I got so frustrated I didn't finish my first game and exited the game on the 2nd level.<br />
<br />
With a couple of simple changes to make this combat not tedious this could have maybe been a really good and fun game. If anything it stands as a warning to test your game for playability before releasing.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: yellow; color: red;"> UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE </span><br />
<br />
I have gone back to the game and persevered. The combat becomes a lot less tedious when you get updated weapons (text editors). The ranged combat (via "patches") is fun and aoe kills multiple enemies. So I solved the game as seen below. (It's easy to solve really, I suppose the challenge would be getting the best score).
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8D2JrINl-GYP6QS2HYB8vxNhDaH0MvVCB6_MdOy3dP-MV8UYJAKxcun4anwlCW2jUyDQqdnrzJ0afOrmNmPnW0cZkelkAx8u-hFtqJwgPuXONLi-DJ813owej4Ga8VsHPIJzTOaj_lMA/s1600/challenge+finished.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8D2JrINl-GYP6QS2HYB8vxNhDaH0MvVCB6_MdOy3dP-MV8UYJAKxcun4anwlCW2jUyDQqdnrzJ0afOrmNmPnW0cZkelkAx8u-hFtqJwgPuXONLi-DJ813owej4Ga8VsHPIJzTOaj_lMA/s400/challenge+finished.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Another criticism I would have though, is that while the inventory system lets you feel like you are doing something, it would be more convenient if lesser weapons were dropped when you got a better one, buff type items were used immediately etc. There's no actual need for an inventory system in this game.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-88022532329735747072012-03-19T17:25:00.000+00:002012-03-20T13:02:02.424+00:007DRL Review Roundup! WardenWarden by Michal Walczak<br />
<br />
<a href="https://github.com/magikmw/warden">Available here</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUrLlkriKJkMVkFQA3ca1LLFhOsXipUl6pIVcaiqxcPTMfPnch1mZRLBV9_Kiekwx2s2PHW2QWQQ4YRgEGb0JWjBK131ne16fvPj7k_FSV52R9usd1UHePs5webZyWLJZAMs4RYapdBI/s1600/warden.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUrLlkriKJkMVkFQA3ca1LLFhOsXipUl6pIVcaiqxcPTMfPnch1mZRLBV9_Kiekwx2s2PHW2QWQQ4YRgEGb0JWjBK131ne16fvPj7k_FSV52R9usd1UHePs5webZyWLJZAMs4RYapdBI/s400/warden.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
OK this next roguelike is written in python with libtcod and as such it looks clean, pleasant and works as you would expect. The plot is very loosely based on a piece of lore from Dragon Age: Origins, so you are a grey warden going into a dungeon at the end of his time to take down as many monsters as you can.<br />
<br />
And goodness me there do seem to be quite a lot of monsters here! Not Vicious Kobolds level of monsters, but still quite a few. We are a powerful @ indeed!<br />
<br />
The main mechanic is a little tricky to work out. You have a stamina bar and a power bar. The stamina bar seems to decrease gradually as you move about and increase when you beat up monsters. Usually when it hits zero you get a purple message about stuff taking a toll and it goes back up to 70, but sometimes you die. I'm not quite sure what's going on there, to be honest. As for the power bar, I didn't really take much notice of it.<br />
<br />
The gameplay is simple: a maze of passages and rooms, lots of monsters, one "artefact piece" per level that you have to retrieve before you can descend into the sultry "O". Sometimes there is a helpful potion that does something to one of your bars. Something positive I think.<br />
<br />
I've really got nothing against this game. It's fine for what it is. I'm just a little disappointed with the fact that it didn't really have a gimmick of any kind so the gameplay is a little boring. This is the author's first game though and he has managed to create a roguelike which feels like a roguelike and works, which is more than some people have managed who finished games this year, so congratulations for that and I hope next year he enters again to build on this success with a game with more of a unique feel rather than a libtcod demo.<br />
<br />
Lastly I was a bit disappointed too that you can't move diagonally. Also there could be a bug with the high scores (see below) as I seem to have got one game entered twice. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkzT92FO1Dz7MtWDUdrxPGC9ybpLj9dXfD8xY6i55Mj2Ue4SwlnZC5H-z2WRT0BFRMqC_f2XtThagcYip_Yt85ZUT9OTGibHckwMFmemL-zSxMZpG8YrW4StBLTiTOgssXQic3WdSGnw/s1600/bug+high+scores.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkzT92FO1Dz7MtWDUdrxPGC9ybpLj9dXfD8xY6i55Mj2Ue4SwlnZC5H-z2WRT0BFRMqC_f2XtThagcYip_Yt85ZUT9OTGibHckwMFmemL-zSxMZpG8YrW4StBLTiTOgssXQic3WdSGnw/s400/bug+high+scores.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-69597735998804537402012-03-19T16:26:00.000+00:002012-03-20T13:02:39.325+00:007DRL Review Roundup! The Adventurer's GuildThe Adventurer's Guild by Nolithius <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nolithius.com/guild">Available here </a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIkisOWHoCApkEz8Va3ul2JxtB1XfEQjG5kawe3uOmtX8vwOeBQQCSqv9LKVD9WBOZ0ee3z7JbMlbDEadJqqATOzR6FpFJCXOKtb-zweXG6aJCpX2mkCNhbw9MiEAl-mEfiR0e1kDs_4/s1600/adv+guild.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIkisOWHoCApkEz8Va3ul2JxtB1XfEQjG5kawe3uOmtX8vwOeBQQCSqv9LKVD9WBOZ0ee3z7JbMlbDEadJqqATOzR6FpFJCXOKtb-zweXG6aJCpX2mkCNhbw9MiEAl-mEfiR0e1kDs_4/s400/adv+guild.JPG" width="397" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
This roguelike is written in flash and I have to say, it's one of my favourites of the 2012 7drl. At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to save the game into my super secret special "rogue vault" and play it forever, disconnected from the net, but it turned out to be easy to use firefox to view the info of the page, view the media and save the .swf file to my hard drive, so panic over!<br />
<br />
There are several innovative features in this game: Firstly you control a whole party of 4, not just one character, which has shades of old infinity engine games and new Spiderweb software games. Killing monsters nets you money, which you actually need to pay the four characters at the end of each day. A day is a certain number of turns, and if you don't have enough to pay people at the end of it, they leave, although they will come back next day if you make enough money.<br />
<br />
The four characters are not all the same. Each one has a different hp and mp (or energy or something). The first character, Oslo is basically a tank. He has no special moves but is strong has lots of hp; Rayn has a javelin attack that kills monsters in a row; Kohn is a healer with aoe heal; Remi has a whirlwind attack which attacks in a circle around him. You can switch characters at will by pressing 1-4.<br />
<br />
Since you need money and the lower level monsters give more money (I think), the key is to descend quickly rather than try to clear a level. If you try to clear up then you'll waste time and you won't have enough money and people will leave.<br />
<br />
This is really a fantastic game. I love it. Unfortunately it does have some bugs. Sometimes people get stuck and end up separated from the party (they normally follow the character you're controlling automatically). This isn't a big deal though because they re-join-up when you descend to the next level. Sometimes the stars that are used for the aoe healing spell persist on the screen, but again this isn't much of a problem unless they block your way (I can't remember if you can walk through them). <br />
<br />
The last bug I encountered though is serious. Basically, sometimes when you descend you will just see either a blank screen or one square, and not be able to see your characters. I think it only happened to me when I had one character left but I can't be sure. One time it happened I did manage to move out of whatever I must have been stuck on and continue normally. The last time it happened though, pictured below, there was nothing I could do to continue.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure if there is an end to the dungeons going down and down but it's a marvellously fun and well-done game and with the bugs fixed I'm sure people will be playing and talking about this game for years to come.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg890lC8JXn5ngAm-wzK5xslfsvyh7lNl-0PyEVkS-FwpbOFFop4lWR0YGk_HA0T-ufo466MaZq36DIvhyomYcRXMG578VJmnmN3hdQdCkVUvfeb6h8n98vJHnlfcpOUFkhL7MH7v1ovdA/s1600/adv+guild+bug.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg890lC8JXn5ngAm-wzK5xslfsvyh7lNl-0PyEVkS-FwpbOFFop4lWR0YGk_HA0T-ufo466MaZq36DIvhyomYcRXMG578VJmnmN3hdQdCkVUvfeb6h8n98vJHnlfcpOUFkhL7MH7v1ovdA/s400/adv+guild+bug.JPG" width="394" /></a></div>graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-21998180543085558752012-03-19T14:45:00.000+00:002012-03-20T12:59:35.299+00:007DRL Review Roundup! WyrmWyrm by Eben Howard <br />
<br />
<a href="http://squidpony.com/category/thoughts/games/computer-games/wyrm/">Available here</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDgSeZ5nZkvq6rWqrA1Dw6evfvxHlZQegcReq3n-uNMV4whPR7vmLYI6-nVJItLP_UwsVLTyTA3XpfvBqGHE_8ZprUmhyphenhyphenZ0BUokRDuOcgccgFst0tzzVb7dT-d4laxjKE5_iMFKkEJZ0/s1600/wyrm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsDgSeZ5nZkvq6rWqrA1Dw6evfvxHlZQegcReq3n-uNMV4whPR7vmLYI6-nVJItLP_UwsVLTyTA3XpfvBqGHE_8ZprUmhyphenhyphenZ0BUokRDuOcgccgFst0tzzVb7dT-d4laxjKE5_iMFKkEJZ0/s400/wyrm.JPG" width="364" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-DaKsh0LRuSrUdS3iAzqJV8qNNgTC08EDmut2PfOecEbjEUuxeAaWF2KCXBAOCF9I_LaW3YTELQuxGuWW9OYfhkc0rF-pjC8I5Ls5sHae5t71t_wv-SE3Ek37VWyaTfnFJucaoSMMNA/s1600/wyrm+win.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-DaKsh0LRuSrUdS3iAzqJV8qNNgTC08EDmut2PfOecEbjEUuxeAaWF2KCXBAOCF9I_LaW3YTELQuxGuWW9OYfhkc0rF-pjC8I5Ls5sHae5t71t_wv-SE3Ek37VWyaTfnFJucaoSMMNA/s400/wyrm+win.JPG" width="365" /></a></div>
<br />
What you think when you first load up this Java game is: Wyrm? I'm not a wyrm, I'm a snake! Indeed this entry does bear more than a passing similarity to the old "what should I code in BASIC" / "what crappy single game should we put on this phone for people" standby.<br />
<br />
So you are a snake, sorry, Wyrm and you eat things and you get bigger. Now, you might think that snake, played rogue-style, which is to say: turn-based, would be too easy. Well, the monsters that you have to nom-nom-nomerize to get bigger attack you if are next to them, so it's harder than you might think. Once you get the hang of it though you get to know the patterns of the monsters and can clear the screen quite easily, which results in victoreh! (As pictured, obtained by graspee).<br />
<br />
So, it's quite fun, and it definitely has replay value until you clear the screen, but that won't take you many tries, and once you have done it there isn't much to make you want to play it again. The core gameplay mechanic is fun though so it would have been cool if there were more levels with more gameplay elements that were gradually introduced level by level.<br />
<br />
Of course the main consideration with this game is: it it really a roguelike? Well, you have procedural generation of a sort: random walls on the screen, and you have combat of a sort, and you have ASCII graphics, so I suppose it is a roguelike. My initial reaction would have been to say that it wasn't a roguelike, but it does tick the boxes.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-85583513923594905802012-03-19T13:25:00.000+00:002012-03-20T12:57:14.505+00:007DRL Review Roundup! Fictional RoguelikeWell the 2012 7DRL (Seven Day Roguelike, or "rougelike" for WoW players) finished on Saturday, and a good large number of people actually created a working game in the seven days allowed, so I thought I'd do a review of them. I'm not guaranteeing that I won't run out of steam before I get through all of them though!<br />
<br />
Fictional Roguelike by Tritax <br />
<br />
<a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.roguelike.development/_7UBmIPMwZY/discussion">Available here</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4dYQhxr1lwKeRglSUU0joxZcHv_S5nvWdnmt0pj4BvCMucij2C7xugFztYkFUU9GWn7uNA4gszYfjEcp3QCrTzU8MXAm8aFezaHRPNXhcoMwoOQyPNlaZwGZWtQEJKkcisB0tIdQrZ-A/s1600/fictional+rogue.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4dYQhxr1lwKeRglSUU0joxZcHv_S5nvWdnmt0pj4BvCMucij2C7xugFztYkFUU9GWn7uNA4gszYfjEcp3QCrTzU8MXAm8aFezaHRPNXhcoMwoOQyPNlaZwGZWtQEJKkcisB0tIdQrZ-A/s400/fictional+rogue.JPG" width="385" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
This roguelike is written in Java and you'll need to download version 1.7 manually to get it to work.<br />
<br />
Well the gimmick with this roguelike is that the screen is designed to look like the dungeon maps out of TSR Dungeons and Dragons modules. And very pleasing to the eye it is too: all clean lines and a grid, with the whole dungeon level fitting on the screen at once.<br />
<br />
The actual game is rather simple. You have a maximum of 4 hit points but you're not actually a mage, you're a warrior I presume. There's no equipment or gold to pick up and no stats beyond the hit points I mentioned. There's only one enemy: a "k" (presumably a kobold) which you bump into to kill. You get to hold down the . key in between fights to gain your 4 hp back, and it kind of feels like bad luck rather than skill when you eventually die, as I did and you can see on the screenshot. <br />
<br />
There's supposed to be bosses every 4 levels and a boss on the 17th and last level, a treasure to collect and ascend to the surface with. I didn't notice the boss on level 4 though. Perhaps I skipped him, as best strategy is to take the stairs down as soon as you find them since you're only risking losing by clearing the whole level.<br />
<br />
Tritax wrote the engine for this himself, so I'm hoping that maybe next year he will build a more complex and engaging roguelike with this engine. As it stands for this year, Fictional roguelike is very nicely presented, but too simple and uninteresting.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-5296387363272998732011-11-10T10:10:00.005+00:002011-11-10T10:26:52.591+00:00RIFTA minor break from dreams today to mention Rift- the mmorpg to which I have lately become minorly addicted.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/graspee/2011-11-07_105518.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/graspee/2011-11-07_105518.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
I'm putting my "recruitment" link here, mainly because my mother wanted to try it and when I IM or email her the link, Mister Bossy Microsoft tells her it's unsafe, but if any of you want to try Rift free for seven days then feel free to use this link, because if you eventually subscribe, I get free stuff! Beware, it's a 9 gig download though.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.riftgame.com/en/products/ascend-a-friend/invite.php?voucher=2LNFTCPXHDTQHN3QMQ2G&utm_source=manual&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ascend_invite">GET RIFT HERE</a><br />
<br />
If I "snare" one person I get some stupid-looking dog companion; Two people netted nets me a fancy hat and three suckers reeled in yields a fiery riding horse!graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-56945646074146287622011-09-25T08:48:00.003+01:002011-09-25T10:44:20.574+01:00A Mugging / Rude Man in Restaurant / Carrot Top TV TasksA Mugging<br /><br />I was a student and I was walking home late at night from somewhere when I met a fellow student walking in the opposite direction. He was wearing one of those "open face" balaclavas. It suddenly became apparent that he meant to mug me! He started to go through all my stuff, throwing it unceremoniously on the floor. He couldn't find any money because I didn't have any, but he did take my bank card.<br /><br />Somehow I managed to turn the tables on the fellow and I grabbed him by the throat. I demanded he return my bank card, but instead he kept giving me playing cards.<br /><br />A small boy who had run to get the principal (my dreams are obviously tailored to the American market nowadays) suddenly appeared, with her in tow. The mugger had vanished by now.<br /><br />I tried to get the principal to do something about the mugger but she refused, saying he was just a petty criminal. I went into speech mode and said something like:<br /><br />"A criminal yes, dot dot dot or even colon. Note the word criminal here, as in against the law, and the law exists for one purpose and that is to protect ME!"<br /><br />I mention how I think it was an opportunistic rather than planned crime since the criminal only had five pounds himself, and happened to meet me, and needed some cash for something, so pounced.<br /><br />She, unconvinced by this first class rhetoric still refuses to look into the crime. I say "Oh, fuck off then!". I'm confident that such rudeness will not lead her to expel me because she needs my tuition fees.<br /><br />Rude Man in Restaurant<br /><br />I was in a restaurant. There was a strange man standing in between the tables with a big grin on his face, making some frantic motion with his arm. "I'm wanking!" he said to me, and I looked, and he was. Suddenly he came and my hair was subject to sudden, unsolicited jizzification.<br /><br />Well of course I was mightily annoyed! I took this fellow's hat and walked over to the sea, which was for some odd reason, nearby. Perhaps it was a beach-front restaurant? I tried to throw the hat into the sea with a cry of "For Justice!" but the throws kept being unimpressive and the hat kept returning. M&E were in a rubber dingy in the sea, watching me, so I felt I had to do the thing well.<br /><br />Carrot Top Tv Tasks<br /><br />I was in some sort of weird environment filled with mechs (Japanese robots basically). My friends S&I are there too. I try to dress up in a mech suit but I'm too fat and I can't fasten a certain buckle across my chest. I do stomp around a bit for the sake of comedy though.<br /><br />We find out who is "managing" us. (It seems we are in some tv show or something). It's Carrot Top. (Who the FUCKABILLY is Carrot Top? He's an American comedian with red hair. I've never seen him but he was in an ep. of Family Guy). S and I (that's I referring to me, not "I" the friend's initial) think it's funny because I (Sigh, the friend this time) is known to really hate this particular celebrity.<br /><br />Anyway this jolly Mr. Carrot Top has a big ring binder of Important Tasks for us to perform. We are all doing tasks together because we are "the boys"; "The Girls" have to do a task where they collect honey from bees. They have to dress up as bees with stainless steel buckets on their head as helmets (why?!) and are dangled down to the hive on strings.<br /><br />Mr. Carrot Top is not quite as organized as his ring binder might lead one to believe though, since he's proceeding as if we are up to task 3.5 while really we are only just supposed to be starting 3.2, which is apparently fighting some weird cartoony sort of goblin monsters.<br /><br />Bonus Dream!<br /><br />I was walking down a busy city multi-lane road, AGAINST THE TRAFFIC! That's it. Sorry.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-66647588038112509432011-09-23T22:50:00.000+01:002011-09-25T11:09:46.935+01:00Computer Room / The Corpse and the ProvostComputer Room<br /><br />I was in G169 (A large communal computer room at my old university. I was sitting at my PC but it seemed to have no monitor. I eventually tracked it down to the left of the person sitting to my left. I knew it was mine because it was running the Source SDK level editor "Hammer" (It's a map editor for game creation).<br /><br />As I went to take the monitor though, some girl picked it up and started to walk off with it. How she managed to do this when it was plugged into my pc is just another "dream mystery". I didn't try to stop her, I just moaned about how I needed that. <br /><br />I sat back in my chair, hands in my pockets, head buried glumly in the upturned collar of my wool coat. I noticed how it was light outside and thought it shouldn't be because it was 10:30pm. (Time distortion was common in this computer room. In my hardcore days, it was the late eighties and I used to play text-based multiplayer adventure games all night- so called "MUD"s. I remember looking at my watch once and seeing it was a certain time and not being able to work out if it was a.m. or p.m.)<br /><br />The Corpse and the Provost<br /><br />I got up and it was an amazing sunny day. I thought to myself "Wow, this is an historic day; You have to go out there and seize it or regret not doing so for the rest of time". It was a lovely day because we were having a so-called Indian Summer (which is predicted to be coming next Tuesday for five days).<br /><br />I looked at the date in the dream but didn't really take it in. It was printed on the label of a bottle of Black Tower Wine.<br /><br />There was a corpse in bed with me. It didn't feel weird or sick or disturbing in any way, it just felt slightly embarrassing or a tad seedy; Equivalent to not changing your pyjamas for two weeks or something. It was the second night I had this corpse in bed with me. I thought I had to report it now and I knew I'd have to say it had been two days and I wondered what I should say for why I didn't report it yesterday. I decided to go with more or less the truth, which was that I hadn't been sure the person was dead. There was no sense of who this person was or had been.<br /><br />I was at university it seemed. I got up and walked over to see the Provost, who was a friend of mine. I started to have a conversation with him about "Such and such a thing is too little, but the opposite is too much" or something. He suggested we continue the conversation in the bar so we went there. Two girls who were with us decide the conversation is going to be boring so they decided to do a runner while the Provost is at the bar getting drinks and I'm with the girls at the table.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-12920153551891541672011-09-22T15:43:00.002+01:002011-09-25T11:32:01.347+01:00Ghost CommunicationI was in communication with a ghost.<br /><br />I was sitting in an ordinary house near a TV which was on, and a window I could see through on my right, looking onto the street. <br /><br />I was asking the ghost questions by just speaking them out loud in a normal voice but trying to concentrate on the ghost to project my answer to them I suppose. The ghost would show me things on the TV by way of answer, or a voice on the tv would say things, or the ghost would cause pictures and words to manifest on a magical sheet of paper in front of me (Whooo, just like a kindle). Sometimes whole books would appear.<br /><br />By a series of questions I was gradually able to piece together the story of the ghost. He or she (I think she) was a person who had had a task to perform. They had needed to stop a great evil. The evil was something like a government who were harshly putting down an uprising with extreme violence (I was reading about the Victorians doing this in India in a book yesterday). There had been a battle where they needed to create a party of five people to fight. The people had to be really skilled and all different "classes" like in a multiplayer game, e.g. healer, tank, dps (damage dealer) etc. They needed to be able to work really well together.<br /><br />At the climax of the battle one person needed to somehow "vibrate" a launcher and shoot some special rockets, five of them at some structure to weaken it, and then another member of the team had to strike the finishing blow with a sword.<br /><br />They had never managed to get the right group of people together to finish it.<br /><br />I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a video game or real life because it kept sort of flicking between the two. It was always something the ghost wanted or needed to do though, and had never been able to. I felt sorry for her because it was like someone playing an MMORPG and wanting to do some epic quest but never finding a party to do it.<br /><br />Near the end I was writing instructions the ghost was giving me for beating the video game in pencil in the margin of the game manual. I was thinking I should maybe ask the ghost to manifest a carrier bag filled with all the books and drawings she'd showed me so far and the game itself so I'd have a souvenir of this incredible time<br /><br />At the very end though, all I said was: "Is there anything else I can do for you?". I immediately chastised myself for sounding like a call centre worker; A ghost deserves classier handling, I thought. The ghost made the video game appear on the TV. I thought, "I wonder if she wants me to complete the game she never could?".<br /><br />My sister must not have been impressed with all this ghostly stuff because she was supposed to be giving me a lift back home in her car, but she got tired of waiting with me so she took my stuff out of her car and drove home on her own.<br /><br />At one point while I was talking to the ghost I got my camera to take a picture of an aeroplane outside which was towing a big banner. I then worried that the ghost would get confused, thinking I was trying to tell it something with that photo.<br /><br />My mother and brother were there with me. I told them how a similar ghost experience had happened to me before and I was confident now that there was life after death which was reassuring.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-67940677344294530312011-09-22T11:21:00.001+01:002011-09-25T14:03:03.871+01:00X-man /I was an x-man for real! The dream even included two false awakenings so I was completely convinced it was real and not a dream.<br /><br />My powers mostly all basically involved producing things from my fingertips. I did this by saying an activation word, e.g. "Fire!" or "Water!" etc. The main one was fire. It was only quite weak fire- not like a flamethrower or anything, but it did melt my fingernails. I also could produce water. Another thing I could produce were living plants from my fingertips. I also had telekinesis. In fact I wanted to film my abilities on my ipod and send it to Ricky Gervais since they he mentioned on his radio show years ago that they wanted someone with telekinetic powers to write in.<br /><br />First of all I was showing my friend "I" my powers. I showed him I had nothing on my hand or under my nails then I did fire from my right hand at his bowed head. At first he just felt warm air, then his stubble caught fire and he was moderately impressed although people in general, for example my mother and others were not as falling down with amazement as I felt they should be.<br /><br />I met my old girlfriend T. and she was with someone else now and very drunk. I started having a go at her saying "Ha! You should have stayed with me because our child would have a chance to have super powers". She was just rude back and started saying things like: "So you've broken 14 bones then, was that just turning over in the night or something?" and I said "Are you just trying to be offensive?". She went away. I said "Well she's gone all fat anyway", which she had, but as I said it I was actually looking at an old woman who was very fat, and not T. who had long since departed.<br /><br />Then there was a scene in a cafe. I was demonstrating my ability to lift objects with telekinesis. I managed to make a cup and saucer lift a few inches off a table and keep it hovering, uncertainly in the air for a short while. I couldn't lift it any higher but I said at least I have a power, I mean it's proof that weird stuff exists. I also do small fire effects and a new one, producing plants from my fingertips! They started out as small, stringy tendrils coming out of my fingers but grew and swelled into massive thick stalks coming out from me which even had faces in them.<br /><br />A small boy, fascinated, grabs my arm as I'm doing tricks but I tell him not to, warning him that he could get cancer or something for all I know, touching the source of that power.<br /><br />I also try out lasers from my fingertips but stop because there's lots of reflective surfaces about.<br /><br />A woman is leaving the cafe. She complains of being tired, so I point my fingers at her back and say "Awake! Energy!" or something similar and suddenly she perks up and has a spring in her step. Another woman in the cafe criticises me though, saying that the woman will crash and burn later after staying up for too long with the energy I've given her. (I recently stayed up too long myself and got over tired with bad results). <br /><br />Outside everyone was stuck in a traffic jam. I was in a car.<br /><br />Some punks were doing something bad to me or someone. I dunno, any excuse, so I flamed them up a bit with my fire ability until they were screaming and burning, sitting in their open-topped car. Fun for all the family. I am a merciful god though, so I produced water from my fingers to put them out before they died.<br /><br /> There were a load of people by the side of the road who were all kind of bunched up against the wall. One was spitting on me or pissing on me or dropping something on me. I put my hands together with my fingers all splayed out and my thumbs touching then pulled them slowly about six inches apart saying "barrier!" and a small plastic tray appeared. It was transparent and had writing on it. I say that my powers may not be that big or impressive, but that just a small amount of energy and used intelligently and look what you can do.<br /><br />I then found out that the tray was actually some sunglasses and were kind of UV light backlit so a bit more energy went into the creation than I thought. I put the glasses on and walk around, ashamed inside and saying to people "I know, I know" apologetically.<br /><br />It was a great feeling to have all these powers though, and I had been walking round shouting "I'm an x-man! A fucking real life x-man!" From this point on it seemed that people feared my powers and shunned me as different. Maybe they just wanted me to STFU and were jealous though, who knows?<br /><br />I was walking along minding my own business, carrying an old typewriter in a bag with handles when I met some old men who also had an old typewriter in a bag. But these old man feared and despised me! As I was admiring their old typewriter they zipped up my carrying handle in their bag and were preparing to walk off. Luckily though my fingertips had another power, the ability to cut string (Yeah super useful, eh?) I suppose it was a cutting beam of some kind. I couldn't cut the string in time even with my "super" string cutting power though, so I pointed my left hand fingers at the man and said "fire! ... maybe" and he, fearing for his face, let me extricate my bag handle and be on my way.<br /><br />Next I had a meeting with other superheroes which was a welcome relief from the hatred of fear of the "normals". Daredevil was real and was there in addition to numerous others from x-men and so on. Suddenly the floor under the table where we were sitting started to bulge. I said "Who's coming to dinner?!" and a superhero who was actually totally a pink pig with black brindle markings on appeared from under the floor and then started chasing chickens about up and down the road outside.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-64139809062500450082011-09-01T14:25:00.002+01:002011-09-25T21:31:29.671+01:00Blog is now for dreams!I haven't been using this blog lately, but I have been having a lot of weird dreams so I thought I'd start documenting them. I think it's because I haven't been sleeping well, so because I keep waking up, I remember my dreams.<br /><br />It really makes you think what's going on your head normally though. I mean during those weeks or months, or even years for some people when they haven't been able to remember any dreams there will have been all these weird stories going on that they have missed. For some people it must be equivalent to not watching any TV from 1979 to 1989 or something.<br /><br />Edit: Unlike my previous "blog refocus", where I was going to focus on moobie reviews, I have already posted some actual dreams!graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-66776904128556801892010-12-31T10:00:00.000+00:002011-01-05T03:55:56.323+00:00Blog Resumption and Refocus!Greetings, netmates! I have been absent for a long time, and my blog looks like I suspect many others: a few carefully crafted posts in January then nothing for the rest of the year! How sad.<br /><br />Well, I'm going to do something about that. Firstly I'm going to start posting again, this time with a new focus: moobie reviews! Everyone loves a good moobie. Getcha popcornz, getcha beverages, snuggle up to your loved ones and fire up the SUPA HUEG moobie display area of your choice! Cha-ching! LET THE MOOBIEZ COMMENCE!<br /><br />Secondly I will probably be sneaking some backdated posts in for last year (2010) to cover some of the hilarious and fun things I was doing, like spending three weeks in hospital and three months in bed at home after breaking my shoulder and leg and having 48 hour food poisoning with much vomiting and anal splurting.<br /><br />Well catch you in 2011 as my moobie coverage beginz!graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-57988879796493622272010-01-09T19:45:00.003+00:002010-01-09T19:58:05.158+00:00Let's flood the house a bit!Ok, so my bath is still blocked up, and we all know that a blocked bath is no fun at all, and graspees are very clean and wholesome creatures who need regular baths.<br /><br />I therefore thought I'd "set about" the bath today.<br /><br />To start with, my idea was to undo the stainless steel grille type thing where you place the plug, since it has a screw in the middle of it. My plan was to take it out so i could poke large things down the drain repeatedly, doing gratifying sexual violence to the pipe. No, I wasn't really going to use my penis.<br /><br />Anyway, the bath was almost full because yesterday I had the idea that maybe there was some ice somewhere in the pipe and I'd melt it with hot water, but the bath stayed blocked and full to the top with water.<br /><br />I rolled up my shirt sleeves and got in there with my leatherman and turned the screw type thing anti-clockwise. Suddenly the water started to drain away! What magic is this? What cunning mechanism have I activated? Is a door about to open and reveal to me the wonders of a long-dead but technically advanced civilisation?<br /><br />Now there is some sort of water splashing sound. From downstairs.<br /><br />THIS IS NOT GOOD!<br /><br />I rush downstairs and take a look. Far from the slight drip that I expected, there was a waterfall coming out of the ceiling and down the light fitting. The water wasn't going down the drain at all- it was spilling out into the ceiling.<br /><br />I rushed back upstairs and turned the screw the other way. After a bit the water stopped falling. Even a graspee can understand the basic mechanism here.<br /><br />So. The carpet is soaking and squelchy to walk on in the room downstairs. There's puddles in the kitchen and a whole load of old photographs I only have one copy of and which I got out to look at only just last night were directly under the waterfall and got completely soaked.<br /><br />I therefore took all the pictures and placed them individually propped up against the walls on the landing and up and down the stairs so they can dry out. Some of them are badly stained but there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not as bothered about it as I thought I would be really.<br /><br />Outside was still useless, graspee-blocking snow and ice. I took some table salt, which, being on the table and open was POTENTIALLY CONTAMINATED and threw it all over the ice outside my front door. There was a wonderful symphony of cracking noises. Truly salt is space dust for the winter pavement. There was no long lasting effect though and the snow and ice remains where I threw the salt. Maybe you need a larger amount.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-12652367128029979142010-01-06T21:48:00.004+00:002010-01-06T22:05:57.667+00:00Repelling alien invasions with the power of baking<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYfx5OpWBlGPG9hLWnEVO5CRqrRP3PUVd_S_5Y6RtP4xCa2Q5locJhspAuZS81xvy3paS7UeK0Ku9mejtGFhUoNDjbQg58Aj5ASVyE2MZp00CZSObUoAJFnLqF3K1w9IXF1oPtCCkyIw/s1600-h/onionbred.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLYfx5OpWBlGPG9hLWnEVO5CRqrRP3PUVd_S_5Y6RtP4xCa2Q5locJhspAuZS81xvy3paS7UeK0Ku9mejtGFhUoNDjbQg58Aj5ASVyE2MZp00CZSObUoAJFnLqF3K1w9IXF1oPtCCkyIw/s400/onionbred.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423747147066914418" border="0" /></a><br />Ladies and gentlemen, I present our weapon against the alien hordes: the simple honest goodness of British baking.<br /><br />The first step is to lure alien scouts with the onion and chive bread (not shown actual size). A hard part of this step is resisting bopping the alien scout with a convenient stick upon his appearance.<br /><br />The next stage is waiting for the fleet to arrive, brought by the favourable reports from the scout. ("omg they has bredz! come see!).<br /><br />Then it simply remains to trap the alien fleet as they attempt to steal the bread. For this you can use a large tea towel. I wouldn't use a clean one.<br /><br />In the event of the alien invasion fleet being larger than can be contained in a tea towel then an old bedsheet can be used.<br /><br />Unfortunately you will not be able to eat the onion and chive bread used to lure the aliens- it should be discarded due to contamination. It is therefore wise to make another loaf at the same time to eat while you wait for the alien fleet to turn up.<br /><br />Once you have your alien fleet contained in your tea towel or bedsheet it is time to deal with them. For this you will need a stout jiffy bag or other brand of padded envelope and a fat marker pen. Simply place the fleet in the jiffy bag and seal firmly, with sellotape if you don't trust the built-in sealing mechanism, then mark the envelope "Outer Space, anywhere, doesn't matter, not near Earth please" and take it to the Post Office. If they ask be sure to tell them that it doesn't contain a letter or they will charge you more.<br /><br />That's all you need to know about dealing with alien invasion fleets!graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-41149625944003350882010-01-03T09:07:00.007+00:002010-01-03T09:22:04.416+00:00The aliens are getting bolder<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl0RQ_9vW6pg7q5rHsxWbNeUQ61hWa4amlz7q7SLjUPcaSL6MJ_qsGUQmfY0kavI_QvjxxElvabdMZaCndg9J6xq1toAPgI2jkk8Khz_iVmDGZzjqh58Mz2n68XxXHtNw7PwGTd91-HFY/s1600-h/alien+tracks.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl0RQ_9vW6pg7q5rHsxWbNeUQ61hWa4amlz7q7SLjUPcaSL6MJ_qsGUQmfY0kavI_QvjxxElvabdMZaCndg9J6xq1toAPgI2jkk8Khz_iVmDGZzjqh58Mz2n68XxXHtNw7PwGTd91-HFY/s400/alien+tracks.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422439170268639522" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />I wrote the other day about the alien fleet I had observed from my back window. Well, since then we have had a lot of snow in Grim Northern Town and this has had the effect of revealing alien intrusions!<br /><br />There, as plain as day, captured in the snow on my kitchen roof are the tracks left by an alien! I'm guessing it would be an alien scout, on a scouting mission to locate supplies and snacks for the Evil Alien Empire. Not so different from the mice I had a while back, except of course for being larger, more otherworldly and probably not so keen on wholewheat pasta and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchie">Crunchie</a> bars. I'm also guessing aliens are too cunning and stealthy to be caught by spring-loaded traps, even if you were able to find one big enough.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-63914031065227442982010-01-01T16:20:00.005+00:002010-01-01T16:36:12.836+00:00Watch the skies<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimb9-DQQPDE6wvxyhRnkZIiooegRob8YbFsWelrdINVbKSWBvCdwDXhdIB3x-qLwizScT9fx1wvIazST_o9opW2mg0PcLb5AwoVu5rrARTLG405z45EkwVENSewF2hVVJYyQCKNyxuZ9o/s1600-h/UFO+INVASION.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimb9-DQQPDE6wvxyhRnkZIiooegRob8YbFsWelrdINVbKSWBvCdwDXhdIB3x-qLwizScT9fx1wvIazST_o9opW2mg0PcLb5AwoVu5rrARTLG405z45EkwVENSewF2hVVJYyQCKNyxuZ9o/s400/UFO+INVASION.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421809522403588898" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />It is only the first day of 2010 but already the alien activity is much higher than we have previously seen. The above photograph captured part of the invasion fleet. My apologies for the poor quality of the shot but I was shaking so much from the excitement and I didn't have time to set the picture up so I used the auto feature on the camera.<br /><br />A series of orange balls were seen. They moved from close to the ground on the right side of my window (which would have put them <i>very</i> close to the town visible in the lower right of the picture, to the left side of the window but higher up. So basically they were rising slowly from close to the ground on my right to a higher area of sky on my left in a gentle curve.<br /><br />They moved quite slowly at a constant speed, flickering gently as they went, which I presume was the lights of the crafts being disrupted by either the heat of the crafts themselves or something to do with their energy fields. Who knows? I'm not an alien.<br /><br />Many craft made the same journey from close to ground to upper sky before vanishing, sometimes only one was visible to me at a time, sometimes 3 or 4. I presume they activated some kind of jump drive at that point to reach escape velocity. Perhaps it is dangerous to use that drive too close to the ground.<br /><br />I should of course mention that the time when I saw these craft was 00:20 on 1st January 2010 at the same time as a lot of fireworks were going off in the town. (One can even be seen on the photo). The alien fleet was completely unafraid of the fireworks!<br /><br />OK no, but really. Are these a new type of boring firework that shoots up like a rocket but then travels across the sky really slowly, flickering as they go for like about 2 or 3 minutes each, or are they some kind of paper lantern being blown in the wind? Enquiring minds want to know.graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395645222273680289.post-91771569105757012792010-01-01T00:40:00.000+00:002010-01-01T00:48:04.143+00:00A new blog appears!A grim northern town sighs as it is violated by a savage winter. The people crump miserably through the snow, heads down, spirit broken, just like <strike>"1984"</strike> that Apple advert.<br /><br />But then! A blinding light! A holy fire!<br /><br />A new blog appears!graspeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417948406807282590noreply@blogger.com0