Dungeon Master Forum

Another D&D column set:
http://www.dmjump.net/dd0001a.jpg
http://www.dmjump.net/dd0002a.jpg
http://www.dmjump.net/dd0003a.jpg
http://www.dmjump.net/dd0004a.jpg

Hi Mitch, used to be a great fan of yours back in the heady days of DM in the late 80s. Saw you at the Atari show at Alexandra Palace 1989 and you were good enough in STA 17 to print a tip myself and my friend had about getting the Fire Gem out form the final level and into the main dungeon. Boy were we proud. Still got the mag.

Hey, good to see you back froud!

If you want access to your old account, I should be able to give you access to it.

No way, were you the one that first suggested to throw the fire gem out through the door, Froud? Blimey, it's a small world

The Fire Gem?
Surely you mean the Firestaff. Or have I missed something...

beowuuf wrote:Cool little dungeon drawign thing showcased on page 3... Funny to see the discovery and guesses abotuthe CSB working too

Hi, the map is made with ' DIB VIEW ', a little ST tool. As you rightly noticed, maps are well drawn and the way you wander around is quite original (the screen scrolls in the direction where you put the pointer).

Sadly, it seems that only 2 levels were edited (at least i found only two), morever only one of them is finished (start level), the other one (DDD), items, tips and monsters are missing. There were sleeping in an archive, among whom were some portraits. Still if you want have a look (for the curiosity), i can upload them




I found this topic by chance btw - Thanks for the scans and the interesting story !


edit : i also can attach the portraits, there are about 20 or 30 of them - here are 3 pics (converted from .cmp)..

I think Christophe would appreciate, and I'd love to see it too. That's really cool!

èné, cooool stuff!
like the first portrait, there´s even a background. Nice one

Oh, wow, that map does look cool!

I have removed the portraits that are already at rhe encyclopedia; there are 16 of them remaning in the archive

I also add a csb game with ' overboosted characters ' - these portraits are not converted (though they are the best one imo)


+ the 2 DIB VIEW maps


archive


edit: have made a quick config of Steem for those of you who don't the ST (required to run DIB VIEW); it is ready to go - double click on -dib (.sts) which is a save snapshot and it should run

F11 : toggle fullscreen/windowed mode
F12 : toggle emulation start/stop
F10 : save memory snapshot
F9 : load memory snapshot

steem ready to go

omg.

Buffalo Bill (Calamity Jane?) fits in alright, but how the heck did Worf end up in a mirror?

Most disturbing to any feeble mind however:

Hissssa... and Mophus... I mean, how... and why would they name their offspring "Ripper"?

Suddenly the whole secret talk about dirty toys and mirrowed bedrooms start to make sense.

*runs off, screaming random insults*

Apologies for the thread revival, but I saw the title "The Return of Mitch" and thought, could this be the Mitch I read about in ST Action in the 80s and 90s? Of course it is! I remember the parchment backing for Dungeons & Disk Drives well - it was probably my favourite section along with Jeff Minter's column.

This game got me hooked as a wee kid on my Atari ST. When the ST died after 10 years (computers don't last that long now do they!), I got a DOS PC version and was soooo thankful that it was identical in every way apart from the improvement of running from a hard disk. Now with RTC it's even better than ever. I have played the game on and off since it's first release and even played it again today. I believe the character statistics and number of interesting weapons/items are what make this game addictive (in addition to the slick interface). The combat system is very satisfying with a choice of moves that increases with skill and a visual HP number to show how good your attacks are.

I think the way the character statistics are presented is spot on - not too detailed but fairly detailed. I think they are clear enough and change rapidly enough to drive you on to fight more monsters and raise the levels up. Every other RPG game has failed me in this respect for whatever reason. Fallout 3 is in fact the only game which for me has managed to hide detailed character stats in a nice presentable way - Oblivion which is essentially the same game in a different setting - is much more confusing and less addictive in that regard (although still a great game).

Anyway, cheers Mitch - welcome again to the DM world - you did indeed get me hooked and I still am!

Just want to add a warm and hearty welcome to our new member samsonite! Good that there are more people who got addicted to DM as kids and still are today.

It's interesting that you say that almost no other RPG captivated you as much as DM did. I think one of the reasons for that is that DM is not a "pure" RPG. It doesn't have tactical combat but moves in real-time; you even need speed for some of the puzzles! The number crunching is also a lot less than in, say, Might & Magic or the old-school D&D games. In a way, DM is more of a combination of an RPG and an action game - and Diablo showed us a decade later that such mixtures can be highly successful because they can appeal to a wide array of players, if they are done well.

And don't worry about thread necro-ing - it happens rather often here, and usually with a good reason. I have never understood why other forums don't like that, anyway. But gladly, this forum is so much better than all the others!

Thanks for the welcome! I have browsed the forums in the past, but DM outdates the Web, so it's never been a natural source of info - it was old magazines and Mitch in those days!

It's true, DM almost has arcade like qualities in the RPG genre - I remember a birthday party as a teenager and for some reason everyone wanted to play drunken DM even though they were not in to RPG so we made rude names for 4 characters and set out staggering around the dungeons and possibly pooing our pants' and laughing at the same time! ...

Oh, and warm welcomes to Samsonite from me too!

I think you summed up the pros of DM very well!

samsonite wrote: When the ST died after 10 years (computers don't last that long now do they!)

That's very true. My 800 XL (Made in U.S.) still works (!), my ST (Made in Korea) died after about the same 10 years as yours, and the current computers (Made in China) don't last - physically - more than 5 years (unless you're very lucky).

The PC I bought in 98 was still working when my sister got rid of it from her loft this year. The PC I built 8 years ago still works fine, if a little noisily. And I trust that the PC I built this year will last more than 5 years. Don't be so quick to dismiss longevity of modern kit: it's fine as long as you buy decent hardware.

That was not my actual point - I meant that my ST was fast enough for anything for 10 years. A PC will not run modern software after 10 years. It's down to bloatware. My oldest PCs are running and have been for over 10 years - hardware is sound, but the power is no use for modern software (fine for DM though!).

True enough, but an ST won't run modern ST software either will it? It's all relative. It just means that in fact, Atari didn't innovate if the newest software would run on a ten year old machine. That's taking backwards compatibility to the extreme and isn't really progress. Better software forces advances in hardware and vice versa.
Anyway, welcome to the forums, good to see new people finding our little obsessed corner of the web

Yes, Atari failed by making all machines backwards compatible - people didn't think there was much difference between the ST and Falcon (which was a beast of a machine but had even the same case!). I would say Atari were incredibly innovative with hardware, but sucked at business and marketing. So PC wins at the end of the day and I love building PCs to last and do it for all my friends and family. Amazing how much power you can build for little money these days.