Dungeon Master Forum

I thought it was time I made myself known.

I'm Chloe, I'm a young woman who lives in rural England and it seems I'm not the only one who has a lasting passionate regard for Dungeon Master. (My first AOL screenname was Daroou...) This isn't the first time I've revisited the experience, a few years ago I downloaded and very nearly completed the original (WinUAE version) before my parents' computer crashed and my game was lost. I first played and completed the game when I was ten or eleven, and the second time I was taken aback by how challenging and all-consuming the puzzles are and how I maybe was at my peak intellect at age eleven to have been able to complete it without hints.

But the online community has evidently grown and blossomed, I'm a bit overwhelmed by what's available now.

I'm maybe a bit more retarded on technical issues that probably most of you, brace yourself for some silly questions.

I paint pictures and have a website. http://www.chloepaintings.co.uk

There is maybe a subtle DM influence in there. Decide for yourself.

Chloe

welcome to the forums!

>>brace yourself for some silly questions

ha, you won't beat me in that regard!

welcome

There are no silly questions, only silly answers. Hi, and welcome to the forums! I took a look at your portfolio, and was very impressed -- you have a wide variety of styles, most in a very unique style that I have not seen for a long time. I detected lots of influences in your work, but nothing specific to DM -- though I did see Chuck Rock in your sketches. I loved your comment about Brighton art gallery -- I live in Brighton, and I know exactly what you mean. I also noticed you linked to Lawrence's art shop. It's just around the corner from me, my sister runs the office there! It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

indeed as the others have said. No stupid or silly questions exist. In fact the only bad thing about a question is not asking it!

I like the dry comment about the art degree. Get a few students come to our course with them saying "yay.. I went to school for 4 years and I'm still not employable". It's the unfortunate reality about commercial art vs fine art. While fine art is good to explore.. it often is a big gamble. You could hit it rich by becomeing the big new whatever in the art world. This can be as much fluke as anything.. or you can be like the rest of them.. a starving artist.

Took a while before I went for commercial training in an artistic feild. The only adjustment one has to make from fine art to commercial art.. is with all the rules. So many more when trying to meet mass media consumption. There is still quite a bit of creativity and freedom.. but it's still got to appeal to a large group of people rather than a small group of friends Rather dissapointing lesson.. but one I was glad to get! (not that it's improved my oppinion of my own art work much )

I really enjoyed looking at your art work. Some nice stuff in there. Mostly I enjoy your use of colour. you've found some very appealing combinations.

Anyway, nice to see more DM fans who can produce more artistic content. Seems this is growing steadily. It was mainly just Gambit and I for the longest time... now the list has grown to a number of impressive artworks from users for the DM community. It's wonderfull

well.. I'll quit blabbing now

moo

Thanks for the comment Cow, but I wouldn't call myself an artist by any stretch of the imgaination. It's been years since I've picked up a pencil. Sure, I can push pixels around in PhotoShop, but it's not really all that great. Maybe I really should go back and study, after all!

Thank you all for welcoming me. I've been on some heavy antibiotics this week for something of a mystery illness and I've felt kind of out of it so it's nice to discover a new little pocket of common-brained people.

I once nearly finished a painting in a DM style grey stone setting with two vicious sabre tooth bunnies, maybe I should dig that out.

The Lawrence art shop is probably the thing I miss most about Brighton. I can still mail order stuff but it's not the same.

Unfortunately, yesterday I came to the shocking realisation that I officially qualify as a nerd, despite being in possession of a fine pair of boobies. Well, if nerds are people who passionately pursue their interests, that probably makes everyone else try-hard lamos/crashing bores, and I chose the right side.

Chloe

Oh, there's one thing that's bugging me relating to my understanding of the whole custom dungeon download thing (this is where my denseness manifests itself). It's probably not relevent because they all have their own instructions or whatever

I understand that they usually come in .dat format and that you 'replace' existing .dat files... I don't understand how to do that....it's probably so obvious that I can't see it.... and how multi-format is that whole .dat thing?

I is an artist, not a computer person.

Zombie bunnies - they just want love
and brains
but mostly the love thing

You literally copy the .dat file over the top of the existing .dat file
So for PC DM, the game is in the Ftl folder. So you would copy a 'dungeon.dat' file into the Ftl/Data folder over the top of the original to play a new dungeon through the 'enter' option. New graphics.dat' files are saved in the same place. For 'dmsave.dat' files they are in the root Ftl folder, and let you play a saved game through the 'resume' option

The page http://www.dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/Games/has a few of the dungeons self-contained with explicit instructions on playing. If you use that for the first few, then you can download the rest and get them to work yourself.

Formats aren't usually compatible - Amiga games don't run on Atari and vice versa, PC games don't run on either format.
There is a programe called 'CSB For Windows' that is based on the atari version, and lets you play the atari games in windows. You can also use its editor 'CSBuild' to open then resave PC games in atari format and play them too! Probably the best option to go for.

There is also a nice clone called 'Retrun To Chaos' which emulates DM/CSB and lets you build new dungeons too, but its dungeons aren't compatible with other formats either!

Have fun, good luck with the illness

Welcome aboard

What everyone already said (yet I will reapeat it): Welcome to the forum, and there are no silly questions. If you want to know something or need any kind of support, just ask, I'm sure that the community here wil be glad to help.

So, another one from UK! I'm going to UK soon for a month, and after years of contact in this forum me and my gf have agreed with Gambit and Kaspian to visit them. They will be the first internet contacts ever I will meet personally After visiting them in not-so-rural England, I will spend the rest of my time in pretty rural south-western England, so that's why I'd like to know: Where in England is Dorset, for I wasn't able to locate it on a map?

You'll be close if you're south west: Dorset is a county between Devon and Hampshire on the south coast. Main town is Bournemouth, which I believe you said you were going to visit originally....?

Here's a Multimap link. It doesn't show the county borders, but Dorset is roughly defined by the points you can just see on this map: Lyme Regis (extreme west coast), Yeovil (actually Somerset, but close to border), Shaftsbury (middle of map), Christchurch (east of Bournemouth)

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?X=....

Gathering and meeting is a great idea. We are alone in our interest for DM and spread all around the world. Without internet we would have never had the opportunity to share our visions...
I hope your encounter will mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship and I expect to have some news about it!
Maybe in 2006 I will spend a year in Australia... Anyone over there interested?

yeah.. wouldn't it be fun for all the regulars to get together and meet? Shame it costs so much to fly..

*sniffs* - Im in London (central London for work and South West when at home), where and when were you all thinking of meeting up?

Gambit: Ok, that's why I didn't find it - I supposed it were the name of a town.

Andyboy: Really, you're in London? Cause between visiting Gambit in Brighton in Kaspian in Bradford I will be 2 or 3 days in London

PS (to Andyboy): I'll meet Gambit on 22nd Juli in Brighton and Kaspian on 30th Juli in Bradford.

What days are you in London, any day during the week is easy, we could meet up for at lunchtime or after work (about 6pm GMT I finish).

Where abouts in London are you staying? (central london - tube stop? or outside, nearest trainstation?)

26/27/28/29 Juli (July im hoping) Im around. Im out the 24th though.

Cheers,
A

.

Andyboy: We'll arrive 22nd/7 in Dover and go then to Brighton first, I intend to stay 2 or 3 days in Brighton, so we'll be in London probably 25th/26th. Send me your eMail as PM, we can make an appointment then.

PS: We don't now yet exactly where in London we'll stay, I hope to find a neat and not too expensive B&B with guarded parking facility outside London so not to have to drive by car inside London being used to driving on the right side of the road If you know a good facility let me know!

Hmm, also beware of the congestion charge, if you go into central london with a car it costs £5/day and you have to register for it.

http://www.cclondon.com/

Are there any particular things you want to do in London (london eye, west end, theatre, cinema, clubbing, comedy, etc). Might be able to help you out with some bits.