Hio! :)

[Twiggy]

Hey guys!

Another new long time fan to poke around the boards Like many others here I played this game (A lot) in my youth. I was around 5 when the game came out, so I used to have to watch my parents play with my neighbour (Many late night drinking sessions partaken by them there) so if they were there late at night they used to hook the vcr up through the tv so that I could watch the tape of them playing later on.

Was stumbling around the net the other day and found this website and was pretty surprised to still see activity on here, so I figured I'd say hi I plan on going through DM and Chaos again, so at least I have people to talk to about it lol. After going through here, I think I'm going to try a 1 or 2 player game...I'd never even thought of doing that before to be honest. It was always just take your 4 champions and get booting. I've still never actually finished Chaos though, so hopefully I can do that with some help from the troops

Oh and for the record, I'm a man not a women...The Twiggy thing confuses some people hehe

Twiggy

[raixel]

Welcome to the forums! You need help with anything, theres a bunch of long time DM fanatics hangin 'round here.

[beowuuf]

Welcome to the forums! That VCR thing sounds really funny, never thought of doing that back in the day.

And yeah, CSB is a little intense at times, but also very doable - especially with the occasional pointer

[Jan]

Welcome, Twiggy! (and I thought - wow! she must be really slim! )

[Ameena]

Hey welcome, Twiggy . I'm sure you'll finish CSB soon enough - it's just a matter of getting the hang of the basic layout, really, so you know wtf you're supposed to be doing .
Got any funny/silly/weird/embarrassing stories to tell us about previous experiences in DM/CSB?

[Twiggy]

Thanks for the welcome

You know Ameena, I'd been reading over some threads the last few days and I actually thought your username was Flippy. I should pay more attention hey

Hmm well under the embarrassing column, i could probably put the fact that this game used to scare the absolute pants off of me as a young snapper... And parts of that still hold true to me today. If I'm playing alone I still get apprehensive walking around Lvl 4 and 12 in particular. Do the whole thing where you'll hide in a locked room for a while until you can't hear anything then just make a mad dash for it lol. Amazing how something like an overactive imagination can still bite you 20 years on.

In the funny category, have you ever tried playing DM as a team? With 1 person doing the fighting/mouse clicking (me), 1 person walking (mum) and another trying to say where to walk (Dad) - mix all that in with us all drinking throughout...it gets pretty interesting to say the least. Especially when a Demon or Dragon comes along and we all want to do different things to it... The amount of times we've barrelled a fireball into a wall becaues mum runs away as I fire...good times

Also remember the first time we all fired up CSB and it dumped us in the room with the worms. God they tore us a new one straight up off the bat and we were just like "Wow what are we getting ourselves into?"

[Jan]

In the funny category, have you ever tried playing DM as a team? With 1 person doing the fighting/mouse clicking (me), 1 person walking (mum) and another trying to say where to walk (Dad) - mix all that in with us all drinking throughout...it gets pretty interesting to say the least. Especially when a Demon or Dragon comes along and we all want to do different things to it... The amount of times we've barrelled a fireball into a wall becaues mum runs away as I fire...good times

LOL, I remember the same thing - although without parents and drinking.

I was playing DM and especially CSB with one of my friends a lot - one of us with the keyboard and the second with the mouse. Mostly, it was very confusing, especially for the mouse-guy, who (because of the tile / step movement) had absolutely no idea about where we were or where we were going. And, of course, this also led to many fireballs fired against the walls, swords choping the air, hands pushing nothing, etc.

[Twiggy]

Lol also fun when the person pumping the legs away from that scary knight says "Nah nah I know where I'm going!", which usually winds up with us stuck in an alcove flailing away hopelessly till we die Or the amount of times we'd be walking around, turn a corner and usually have the shit scared out of us by a creature we didn't know was there. My first reaction is always "FIRE!" while mum's would be "RUN AWAY!" which always lead to the fireball in the wall and if we really did well (More so in CSB) we'd run down a pit too ^_^

[Bit]

The most scary ones to me in DM are the Coatls, just because their ability to damage is maybe the highest - relative to the state the party is at that point. And they are fast - not speaking about the poisoned bite.

[beowuuf]

And lastly, alot are encountered in difficult to navigate areas - you have the dead end maze beyond the pit room, the actual pit room itself that the coatyl can ignore... scary!

[Twiggy]

Yeah the Floating Eyes were a pain for that as well. I think I hated them more because you couldn't hear them coming at all. At least Coatyl's flap

[beowuuf]

The current RTC build gives the wizards eyes and lightning bolt a little more power, so having them drift siilently near you and shoot you before you notice them is actually pretty annoying!

[Sophia]

Welcome.

Hmm well under the embarrassing column, i could probably put the fact that this game used to scare the absolute pants off of me as a young snapper...

It'd be embarrassing except this sort of thing is true for a lot of us here. Including me!
It was a very atmospheric game.

[Trantor]

Welcome to the forums from me too! Enjoy your time here, and make sure to tell us a lot of stories!

[Ameena]

Hehe, I still don't much like the Scorpion attack noise, and the Dragon (and therefore Rat/Hellhound) one too, the latter because if you suddenly hear it froma distance, you just know that it doesnt' matter which way you run, you're gonna pick the wrong direction and get a Fireball upside the head .

[Rasmus]

Welcome
I agree with bit, Coatls in the pit room are the creatures that made my heart jump the most in dm. But I must say, I still fell disscomfort playing past level 2 (when 0 is hall of champions). As a player I like to take it slow, organize and so on. I hate when something that I am not prepered on comes and disturb that order, especially when it just jumps out in front of the screen. And after level 2 when the creaturegenerators comes into action, I can't be completly sure that nothing will attack me

[Twiggy]

Level 12 is the worst for me in that sense. I also like having comfort in having a fair idea of what I'm going to run into, but when those octopus/non-material things can go through doors and stuff...well that's just not fair!

[Rasmus]

I agree, I always train alot before reaching that level to be able to kill those annoying monsters as fast as possible..

[Ameena]

I just try to leg through any area with Spell Vines as quick as possible because they are nasty bastards, lol. Mobs where you can't tell which way they're facing are more annoying, especially those with ranged attacks (ie Spell Vines, Beholders, etc), 'cause you can't quite tell when you're gonna get a fireball (or whatever) to the face. Grr...
At least Level 12 has those two monster-boundary corners, so you can get behind one of those and have a sleep as long as you've cleared out the preceding area so nothing will sneak up on you from behind .

[Jan]

And, most importantly, you can actually avoid the whole second part of the level 12 (between the RA key and the Master key), if you know the trick (that I've learned from PaulH).

[Rasmus]

That is why I love dungeon master.. Still there are new tricks to get around

[Ameena]

I do recall PaulH posting something like that...I recall it had something to do with the skeleton stairway...wasn't it that you use the stairwell to get to level 13, then come back up that level's "proper" stairs in order to grab the Master Key, then go back down or something?

[Jan]

Yes. Well, not exactly. You can watch PaulH's minimum-picking video at http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/Competition/ for more.

Spoiler:

Spoiler

Once you get the RA key from level 12, return to the Tomb of the Firestaff (you can use the Skeleton Stairway, but it is not necessary), open the RA doors and the door at Enter with Caution (with the Ruby Key). Then open the secret passage to the Secret Stairway (with the switch on the long wall in the "laboratory"), and descend to the level with Lord Chaos where the Secret Stairway ends. Here push the button and open the rest of the level and make a few steps to the stairs that lead up to the spider/knight level. Grab the Master Key from the alcove and use the same way to return to the Tomb of the Firestaff.

Ta.da!

[Twiggy]

I think those stairs are where I was yesterday when I loaded up my old game. I had a save file sitting there so thought I'd load it up (On WinUAE) and I was at the bottom of some stairs facing a plus/cross switch. I had the firestaff and all my team was kitted up with pretty armour and stats...but I had absolutely no idea where I was lol. Followed it back up and it brought me to the area on level 7 with the Golem.

I've dragged that party up to the Screamer room to train up their Wizard and Priest levels a bit. They're healthy enough to handle Chaos, but I want them to have more mana. I think the highest was 120 or something - couple of big fireballs and they're spent. That's always been my biggest failing with playing Chaos. My guys can never do enough spells and I seem to get overwhelmed. For some reason I don't find I have to fight as many creatures by hand in that game.

[Gambit37]

Train on the rat level, rather than the screamer level, as you get more experience the lower down you go.

[Jan]

I think those stairs are where I was yesterday

Yep.

Train on the rat level

And don't forget to close the door once you're finished!

[Twiggy]

Rat level training?

[Jan]

On the Rat level (level 8 when HoC is 0), there's a room close to the end with a Rat generator (turn left before you reach the "Lighter than a feather" alcove). You can use it for training similar to the Screamer level, although it's a bit tough. The good thing is that there's a water fountain and the Skeleton Stairway nearby, so you can return there later.

[Ameena]

Yeah, that area on Level 9 is the traditional safe spot for most players, I think - it's right near the central stairwell, you have a lockable room with a fountain in it, and just down the corridor there's the Rat Room . I think Level 9 is the place most people come back to when they need a rest and a drink...and food too, if they happen to have run out. Personally, I'm still working my way through Screamer slices and corn and stuff even till the very end of the dungeon (and due to space limitations by that point usually end up having to leave a nice pile of steaks on the floor to go all stinky and mouldy ) because, knowing what's what (and being a cheaty bugger and using maps), I seem to get through the dungeon fast enough that no-one ever goes hungry .

[Twiggy]

Finally found it. I think I kept walking straight past it. I could hear them though so just took a bit of finding.

What's the... Walking pattern you have to do to make them generate? Or where do you have to walk to, whatever. The first time I went in, there was about 4 or 5 rats in there, but I could only ever get singles after that...occasionally a pair on one tile.

On an unrelated note, I downloaded some of the sfx from the encyclopedia. I'm finding it rediculously amusing hearing a War Cry every time I get a message. Also had quite a few instances where I'm having a conversation with someone and it'll war cry and make it sound like an affirmative to a statement said. Priceless