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From: petkau@herald.UUCP (Jeff Petkau)
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack,comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: nethack and mswindows
Message-ID: <1990Aug27.235537.11550@herald.usask.ca>
Date: 27 Aug 90 23:55:37 GMT
References: <HAIRSTON.90Aug26002105@henry.ece.cmu.edu>
Sender: news@herald.usask.ca (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
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> constructive criticism:
> why not use the ascii representations for the character/monsters?
> icons/glyphs/picture fonts don't really work (when you think about
> it soberly).  you could (should?), create great architecture characters
> (i.e. walls, doors, pools, fountains etc.).  in the same vein, it's
> hard to beat the ascii representations for objects (scrolls, potions...)
> since otherwise you'll have a "cute" weapon symbol that makes sense for
> a long sword and makes no sense for a boomerang (or 7 darts) and so on.

Have you ever seen Larn or Moria or Hack 2.?? on the Amiga?  They all use
cute pictures instead of letters, and it improves the feel of the game
wonderfully.  No doubt whoever ported these versions never bothered to
think about it soberly.  (There is more involved than just changing the
font, though, since you have to have an image of a long sword, and a
boomerang, and a dart, and all sorts of other things, and the program has
to print a different character for each.  But this could easily be done
with a slight extension of the current GRAPHICS= option).

Jeff Petkau: petkau@skdad.USask.ca
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