SSA Blogathon – Some video game nonsense to wrap up (9 of 9)

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Okay, so I’m basically out of real content at the moment, so have some ramblings for my last post of the night. I had originally scheduled a four hour shift because I wasn’t sure if I’d end up having to work tonight, but luckily, I don’t. I say luckily because I’m actually pretty close to spent now. I do not envy those fools brave souls who did a full 24 hour stint.

You might remember that I was trying to get a PS3 controller working under Windows and Linux so I could play some video games. Well, I got it working under both, but under neither one of them did ZSNES, a Super Nintendo emulator, operate properly. No matter what I did — and I hacked at it for a week — I couldn’t get it to read the keys properly, as the drivers under both Windows and Linux read the accelerometer as being “triggered” at all times, so every button when I went to configure it got set to that accelerometer. It was maddening as hell because I had gotten it to work fine with an NES emulator and with The Binding of Isaac.

Jodi and I went out to Future Shop to pick up a Logitech USB controller but couldn’t find any (their computers said they had two in stock but the staffers were at a loss as to where). So we went to Staples on a hunch (Jodi’s hunch, not mine), and found the exact model we were looking for, only for five bucks cheaper, in a bargain bin. At the same time we got her a faster SD card for her camera so it could take video properly — her old one was too slow on the write side.

Brought home the controller, unboxed it, and it worked flawlessly under Linux without any configuration. So I picked up a ROM for a game I hadn’t played before, because it was never released in North America — Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren The Wanderer.

It didn’t take me very long to realize what I was playing. A rogue-like game. A true rogue-like game. On the SNES. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve got a thing for rogue-likes.

So I’m jonesing to go play this now. That’s what I’ll be doing if I can’t find anything else to blog tomorrow. Apparently this game’s since been remade for Wii, probably owing to the success of the remake of Chocobo’s Dungeon, which is itself evidently a Final Fantasy-branded Mystery Dungeon franchise licensee. The Pokemon franchise also licensed this engine, apparently. Evidently in Japan, there’s a whole slew of these games, and they all kinda play similarly. Turn-based moves, randomly-generated dungeons, permadeath. I don’t know why I like the idea so much now, when I have such a strong preference for never losing progress in games. I fondly remember cheating with saved games in ADOM once upon a summer at my father’s.

Before moving onto FtB, I had built the Konami Code into my old blog that would launch a Java-based version of the original Rogue. I kinda miss having that available.

Oh, before I close out, I’m now mentioning Veritas Knight, who asked that I mention him. He’s apparently already blown his SSA donation budget so he can’t ask any special questions. AliasAlpha didn’t donate as far as I know, but asked: “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

Uh, I think so AliasAlpha, but where would we get the DeLorean and the AMC Gremlin, not to mention the rocket engines?

You might want to check out a pair of trolls who airdropped onto post 6 if you’re looking for some entertainment while I hit the hay.

Anyway, go donate! And g’night all!

This is post 9 of 9 for the SSA Blogathon. Total donors is at 598 with $83,999 donated! You can still donate to the SSA by supporting other blogathoners, art contributors, personal fundraising pages or through a direct donation to the SSA. SSA Week lasts through June 17th. Spread the word!

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SSA Blogathon – Some video game nonsense to wrap up (9 of 9)
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5 thoughts on “SSA Blogathon – Some video game nonsense to wrap up (9 of 9)

  1. 1

    Hey Jason
    Frequent lurker and fellow canadian here. I spent many hours of my youth developing my own rogue-like games in BASIC (I also started out on a Tandy 1000). Have you ever come across the rogue-like game called “Ragnarok” (no relation to the MMORPG)? It was incredibly fun and can still be played with a little bit of compatibility tweaking.
    Download here: http://rogue-life.ourden.org/ragnarock
    Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnarok_(video_game)

  2. 3

    Oh, man. I *loved* Chocobo Dungeon. It was about the only console game I’ve ever liked a/or played willingly without social pressure.

    There are more games like it? For the PC? MUST HAZ.

  3. 4

    Well-designed rogue-likes are a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed quite a few games of Angband in the past. It’s interesting to learn that there were rogue-likes for the SNES unreleased in the states. As far as I can tell, games like that have often been overshadowed by the unreleased JRPGs.

    The key part of rogue-likes that is annoying is permadeath, which is proportionally bad to the difficulty of that particular variant. Dying should at least give you some leg up on the next character, if nothing else. Perhaps a fraction of your gold, equipment, and experience. If not, a difficulty setting would be greatly appreciated on a lot of them, since otherwise it typically takes hundreds of characters to actually win. Too much luck involved in some of the random spawns, especially when playing a difficult class with few escape and/or mass kill options.

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