I was looking through the wiki for Rogue the other day and though it would be interesting to see a timeline of the major Rogue clones. So I made a little chart as an exercise (and now I know what I need to play). I’ll let it speak for itself:
A Brief Timeline of Rogue Clones
So I finally sat down with Rogue, the game from the early 80s that was the inspiration for many of the Dungeon Crawlers I’ve played over the years. It started with Desktop Dungeons, which I spotted on my TIGSource RSS feed. It’s easy to play, but tricky to master, and it has a surprising amount of depth. Most of the Rogue aficionados would probably scoff at its use of graphics, but it makes it easier for noobs like me.
So I played that for a bit (I’m still working through the different classes, actually), and then I thought “Maybe Rogue is on the iPhone…”. Of course it is! In fact, there’s a free version called simply “Rogue” by Gandreas Software that’s pretty good, and Rogue Touch was $0.99 a few days ago so I picked that up, too. So far I’ve played Rogue Touch more, but I think it’s because I have some “I bought it so I better play it” guilt. The free Rogue has the classic ascii graphics, an interesting glyph-based (you draw commands on a 9×9 grid) interface, and it’s a bit faster to play. Rogue Touch seems a little bit easy compared to the Gandreas version, but maybe it’s just me.
Anyways, now that I’m finally playing it, I can understand why it was so hot when it came out. I’m also starting to understand why some people prefer the ascii version. It’s a lot faster, like vi compared to Word. I’ll probably gravitate in that direction once I get a better feel for it.
I had a really good time with Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is very similar, except for one game-breaking issue.
In Warlords, the gameplay is largely strategic, except for the fact that you don’t know which pieces are going to slide in when you make a match. This was the only real flaw in the game for me. I’d make a match, then a bunch of attack pieces would slide in and the computer would get a free strike on me. The good news was that you could mitigate this frustration a bit by matching pieces in areas where there weren’t attack pieces. As long as a full match wasn’t randomly inserted, you’d be ok. A bit awkward, but the rest of the game was so good I could overlook this little flaw.
Galactrix goes with hexagonal pieces instead of square. This make for more possible moves. The problem is that the pieces can now come into the board from all sides. With the board being so small, it amplifies the issue from Warlords. If there are attack pieces on the board, chances are any move you make will result in a random attack piece coming in and the computer getting a free strike. What interesting is the better you play (the longer your combos), the more random pieces slide in, and the more chance you have of giving the computer a free attack.
I played Galactrix for a few hours over the course of two days. My final 10 games were against the same ship that kept winning because of random pieces. After that, I quit and uninstalled it. I really really really wanted to like it but based on the number of swear words that came out of my mouth, I wasn’t enjoying myself.
I’m still in on the next Puzzle Quest, though. Hopefully they’ll come up with a way to remove the randomness so I can strategize a bit more.
I just finished Halo: ODST. It’s a short experience (about 6 hours or so), but the atmosphere of it was really interesting. Nice music, too. I’d definitely recommend it at the Black Friday prices I’ve seen (30 bucks).
I like that it came with an “All the Halo multiplayer stuff” disc, too. I think that’ll probably just be the disc that sits in my Xbox if I’m not playing something else. You never know when you’ll want a little Halo Multiplayer 
I recently posted some photos of a cocktail arcade cabinet I built, and Ithought I’d go over the fabrication for those interested. Aseries of photos taken during the process is available here. I also took some photos of a Revenge of Doh cabinetfor research purposes, and those are available here. I’ve detailed software in a different post since that was asignificant undertaking in its own right.
I was inspired to make this cabinetafter watching a documentary called The King ofKong. It’s about a guy’s attempt at beating the highscore record in Donkey Kong. It made me try Donkey Kong onMAME, and snowballed into wanting a proper arcade cabinet to enjoyclassic games. I was also in need of small table for a cornerin my apartment, and an arcade cabinet was the perfect fit.
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UPDATE 2009.12.12 – I’ve detailed the fabrication here, and the software here.
It’s time I let everyone know what I’ve been working on over the last month. I bought a bunch of woodworking tools and have been very secretive about it, but the physical part of it is done now. So here it is:
That there is a cocktail arcade cabinet, which I built for 1. Retro-Gaming and 2. Breakfast-Eating. There’s been an empty corner in the apartment for about a year now, and I figured it was time to fill it. So there ya have it.
This is just The Unveiling, though. I’ve posted a short gallery here so y’all can take a look, but I’ve also taken a bunch of photos of the whole process, and I’ll go in depth on it all next week (hopefully).
I’ve just gotten word from my friend Chef Tomm that he’ll be teaching a Chinese Cuisine class November 21st at the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, CA. This will include how to make hand-pulled noodles. Check out the November class schedule at the PCI hobby classes page for more info. I would highly recommend this class regardless of your hand pulled noodle skill level. At the very least you’ll get a hands on session with some primo noodle dough (he makes some awesomely stretchy noodle dough).
It has some really nice growth along the trunk that’s hard to get going on a Jacaranda (in my experience).
I’m fond of my Dwarf Pomegranates, as well. I’ve grown them from seeds, which I got from the fruit of a co-worker’s tree. I have five of them, but this one has been outside most of the time, and is looking quite strong:
I’ve got some nice Lilikoi growing (that’s Passion Fruit), too. I got the seeds in Hawaii over Christmas, and I was unaware that they are actually a vine. So I put in some effort and planted them in a nice planter with a small trellis to climb up. I’m working on a Japanese Boxwood that I bought at Lowe’s, too, but I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do with it yet.
That’s right. Lye. It’s the traditional way to make soft pretzels, but for liability reasons, cooking shows can’t tell you to use lye (I guess). It’s also kind of a bit of work to get ahold of. But without it, your pretzels will taste like they’re missing something. It also gives them that gorgeous golden color:
The recipe to use is the one from Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame). Instead of using baking soda as he suggests, use 1 oz. of lye crystals to 1 quart of water. I used double that because I had a big pot. Get the mixture to a boil and drop each pretzel in the solution for 30 seconds before you glaze em and bake em.
A couple other things of note I came across while making these:
Anyways, I gotta give it to Alton Brown. His recipes are always a delight.
