Apodion.net

So I’ve been in a kind of Roguelike state of mind recently. In the realm of the existent, I recently found Steamband, a Steampunk version of the venerable Angband Roguelike. It’s a little Nethack-y for my tastes, but then again, pretty much everything is when you’re a hard-core ADoM devotee. Fear not, however, because last month came word that the Venerable and Blessed Thomas Biskup received a beta of the Mac version of ADoM and is testing it as we speak! Excitement runs high.

And for those of you who actually don’t know what a Roguelike is, briefly - a Roguelike is what Diablo was, 10 years ago (Jesus, how old is Diablo now?). That is, a Roguelike is your classic dungeon-crawling action RPG, except turn-based, and all the graphics are colored ASCII characters rather than pictures. This sounds horrible; you are wrong, however. It’s awesome.

I got into ADoM (That’s Ancient Domains of Mystery, for the unitiated) at a very early age; honestly I was young enough and computer graphics were already advanced enough that I think the only reason that I found it at all interesting was that it was a computer game and it was free, and I spent enough time playing computer games at the time that that was enough for me. For that I have to thank my old friend Melanie, to whom I have not spoken in years, but whose early and wise influence during those formative years introduced me to not only ADoM but also the Watchmen(!), and to whom therefore I owe much of my current cultural expertise. I haven’t played at all since I moved out here; the one downside to ADoM is that it is closed-source, and therefore not as ubiquitously ported as that other Roguelike (the term Roguelike derives from the very first of the breed, Rogue), and therefore once I gave up my PC to my old man my only option was ssh-ing to some Linux box, which simply doesn’t provide the immediacy one needs for the full Roguelike experience.

So in all truth the whole Steamband thing for me is just a bit too alien to really immerse myself in (who among us can imagine coding in vi and emacs interchangeably?), but will nevertheless I hope provide an entertaining diversion until the true love of my life makes itself available again.

Also, as a result of various recommendations or lendings, I’ve acquired GTA: San Andreas, Ghost Dog, Primer, and Run, Ronnie Run, and haven’t yet played/watched any of them. I’m falling awfully behind, I’m afraid.

Lastly: Free DJ Mixes. Good gravy.