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Archived news from 12/99.

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Archives - December 1999

Friday 31st December 1999
- Last Update. ...of this year at least (I'm not allowed to say millenium as it upsets the anal retentives out there). Anyhoo, I've been rather quiet what with the festive celebrations but I've managed to spare an hour or two before tonight's event. A lot of you out there are already enjoying 2000 but I thought I'd better get an update in before the millenium (oops) bug kills the local communications network. The update is rather brief as quiet a bit has been going on... chances are you know about a lot of this already.
- Cows! A guy called Scott Hammack has decided that there was a distinct lack of bovine related fun in Nethack 3.3.0 and has come up with a patch to correct this oversight. It adds, well, cows. Talkative ones at that. And cowhives. If this sounds right up your street, pop along here and be fulfilled.
- Gnomes! GnomeHack is a version of Nethack for GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment). There has been a new version (1.0.5) released by Erik Andersen to bring it into sync with the recent release of Nethack (3.2.3). Oh, and it clonks a few bugs too.
- RISC PernAngband. Henry Helliwell releases a new RISC OS version of 'darkgod's PernAngband (v4.0.5) which you can pick up from Henry's page here or grab the file direct from...
- RISC ZAngband. Musus Umbra has compiled a version of ZAngband (v2.2.8) for RISC OS. You can find it on his homepage here or download it directly from...
- New GSNband. Gwidon Naskrent has a new version (2.03) of GSNband available for you. Here are the changes...
  • Game engine mostly matches Z 2.2.8
  • New system for traps and all the traps originally found in A/64 (some have no effect yet).
  • Monster recall uses colours for some parts.
  • Six new and terrible curses to offset the advantages of powerful items.
  • New flag system for corpses, neater eating effects, corpse info is included in monster spoilers (courtesy of Ed Cogburn)
  • Prices of food items made less stringent & new item types added. Undead races also get slightly better nutrition from corpses.
  • Also cut down the price of rings and amulets of SD.
  • Dragon scale mails have had their recharge time decreased tenfold.
  • Fixes to quest and vault files (including a wrong monster name in the 'Unholy altar' thematic vault).
And here are the files...
- Merged SLASH'EM. With the recent release of Nethack 3.3.0, Warren Cheung has released a new version of SLASH'EM (v0.0.5E8) which merges in the new changes. If you wish to take a look at it, you'll find the source and a DOS binary available here.
- ADOM Release. Not a huge release but more of a preperation version from Thomas Biskup in the shape of ADOM (0.9.9g15). It consists mainly of bug fixes but also include partial monster inventories - in that critters wander around picking things up. At the moment they're not sure about what to do with them but that'll come soon, I'm sure. Thomas recently posted that the ADOM site may be unavailable for a while due to provider problems.
- Linuxy Bits. J. Ali Harlow has made available source and i386 binary RPMs for version 0.0.5E7F1 of SLASH'EM. You can find them here. Also, Ben Esacove has created an unofficial RPM for ADOM 0.9.9 gamma 15 which you can find here.
- Amiga Bits. Bablos has compiled two variants for the Amiga crowd. They are GSNband (v2.03) and ZAngband (v2.2.8). Here are the files...
- TK Update. Tim Baker has released new versions of his TK'ed variants. In the mix are AngbandTk (v2.8.3r20), KAngbandTk (v2.8.3r9), OAngbandTk (v0.4.0r6) and ZAngbandTk (v2.2.8r1). You can download the files you want from here and see the list of changes here.
- Paranoia Patch. Jonathan Nieder has updated David Damerell's Paranoia patch for Nethack (v3.3.0). The file you need to apply to the source can be found...
- New Variant. Eric Bock has decided to release what started as a tweak of ZAngband (aka ZAngband 2.11ce). He is calling it 'Zceband' (v2.12) and it has the following features...
  • Multiple message tracking. "You tunnel into the granite wall. <30x>".
  • The game-crashing bug has disappeared.
  • Players start with a larger basic inventory.
  • A 'fiend' race. It's...different. Fiends may not wield weapons or bows, and may not wear lights, cloaks, gloves, or boots. However, it's intended to be a warrior race.
  • Angband 2.8.5 line-of-sight algorithm.
  • Maps may be much larger than normal.
  • Fixed the bug with multiple-projectile weapons.
  • Increased the maximum number of random quests to 125. (Note that using this number would produce a quest on every level)
  • Added crushing ceilings.
  • Added barrels.
  • Added the Doom monsters.
Here are the files...
- Phew! Well, that took a little longer than a couple of hours. The next update won't be until I'm back at work (after Jan 4th) so no more nasty mail eh? ;) Many thanks to Don Brodale for keeping me more than up to date. Happy New Year (even if you've already had it)...
Thursday 16th December 1999
- Ninevon Preview. Dreir has released a preview version (0.0.4a) of his Visual Basic roguelike, Ninevon : Rogue Adventures. The executable can be downloaded from his project website. Have a look and remember to mail Dreir with your suggestions/bugs.
- Bored. If I find that I'm getting a little bored in the run up to Christmas (between wrapping presents and filling out cards), I may begin redrawing the Over tileset from the Development section as 32x32 tiles. Currently, at 16x16, they're a little small and low detail. If anyone is interested, drop me a note.
Wednesday 15th December 1999
- New ZAngband. ZAngband is out of beta - here comes the stable version. The devteam have finished tweaking and v2.2.8 is now available. As before, the list of changes is monsterously huge and if you didn't have a peek when the beta came out, you can find it here. If it be the files you're wanting, look no further...
- Xmas Celebrations. As per usual this time of year, my company is having it's annual Christmas celebration this Friday. It also marks my last day in at work for this millenium so updates may slow down slightly until the new year. Just thought I'd warn you. :)
Tuesday 14th December 1999
- KDE Rogue. KRogue is a version of Rogue for the KDE Unix GUI. It's the work of one Mikolaj Zalewski and is currently on version 0.9.5 so if you have any idea what I'm talking about (I know I don't), you should take a look.
- Debian What? As I've already shown my incredible lack of knowledge on everything non-Nice-Mr-Gates shaped, you won't mind if I post this as a quote. It's from Ben Gertzfield about a Debian GNU/Linux version of the recent NetHack (v3.3.0). Here is the post...
"I'm happy to announce Debian GNU/Linux packages for Nethack 3.3.0, for
both the stable release of Debian, version 2.1 (codename: slink) and
the unstable release, version 2.2 (codename: potato).

If you're running Debian 2.1, you REALLY REALLY REALLY should upgrade!
Previous versions of Nethack were not Y2K-compliant, so your favorite
game will go kaput real soon now! Tell your friends about the Debian
package for slink!

Get it from:

http://csl.cse.ucsc.edu/~ben/nethack/stable/

This package will hopefully show up in a security revison of Debian
2.1 soon.

If you're running Debian 2.2, you also really really should
upgrade. You can grab the package from:

http://csl.cse.ucsc.edu/~ben/nethack/unstable/

or you can just do an apt-get update; apt-get upgrade -- it should be
distributed throughout the Debian mirror network within a day or two.

These packages are slightly patched from the upstream version, to
allow save-games and lock files to be put in /var/ instead of /usr/,
and have also been patched to fix the small MAILDIR bug present in
3.3.0.

Happy Debian Nethacking!

Ben Gertzfield"
Monday 13th December 1999
- NetHack Y2K. Many thanks to the piles of people who dropped me a note about this. Slightly fewer thanks to the ones who ribbed me about page updates. Anyhoo, you've probably heard by now that there are two new versions of NetHack out courtesy of the devteam. The first one is v3.2.3 which contains bugfixes and is Y2K compliant. The idea here is that if your keen to play your current characters beyond 2000, use this version as saves are not compatible with... The second version, v3.3.0, which contains the fixes, the Y2K bits and...
  • Many, many bug fixes and minor tweaks.
  • Incorporate the wizard patch by Larry Stewart Zebra and Warwick Allison.
  • Split the character's race from his/her/its role in life.
  • Add elf, dwarf, orc, and gnome races.
  • Add new Ranger role.
- Mac SLASH'EM. Paul Hurtley has released Slash'EM 0.0.5E7mac0, a Mac port of SLASH'EM. Paul adds, "This is a straight port of the latest Slash'EM; the Macintosh aspects have not changed.". The files you need can be found on Paul's page here.
- Mac Move. With Mac Enhanced Angband changing hands, Arcum Dagsson has also moved the site. You'll find the correct location in the link above. Also, Arcum adds that the project has now moved into the beta-testing phase so if you wish to be a tester, contact him for details.
- New PernAngband. Version 4.0.5 of PernAngband from 'Darkgod' has been released. Here is a cropped list of changes...
  • Added DG curse that is ever worse than the TY one.
  • Drastically reduced the recharging time of the Dragon Scale mails.
  • Added the support of two-handed weapons (from GSN).
  • Added the random character name generation from Cthangband.
  • Added rivers(water & lava) from the Steven Fuerst fractal patch.
  • Add the Static Chaos persistent dungeon patch that save each levels of a dungeon (which has the PERSISTENT flag) on the disk and reload it instead of regenerating a new level.
  • Add the Outer World dungeon type.
  • Implemented the much more complex trap system from Angband/64.
  • The monster memory now color some important things about the monster (like resists, speed...)
  • Random quests will only occurs on PRINCIPAL dungeons (the one created by splitting the vanilla dungeon into 4 smaller ones, Galgals, Mirkwood, Mordor and Angband itself)
  • Added object experience as suggested by Ceilti
  • Add 4 dungeons by variaz@hotmail.com.
  • Add wt_info.txt. It defines wilderness features.
  • Scrolls of Reset Recall are now WORKING!
  • The new wilderness mode is done.
  • Add wilderness encounters.
  • Add Oangband rod/wand stacking.
Thursday 9th December 1999
- Lost LoTS. Uh-oh. Seems like there was a victim in my system upgrade at the beginning of December - I lost track of a piece of email about Legends Of The Seers. Basically, they have a swish new testbuild (no.3) for you to check out will day/night cycles, improved rendering and landscape objects. Apparently there was a couple of problems but they got sorted so go download it now!
Wednesday 8th December 1999
- Monster News. Or, more to the point, a monster newspaper. Erm, slab. Anyhoo, the dwarves and gnomes from Nethack (under the careful supervision of Oisin Curtin) have started their own publication, 'The Minetown Digger'. Go on, take a look.
- Boom-Banga-Bang. The mail system here went down the toilet last night and is feeling pretty rough today too so pieces of mail have been going missing, getting bounced and replies haven't been getting out of the building alive. All in all, not a nice situation. Hopefully it won't affect me too much but if you're getting bounces, worry not, we know about it (um, and could you please try again).
Tuesday 7th December 1999
- IMoria Demands. The entire Linux community (well, two of them, anyway) have petitioned me to place a link to IMoria (for Linux) by Steve Kertes on the Links page. Being woefully weak willed, I caved instantly and you'll find it there. Oh, and he released a new bug-fix version (4.85.11) just a few days ago so it was worth mentioning.
- More TANG. Chris Weisiger's 'The Angband Newbie Guide' (TANG for short) has been updated (v1.7.0) with extra info and more stuff so if you're new to Angband and want your questions answered, pop over to the FAQs section and take a peek.
Monday 6th December 1999
- Interhack Revisited. Damian Bentley is shifting gears on Interhack and has relocated the website. Infact, he has this to say...
"The multi-player version of Nethack, Interhack has moved 
web sites. Damian Bentley and Chris Allar have been working
hard to complete the project, and will soon be looking for 
teams of testers. If you are interrested please email 
Damian Bentley."
- Back Again. Well, I'm back and I have a new PC at home. Nippy enough to play EQ on and makes the dinosaur I was running before look like a joke. A new logo but I'm not 100% about which ones I've used and which ones I haven't so if you've seen it before, speak up...
© Copyright 1999 Darren Hebden.