Request

Can any of my older/more learned readers recall the names of any of those classic programming magazines? The kind of thing that would feature little snippets of BASIC code and simple algorithms. I'm still toying with roguelike stuff and it's tough to get a grasp on things. There are a few reasons for this:

1. The old code is in very old languages. Not only can they be very hard to understand but the implementation may be so vastly different that it won't be useful with a newer language.
2. The newer/maintained code has grown incredibly complex and fragmented. You have to understand every single part if you want to extract even one piece of it.
3. Some of the really inventive, new stuff isn't open-source. Both Incursion (which has a very robust implementation of the d20 SRD in it) and Dwarf Fortress (which is mind-boggling) are closed-source with no apparent plans to open-source. I don't think Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is open-source, either.

Any suggestions?

Merits a Look

I'm addicted to a simple, fun roguelike called Meritous.

The rooms appear to be generated fractally. On my current game there are 3000 of them. Part of the fun is going room to room and watching the larger pattern appear on the map.

It's not quite a one-button game but it's close. You move with arrow keys. When you hold down the spacebar you generate a psychic charge - when you let go the charge radiates in a circle from you.

The charge will destroy enemies and their projectiles. You go room to room, destroy enemies with your psychic charge and collect psi crystals.

Those crystals are used to upgrade your shield and charge.

The game is largely about movement and timing, dodging shots in order to build up a more powerful charge. Some enemies will only be destroyed by a powerful blast of psi power.

You'll be surprised at the depth to the system. I think it's genius that extra functionality is contained inside objects - the upgrade machines, teleports, save points. The primary verbs never change, you don't have to worry about anything but the core gameplay and proper assessment of your enemies.

Give it a try. Even the graphics are a delight.