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Angband 2.8.3 for OS/2- by Trevor Smith
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Back in the dim recesses of computer history, there was a program originally developed on mainframes called Rogue. Because of the capabilities of machines at that time, Rogue was a completely text based game, but for some it was extremely addictive. Later, a man named Robert Alan Koeneke, while working at the University of Oklahoma, created a Rogue-like game on the VAX VMS called Moria. Moria spawned a virtual gaggle of games, one of which was Angband (and Angband itself has mutated into many forms since its origin too). Through the years, Angband has evolved, improved and been ported to numerous operating systems and hardwares. At least five main developers have worked on the main Angband project over at least ten years, and hordes of others have tinkered with the code or offered ideas for enhancements.

The end result of all this development time is one of the most addictive -- although in some cases "ugly" -- games ever produced. I say ugly because for OS/2, Angband is still a text-mode only game. But as I mentioned, Angband is available on many other platforms, some of which support rudimentary graphics. See the "Dungeon Cam" web site for screen shots of some of the "prettier" versions on other platforms.

Installation

Angband is a text mode game which is displayed in an OS/2 command window. Unzipping the archive is about all there is to installation. If you want a Desktop object, you will need to create it yourself. Running angband.exe starts the program. Note, however, that you will need the EMX runtime files (ZIP, 538k) installed before you can run Angband for OS/2.

Angband also features the ability to have some game information displayed in separate command windows. To facilitate this, a command script comes with the game which supposedly will open a few different windows and then start Angband. You can then specify which info you want displayed in "remote windows" (GIF, 9.6k) from within the game. In practice, I have been unable to get the supplied command script to work properly. It appears that to operate properly, the remote windows must be created before Angband is started. However, some windows do not get created until after Angband is started by this script. Because there is no "official" tech support for Angband (although there is a reasonably good FAQ at the Official Angband Home Page), I decided to create a short work-around: I modified the script to only open the "remote windows" and only after these are all open do I start Angband myself.

Other than this quirk, I have never had a problem with running Angband. Since it is a text mode program, even if you have been playing for some time (and therefore have a great deal of data in your save file), you should never see any noticeable slowness in this game, regardless of the OS/2 system you are running it on.

What It's All About

You don't have to be the programming wizards at id Software to figure out the fundamental truth of computer gaming (at least some gamers consider it the fundamental truth): hacking up monsters is fun. This has been a common theme of computer games since at least the early '80s, and probably even before that. Angband and its ancestors are part of this proud tradition; basically, Angband is about delving ever deeper in a strange and dangerous dungeon, collecting treasure, weapons and magical items... and killing everything in site. There are some Angband players who will claim that there are better ways to play (and win) Angband, such as using stealth, intelligent retreats, and other less direct methods. However, we all know that when we leave a dungeon level, we really want to be the only one able to leave.

You start by generating a "character" which is your alter-ego in the game. This character is created in the traditional "Dungeons and Dragons" fashion, with statistics for characteristics such as strength, dexterity, intelligence, "hit points" (how much "life" you have), etc. You also choose a race (Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc.) and class (Warrior, Mage, Priest, etc.). Once you have a character created, you appear in the "town" (GIF, 5.9k) with a few gold pieces in your pouch. Your character is represented on screen by an "@" symbol, other characters in the town (and the monsters, treasure, weapons and armour you will later meet in the dungeon) are represented by other keyboard symbols. Everything, including the walls and floor is draw with text symbols. As I said, not very pretty.

Once you have visited the various stores in town and purchased equipment you think you will need, you plunge down into the dungeons of Angband. There are 100 levels of dungeons and, naturally, the deeper levels are more difficult. This means you will meet nastier monsters the deeper you go (GIF, 6.3k), and you will require better equipment. This equipment can initially be purchased in the town's stores or found in the dungeon itself. Eventually you will need weapons so powerful that it is unlikely you will ever find them for sale, and you will need to either find them in the very deep levels or -- more likely -- take them from the corpses of your enemies.

Your character will also need to be more powerful to reach the deeper levels. As you play the game and kill other creatures you gain experience which will mean more hit points, more spell casting skills, (if you are a Mage or other spell casting character) and better abilities.

The goal, of course, is to get to level 100, find the Lord of Darkness himself called Morgoth, and kill him. Needless to say, this is difficult.

Game Play

Unlike games such as Doom or Duke Nukem, Angband is not a real time adventure. It is played in "turns", meaning that while you sit and stare at your screen there is nothing happening. Only when you press a key to do something (activate an item, cast a spell, move or attack a monster, eat, etc.) does time pass. Movement is achieved with the numeric keypad in the expected manner. Most other commands are also entered by typing one-key commands, and occasionally selecting alternatives from a menu of options (GIF, 7.2k).

There is a reasonably extensive, but sometimes less than helpful "help" system built into Angband. It is accessible from within the game by typing the '?' key, but the help files are just plain ASCII text and can be found in the lib\help\ directory in the Angband archive if you prefer to read them with a text editor.

Also, there are various "spoilers" that can be added to the help system. These are files which contain detailed information on many features of the game including monsters you will meet, treasures you may find, and how dungeons and characters interact. You can download them separately from the game archive from the official development FTP site in the Help-Info directory. Save them in your lib\help\ directory and the game will automatically display them when you use its help functions. (Make sure you grab the relevant .spo and .hlp files for the topics you want.)

Angband is meant to be a game that is played with a character until it dies, and then the game ends. There are no three lives to squander, no second chances, no resurrections. You can save your progress at any time, and you will want to do so because to gain enough experience to reach level 100 and kill Morgoth can take some people months -- but if you die (as opposed to just exiting the game), that's it. Game over.

With the current OS/2 version, however, I have found that to "cheat death" all that is really required is to close the command window that Angband is running in if you die, but before Angband saves the fact of your death. This is obviously cheating, but it will probably save you frustration when starting out, because you will die frequently.

An Addiction by Any Other Name...

Despite its archaic interface and turn based play, Angband is extremely addictive. If you can get past the first few minutes/hours of GUI withdrawal, you will soon find yourself wasting days, if not weeks searching for special magical artifacts or looking for a rematch with "Glaurung, Father of the Dragons".

There have been generations of Angband addicts, proved by the fact that there are news groups devoted to the game and its cousins where people post reports of their characters' stupid deaths, great finds, won games, etc.

And there is no end in site to the development and evolution of this game. A multiplayer version of Angband, "Mangband", for OS/2 is already available at the OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 758k), and work continues on the original single player version too.

Conclusions

Angband is a great game not because of flashy graphics, sound effects, and other peripheral silliness. It is addictive because it offers the pleasure of exploring an exciting and sometimes surprising world of monsters, magical items and demonic creatures. And also because it allows us to use our imaginations to fill in the details of that world. If adventure games are your pleasure, Angband is sure to please.

* * *

Angband 2.8.3 for OS/2

by Ben Harrison (and many others)
OS/2 port by Silas Dunsmore and Marco G. Salvagno
download from the OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 516k)
Registration: FREEWARE

Trevor Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of OS/2 e-Zine!. His current projects include renovating his house and building bookshelves, but he would prefer to spend his time hacking Great Hell Wyrms into fish bait or banishing Nightwalkers from existence.


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