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Not Actually A DOS Game looks like a retro delight

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Do you love retro games (or just retro-styled) and you're a fan of dungeon crawling? Check out the recent release of Not Actually A DOS Game for your latest fix.

Taking the visuals of classics like Rogue, it spices things up a bit to make the style a little more approachable with a slightly more modern interface and some small effects. The result is a game that should appeal to classic roguelike fans while giving some nice quality-of-life adjustments like tooltips, stat comparisons and more. Overall it certainly seems like a solid entry.

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Game Features:

  • A core of classic roguelike gameplay. Descend the dungeon, collect items and kill monsters and bosses.
  • Kill enemies or explore the dungeon to gain floor progress.  Filling up the progress meter spawns a portal to the next floor.
  • 37 pieces of equipment for 13 equipment slots with tooltips and stat comparisons.
  • 11 Spells with multiple combo chains, gained through leveling and new equipment.
  • Discover campfires in the dungeon to cook higher quality foods and upgrade stats.
  • 3 dungeon tile sets.  Forest, Desert and Tundra.
  • A graveyard which grows as the number of your deaths do.

Available to buy on itch.io.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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6 comments

scaine Jan 3, 2022
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I'd love to have seen this fleshed out a little graphically. I do love a bit of nostalgia, but MUDs were around in the late 80's (probably earlier, but that's when I came across them) and even back then, I'd have preferred some kind of vague pixel representation, rather than letters.

Also, the movement of the map felt very laggy.

And yet... and yet, I'll probably still pick this up. I doubt it rivals Tales of Maj'Eyal even remotely, but there's something very compelling about these style of games, for me.
Anza Jan 3, 2022
Quoting: scaineI'd love to have seen this fleshed out a little graphically. I do love a bit of nostalgia, but MUDs were around in the late 80's (probably earlier, but that's when I came across them) and even back then, I'd have preferred some kind of vague pixel representation, rather than letters.

Nethack at least has bit of problem that if you don't check descriptions of the characters, what you think is cute doggie might be actually a dragon.

Though actual Nethack does have graphical tilesets (I guess being open source has helped a lot).
whizse Jan 3, 2022
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Quoting: AnzaThough actual Nethack does have graphical tilesets (I guess being open source has helped a lot).
There was even an isometric version, called Falcons Eye. Development stopped ages ago unfortunately.
Anza Jan 3, 2022
Quoting: whizse
Quoting: AnzaThough actual Nethack does have graphical tilesets (I guess being open source has helped a lot).
There was even an isometric version, called Falcons Eye. Development stopped ages ago unfortunately.

Vulture seems to be actively maintained. It's sold on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/341390/Vulture_for_NetHack/

You can get it for free if you compile it from source code. Haven't tried it myself.
foobrew Jan 4, 2022
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I thought the name was odd considering the type of game. Reading this intro on the website reveals the problem:

Not Actually A DOS Game takes the visuals of Rogue and other DOS/C64 classics and spices them up with modern game mechanics and approachability.

Sooo..they think rogue came from DOS do they?
foobrew Jan 4, 2022
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Also from their website:

While the game is available for Linux and Mac it has only been tested on Windows.

I translate this as "I can't be bothered to even spin up a VM with Linux on it but hey, I'll go ahead and take your $4.99 thanks."

No thanks.
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