Groups | Search | Server Info | Login | Register

Groups > comp.sys.acorn.games > #359

Re: Angband variants

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

Show all headers | View raw

On 7 Aug 2021 as I do recall,
          Harriet Bazley  wrote:


[snip]


> Oooh, at a quick test Musus Umbra's 2001 port of vanilla Angband 2.9.3
> *does* work under Aemulor, even if the 2004/2008 variants don't:
> http://www.zen22994.zen.co.uk/musus/angband/a293.zip
> 
> It's quite impressive how much muscle memory of the keystrokes I still
> manage to retain!
> 
> And I've got my old copy of Psiband (1999) working... so maybe I need to
> do some experimentation to see exactly which variants work and which
> ones don't....
> 

Apparently I was incredibly lucky in picking those two at random.   :-(


Quick summary:  Using Aemulor Ultimate, I can run Frog-knows (the
original RISC OS port of Angband), Umoria (the predecessor of Angband),
Cthangband, Discband, Psiband, Kamband and Sangband.   The very obvious
thing all these have in common is that they were all ported by Musus
Umbra on or before the year 2000.   However Kangband (ported 1999) won't
run, and Angband 2.9.3 (ported 2001) will.

Vanilla Angband 2.9.3 works.  Vanilla Angband 3.0.9 doesn't.

I also have in my possession RISC OS ports of Gumband, CaTHband, Eyband,
Kangband, sCthband, NPPAngband, Oangband, Quickband, Steamband and
Zangband, all of which fail in various ways and many of which fail in
the same way (either crashing when they attempt to read/write savefiles,
or when they attempt to parse the plaintext files that define the game).

I don't have the source for any version of Angband, with or without the
#ifdef RISCOS lines that were scheduled for removal in 2009....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Angband 3.0.9 (2007) complains about errors in 'terrain.txt' (the line
in question looks fine to me, or at least consistent with the format of
all its neighbours) and crashes.

Gumband (2008) complains about an error in the f_info.raw file, which is
the file generated from the terrain.txt file, and crashes.

CaTHband (2001) crashes with an abort on data transfer before it manages
to display any window at all.

Angband 2.4 Frog-knows (the original RISC OS port from 1993) works -
continuing the pattern of the older ports being more compatible!

Umoria (1992) works, and apparently I still have a level 26 character
alive in it - unfortunately I can't remember what to look out for and
how to play.   :-(

Eyangband (2003) crashes with the error "Cannot parse 'limits.raw' file"
- there's clearly a pattern here, but none of the corresponding data
files being used to generate the raw files on startup have been altered
since I last played the game, and they are all human-readable plain text
files.   So why should a change of processor affect the ability to use
them?

To my astonishment, Cthangband (1999), one of the most non-standard
variants, appears to work - I managed to play through several levels
before I was killed.  Again, I can only guess that it's because it's one
of the oldest ports.

But then Kangband (also 1999), also very non-standard, fails to run with
the error "MususIfType not found", despite the fact that the MususUtils
module is listed as currently running under Aemulor.

SCthband (2005) allows you to enter the character creation screens, but
then exits with a silent (visible only in Reporter) abort on data
transfer error at the point where it tries to write the savefile and
start the game proper.

Discband (2000) works, although it's simply a copy of Zangband 2.4.0
with the uniques, potions and scrolls renamed with a Pratchettian
flavour - the application inside the Discband directory is even called
!Zangband.

Kamband the wildly unbalanced (1999) works, amazingly - I ran a quick
warrior character and was killed by my own pets firing arrows at our
enemies, which I seem to remember is a very common hazard.  The AI is
somewhat lacking!

NPPAngband (2006) gives the same mysterious terrain error; these
variants are simply crashing on the first line of terrain encountered in
the file.

Oangband (2005) crashes at the end of the character creation process
with "Unknown signal number 8", which is a new one!


Quickband (2005) crashes on the terrain file.

Sangband (1999) works.

Steamband (2008) either crashes with a 'broken save file' error, or
exits silently with an 'abort on data transfer' error when it attempts
to create a new savefile.

My copy of the Unangband application seems to have vanished from its
directory at some point, leaving behind only an orphaned savefile!

And Zangband (2003) crashes with the error 'Cannot parse misc.raw file',
which is presumably a variant on the various other mysterious failures
to initialise data files from text files.   It's probably a very simple
issue, like a problem with line endings or Unix directory separators, or
an attempt to identify the current version of RISC OS that assumes
anything above 4.x is an error.   :-(
(Judging by the datestamps, all the variants fail on the first data file
they attempt; they just attempt to start with different files).



-- 
Harriet Bazley                     ==  Loyaulte me lie ==

The purpose of rules is to make you think before you break them.

Back to comp.sys.acorn.games | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar

Thread

Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-07-29 23:52 +0100
  Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-03 19:10 +0100
    Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-07 11:33 +0000
      Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-07 15:12 +0100
        Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-07 19:36 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-07 23:04 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 03:06 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-08 19:02 +0000
                Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 22:03 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-09 12:54 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-08 00:04 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 03:40 +0100
        Re: Angband variants Alan Dawes <alan.dawes@argonet.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 10:35 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Chris Gransden <chrisg@care4free.net> - 2021-08-08 13:38 +0100
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 16:16 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-19 00:39 +0100
                Re: Angband variants Toronto Backlawn <joe@arthwere.tzq> - 2021-08-21 16:02 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-10 13:05 +0000
              Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-10 14:17 +0000
              Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-10 21:23 +0100
                Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-10 21:11 +0000
                Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-10 23:51 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Chris Gransden <chrisg@care4free.net> - 2021-08-13 16:24 +0100
                Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-13 18:49 +0000
              Re: Angband variants Chris Gransden <chrisg@care4free.net> - 2021-08-13 16:28 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-08 15:55 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 21:15 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-09 12:06 +0000
                Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-09 15:34 +0100

csiph-web