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Re: Angband variants

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Am Sat, 07 Aug 2021 19:36:46 +0100 schrieb Harriet Bazley:

> 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).



I never get the point why there are so many different types of this 
game ... Sangband, Kamband, Zangband and many more.

But eventually it could be a good idea to bring them back to the 
internet, eventually at iconbar or another place where people will be 
able to find and download them. 


Some of the errors really seem to bes very simple - eventually sometimes 
the files only need to be in existence but aren't there. Eventually they 
have been there - but were lost in the ZIP files if they had 0 bytes 
length. Others are eventually not found because of typos in the source 
code.


I've tried to find some of the websites You mentioned - wich are all 
gone. Many of them seems to be gone forever. But one of the main sites 
tries to stand the test of times on

https://web.archive.org/web/20110927013626/http://rephial.org/
release/3.0.5

There are some other versions and times too. I used this one because it 
seems to be one of the relevant Ports to RISC OS - and it comes with its 
sources - and all files found their way to archive and are downloadable.
At least there is a ReadMe File wich is signed by Anthony - hope this is 
a sign of qualitiy, You cited an Anthony in Your posts, see above.

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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

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