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Sega Dreamcast Gets Rogue RPG Conversion

Posted by simoniker on from the dangerous dept.

MilenCent writes "Oh rapturous jubilation! Some saintly homebrew Dreamcast programmer has ported Rogue, that wonderful, magnificent, beautifully malevolent progenitor of PC RPGs with randomly generated game content, to Sega's undead console. The history of Rogue is long and storied, and the genre of Roguelikes (which includes a certain game you may have heard of) has found a new platform to settle on."

33 comments

  1. FTW by genrader · · Score: 1

    Dreamcast for teh win.

    --
    the Political Inquirer
  2. Ports by illuminata · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hear a bunch about how great the Dreamcast homebrew scene is, but can't they do better than ports and clones? Are there any good homebrews that don't fall into either category?

    So an old game can play on a different platform. Yeah, that's nifty, but where's my original games? Is this the best that they can do?

    Because if it is, what's the point?

    --


    Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
    1. Re:Ports by MC+Negro · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, that's nifty, but where's my original games? Is this the best that they can do?
      Here. Nothing particularly awesome, but still homebrew none the less.

      Of course you know that the Dreamcast can emulate damn near anything, making it ideal for people who play a lot of ROMs. While I personally have never done it, I can imagine that plenty of people are getting use out of the Dreamcast strictly for that purpose.
      --
      "You and your third dimension."
    2. Re:Ports by FatalTourist · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Why? Play emulated stuff on your TV for cheap. No modchip needed. No NES/Genesis/etc cluttering up the apartment.

      In regards to homebrew: think about how many awesome homebrew PC games there are (don't reply with a list unless it contains about 300 games). The DC homebrew scene is a fraction of the size of the PC scene, so I guess the number of excellent games rounds off to about zero.

      Anyway, I have enjoyed the emulated games/ports for Dreamcast.

      --


      Escape Pod Films: Sketch Comedy and Web Series
    3. Re:Ports by kisrael · · Score: 1

      This is an interesting problem in general.

      I made the homebrew JoustPong for the Atari 2600.

      I'm not sure where it falls on the originality spectrum...it melds elements of Joust and Pong, and technically it's a port since I also wrote it for Windows and in Java, but it's not a port or clone of any well-known game.

      The Atari 2600 is a different scene from the DC, and any port to it is a SERIOUS challenge, but the DC is a lot more flexible, and I can see your point that a port of a game that is much better on a 1990-era PC isn't much of a breakthrough.

      I think ideally a port or even an original game on a console or other non-PC system is mostly worthwhile if it takes advantage of that system; like DC would be better than a PC for multiplayer "couch" games, some ports to Palm are cool just 'cause it's portable (text adventures are a good example, because they don't demand constant attention and/or reflexes)

      Anyway, there are some orginal games, but ports require less imagination, and sometimes have more of a built in audience--or at least people know what to expect.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    4. Re:Ports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's alot of excellent original games,
      like DCCastle, Revolver, Whipered Secrets,
      battery, Melchior, AAC, and this list goes on,
      and on.. All you're doing is hearing.. but seems
      you haven't actually bothered to check it out..

      Check out DCEmu.co.uk, or DCHomebrew.org..

  3. sweet by fiftyvolts · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I love these games. I find it hard to believe that modern RPG while graphically amazing cannot obtain the level of detail that the rouge like games have. Nethack will always be my favorite, but I have to try rouge on DC :D

    --
    100% Crunchier
    1. Re:sweet by cluke · · Score: 1

      Someone is going to say it so it might as well be me.

      It is spelt Rogue. ROGUE. Rouge is makeup people put on their face to make it red.

      Even the web page linked in the article spells it wrong a few times - ('Rougue'). Though at least that mis-spelling is highly original!

    2. Re:sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering NetBSD runs on the thing, you'd imagine Nethack runs just dandy on it too...

      roguelikes don't so much have level of detail as they have the basic essentials of a game -- the right balance of unpredictability vs familiarity and strategizing vs reflex. And nothing else. It's sort of like tetris that way -- a simple game that sucks you in. I'm trying to come up with a word or phrase to describe that quality of addictive games, but I keep coming up short.

    3. Re:sweet by Iffy+Bonzoolie · · Score: 1

      That's because people pronouce it funny: ROGE. Where the hell does that U go in there? You don't pronouce it. That's why I say it "ROGE-way", like Segue.

      -If

      --
      Run a pencil-and-paper RPG campaign with your far-off friends: Gametable!
  4. RTFA by jbellis · · Score: 3, Informative

    "No save support."

    Doh!

    1. Re:RTFA by dasunt · · Score: 3, Funny

      "No save support."

      Just play for 15 minutes more -- that should eliminate the need to save the game.

    2. Re:RTFA by Quill_28 · · Score: 1

      Amen

    3. Re:RTFA by MilenCent · · Score: 1

      You speak truly. Besides being the origin of multiple genres of computer gaming (RPGs and the Roguelike subclass), the thing that always struck me about Rogue is its incredible difficulty.

      Nethack only seems hard to new players. Of course the "new player" phase of Nethack is incredibly long, years really, because there's so much to learn about the game. But once you get good enough, it's not actually that hard to ascend Barbarians and Valkyries, and I have done both.

      But Rogue, while a much less complex game, is hard even if you know exactly how to play. Sometimes you just don't find the items to need to survive (winning Rogue is, at its essence, about discovering and then hording means of arbitrary survival until absolutely necessary), and even if you do get the Amulet, you then have to race all the way back upstairs without running out of food.

      Saving is unnecessary in Rouge because even won games tend to be over in less than thirty minutes, and most games get nowhere near winning.

  5. And of course... by dk4 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Blizzard's Diablo borrows heavily from Rogue/Hack/Nethack/Moria

    1. Re:And of course... by Pendersempai · · Score: 1

      All of those games are direct Rogue descendents: Hack, Nethack, Moria, Angband, and all the other Roguelikes...

    2. Re:And of course... by Doctor+Cat · · Score: 1
      I feel Toejam and Earl is even more derivative of Rogue - it's clear the designers used Rogue as a starting point and made some changes to make it more videogamey. A number of the touches they added are very original and work well, and the alien characters and all the animation are a lot of fun, but overall it maintains a lot of the same basic "feel" of Rogue. Playing Rogue or playing Toejam and Earl is like eating potato chips. You have the urge to keep trying another quickie game till you win one. Diablo is much heavier fare, it takes a lot longer to play and tries to throw more "story" and other elements in. I need to get a working copy of T&E set up somewhere, it's one of those few games I could always go back to and play one more time.

      I also think there was a more directly rogue-based game for the short-lived Turbo Grafx console from NEC, that was actual dungeons and not weird aliens looking for their spaceship parts. But it never was a big hit, and I forget what the title was.

      --

      Furcadia - A free online game with user created content, DragonSpeak scripting, & more.

    3. Re:And of course... by Jerf · · Score: 1

      I'd still like to see a rogue-inspired game for the Gameboy (advance, though if anybody knows of an earlier one I'm all ears). Randomization still seems to be a PC thing, though. (With cleverness and some old-school programming know-how, it's not that hard even to save significant gaming data on to dinky carts.)

    4. Re:And of course... by MilenCent · · Score: 1

      Yes! I actually e-mailed the creators of ToeJam & Earl about this a few years ago and they admitted the game is heavily inspired by Rogue. (And is much more enjoyable than Diablo, in my opinion.)

  6. Knew it was good for something... by Chelloveck · · Score: 1

    Cool! Finally a game which really shows off the Dreamcast's graphic abilities! (Now to see if I'm moderated "funny" or "troll"...)

    --
    Chelloveck
    I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
  7. Re:to bad DC emulation on PC is lagging by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

    I just picked up a used DC at EBGames for $10. Surely you aren't THAT broke.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  8. Oh no. by Mukaikubo · · Score: 1

    The Playstation hits! The Playstation hits!(more)

    You hear the howling of the CwnAnnn...(more)

    The Playstation hits! You die...(more)

    Do You Want Your Possessions Identified?

  9. Why not use NetBSD? by ameoba · · Score: 1

    What's the point of porting Rogue dirrectly to the Dreamcast when you could simply tie it onto the back of a Free Unix system? About the only real thing gained is the controller support which could probably be done with a hacked keyboard driver a lot easier.

    --
    my sig's at the bottom of the page.
    1. Re:Why not use NetBSD? by MilenCent · · Score: 1

      Less overhead, fool!

      Heh, it may even be able to play Nethack if you do it that way, though Nethack makes heavy use of temporary files, so it'd have to make use of a RAM disk. Also, saving your game is much more important in Nethack, since it's so much longer.

    2. Re:Why not use NetBSD? by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      That's what I was thinking. Even a non-programmer, like myself could probably get it working on a 'nix system that way.

      If I remember correctly Nethack WAS ported to BSD on the DC though I don't think it has X11 tiles support

  10. how to burn this via linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    i've collected and created alot of tools to make burning dreamcast homebrew via linux alot easier

    dreamcast linux tools

    my tools are also on dcemu.co.uk's site.

    -d

  11. I already have NetHack on my Dreamcast. by Tofino · · Score: 1

    It's on the Linux CD I have for it. (really).

    1. Re:I already have NetHack on my Dreamcast. by MilenCent · · Score: 1

      Really??? Don't keep your mouth shut buddy, give us DETAILS! Instructions! Explanations about how Nethack gets along without scratch disk space! C'mon guy, please?

    2. Re:I already have NetHack on my Dreamcast. by revmoo · · Score: 1

      Really??? Don't keep your mouth shut buddy, give us DETAILS! Instructions! Explanations about how Nethack gets along without scratch disk space! C'mon guy, please?

      Don't turn it off. :)

      --
      I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
  12. What?! by NEOtaku17 · · Score: 1

    Dead? Where have you guys been the last 3 years. DC is bigger then it has ever been.

    --
    Creative Demolition
    1. Re:What?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dead? Where have you guys been the last 3 years. DC is bigger then it has ever been.

      It says un dead. The system died, then rose again to continue on. Much like a zombie, though that includes the unfortunate brain eating thing.

  13. Re:to bad DC emulation on PC is lagging by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone hurry up and write a DreamCast Emulator or post a url to one

    Keeping in mind that nobody has to do anything you say...

    I'm surprised there's a Dreamcast fan out there who hasn't heard of Chankast. It doesn't always get full speed, but it is far enough along to run many commercial games. Ikaruga looks great on it.