Just... Wow

jimi_t2

No preamble, no backstory. My advice is just to read.

http://www.boingboing.net/features/nomenludi.html

Every chance this is an elaborate hoax and me spidey sense is tingling, but even so a fairly resonant story regardless.

Any pertinent commentary in spoilers please!

Myrddin

Thats a great story, & very well written.

CathalDublin

Just exported to a PDF, will have a read on the plane tomorrow
cheers

o1s1n

Wow!

LoGiE

Good read!

djsim101

This is one great short story, I had to read it twice to make sure I wasnt missing anything:pac:

Thanks for sharing

Skerries

this is the type of thing i have done trying to remember childhood games but not to the extreme levels he writes about though

Myrddin

In some ways, those kinda games were more entertaining than modern ones. A lot of it was left to your imagination, hard to explain but Ive fonder memories of those kinda games than anything from these days.

o1s1n

The imagination is a much more powerful thing than anything that can be rendered on a screen in front of you.

The best example of this is Nethack played in ASCII mode. (Not those rubbish graphical interfaces, they really make the game bland).



That might look like a load of random characters. But after playing long enough it seriously does look like a dungeon. That room on the left is a shop full of things to buy. The two little white @ symbols are you and the shop keeper. The d's are a couple of dog type creatures (maybe a jackal or a wolf) outside waiting to attack. The less than signs are staircases descending and the greater than signs are staircases ascending. The brown squares are doors (Some of which are locked..in many cases you can kick them down. But you might end up hurting your leg as a result)

Interesting write up and playthrough here by a guy who managed to finish the game (After 20 years of playing!). There's so much variation in the game that it comes out sounding like an epic adventure. It's really worth a read.

http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/nethack/index.html