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Jun 15th 2006:Wow, and again, about a year has passed :(
It's been a long time since I've done any work on Porrog, largely because
I've been working on other things, and have things yet to do that have been
quite a bit higher on my list of priorities for some time. *groan*.
It remains the case that Porrog is not abandoned, although looking
at the source code again does rather make me cringe a bit. It badly needs
improved documentation- of the source, for my usage, I mean. It's
become far too hard to keep track of which function is supposed to be doing
what, due to the amount of it all. Also because of all this, it's very hard
to tell what is definitely working- because it's not always obvious what
the correct behaviour is meant to be. Delegation of tasks, that sort
of thing.
Another problem is that when I start coding again, one of the
first things I must do (and AFAICT the last thing I was doing last
year), is fix up the extended commands menu and a proper "Debug" mode, and
add as many debugging functions as I can come up with. Apart from the
continuous low-level bugginess in things like the map generator, I managed
to get a serious crash bug today, which was also the first game I've
played in a year (judging by the timestamp on the previous buglog file).
Being able to thoroughly check details of these peculiar glitches in
game will probably be necessary to get to the bottom of some of these
things. I hope the tiny handful of fans that Porrog appears to have got in
the world don't all completely forget about it before I finish the next
release (whenever that'll be)...
Jun 17th 2005:Hmm, thought that last update to the page had been
much more recent than that. Oh well. After eventually releasing the first
version of the other project I've been working on recently, I started
doing a little more Porrog work. Not very much though, as I also
badly need to finish the latest version of my site-management system too-
the site is pretty hard to maintain with it in its current state.
I dunno how long that'd take, but I do want to get back to coding
Porrog, because I still enjoy doing it, and I'm very attached to it,
even if some of the things still to do seem rather daunting. On the subject
of being attached to Porrog, I note that not only does the Freshmeat project page for
it have some subscribers now, but some people seem to have bookmarked this
page too. How cool! Well if you're one of those people, I hope you aren't
disappointed by the next release, whenever it comes along. It might be
a while depending on how many things I add or change though.
Apr 12th 2005:Nothing new to release, haven't done work on Porrog
for some months now. It isn't dead, it's just resting. Or rather, I
am. Last thing I did since the last release was working on a high-score
system, so that even if there's no objective as such, there's
something to keep you playing a little longer. This involved adding a
player class selection at the start of the game, and you even get to put
your name, how sophisticated ;) Sadly the high-score table file
hasn't been dealt with yet, so you only get to see your latest score, which
isn't very interesting.
Purely for the benefit of anybody coming here from Crummy.com, here's another nice little
screenshot, considering stuff I read there recently :D
I don't think this shows anything that is new to 0.07, but that's
what's shown. I think the "BURSTING!" sign was in 0.06 too, but it's only
become significant in 0.07 (you can
actually burst from too much food). I might add an actual screenshots
box here some time actually,
but not for the moment. Anyhow, work will resume on Porrog after I've got
various other bits and bobs done. I have no intention of abandoning it.
Aug 10th 2004:VERSION 0.06 is TEH OUT!!! After a year
and a... couple of days since 0.05!! I also made a purty download box near
the top of the page, for neatness. Neat, isn't it?!
NOTE: In a few weeks time, it's likely I'll cease to be reachable for
a while, so if you have stuff you want to say about Porrog, best you don't
take too long about it! OTOH if you take long enough, I should be
available again ;)
ANYWAY... There is a Windows
version now! And the stupid bugs that appeared in OSX (but were still
*wrong* everywhere else) should be fixed for real this time. The
amount of work I've done on this seems never-ending, but the list of
actual stuff you might notice seems less so. Oh, except:
- (Pseudo-)Graphical splash screens! In ASCII ART!!!!
- Inventory and other item-listings are not only fixed so they don't
make the game look like it's CRASHED when you're carrying too much, but
they're actually PRETTIER now. Plus you can select things directly
from them instead of having to read the list and then select the item from
outside it. And they're just generally better in lots of lovely ways. Really!
- Game has an actual time system at last! EG: if a monster is standing
next to you, you can look in your inventory or read the help AS MANY TIMES AS
YOU LIKE and it will not move, because those things take NO TIME. OTOH things
like putting on armour DO take time, even more than walking does (so
the monsters could hit you several times if you do so whilst they're next
to you).
- Monsters are in colour. Whee! Well, some of them are, anyway.
- Various new items added, rarity of some items changed (as item
rarity was actually implemented this version), some things changed
appearance, etc etc.
- Various changes to doors, that don't seem very exciting because they're
bugfixes, but admit it, you'd think it was lame if you closed a door when a
monster was in the way or you saw one open somewhere that was way out
of your sight, wouldn't you?!
- You will GET HUNGRY, and can eat things to stop yourself starving to death!
Makes the game a little more interesting seeing as it's so hard to get
killed in it ATM...
- Help pages have been expanded quite a bit, and there's even a page of
"help on help" in case you can't deal with the roguelike goodness of it.
- The user interface has been tweaked quite a bit and is now a bit nicer
overall.
- Did I mention there was a Windows version? THERES A WINDOWS VERSION! One
of my Windows-owning friends tested it quite a lot before the release, so it
should work ok. Note though, that one or 2 things were changed since
the last version she tested, so it's not definite.
So how's that?
Oh yeah, here's a screenshot.
Binary distributions of Porrog are only available in the download box,
but here is the source code for
Version 0.06. Before downloading source code versions, MAKE SURE YOU
UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS AND WHO IT IS FOR. See the download box for a brief
explanation.
Jul 15th 2004:Little update because things are going nicely
again (after another break from coding). I managed to get a Windows
port of Porrog to compile, having got a newer version of the
MinGW32 cross-compiler installed. It is currently being extensively
tested by a very good friend and rather enthusiastic beta-tester, who
it seems may also be willing to help improve the help files
somewhat (if she has time, and I'm not claiming she made any
promises anyway) with her elite documenting skills :)
Numerous things have been coded since the mini-(news-)update in March,
although the Wilderness level wasn't one of them, and it's unclear if
that'll be one of the things to make the 0.06 release after all; I'm
currently focusing on improving the UI and trying to fix the worst of
the bugs. In that respect, I'd say progress was excellent. As mentioned
on the front page, I will probably make
the 0.06 release relatively soon. It's already more than 11 months
since the last release!! Oh dear...
Mar 2nd 2004: Just to let you know, I've been doing some more
work on Porrog the past month. Some more neat stuff has gone in. Sadly,
some of the things I'd prefer to add before the next release appear to
be fairly difficult. This includes the issue of a Windows version, plus
changing to use Autoconf (but *not* automake, which I dislike) in order
to make it more portable in general. Not to mention the "wilderness level"
thing, and high-level map structures, etc. which will take a lot of work
to retrofit to the existing code. So anyway, when you'll see the next
version is debatable (especially as I plan on moving quite soon),
but I'm adamant that there shall be one!
Feb 5th 2004: Having got my site management framework going,
and wanting to submit this to Freshmeat.net, I decided to stick Porrog
onto a separate page. If you've bookmarked it, update yer bookmarks.
The old location will remain, purely to point people here.
Aug 13th 2003: A day or 2 ago I got an email from a FreeBSD user,
Sammy Mannaert, who said Porrog had had compilation problems on FreeBSD.
And rather nicely, he supplied a patch!. As
I'm taking a bit of a break from Porrog for a while (I've been working
almost non-stop on it for months, OK?), and I've not looked very closely
at the patch, I'm currently just putting it here on the page for
FreeBSD users to use if they want. Note that if you don't have
problems compiling Porrog, then I don't think you'd need it.
Aug 6th 2003: Jonathan told me he was getting bus errors in OSX
whenever he killed a monster. After a few emails, I worked out what was
wrong, have released 0.05b with
the fix, and am thinking I'd quite like a Mac... If you have V0.05, get
0.05b instead please.
Aug 6th 2003 when I should be asleep: They say "release early and
often", and I think that idea has a certain something. So Porrog Version
0.05 is
out and it's probably left my machine without its proverbial trousers. But
there's plenty of stuff you might like.
Important changes in V0.05:
- Colour graphics! Well, colour ASCII, y'know. On xterms, you might need
to set "TERM=rxvt" to get it; The Linux console, and wterm, seem to work
fine. Would like to hear whether it works on OSX.
- In-game browsable help when you press the '?' key! Controlled through
the same keys as you control the character with
- You can gain experience, and advance through effectively infinite levels
- Some items are cursed (including things that shouldn't be, sorry)
- Items can stack together, and may be created in quantity
- Various things are described more correctly (eg, you shouldn't see
"a gauntlets" any more, etc)
- There's potions! With "flavours", as Zangband calls them (each actual
type of potion has its own description that you'd normally see until
you learn what they are, and descriptions get randomised each game)...
Some of the potions have effects. Most don't, I'm afraid.
- Weapons and stats now have an effect on combat
- Monsters are different to each other (So are weapons)
- As you advance, you encounter more powerful monsters
- Things you pick up go at the end of your inventory, not the
start (making your inventory a bit more readable, though it's still buggy)
Aug 2nd 2003: Already added various neat things for V0.05, met
up with Jonathan again for more bits of game design, and its looking as
though that next release may be any day now. Unfortunately, Sirp from the
Linux Game Tome let me know that he's encountered a peculiar display bug;
I've asked him to let me know more about it (that goes for anybody else
who's seen anything not mentioned in the file BUGS). Oh, and here's
a little screenshot (already out of date):
July 27th 2003: Whoops! After submitting the game to the
Linux Game Tome's database, I got an email from Nilfilter telling
me the author didn't want the game submitted (due to my comment at the
top of the page). I guess that comment
above rather bit me on the a***. But I am me (the user "Tomble" at the
Game Tome), and here is this to prove it ;) Sorry for the confusion!
July 25th 2003: Version 0.04-The "All Dressed Up" release!
Lots of changes and new features and bugfixes and stuff this time,
and I think it's getting interesting enough to make a proper announcement
on the Linux Game Tome. Not that it's particularly complete, but it's
encouraging for people to see it and give feedback. Also managed to come
up with various of decisions on game mechanics with co-creator Jonathan,
and now this new version is out, I hope we can build upon that to work
out some more for the next version.
Important changes in V0.04:
- Armour now has an effect on combat! Plus you can take it off again now!
- The gnarly bug to do with map generation and pathfinding has been
dealt with, and is pretty much fixed; the fix is incomplete, but is
proving effective so far and I can finish it later.
- (De)Bug messages should all now be logged through a new bug logging
function rather than displayed annoyingly on the screen. They are dumped
to a file when the game ends.
- Containers now work pretty well
- Compile-time options are now set in a file "config.h" rather than in
the makefile; the format is different there, but has the nice advantage
that if you change those options, "make" notices the changes, so you can
just type "make" rather than "make clean; make".
- Some item types are different to each other.
- Decided on some stats (not all of them yet, and they have no effect
yet) that are part of your character description, and you also now have
a starting inventory (picked randomly from several different sets of items)
- Implemented a message history function like in Nethack et al, shown
when you press ctrl-P; it was pretty bad at first, but it seems very
solid now, and stores about 10 screenfuls of messages. Try it!
- The state of doors is finally persistent across level changes (where
before you'd find they were all closed when you returned to an old level).
Your memory of the map still isn't though, sorry.
- There's a compile-time option to make things more random (without it,
each time you start you should get the same starting map, stats, inventory,
etc each time)
- Various bugfixes and stuff like that.
June 23rd 2003: Got email from co-creator (and Mac user) Jonathan,
to say the latest version crashes on OSX. I've asked him to do some stuff
to get me some useful info so I can debug this, but meanwhile, if you use
a Mac, try editing the Makefile to remove "-DFATAL_PATHS" from the line
"DEFINES= -DCAREFUL -DFATAL_PATHS" before compiling. Have a nice day.
June 20th 2003: Version 0.03-The "Scary Monsters" release!
After this version, more nice details should start getting implemented,
there didn't seem much point doing such things before this.
IMO Porrog is on the verge of becoming fun. Fingers crossed.
Important changes in V0.03:
- Not only can the monsters now move and attack you (and occasionally each
other...), but they now have a whole AI system. It's not perfect, but it
works, and it's reasonably fast. Actually, I think it's pretty cool. Seriously.
- Certain bits of UI cleaned up a bit...
- Especially the function for showing messages, which now behaves much
like the relevant function from Nethack (but with different orientation).
- You can go up/down stairs to new levels, or back to old levels. The
levels you've seen are totally persistent!
...except currently the doors all get
closed when you return, and you forget all the stuff you've seen.
Haven't figured out how to deal with that yet, sorry.
- Theres a few compile-time options for testing things (especially testing
the AI), like an AUTOPILOT option that ignores the keys and just watches
one of the monsters run around the map in real-time (if the player gets
killed in AUTOPILOT, the player is simply replaced somewhere else).
- You can equip items in your inventory. Don't get excited, it's not
very good. You can't unequip items yet, the messages are incomplete,
you can't see what items have been equipped (anywhere, not just in the
inventory), and equipping items has NO EFFECT AT ALL except that you
then cant drop them again.
- You can close doors too now. Ooo, that is important!
Late April??: Version 0.02
Important changes in V0.02:
- Lots of new items, some of which are usable!
- Obstacles so you can't walk through walls!
- Visibility code so you can't see the whole map at once!
- Many changes to the user interface!
- Some rubbish monsters added at last minute!
- Lots of other little things!
- I'm rather excited by the progress! More later!
Version 0.01
Important changes in V0.01:
- Map generator (mostly) finished
- Monsters (including player character) added
- Items can be picked up, dropped, and listed (from floor and inventory)
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