f13.net forums - 2D or even ASCII MMOs?

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April 17, 2024, 08:38:29 PM

we're back, baby

I dunno about you guys, but I grew up playing two types of games incessantly: One was 2D platformers, in the style of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario World. The other were ASCII-based 'sandbox' games such as ZZT and Megazeux (MZX).

The latter were designed from the start with extension and player-created content built in. The former have expanded into that realm in the past year or two, with Lunar Editor for SMW and SonEdit for StH allowing players to make their own levels, worlds, and generally completely rebuild the games from the ground up. In all four cases, the results have been far beyond anything the original content creators dreamed of.

Maybe it's just me, but I always felt that a game's beauty was due in no small part to its limitations. Being forced to work within the confines of ASCII made people get creative with their graphics:

Ah, that sweet ZZT addiction. It didn't matter if I could run games with a hundred times better graphics; the freedom of ZZT combined with its limitations had a powerful lure.

So yeah, this all got me thinking - wouldn't ASCII or 2D sidescrolling (Along the lines of Sonic the Hedgehog, not Diku bullshit like Maple Story) make an ideal setting for a niche yet fun MMO? The basic gameplay itself was what made the games great, and it seems like they'd be comparatively easy to expand into a MMO environment.

The only one I've found any reference to is MMOGTMAZE, which actually looks kinda interesting. The only problem? The guy who made it (Works for Sigil, formerly for NCSoft) apparently decided to yank it off the internet, never to be seen again.

So, yeah. I figure you guys have seen more MMOs than most; have you found any ASCII or True Sidescrolling MMOs? I feel like playing something nontraditional.

There are servers around running multiplayer Angband still. Peak concurrency, uh.. 2 people, including me last time I played.

Reallynow... Iiiinteresting. Can it do action-y / adventure-y gameplay, a-la ZZT? Also, from what I could find on the 'net, there are a *lot* of people making their own Angband variants - does that mean it's as scriptable and malleable as Megazeux and the like? If you're not an Angband expert, no worries.

The ease of use in editing a game in ASCII format seriously appeals to me.

Thought I was the only pro-2D person left. 3D for the sake of 3D is soooo 1996. Take RTS. I think AOE II (pretty much the last major 2D RTS) plays just as well as anything since. When playing a 3D RTS I almost never actually rotate or zoom the camera (Homeworld being the obvious exceptino). All 3D graphics are doing is limiting the audience to those with high-end machines. Hand-drawn art isn't limited by polycount.

/rantoff

Lots of people like 2d games. Witness the success of the GBA. Along with psuedo-2d games liike Viewtiful Joe.

2d artwork is a style, and will never go away completely. Just as sculpture did not replace painting. Text games, on the other hand, have basically dissapeared. Text is not really a style, it's a limitation. Any game that used text to paint graphics could just have real graphics instead.

There's tons of text based MMOs and some of them have ANSI/ASCII graphics. I'd check on mudconnect.com.

I don't know of any 2D ones unless you count UO or some of the earlier MMOs.

I just wish someone would code a multiplayer Angband variant with the ZangbandTK isometric tileset. That dragon graphic is nothing super, but it is more immediately obvious than the letter D.

But it's just not Angband without "It breathes. You die."

--GF

I have become very familiar with that, trust me. tongue

ZangbandTK is just Angband with added content, some rudimentary graphics and sound, and a nifty customizable UI that lets you do most things with the mouse. It is at least as filled with "WTF!" permadeaths as it's progenitor, my favorite being the time my desperately wounded vampire popped a recall scroll to escape what was attacking him, only to land in the middle of town in broad daylight and fry. Oops.