Be sure to visit the human town of Agensttruslot!

September 19, 2006 10:24 AM

Dwarf Fortress is the best game you haven't played yet. A rogue-like crossed with Civilization/Dungeon Keeper, freely available (although in Alpha), completely random and incredibly deep. The Wiki will help you get started.
posted by WinnipegDragon (21 comments total)

Oh, and don't blame me when you lose your spouse or job to this game.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 10:25 AM on September 19, 2006

No Mac love.
posted by klangklangston at 10:28 AM on September 19, 2006

Ah, should have clarified. Windows only. Ascii graphics.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 10:30 AM on September 19, 2006

Rogue-like, for those unaware of the ASCII madness.

QT3: One one hand, I think it is cool, and I am glad it's being made, and would like to see it get better in the future. On the other hand, I just can't game any more, until it gets some major improvements. Playing it is just tedious work. And for what? In my campaign so far basically nothing interesting has happened -- nothing, in 12 hours of play.

There are a lot of questionable design decisions. Some of the simplest have to do with naming -- the Dwarves are all named in Fricking Klingon, thus ensuring that I won't be able to empathize with them much or even remember who is who. But this naming extends to other areas too -- for example, ore. Why am I being forced to remember that kalashtimafitite is the ore that you get silver from?

posted by prostyle at 10:35 AM on September 19, 2006

If I lost a spouse to a game every time someone told me I'd lose a spouse to a game, I'd only have, like, a dozen or so spouses left by now.
posted by gurple at 10:36 AM on September 19, 2006

Oh, lawsy. The full name of the game is actually "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, Chapter Two: Dwarf Fortress."

I really hope there's some tongue in that there cheek. One of the most egregious faults of the game industry over the last decade or two has been to have multiple colons and subtitles in the titles of products. It's like White Wolf couldn't decided whether to name their game "Vampire" or "The Masquerade", and so decided to use both.
posted by solid-one-love at 10:43 AM on September 19, 2006

I've always been more a fan of Alphaman
posted by The White Hat at 10:45 AM on September 19, 2006

I'm glad it's freely available because I have no idea who would pay for a game in which the interface resembles an Apple II puking on binary file.
posted by StarForce5 at 10:48 AM on September 19, 2006

StarForce5 - It's a Rogue-like game. What did you expect? Holographic ninjas?
posted by WinnipegDragon at 11:09 AM on September 19, 2006

Your favorite game I haven't played yet sucks! Seriously though, thanks - it's a nice change from porn and Gaddafi.
posted by Mister_A at 11:37 AM on September 19, 2006

WinnipegDragon - a pointless aside here, but have you heard this song? (MP3) Not to be taken as an insult - it's just a droll ditty from the 1940's that I thought someone from the Peg might enjoy.
posted by Flashman at 11:41 AM on September 19, 2006

The best Rogue-like game ever: Ancient Domains of Mystery
posted by Vindaloo at 11:41 AM on September 19, 2006

Flashman - I have now!

Have you heard 'I Hate Winnipeg' by the Weakerthans?
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:00 PM on September 19, 2006

Winnipeg Dragon- the Weakerthans song you're referring to is actually titled "One Great City".
posted by teg at 12:22 PM on September 19, 2006

Nope. But that sentiment sums up most of their excellent Left & Leaving album, doesn't it? Whatever would he sing about if they moved to Portland?
posted by Flashman at 12:24 PM on September 19, 2006

Vindaloo, what makes ADOM better than other Rogue-likes?
posted by teleskiving at 12:31 PM on September 19, 2006

Aggg... I've only heard it on the radio, and just sort of assumed the title.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:39 PM on September 19, 2006

No Mac love.

I asked about Mac roguelikes on the green a few months ago, if you're interested.
posted by danb at 2:04 PM on September 19, 2006

Actually, the *full* name of the game is "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, Chapter Two: Dwarf Fortress (a Tek Jansen Adventure)."
posted by uosuaq at 4:46 PM on September 19, 2006 [2 favorites]

Not to nerd-nitpick, and I haven't tried the actual game yet, but it doesn't seem like a roguelike at all, with the ASCII-oriented display (and RPG setting) the only similarity I see. Also: world generation can take 20 minutes at 2 GHz? Why???

re: the derail: I'd heard that Winnipeg was a frozen shithole. That's just rumor though.
posted by neckro23 at 8:48 PM on September 19, 2006

Well, the adventure mode is roguelike. The fortress mode is more like Dungeon Keeper.

And the world generation takes so long because the world is huge, and has a new random history/mythology every time you play. Practically everything is randomized.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 9:38 PM on September 19, 2006