chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (12/27/85)
[I'm suprised that this hasn't been reviewed yet, considering the number of
Unix hackers that own Mac's in this group...]
Being a hopeless rogue addict, I went out and got the version of Rogue
available for the Mac. Unlike PC-Rogue, this is not a straight 'port'
of the game, but a significant rewrite to make use of the Mac interface.
There are four windows on the screen -- a 'rogue' window similar to the
standard view of a level from above in Unix rogue, an inventory window,
a message window and a level window.
On the plus side, the graphics are well thought out. Instead of attacking
letters, you actually get a graphic image of the thing you're trying to kill
(best recommendations: the nymph and the leppie. Worst: the orc).
Unfortunately, this creates a problem. To give them enough room for details,
they chose a image size large enough that you can not get the entire level on
the screen at once. Instead, there is a miniature (and MUCH too small) level
map in the lower right corner, and a much smaller detail map of the current
room and some surrounding territory in the rogue window. The rogue window does
not have scrollbars, but repositions itself automatically as you move around
the level. This can be quite distracting as you move around the level because
the reposition may cause you to move in an inintended direction before you
repoint the mouse. It also makes it real difficult to keep track of the exit,
which is about 4 pixels square in the level map and easily missed when you're
running away from something nasty (I also find I have trouble keeping track of
the circles so neccessary for survival at lower levels).
Another problem -- at least for me -- is that they took away the keyboard
commands. I HAVE to use the mouse to move around and since my fingers are
already trained to play rogue without me I find this highly non-intuitive.
Also, because of the nature of the rogue window, you have to be very careful
about pointing and clicking, and there is a problem with trying to get the
rogue to follow passages because the end of the passage is usually out of the
window somewhere. To get from one room to the next usually entails the
following movements:
point at door, click. point at edge of window, click (window repositions),
find door, point at door, click, point in room, click.
If there are curves and twists in there, it complicates the moving
significantly. I found myself spending a lot less time worrying about strategy
and a lot more time worrying about getting from one place to the other -- with
the end result I die much sooner than I should.
Another problem is dealing with the inventory window. This is especially
noticable when dropping a number of items from your inventory. Since you can
only drop one item on a square, you spend a lot of time bouncing from window
to window. For example, to drop two pieces of rusted armor, you have to:
point at inventory window, click (to activate), click scrollbar until the
armor is visible, click armor, menu item to drop, click rogue window (to
activate), reposition the rogue, click at inventory window (to activate),
click armor, and drop. That's a lot of mouse movements.
If I wasn't used to the Unix rogue, I might not be as critical. The problem is
that they've taken an interface that was designed for the keyboard and heavily
optimized for efficiency and moved it into a mouse environment by pretty much
converting keystrokes to mouse clicks. Unfortunately, it creates a much less
efficient and clumsy interface because I don't think they really redesigned
the interface, they just re-implemented it.
I think they would have been much better if they had left the interface alone
(as with Zork) or did some grafting of a mouse environment around it. As it
is, they have something that looks like rogue (sort of) and acts like rogue
(sort of) but doesn't play like rogue. As a Mac game, I find it awkward
because it seems to require many more mouse clicks than I think are really
needed. If you want to take a close look at an environment that has been
tuned for the mac, buy a coppy of Wizardry if you can find it (my computer
store sold me their last copy less than 6 hours after they called me to let me
know they had their first shipment. I'll review it in depth if I can ever drag
myself away from it long enough to do so, but it was more than worth the wait,
and the drooling hype showing up in the magazines is an understatement).
If I was going to make specific recommendations for improvement of rogue,
I can think of the following:
o bring back the keyboard commands, at least for the movement of the
rogue, and preferably for inventory manipulation.
o there is a lot of wasted space in the level window. I'd expand the level
map so it barely fits in that window and throw in as much detail as I can.
o if I could swing it, I'd like to see the graphics shaved by a pixel or
two so that the map in the rogue window is smaller. If the entire map
won't fit, you want as much as you can so minimize the number of times you
need to reposition it.
Rogue is not a bad game by any means. I just don't think it is a great game.
If you aren't very familiar with Unix rogue, the problems I have may simply
not exist, but I think it will be a disappointment for rogophiles.
--
:From catacombs of Castle Tarot: Chuq Von Rospach
sun!chuq@decwrl.DEC.COM {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq
It's not looking, its heat seeking.