apratt@iuvax.UUCP (04/26/84)
No, starting a game from point X several times is not the same as having a Wizard's Password. This technique is used quite often in practice for chess and such games, since the beginning of all games is so nearly similar, and you want to get to the meaty part fast for the practice it gives. This technique is also used by Adventure-type game players (esp. on micros), for the same reason. It still takes a good player to win; he just has more chances to succeed, more forgiveness for his errors. The original author did not suggest being reincarnated after he died; he asked if there was a way to RESTART GAMES FROM THE SAME POINT MORE THAN ONCE. This would require defeating the "file has been touched" feature of Rogue, nothing else. That way, he could Save the game once, copy that file with cp, and restart the game. In Rogue, this has the added advantage of letting you cut out the evaluation cycle of rogue playing: you can usually tell by level 10 or so whether you'll get to level 18. If it's not a "good" game, you might quit and get it over with. If you had the "save" feature, you could save a "good" game early, and start from that point for a while instead of starting from scratch. Naturally, you can't call yourself a winner unless you go from start to finish without dying or using this feature. Also, I know that it can be perverted: you're about to be killed by a Xorn. You save the game, swing at the Xorn and miss, it swings and hits. You restart your game, swing and hit, Xorn swings and kills you again. You just keep restarting it until the Xorn misses, saving each time you hit and he misses. But *anything* can be perverted (witness giving yourself wizard mode for the sake of winning, rather than debugging). -- Allan Pratt ...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!apratt (don't reply to iuvax!notes)