Shooting Troubles with Dextrose Theguy

Another thing I like? Roguelikes. The only ones I've actually managed to survive are the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. Sky, as I've undoubtedly mentioned before, is among my all-time favorite games. But, in any case, I also play a few on my computer, which are known for being far more unforgiving, micromanagey, and kill-me-a-lot-in-it.

For the uninitiated, the roguelike genre is all about exploring procedurally generated dungeons and managing your resources as you struggle to the bottom. PMD strategy was basically "whack the peeps in your way, maybe swapping places with your partner if you have a type disadvantage." The typical roguelike strategy will be incredibly convoluted and involve uses of equipment and skills that may not occur to the player for months of play. Not for the faint of heart. Though take that with salt, because I somehow get entertainment out of repeated head-hand-to.

You may wonder what this has to do with troubleshooting. Well, it all started today, when I found out there was a new version of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup available. So I downloaded it, opened it up, and watched as it fired up Terminal and promptly did absolutely nothing. Nothing it showed me, anyway. Thinking it had already crashed somehow, I quit and started it up again. Without delay, it gave me the menu screen. Dismissing the earlier trouble, I went on with my game, noting that my game saved on the previous version didn't carry over. No matter, that guy wouldn't have access to the new features anyway. And it wasn't as if he would last another five minutes.

That... that last bit probably wasn't a bug or anything, by the way.

Nothing seemed wrong for a time. My new housecat's doom came promptly and as scheduled, but with a little surprise that trees and deep water were now identical, and looked like absolutely nothing. I had to question their judgement on that one. It couldn't have been a bug; they had called it a stable version, hadn't they? They would have noticed something like that. Later, I came across a very wiggly hallway. And it turned out it was actually directly north-south. Kinda neat, but caused more judgement questioning.

Somehow, I still thought nothing of it, and decided I'd make my character a god in debug mode. That was when I knew something was wrong. Every floor of the dungeon had an area where it was skewed and caused Rashy to stumble across like a drunken man. More deep water, and I had to take the game's word for it. I eventually tired of trampling golden dragons and, with some effort, killed him off. The game quit, as it does, and when I went to open it again, my computer was all "Hey, don't mess with that, bub. I think it's broken."

Uh-oh.

Version 0.7 was broken somehow too. I had no clue what I had done. But clearly it was just my copy broken and all I had to do was download it again?

Nope.

It was probably panic time now. Never play Dungeon Crawl again for reasons that were beyond my grasp?? But then it hit me. If the program wasn't broken, it was some of its files. All I had to do is find them, figure out which one, and delete it.

Finding them was not much of a problem, though I learned a few worrying things about my lack of computer knowledge. I didn't know where to look, but I did know a few silly names that wouldn't be found anywhere else on my hard drive. It was as simple as a search for BP. The "find out which one" bit stumped me. I just deleted them all, a little hesitantly. And 0.7 worked again! I played a game, which consisted of giving a human fighter a funny name and promptly climbing the stairs back out of the dungeon. Sure enough, the high scores were gone. Not that I missed them; they were probably embarrassingly low. I fired up 0.8 again. And got the same "don't mess with this, guy" message.

It was time for advanced made-up techniques! I downloaded it again and deleted the files.

...And the hallways have returned to their wiggly state.

Anyone else got any ideas? 'Cause I'm absolutely stuck.

I Have No Childhood

I love Pokémon. I've loved Pokémon ever since it was first introduced to me in the form of the anime, at its release. It's a bit of a wonder, then, how White is my first step into a new region. My first games were Fire Red, then Soul Silver, two bits of nostalgia I'll never have. I feel I've failed somehow.

Spawning thoughts such as these was this little drawing (or series of drawings, rather) by the artist of the highly recommended webcomic Awkward Zombie. I don't know if it's jealousy or what, but my soul is a little crushed that I'm being sent back to freshman year instead of my childhood. My brain knows it's not my fault. It's not like I could scrounge together the kind of money it would take to get those games on my own. (First of all, it would have to occur to me to try that.) I've never felt this way about any series I've gotten into late before. What's so different about Pokémon?

I have no idea.

Let's rattle some other things off, shall we? Final Fantasy. I've never finished one, so I don't attach much emotion. Fable? It doesn't have the same magic. Halo was an acquired taste for me. And--hold that thought. Magic. What is this magic?

Huh. The Pokémon series has never really had much in the way of self-contained stories. There's a whole world of possibilities out there, and the highly customizable teams only provide the gasoline for your spark of imagination. Not to mention the ridiculously imaginative creatures that you're set loose with. That's probably why I am so constantly tempted to write and immediately regret fanfiction for it all the time.

Anyways, this was going to be a more conventional post of my first impressions, and not an essay on missed nostalgia. Which is a phrase I am going to wonder for a long time how to work into everyday conversation.

Our protagonist and his/her friends seem never to have stepped out of town before. That, coupled with the fact that they don't look ten years old this team around, and a few other things I can't focus hard enough on because I want to get this written so I can go back to playing and thinking of other ways to combat run-on sentences, seems to suggest some kind of growing-up theme. Also, the question of whether it's really right to train Pokémon in battle. (Though the answer's been around since Silver.) This is really early in the game, and probably common knowledge anyway, so not spoilers, right? Moving on.

The "nova" bit of Unova was probably no accident. Nova, of course, meaning new. This game is doing all sorts of things that have never been done in its series before. First off, you won't be seeing any of the Pokémon you've come to know and love until after the Elite Four, if rumors are to be believed. And at least the first tournament will only have new Pokémon qualify. Not to mention the less meta bits of the game. And this is something I can get behind. I have never had a chance before to see new Pokémon firsthand, learn their strengths and weaknesses, grow to hate and love them rather arbitrarily. I suppose I could have done it in the past by choice, but there is a large difference between that and being forced.

Aaand that does it. I give up trying to wax philosophical, if only because my dear Lillipup is calling my name with tears in his eyes. Well, it's either my name or "feed me."