Just a warning that I saw one person mention performance issues with the Switch version, so maybe wait a little and see what other people say.
See the first comment thread for this video:
He’s said he’s done after this update. Maybe he will come back to it, but I meant ‘final’ in the context of that.
Huh, looks like they haven’t revoked the old keys for Crown Trick. Still shows as in my library
Hmm thanks, I saw one comment on Reddit too:
Performance can take a hiccup here and there when large animations happen on screen. And you can notice when the game auto saves but it’s really nothing to complain about.
I am quite persnickety with frame drops so I might hold off. Sale is for 5 more days.
Neat. I was used to the Unix rogue, how is this Epxy PC one different?
Trek was my first on the teletype with printers, then a teacher had me write the moon lander thing. Around age 16 I talked my way onto some CRTs on the local university mainframe and found rogue.
The Mastertronic one had graphics and a weird mouse interface even on non-mouse based computers.
Dunno about the Epyx one though.
On the Amiga the Epyx one had tiny non-ASCII graphics. Don’t remember about mouse support.
Fun game! Grabbed it for $14.07 on All You Play (use code ALLYOUCANPLAY for an additional 10% off) after trying the demo.
Thanks to a generous contribution by @Misguided, I tried my hand at Crown Trick yesterday.
It’s very good and honestly quite addictive… but truth be told, when just coming back from playing Hades, it comes up a bit short. Then again, what game wouldn’t?
It feels like there are too many items/weapons/relics and the more get unlocked, the bigger the pool gets. Some have item descriptions only a mother would love. 5% chance to deal an extra 20% damage? Be still my little heart!
There are numerous typos and translation errors. Sometimes the meaning doesn’t really come across:
Which is “the” enemy? It’s a dungeon-wide effect. I guess that means all enemies have reduced HP, but that when an enemy in a room is killed, all remaining enemies get a damage buff.
Also, I beat the first dungeon in the game and I got a 'cheevo called “True Ending”. Huh?
The Neptune boss was so horribly strong it was a run-ender, but when I woke up this morning they patched it. That was quick!
Lol, yeah, comparing any game to Hades is a bit unfair. The devs are Chinese, iirc. Hopefully the translation will improve with time.
Does Crown Trick have online DRM? I am hesitant to buy Chinese made games because the ones I do like tends to have this DRM.
Funnily enough I saw complaints from Chinese players in the Steam reviews that the Chinese text wasn’t great either lol…
I started up the game offline and it works fine.
One of the highlights of the game are the bosses, many of which have pretty original mechanics.
One boss in particular spawns a chess set and all the enemy pieces move the appropriate way. Pawns even promote themselves when they reach a wall and the boss can castle with its rooks. There are also kings in regular dungeon rooms and, predictably, killing one removes all other chess pieces from the room.
Rogue is now available on Steam. MSRP of $2.99, on sale for $2.54!
How is this different from the free Nethack I used to play obsessively? (and I admit it, I used graphic tiles because I like it better than ascii.)
It’s much more primitive.
Winnable without spoilers.
Much shorter (26 levels) and straightforward objective (get the amulet and escape the dungeon).
No classes. Just fire it up and go.
It’s actually incredible how well this has held up after 35 years. I’m not sure I can think of an equally old electronic game that’s as playable in 2020. Maybe an Infocom text adventure? A handful of coin-op arcade and NES classics?
Sir, might I talk to you today about the good word of Star Fleet II and the Krellan empire? Sir?
Robotron 2084 would like a word with you.
However, while subsequent (and free) roguelikes expanded on the original (which this 1985 Epyx release is itself a re-release of), I think the sheer historicity of an '80s Rogue is worth $2.50.
Although from what I could see on the Steam page, it doesn’t have tiny little graphical tiles for the monsters, in which case it must not be the Amiga version. However, there were only a couple of screenshots up.
The Amiga version had a very cute little emu. And the yeti used to strike terror in my heart. Basically always ended my run.
I always admire the chutzpah involved in bringing a hoary old piece of abandonware back to financial life, but why not just play Brogue if a pure Rogue is what you want?