New NetHack release for the PSP NetHackPSP-1.0c.zip

[megalodon]

Thank you very very much! Nethack rulz!

[IveGotThePawa]

I think it's awesome that someone took it upon themself to keep the PSP Nethack port alive. I'm wondering though, can we play it without the graphical interface? Like with the original letters and @ sign's?

Like Genki said, you can switch between graphical mode and text mode by pressing :

[TOP LEFT]+[TOP RIGHT]+[SELECT] = Toggle ASCII / Graphic mode

But note that there is still a bug there. When you move your player, the prison doesn't seem to be updated (prison is the spaces displayed on the screen that is supposed to surround the player when he is moving).

This is on my #todo list

Thanks for playing!

Pawa

[IveGotThePawa]

Thank you very very much! Nethack rulz!

You are most welcomed!

I mostly did this for myself, because Virtuamunstaz did a very good job porting it to the PSP but it laked playability. I'm not letting this go as long as i'm not fully happy.

Pawa

[IveGotThePawa]

this game is pretty cool. But, a little in depth. Can you save?

Sure you can! Just hold

[TOP LEFT]+[START] = Save your game & Quit.

When you come back, it should automatically load your last saved game.

Pawa

[IveGotThePawa]

Yep! I have some suggestions!

Now that's the kind of post I was waiting for! I like getting thank you notes, but I love discussion about this game. Now lets get to it.

- Full Keyboard emulation. Change one of the buttons to bring up a keyboard. tHis ould amke it much easier to use wishes, extended commands, and just commands in general.

Yeah its coming pretty good already. I have a working keyboard emulation that comes up automatically whenever you have to type something. I just need to ajust it a bit and make it so you can also type any extended commands you like, even tho most of them are now mapped in the contextual menu.

- Full mouse Emulation. Again, It doesn't have to be all the time. Maybe a key to enable or disable it. It would just make it a little bit easier to scroll or pick objects.

The only problem I have now for the mouse emulation, is to find a button that can be used the the left click. In the mean time, I've added the '_' command which lets you travel wherever you want real fast.

- As for the diagonal movements, Maybe you could use the analog?

Well the analog stick is used for the mouse (when it will be reenabled).

- As for displaying the damage the player deals...that wouldn't be very nethack at all. There has never been a build of nethack that does that. So if you do include that, maybe default it to off for us?

Sure, I'll make it a option with the default as off... but anyway, i'm not even sure it feasable.

- More tile support, Of the other, larger tile sets that are out there.

I think its already in there. I didn't test it myself, but VMU did. You can go check it out at http://virtuamunstaz.de/nh/

- User defined controls. Hey, we all like different classes, and some of us don't need the same commands as others.

Yeah, somebody else asked me that too. I think I'll have to do it.

- A text editor so we can edit our config files and what not. Or some other form of editor.

I'm not sure I understand this... I can reenable the in-game options, but not all of them will be available. I don't think I will work on a text editor / file manager as there is already some pretty good ones out there.

- Maybe a custom tile set for the psp version. Nethack hasn't seen new tiles in a loooooooong time. It would make it feel new again. But If you're like me, Coding's your thing, not graphic design.

You guessed right. I'm not a graphic type of guy. If someone gets me one which is original tho, i'll gladly give him the proper credits.

- internet high score server and bones servers maybe?

Sweet idea, maybe when everything else is working...

- Maybe a mp3 player built in. It gets pretty quiet when playing nethack for hours on end.

Yeah, you're right. I know that there is also some sounds implemented in nethack. I might get them to work too.

- oh, and maybe a more friendly intro interface once you get keybaord and mouse in? It's fine the way it is, But it could be a little nicer.

Do you have something in mind? Send me a screenshot or a sketch...

Other Random ideas
- Slash 'em Support? Maybe after you finish Nethack, you could move slash em over to psp too.

- Vulture's eye, and vulters claw support? I'm not a big fan of them, But I would guess someone is.

I'd like to implement this someday, for the PSP. Go check it out :

http://www.darkarts.co.za/projects/noegnud/screenshots/

Well, In Any case, Amazing work. This is why my psp is staying at 2.6

Yeah, me too. I ain't playing GTA, Burnout or my baseball game anymore. Only Nethack.

I hope some of that helps!

It did! Thanks!

Pawa

[Cap'n 1time]

ah a fine example of how your ideas are appreciated by coders..

[gnazzah]

First off a little bug:

In 2.6 Fanjita eloader 095 GTA mode I can't save. Whether that's because I'm stupid or a bug I really can't tell. Worth checking out maybe.

Navigation idea
When performing jumps or farlooking in the original you get a cursor. Could you use that with a timer to perform moves/attacks as well? Diagonal moves are impossible now, but if you could make the move with the cursor instead of the character, it would be really easy. Say, you got half a second (could be configurable) to perform a move. You want to go across up to the right. Well then press the up and right buttons within the time limit, and you're done. Your character follows the cursor when the time is up. This could be turned off in Sokoban.

Menu redesign
I'm terribly sorry to say, but the navigation as it is now is too clumsy and tedious. The main advantage of NetHack compared to a lot of its more modern cousins is the magnitude of commands it features. These commands need to be accessible. They're not that now. Hence my idea stolen from 3d applications like Alias and Rhinoceros

Figure a 3x3 square. Inside each of these 9 squares are 4 symbols, triangle, circle, cross and square. This makes 9x4=36 slots. Each of these slots holds a command. One 3x3 square is linked to one top button. Having two of these buttons and the possibility to press both at the same time gives us three constellations or 3x36=108 slots. This should be sufficient to efficiently sort out all commands in logical groups within a maximum of five presses of buttons for any command. Instead of giving alphanumeric codes to commands they would look like L_left_up_triangle or L_R_up_circle.

Pressing the top buttons invokes a pop up menu that lists all commands in their squares. You then navigate to the square your command resides and select it by its symbol.

I made a quick mock up to illustrate and put it here:
http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=4/11911500978.jpg&s=x402
Some work has to be done to consider which commands go where, like placing the ones most used closer to the middle, grouping similar commands etc. Well. That's what I had to say anyway. I'm really hoping this project is followed up until playable.

Oh. And quaff is misspelled (quafe) in the beta.

[gnazzah]

I thought of one more thing. When accessing items in the inventory, it would be nice to have the possibility to do stuff with them directly. Especially useful to items within a bag of holding within an oilskin sack. Or similar.

[IveGotThePawa]

First off a little bug:
In 2.6 Fanjita eloader 095 GTA mode I can't save. Whether that's because I'm stupid or a bug I really can't tell. Worth checking out maybe.

Yes it is. I didn't try it with the GTA Exploit yet, I have a 2.0 and I don't need to use it. But since I have GTA, I'll give it a look.

ANYONE ELSE GOT THIS PROBLEM with the GTA:LC eLoader?

Navigation idea
When performing jumps or farlooking in the original you get a cursor. Could you use that with a timer to perform moves/attacks as well? Diagonal moves are impossible now, but if you could make the move with the cursor instead of the character, it would be really easy.

I see what you mean. Let me try to fix the diags first, as I'm pretty sure they were working great with the first release VMU did a while ago. I must have messed something up. In the mean time, I've implemented a 'Travel To' option in the context menu... this could help when you really want to move in diag, but its unacceptable as a long term solution.

Menu redesign
I'm terribly sorry to say, but the navigation as it is now is too clumsy and tedious.

I find it not that bad once you get used to it. The functions used the most are mapped on the buttons and the ones that aren't are in the context menu. This menu as been splitted in two columns now, its much easier to navigate. I have also added a small function that when you are at the top of the menu, pressing the up button will bring you to the last menu entry. It didn't have that in the previous release.

I really don't like having to remember the right button sequence for 108 possible combinations.

I might split up the context menu into sub-menus... Or maybe this won't be necessary when I do a sub-action menu right out of the inventory screen. I'm not sure yet.

But still, I keep your idea in mind and will give it more thoughts.

Oh. And quaff is misspelled (quafe) in the beta.

Thanks, it will be corrected in the next release.

In the mean time, let me post my 1.0d-BETA with the semi-functionnal soft keyboard and splitted context menu. Give it a try please, and let me know if its better.

Pawa

NOTE TO ADMIN: Don't put this beta on frontpage display yet; Even tho it contains nice new features, I haven't tested it fully yet and it might contain more bugs than solutions

[IveGotThePawa]

I thought of one more thing. When accessing items in the inventory, it would be nice to have the possibility to do stuff with them directly. Especially useful to items within a bag of holding within an oilskin sack. Or similar.

Yes, I had that in mind already. That's what I meant with the '- A contextual menu for the 'Inventory' screen' entry in my ever growing TO DO list.



Pawa