POWDER is a roguelike originaly developed specifically for the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS. It is inspired by many roguelike games including Nethack, ADOM, and the Diablos.
It is not a port of an existing roguelike as the controls of the GBA are very different from the traditional keyboard, and the screen imposes some additional limitations. It is built around replayability and long term ergonomics, not short term learning. It uses actual graphic tiles (16x16) rather than the traditional characters.
Installation
Copy powder123.gba to your flash card and it is ready to play.
User guide
About POWDER
POWDER is a Roguelike game. Roguelike is a term applied to a wide variety of games which share a common inspiration from the game Rogue. A non-exhaustive list of such games would be: ADOM, Nethack, Crawl, Diablo (I & II), Moria, and Angband. Some characterizes include:
- Tactical play - Not twitch oriented (like Quake) nor is it strategy oriented (like Civilizations or Warcraft).
- Based in Hack and Slash - A roguelike isn't primarily about plot development or telling a story. It is about killing things and acquiring treasure.
- Random games - A roguelike is a dungeon crawler where no two games are the same, and there are no guaranteed win paths.
- Permadeath - You die, that is it. No restoring a savegame. This is compensated by the replayability of the game.
- Complex interactions of properties - While the commands for a roguelike are simple, the potential interactions are not. An example would be equipping a silver ring as a weapon in order to damage a creature vulnerable to silver, but not one's other weapons (Editor: This matches the Hack branch of the roguelike tree, not the Angband branch).
- Steam rolling monsters - If a critter is in your way, and weak, you shouldn't even notice it is there.
How to Win
Descend into the depths of the dungeon until you reach the foul daemon known as "He who the author cannot spell consistently", or, Baezl'bub.
When you have slain Baezl'bub in heroic combat, or, if Baezl'bub dies in any way, retrieve his black heart and bring it to the surface world.
You may then go the nearest newsgroup such as rec.games.roguelike.misc, and post YAAP (Yet Another Ascension Post).
Status Line
S12H010/01M010/00X932L02 LR AB ^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | || | || | || | | | \-- Button mappings on GBA, Zinc on SDL | || | || | || | | \------ Current Dungeon Level | || | || | || | \-------- Ladder icon | || | || | || \---------- Experience, new level every 1000 | || | || | |\------------ X for Experience | || | || | \------------- Magic Level, +1 spell slot per level | || | || \----------------- Magic Points | || | |\------------------- Purple Wizard Hat | || | \-------------------- Physical Level, +1 skill slot per level | || \------------------------ Hit Points | |\-------------------------- Red Heart | \--------------------------- AC: How much armour you have \----------------------------- Shield
