There is this fun little game called Nethack which some of you may have heard of. Having played it for a couple of years now, I have finally finished the *&%! thing for the first time, thus gaining the status of demigoddess (your reward for accomplishing the Fetch Quest for your in-game deity is to “be elevated to demigodhood”).
It is traditional to post a writeup of your game to the Usenet group rgrn (rec.games.roguelike.nethack), and my YAFAP (Yet Another First Ascension Post) is here, complete with rgrn jargon. For the rest of you, this translates to “I did it! Woohoo!” (Hey, ascending for the first time typically takes years. You are allowed to celebrate a little.)
Nethack, eh? I never did get into that “roguelike” game, being absorbed by its cousin Moria, and having earlier extensively played the common ancestor of both, Rogue itself. How do the two compare?
FWIW I ran Moria enough to defeat the Balrog with at least two different characters, including a Half-Troll warrior I started one day just to kill time (named “Kill”). I think I still have the save file somewhere on a floppy. If not, there’s always my memories.
Never played Moria, so I can’t say, sorry. I only played Rogue a couple of times; Nethack is a much, much more elaborate version, so if you liked the randomized aspects of Rogue and want to play a game where figuring out what the hell you’ve got and how to make it into something else is key (Nethack has Combinatorial Explosion out the wazoo), give Nethack a shot. Also, you can go back upstairs to retreat or to retrieve something you left behind, which I consider a great improvement.
I’ve ascended multiple times because I back up my saves. Even then it’s a hell of a task. I am not much moved by the howls of the purists. If you’re still having fun failing year after year, go for it, but I do have other hobbies.
I’ve ascended once as a tourist, but I was save-scumming like crazy, using all sorts of guides, and I have to say, once you save-scum your way to the Platinum Yendorian Express Card the game becomes pretty easy.
Oh, I have been spoilered rotten since the very beginning. I have so far resisted the temptation to save scum, but I spent the first year or so playing exclusively in Explore mode (where you cannot die), so I’d already got past the “Roguelike ettiquette be damned, I just want to see more than levels 1 through 3!” motivation.
I’m always impressed by that since despite trying various roguelikes off and on for twenty years I’ve never come close to accomplishing it. Your kudos are well earned.
You would not believe the little hothouse that goes on around these roguelikes. Not only is NetHack still around, there’s a whole bunch of similar games still in development.
Johnny Angel, asterion, you haven’t really won if you scummed. Try other RLs, there’s heaps, NetHack is only one. After trying NetHack, Angband and ADOM (tried the last the most), I only finally won Crawl, which some folks say is the hardest of the lot.
My personal favorite roguelike is Zangband. It’s less difficult (never did get past the Gnomish Mines in Nethack) and also has an “overworld”, complete with wilderness and multiple dungeons, as well as quests. Definitely fun and not too hard to at least get to mid-game.
Hey, I never said I won. I said I ascended once and cheated my butt off to do it. I still try to do it legit, but I was sick for several days, was out of other games, and was also tired of getting killed.
Given the tremendous amount of joy I got from the game, and the mountain of futility I sidestepped, I feel like a winner. I know you wish you could take that away from me, but you can’t and MMMmmm… it feels so good!
Of course, at this point, I only play on a server where I don’t have the option to cheat, because only where you share a scoreboard with other people who don’t have the ability to cheat would the ascension mean anything. If I wanted to be able to say “I ascended honestly on my local machine that I have complete control over” I could just do so. But if I could ascend on a remote site, oooo, that would be sweet!
I also had many many many games where I was thinking “I’m cruising along here, gray dragon scale mail, spare wand of wishing, gauntlets of power… surely I am going to ascend”. Not so fast…
I scummed and hints-filed my way to an ascension just once-- took for fucking EVER (archaeologist). To do it without saving would require so much luck. And since then it’s all been scrambled up again, and I haven’t the patience to learn a whole new set of facts (like Kingdom of Loathing-- I can’t keep up with having a clue)