Decker [roguelike]

[679a8a9e27a39doctorfrog]

Tags: °roguelike
I wrote an intro to cyberpunk hacking roguelike Decker on my blog:

http://drfrog.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/a-brief-introduction-to-decker-part-1-a-cyberpunk-hacking-roguelike/
http://drfrog.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/a-brief-introduction-to-decker-part-2-cyberpunk-hacking-roguelike/
http://drfrog.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/a-brief-introduction-to-decker-part-3-radio-shack-attack/

Overall, it was fun to play for about a month or so, but since it doesn't have an ending I lost motivation to continue after a while. It also doesn't have the look or feel of most roguelikes, but this isn't a knock. It's really not bad and if simplified and streamlined, has play mechanics that could be successfully shoehorned into a more elaborate cyberpunk game, roguelike or not.

[679a8a9e27da9Kolya]

I've run into Decker at least 3 times before but I could never really get into it, due to it's very own mixture of complex gameplay and a truly ugly interface. It seemed to make whatever progress I could achieve unrewarding. Glad to see you're addressing both, I might have to give it another shot.

[679a8a9e27f9cxerkon]

I'm having huge problems!!  I'm trying to play Decker in widescreen, 1920x1200, but I can't seem to, it just plays in a window!!  Can anyone help me????  Also, I can't seem to get Anisotropic filtering working, and plus I'm getting super low frame rates and that's with both cores enabled!!  Which video drivers should I use?  I have a Radeon x1900xtx.  Also, I don't know if I need the latest Decker patch or even where to download it.  Heeeelllppp!!!   

[679a8a9e280b6doctorfrog]

I think I know your problem: you're playing something other than Decker.

[679a8a9e283e6xerkon]

You're wrong!!     My problem is that I like "funny" and so I try to be funny but sadly I can never be quite as funny as what I think is funny.  It's funny.

Seriously, though, before yesterday I had no idea what a "roguelike" was.  I saw this topic "Sci Fi Roguelike" and said to myself, "what the hell?"  And after reading a few posts here I was all like, "what in the world is everyone talking about?"  So I googled roguelike and now I'm in the know.  Well, I don't know about "in the know" but at least I have some idea of what a roguelike is.

I checked out your blog, doctorfrog, and it was quite entertaining.  Great little site you have there!     After reading your Decker guide I thought to myself (again), "what the hell," (this time without the question mark) and downloaded it and I've been trying to play it but I really suck.

I think reading about roguelikes and trying to play one has made me a little nostalgic for the old games I used to play on the commodore 64.  (actually I had the 128 which had another mode you could put it in to go from 1Mhz to a whopping 2Mhz cpu speed!!!  woah!!!!      And Decker made me think of the 64 game Neuromancer, based on the William Gibson novel I always thought I would read but never have.

Anyway, all this to say, thanks for the heads-up on roguelikes.  I might check out some other ones.   

Oh, and actually, with Decker at least, I seriously think that I would probably benefit from lowering my resolution from 1920x1200 to 1024x768 in order to make the game screen bigger.  I'm gonna try it.  And of course I'll probably get better frame rates at a lower resolution as well.   

[679a8a9e28b5dEnchantermon]

Anyway, all this to say, thanks for the heads-up on roguelikes.  I might check out some other ones.   

While you're at it, download DosBox and check out the game that started it all: Rogue.

[679a8a9e28e86xerkon]

How far did you guys get in Decker?

That would be great if the game that had started it all was named, "Don't".  Then we'd all be playing don'tlikes.  ha ha ha  (that was pretty lame)

Thanks for the recommendation, Enchantermon.  I'll have to look into it in the future.   

Right now I'm completely obsessed with Decker.  I'm actually getting better at it and I'm starting to figure things out.  I played for 6 hours last night after I got home from work.  I didn't make it to bed until 2 a.m. and then my alarm went off at 6.  I barely knew what planet I was on when I woke up, and in my dreams I was trying to hack in to things.     <--that's how I looked when I woke up, I swear.

I already know I'm going to start playing again right now and there is nothing I can do to stop it, even though I'm super tired and know I probably won't be able to quit.

Do you think there will be a time in the future when we'll be playing systemshock2likes?  Maybe it should be shock2likes.  Shocklikes would be even easier.  Systemshock2likes is a bit cumbersome.

[679a8a9e29006Kolya]

There are quite a few games that were influenced by the System Shock series. But even though the series crossed the genres of RPG & FPS, it didn't create a new game type like Rogue or Populous ("god-games").

[679a8a9e291d0xerkon]

I've been playing Decker like a crazy man.  I just upgraded to the final lifestyle - Elite.  I'm actually pretty damn good at this game now, unlike when I first started.

I think I'm almost done.  I'm pretty close to being at a level where even the contracts that are at 100% difficulty aren't much of a challenge.

What if I'm too addicted to stop??!!  I'll blame all of you guys, that's what I'll do!!!!  I didn't Even KNOW About roguelikes before this!!!   

[679a8a9e2936dTooLazyToRegister]

I recently got into Decker for a bit myself, I find it pretty enjoyable.

For those who don't know, it's basically almost a clone of the Shadowrun rules for decking, hence the name Decker.

Now if someone would just make a fully-featured Shadowrun roguelike that featured both the 'real world' and the 'net', that'd be friggin' amazing.

And if none of you guys are familiar with the Shadowrun universe, then you're really missing out, it's a great cyberpunk universe which created two good RPGs for the Super Nintendo and Sega MegaDrive(Genesis to you yanks out there!)