News - April 2000

Daily news from the world of roguelike games: Roguelike News

29th April 2000

• Zceband for Amiga
  Bablos compiled the Amiga version of Eric Bock's ZAngband variant.
• Angband coding style
  I have added a new page that describes the recommended Angband coding style.

• Tk*band-a-plenty
  Tim Baker released updates to the Tk versions of Angband, KAngband, OAngband, and ZAngband.
• Mac Angband
  David Thornley released new archives with 68k and PPC Mac versions of Angband 2.9.0 as well as a PPC version with the dynamic e_info patch and the autosquelch patch (use at your own risk).
• Patches
  There are also new versions of the auto-squelch, a new close game patch by Ed Cogburn, as well as an early beta of Tom Morton's BigScreen patch

• Borgband update
  Dennis van Es released a new version of BorgBand. Slightly older PPC and 68k Mac versions have been compiled by Gob.

• Angband 2.9.0 buglist
  The bug-reports for Angband 2.9.0 are coming in and I have started to make a list of all the reports available.

• BorgBand update
  Dennis van Es released a new version of BorgBand based on Angband 2.9.0.
• Mac DrAngband
  Darin Takemoto compiled DrAngband 2.9.5 for 68k Macs.
• KAmband for Amiga
  Version 1.8c of KAmband 1.8c for Amiga has been compiled by Bablos.
• Acorn ports
  Thomas Harris made new versions of PsiAngband 1.0.7b and Goingband 2.8.3 v4 available for Acorn RISC OS machines.
• New ZAngband patch
  Matthias Kurzke created a ZAngband version of his ego-item patch that improves configurability of ego-items.

• Mac PernAngband
  Gob ported PernAngband 4.0.6 for PPC and 68k Macs.
• More patch mania
  Two more patches are available for Angband 2.9.0. The first one is a patch for the note taking command by Chris Kern that allows the player to keep a diary of his adventures. The other one by Ross Morgan-Linial expands the power of the object flags display the inspect command. And there is now also an unofficial pre-compiled version of Angband 2.9.0 for Windows available that includes the dynamic e_info patch and the autosquelch patch.

• KAmband for DOS
  Laurence Withers compiled the new KAmband version 1.8c for DOS. For details take a look at his DOS KAmband Page.
• Angband Mac port
  A Macintosh version of Angband 2.9.0 has been compiled by David Thornley.
• Angband 2.9.0 Borg
  The first Borg optimized for Angband 2.9.0 has been released by Dr. Andrew White. He also compiled a DOS version with his Borg.
• Patch mania
  Angband 2.9.0 has only been out for a few days, but several developers already released patches that add new features or improve the game. Jonathan Ellis wrote new *_info.txt and help-files that change monsters, items, vaults, and artifacts as well as improved documentation; Matthias Kurzke released a patch that improves configurability of ego-items; David T. Blackston prepared a patch for automatic destruction of unwanted items; and Gordon Lipford created enhanced code for doors in the dungeon and for the calculation of the character's weight.

• Angband ports
  Bablos and Musus Umbra compiled the Amiga and Acorn RISC OS versions of the new Angband 2.9.0.
• Angband edit patch
  Jonathan Ellis released a patch for Angband 2.9.0 that changes many monsters, objects, ego items, artifacts, and vaults as well as adding some new sections to the online help. Make sure to read the instructions before trying it out.

• New Angband maintainer
  There have been long discussions about the future of Angband in the last few months. Ben Harrison, the current maintainer, unfortunately doesn't have the time anymore that is needed for maintaining Angband. He is very busy at work and in Real Life (tm) and that interferes with Angband's development. I think I have some time to devote to the task of keeping Angband alive and kicking, so I offered Ben to help in any way I can or even to take over maintaining Angband if necessary.
  He agreed with me about what Angband should be and that a new maintainer would be the best thing. So we started working on shifting the Angband maintainership to the only one mad enough to want the job ... me.
• Angband 2.9.0 released
  The best way to introduce myself as the new Angband maintainer is probably by releasing a new version. So here it is ... Angband 2.9.0 as source code, Windows, and DOS version. I hope that ports to other systems will be available soon.
  Take a look at the long list of changes to find out what is new in this version.
• New pages on Thangorodrim
  I have also added several new pages to Thangorodrim. There is a spoilers section with detailled information about all monsters in Angband 2.9.0, a Borg page for all fans of the automatic Angband player, and an article written by Ben Harrison about the command-line arguments of Angband.

• PernAngband 4.0.6
  Dark God released version 4.0.6 of PernAngband for DOS and Windows and Bablos compiled it for the Amiga.
  The changes in this version are:
  • Added the tool slot for shovels/picks.
  • You can only dig walls if you use a shovel/pick in yout tool slot.
  • Made player ghosts a compile-time option.
  • Added the Necromancer class.
  • Power gained by gaining xp artifacts has been reduced.
  • Fixed the wilderness bug that made the game crash when entering a town.
  • The wilderness system has been improved.
  • Each Nazgul will now drop his Ring of Power.
  • Changed the format of w_info.txt again, it's much more readable now.

© 2000 by Robert Rühlmann, rr9@thangorodrim.net