@ Necklace of the Eye
Necklace of the Eye (NotEye in short) is an frontend to modify the output of console and libtcod roguelikes. (That is, roguelikes which use one of two most popular methods to draw the stuff: system console (aka terminal or curses) or libtcod. Does not work with those which create their own ASCII displays.) It currently has, among others, the following features:
- Tested under MS Windows, Linux, and OSX
- Show the game using ASCII, tile, isometric perspective, mini-tile, double mini-tile, First Person Perspective (FPP), or Third Person Perspective (TPP) display; fullscreen or windowed; and with a choice of font
- Display the roguelike just like it would be displayed in DOS, using the correct font, colors, and full screen (note: if you need only this feature, you might also use the simpler utility cons2tcod)
- Move your character using mouse
- A menu from which you can choose one of several games to play
- Take screenshots in several formats: BMP (image), HTML (for webpages), and phpBB (used by many kinds of online forums)
- Streaming: you can make a recording of your game and then play it (recordings can be annotated with messages and you can control speed), you can also host a server where clients can connect to and watch your game, share comments about it (with you and other clients) and even control your character if you wish
- Sound effects based on messages from the game
- Change the control scheme, for example you can make it easier to play a 8-directional roguelike on a laptop by using Shift/Ctrl+Left/Right arrows for diagonal movements, allow VI keys, WASD, QWEADZXC, or allow arrow movement for roguelikes which support only VI keys by default
- Lua scripting, allowing lots of flexibility in adapting NotEye to new roguelikes (see this for an incomplete guide about NotEye scripting), giving additional features to the game (e.g., automatic creation of characters), or even creating new roguelikes in NotEye
- Can also work as a shared library for creating roguelike displays. Even without using NotEye's special graphical modes and other features, this library has advantages over both Curses (easier handling of arrows, can use 24-bit color, fullscreen in Windows) and libtcod (console output option). NotEye includes samples in C, Pascal, Lua, Java, and Python.
Who is using NotEye?
Several originally text-only games are using NotEye as its graphical engine. These include:ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery), one of the classic major roguelikes, originally text-based only, is now using NotEye as its graphical engine! Playing ADOM (downloads) is recommended to witness the power of NotEye. Note that we are concentrating on the default tile display, so NotEye's other graphical modes, such as First Person Perspective, are hidden -- you have to enable them (press Ctrl+M to get the NotEye menu, xx to unable the unfinished features, then e.g. Ctrl+M mf to enable the first person perspective).
Hydra Slayer comes from the same author as NotEye. Hydra Slayer is a roguelike with a unique combat system based on mathematics, and it is included with NotEye -- just download the NotEye+Hydra Slayer package!
PRIME is a sci-fi roguelike. It is a variant of Zap'M, which is "the sci-fi NetHack". Whether you like NetHack or not, this game is definitely recommended! PRIME is updated less frequently than ADOM or Hydra Slayer.
Brogue is one of the most known and liked roguelikes, prized for its beautiful ASCII and wonderful tactical gameplay. I have created an unofficial NotEye port of Brogue -- get more information here.
I want to try it!
You can play any of the games above (for Brogue see here) , or try the NotEye Roguelike Bundle. This is a bundle which includes NotEye and several modern games which work with NotEye (DoomRL, old Brogue, Frozen Depths, Hydra Slayer, ChessRogue, Unstoppable, Toby the Trapper, Gruesome, Drakefire Chasm). Just download the bundle, run it, and select the game you want from menu!If you are a developer, see the dev guide, and download the samples included in the NotEye package.
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