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February 5th 2014, 04:21 AM
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Cocomonkey
Bard He/Him United States
Please Cindy, say the whole name each time. 
--Crazy Old Tim Plays All the DMODs--

Directory
1998 | HTML version
1999 | HTML version
2000 | HTML version
2001 Article version
2002 | Article version
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008-2009
2010
2011-2015

Look over there, it's some more DMODs! Brought to you by the author of this cool new DMOD that you should go play if you haven't already. Plug plug plug.

On January 1, 2001, I cut whatever remaining ties I had to the Dink Smallwood community. I asked for my DMODs from 1998 (The Dink Forever trilogy, 2001: A Dink Oddyssey, and All Out Brawl) to be removed from the website, which people weren't happy about at the time, but honestly, I think I did everybody a favor. We're getting into really unexplored territory for me now. There are a couple more DMODs this year that I played when they came out, but FIAT was the last one before I stopped even lurking occasionally.

By my count there are 22 DMODs that were released in 2001. Coming as it does in the middle of Dink's prime (37 in 2000, 36 in both 2002 and 2003) that represents a bit of a down year, but it's still a healthy output that exceeds 1999's.

In January 2001, WinDinkEdit was released. All DMODs up to this point had been made using the original DinkEdit. Maybe some of you out there still use DinkEdit, but I sure don't miss it. No option to quit without saving, no way to view another map screen without going back to the minimap every single time... yikes. I don't miss it.

I'm happy to make this topic because finally, at long last, there's something for which "2001: A Dink Odyssey" is actually kind of an appropriate title.

087: Dink Goes Wandering Author: Colin "Duck" Wyatt Release Date: January 4, 2001

This is the first of four mods titled "Dink Goes [Blank]ing." It's not as bad as "Quest for [Blank]."

According to the author, he made this because he "thought there should be more 10 minute Dink adventures." That sounds reasonable, but this isn't close to fulfilling that goal; the only reason it took me three minutes to put this down is the time I spent wandering around going, "Seriously? That's it?" I had this reaction not only because of how short the mod is, but also because there isn't really a clear ending.

You enter a house. A wizard there tells you to kill some pillbugs - okay. You go outside and do this, then return and tell him you've done it. He says "Good Job!" and you get 1,000 experience points. At this point, you've accomplished everything you can.

There isn't an awful lot on the few screens in this DMOD, and that combined with the lack of music really makes it feel more like a stub than anything finished. I did find something aesthetically appealing about the way everything was so boxed in like a series of rooms, but only because I was imagining how that concept could be used in a better mod than this one. The feeling of confinement was really the only thing that stood out, which is ironic giving the title - there's no room to wander here.

At least all the objects here are scripted, for a total of 24 scripts. Most things have a hit response, which I'm always for, and a decent job is done of running the fourth wall humor through its paces, particularly a scene in which Dink, a bookshelf, and a shelf of bottles converse about the author's utter control over their actions.

And now it's time for everybody's favorite plotless DMOD pasttime... Let's Pretend There's A Point!

[theme music plays]

After the player selected "Quit," Dink and the inanimate objects he had befriended found a way to throw off the yoke of the hated author's oppressive scripts. Sadly, the joke was on them, as the author had created such a tiny world for them that they had nothing to do with their newfound freedom. To this day, they pass the time by continuing to set the multiverse's eternal record for longest rendition of "X bottles of beer on the wall."

088: Explorations: Redink1's Basement Author: Dan Walma Release Date: January 5, 2001

"Oh dear! redink1 has a cruddy digital camera, and he kinda knows how to use it!"

I remember "playing" this one back when it came out. It's not so much a game as it is a simple demonstration of how a Myst-style point and click adventure game could be implemented in Dink using the mouse mode normally used for the title screen. There isn't anything to do except look at the blurry, grainy photos and see lines of description for a small number of objects. There are some cool things to see, like an old Pepsi machine.

Although it isn't immediately obvious, there's an interface here where you can switch between three modes: the default "move mode," where you click to change your view, the "describe mode," where certain objects will produce descriptions, and "action mode." Action mode only seems to do two things: it can make Warcraft III music come out of the speakers, and it can turn off the computer monitor on the desk... sorta.

I found the interface to be kind of frustrating. You hear the "can't click there" sound more often than not when trying to click around. To really make this concept work for a game, I think you'd have to make the cursor change based on where the pointer is using buttonon and buttonoff. I'd make it into an arrow when the cursor is in a spot where you can click to move, and I'd go ahead and make the move function something that's always active so you only have a button that toggles between action and examine. I think with those changes, you could make a pretty serviceable adventure game, which would be neat. This is a cool little tech demo, but you can't spend much time with it.

---

I know that isn't much of a first post, but it's what I felt like doing right now. Hey, I've got to get through all of these somehow, every bit helps, right?