Reply to Re: Crazy Old Tim Plays All the DMODs of 2007
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276: Red Shield (Unfinished) Author: Someone Release Date: March 2, 2001
"When you touch an enemy, you get launched into combat mode."
Yep, I screwed up again. Hey, at least I realized this one quite a while ago. "Red Shield" was released unfinished in 2001, but received an update on December 4, 2007. It's uncommon for unfinished DMODs to be updated, so when I was making the list I assumed that the update was the "finished" version, and thus was appropriate to treat as the release. I was wrong, it's still unfinished. The main reason for the update seems to have been to fix things that were broken by 1.08. Oops.
The readme thanks "Kyle and Tim" for beta testing. This is old enough that "Tim" might have been me, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
"Red Shield" is the first DMOD (remember, 2001) to have a turn-based combat system. When you touch a monster, you get sent to the combat screen.
Which looks like this.
Dink, his party members (if any) and the monsters all have two numbers displayed next to them. The bottom number is their remaining health. The top number counts up from 0 to 10, at which point that character's turn comes up. It's kind of similar to the "ATB" system from Final Fantasy, but in this case, everybody else's timer is paused while you make a decision. I don't see any difference between this and a more traditional initiative system except that it makes you wait around a bit more.
All you can do in combat is attack, and it makes the most sense to just keep targeting the same enemy until it dies, so it really comes down to hammering the button. There isn't any strategy to speak of. Still, it works well, and could serve as the backbone for a more involved system in a finished DMOD.
Here's the new inventory screen featured in "Red Shield."
There is a little story. Dink is recruited into the King's elite "Red Shield" squad. After a bit of training, they assign him a couple of companions and send him out on a mission to investigate a forest where the monsters have become violent. Most of the battles take place against pillbugs. There's a definite unfinished look to the DMOD, as a lot of screens are empty or nearly so. There are some screens where even the tiling looks unfinished. When you do find the boss of this mission, the turn-based system is oddly abandoned.
You have to punch the pillbugs to send them flying into the goblin. It's not hard, but if you do get close to the goblin, you'll die instantly.
Afterward, Dink finally - FINALLY - gets a little vacation. This means lying on a beach towel and wearing shades.
DEAL WITH IT
When he's done being a beach bum, Dink has to do a bit of "stealth training," where you have to avoid a guard's line of sight (this is extremely simple). He's then sent out on a mission to a nearby village, where everyone has been killed by goblins... at which point, we run out of DMOD.
"Red Shield" is a pretty good example of how a turn-based DMOD might work. Its combat system works better than the one in "Legend of TerraEarth." I've gone in a different direction with a turn-based mod I made for an upcoming contest, so we'll see how that goes. The biggest problem I encountered in "Red Shield" is that you can get caught in a spot where enemies generate on the map. If this happens, you'll keep getting into fights until you lose. This is nothing that couldn't be fixed by adding a little delay before the monsters start coming out, though.
277: Dink's Christmas Adventure Author: Carrie2004 Release Date: December 11, 2007
"Santa! Come back. I don't want socks this year!"
Well, we've reached the last DMOD by the silly romp factory known as Carrie. Treasure those beavers while you can.
What do you do when Santa brings you socks every year? Hunt that fat old jerk down and MAKE him give you everything you want. Well, Dink initially plans to "ask" Santa, but that's the way it turns out.
This has got to be the most festive-looking Christmas DMOD I've seen yet.
Even the logo is strung up with lights!
Most of the snowy graphics are Binirit's, but there are some new graphics as well.
There's quite a bit of Christmassy combat to be found here. Dink fights bats and boncas, but pillbugs are replaced by killer snowmen, apparently created "accidentally" by the Wizard Martridge. Oops!
These guys crack me up, the way they wave their stick arms up and down.
Dink has to find a secret passage to the North Pole. It's in a house, mostly hidden by the front wall. When you get to Santa, he declares Dink to be naughty, and Dink has had enough. It turns out that he's a tough old cuss, though. I don't recall having much trouble with a boss in a Carrie2004 DMOD before, but Santa gave me a jolly old butt-whooping until I went and bought a bunch of elixirs.
The trend of cosplay goblin bosses reaches its silliest point yet.
This one was thrown together pretty quickly, so it has a lot of depth dot problems. Dink can go behind fireplaces and doorways and stand "on top" of Christmas trees. A fountain in the village can be walked straight through. It's good for a quick, holiday-themed laugh, though. Anyway, playing this is the most Christmassy thing I've done this holiday season. Ho ho ho.
278: Project A.N.Y. Author: Sergthegod Release Date: December 31, 2007
"Damn! That's the Linguistic University!"
REPUTATION NOTE: This DMOD is tied for last with a score of 0.1 on The Dink Network.
This is a very personal story.
In "Project A.N.Y.," Sergie gets sick of his English teacher trying to quiz him on early 20th century British literature and decides to kill him. His teacher's name is Alexander Nickolaevich Yarzhemsky, hence the title.
It is anybody's guess why "Linguistic University" holds classes (or tutoring sessions, or whatever this is supposed to be) in a cave.
The dialogue is full of specific details of things Serge hates about his teacher: his moustache, his long fingernails, his apparent high opinion of his teaching skills. It must really have been a blast for the author to make and play, but it's meaningless to anybody else. I don't think it's quite as bad as its rating, but only because I had fun imagining the author cackling with glee as he took out his frustration in this manner.
There's only one screen. Every time you punch Mr. Yarzhemsky, there's a short, randomly selected exchange between the two characters. Nothing happens when you kill him, although you do get 10,000 experience points. Serge is left on his own, with no way out. Maybe this symbolizes the way that Serge is trapped in this moment, haunted by guilt over what he's done. Yarzhemsky only wanted to help him learn, but in his childish rage, he killed a man. Now, there's nothing he can do but dwell on it.
Oh wait, never mind. There's a spot in the bottom right corner of the screen that "warps" you to another copy of the only screen, so you can kill him over and over again. Suck it, Yarzhemsky! This might be the quickest way to get to the maximum level without cheating.
279: Dink Smallwood at the City of the Dead (Demo) Author: Castman Release Date: December 31, 2007
"DIE!! Don't you have something more original??"
This DMOD is not listed in the files section. I have no idea why. Anyway, you can download it from the link up there.
Dink finds himself in a huge ruined city full of zombies, corpses and gore. Why? I'unno.
This is the entire intro. Things don't really get any clearer by the end.
There are no NPCs to meet or talk to except for one rather late in the game. Everybody's a mindless zombie. It's kind of a drag; they're rude and bitey. You can punch the zombies to "death," but I wouldn't recommend it. They do a lot of touch damage and only give you 5 experience points each.
Here's one of those custom inventory screens that have been so popular lately.
You're left to figure out for yourself what to do. One house contains a pillar that starts a 45-second timer when you examine it. If you hurry up and walk around the outside of the city (which is surrounded by "invisible wall" screen edges), you can just make it to another part of the city, normally closed off, before the timer ends. There, you can get a bomb that enables you to access another new part of the map. Don't try saving after blowing up the rock that's in your way, though - it comes back if you leave the screen. Sigh.
Incidentally, you save in this DMOD by examining the fountain in a church. The help option in the escape menu has been revised to tell you this.
Dink then meets a knight who wants to kill him and sacrifice him to some kind of dark lord. This guy does over 700 damage, so all you can do is run away through the darkness that suddenly falls over the city.
Yipes!
This mofo will chase you through quite a few screens, and brambles start littering the ground as you go. If you run into one of them, Dink will get permanently stuck. If you're lucky, the knight will catch up to you shortly thereafter and kill you; if you're unlucky, he won't quite make it and you'll have to exit the game. This is a bug. According to the author, the brambles are only supposed to trap you for a second or two.
After several attempts, I finally escaped the chase. I soon met Death, the only NPC you can really go up and talk to in the whole DMOD. He's happy to give Dink a powerful sword to take out the zombies; he says that if he claims enough souls, he earns points to take a vacation. The sword Death gives you increases in strength by a point every time you kill a zombie, giving you a good reason to wipe out the suckers. I must admit, this is a cool and fun idea.
There are some creatively arranged dead bodies throughout the city. I guess only the ones sufficiently maimed were lucky enough not to become zombies.
The boss is a wizard who teleports when you hit him. He's not too tough if you've been keeping up on your campaign of zombie destruction. Then you walk out of the city and the demo ends.
I wasn't a big fan of this one. There are hints of a plot, but you never really find out exactly what's going on or why. I don't like not having anybody to talk to, and you're not given a good idea of what to do. There were some good ideas and memorable moments, however. At least this isn't one that I'll soon forget.
--
That's it for 2007. There were a lot of DMODs, but they were mostly quite short, and I was able to get through them in less than two weeks. The DFMAOB sure got a workout this year, with an incredible nine recipients. At least not quite all of them were Skull.
I think I can pick out my favorites this time.
The Bronze Pig: One Screen DMOD Compilation, by various authors
I still think this is a really neat idea and that we could stand to see another one of these. With just one screen, I think people are more likely to participate.
The Silver Duck: Escape, by LadyValoveer
"Escape" just has a great concept. It's especially enjoyable for anybody who's played a lot of DMODs.
The Golden Pillbug: I, Kara Gu, by Arik
"I, Kara Gu" transcends the format like nothing I've seen before. Every design decision is well thought out. The switching mechanic works flawlessly and allows for complicated and frantic action-puzzles. It's a totally new kind of gameplay, and it's fun as Hell.
"When you touch an enemy, you get launched into combat mode."
Yep, I screwed up again. Hey, at least I realized this one quite a while ago. "Red Shield" was released unfinished in 2001, but received an update on December 4, 2007. It's uncommon for unfinished DMODs to be updated, so when I was making the list I assumed that the update was the "finished" version, and thus was appropriate to treat as the release. I was wrong, it's still unfinished. The main reason for the update seems to have been to fix things that were broken by 1.08. Oops.
The readme thanks "Kyle and Tim" for beta testing. This is old enough that "Tim" might have been me, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
"Red Shield" is the first DMOD (remember, 2001) to have a turn-based combat system. When you touch a monster, you get sent to the combat screen.
Which looks like this.
Dink, his party members (if any) and the monsters all have two numbers displayed next to them. The bottom number is their remaining health. The top number counts up from 0 to 10, at which point that character's turn comes up. It's kind of similar to the "ATB" system from Final Fantasy, but in this case, everybody else's timer is paused while you make a decision. I don't see any difference between this and a more traditional initiative system except that it makes you wait around a bit more.
All you can do in combat is attack, and it makes the most sense to just keep targeting the same enemy until it dies, so it really comes down to hammering the button. There isn't any strategy to speak of. Still, it works well, and could serve as the backbone for a more involved system in a finished DMOD.
Here's the new inventory screen featured in "Red Shield."
There is a little story. Dink is recruited into the King's elite "Red Shield" squad. After a bit of training, they assign him a couple of companions and send him out on a mission to investigate a forest where the monsters have become violent. Most of the battles take place against pillbugs. There's a definite unfinished look to the DMOD, as a lot of screens are empty or nearly so. There are some screens where even the tiling looks unfinished. When you do find the boss of this mission, the turn-based system is oddly abandoned.
You have to punch the pillbugs to send them flying into the goblin. It's not hard, but if you do get close to the goblin, you'll die instantly.
Afterward, Dink finally - FINALLY - gets a little vacation. This means lying on a beach towel and wearing shades.
DEAL WITH IT
When he's done being a beach bum, Dink has to do a bit of "stealth training," where you have to avoid a guard's line of sight (this is extremely simple). He's then sent out on a mission to a nearby village, where everyone has been killed by goblins... at which point, we run out of DMOD.
"Red Shield" is a pretty good example of how a turn-based DMOD might work. Its combat system works better than the one in "Legend of TerraEarth." I've gone in a different direction with a turn-based mod I made for an upcoming contest, so we'll see how that goes. The biggest problem I encountered in "Red Shield" is that you can get caught in a spot where enemies generate on the map. If this happens, you'll keep getting into fights until you lose. This is nothing that couldn't be fixed by adding a little delay before the monsters start coming out, though.
277: Dink's Christmas Adventure Author: Carrie2004 Release Date: December 11, 2007
"Santa! Come back. I don't want socks this year!"
Well, we've reached the last DMOD by the silly romp factory known as Carrie. Treasure those beavers while you can.
What do you do when Santa brings you socks every year? Hunt that fat old jerk down and MAKE him give you everything you want. Well, Dink initially plans to "ask" Santa, but that's the way it turns out.
This has got to be the most festive-looking Christmas DMOD I've seen yet.
Even the logo is strung up with lights!
Most of the snowy graphics are Binirit's, but there are some new graphics as well.
There's quite a bit of Christmassy combat to be found here. Dink fights bats and boncas, but pillbugs are replaced by killer snowmen, apparently created "accidentally" by the Wizard Martridge. Oops!
These guys crack me up, the way they wave their stick arms up and down.
Dink has to find a secret passage to the North Pole. It's in a house, mostly hidden by the front wall. When you get to Santa, he declares Dink to be naughty, and Dink has had enough. It turns out that he's a tough old cuss, though. I don't recall having much trouble with a boss in a Carrie2004 DMOD before, but Santa gave me a jolly old butt-whooping until I went and bought a bunch of elixirs.
The trend of cosplay goblin bosses reaches its silliest point yet.
This one was thrown together pretty quickly, so it has a lot of depth dot problems. Dink can go behind fireplaces and doorways and stand "on top" of Christmas trees. A fountain in the village can be walked straight through. It's good for a quick, holiday-themed laugh, though. Anyway, playing this is the most Christmassy thing I've done this holiday season. Ho ho ho.
278: Project A.N.Y. Author: Sergthegod Release Date: December 31, 2007
"Damn! That's the Linguistic University!"
REPUTATION NOTE: This DMOD is tied for last with a score of 0.1 on The Dink Network.
This is a very personal story.
************This DMOD, "Project A.N.Y.,"*********** ********Has been awarded the prestigious********* ****DINK FOREVER MEMORIAL AWARD OF BADNESS***** ********On this day December 14, 2014********
In "Project A.N.Y.," Sergie gets sick of his English teacher trying to quiz him on early 20th century British literature and decides to kill him. His teacher's name is Alexander Nickolaevich Yarzhemsky, hence the title.
It is anybody's guess why "Linguistic University" holds classes (or tutoring sessions, or whatever this is supposed to be) in a cave.
The dialogue is full of specific details of things Serge hates about his teacher: his moustache, his long fingernails, his apparent high opinion of his teaching skills. It must really have been a blast for the author to make and play, but it's meaningless to anybody else. I don't think it's quite as bad as its rating, but only because I had fun imagining the author cackling with glee as he took out his frustration in this manner.
There's only one screen. Every time you punch Mr. Yarzhemsky, there's a short, randomly selected exchange between the two characters. Nothing happens when you kill him, although you do get 10,000 experience points. Serge is left on his own, with no way out. Maybe this symbolizes the way that Serge is trapped in this moment, haunted by guilt over what he's done. Yarzhemsky only wanted to help him learn, but in his childish rage, he killed a man. Now, there's nothing he can do but dwell on it.
Oh wait, never mind. There's a spot in the bottom right corner of the screen that "warps" you to another copy of the only screen, so you can kill him over and over again. Suck it, Yarzhemsky! This might be the quickest way to get to the maximum level without cheating.
279: Dink Smallwood at the City of the Dead (Demo) Author: Castman Release Date: December 31, 2007
"DIE!! Don't you have something more original??"
This DMOD is not listed in the files section. I have no idea why. Anyway, you can download it from the link up there.
Dink finds himself in a huge ruined city full of zombies, corpses and gore. Why? I'unno.
This is the entire intro. Things don't really get any clearer by the end.
There are no NPCs to meet or talk to except for one rather late in the game. Everybody's a mindless zombie. It's kind of a drag; they're rude and bitey. You can punch the zombies to "death," but I wouldn't recommend it. They do a lot of touch damage and only give you 5 experience points each.
Here's one of those custom inventory screens that have been so popular lately.
You're left to figure out for yourself what to do. One house contains a pillar that starts a 45-second timer when you examine it. If you hurry up and walk around the outside of the city (which is surrounded by "invisible wall" screen edges), you can just make it to another part of the city, normally closed off, before the timer ends. There, you can get a bomb that enables you to access another new part of the map. Don't try saving after blowing up the rock that's in your way, though - it comes back if you leave the screen. Sigh.
Incidentally, you save in this DMOD by examining the fountain in a church. The help option in the escape menu has been revised to tell you this.
Dink then meets a knight who wants to kill him and sacrifice him to some kind of dark lord. This guy does over 700 damage, so all you can do is run away through the darkness that suddenly falls over the city.
Yipes!
This mofo will chase you through quite a few screens, and brambles start littering the ground as you go. If you run into one of them, Dink will get permanently stuck. If you're lucky, the knight will catch up to you shortly thereafter and kill you; if you're unlucky, he won't quite make it and you'll have to exit the game. This is a bug. According to the author, the brambles are only supposed to trap you for a second or two.
After several attempts, I finally escaped the chase. I soon met Death, the only NPC you can really go up and talk to in the whole DMOD. He's happy to give Dink a powerful sword to take out the zombies; he says that if he claims enough souls, he earns points to take a vacation. The sword Death gives you increases in strength by a point every time you kill a zombie, giving you a good reason to wipe out the suckers. I must admit, this is a cool and fun idea.
There are some creatively arranged dead bodies throughout the city. I guess only the ones sufficiently maimed were lucky enough not to become zombies.
The boss is a wizard who teleports when you hit him. He's not too tough if you've been keeping up on your campaign of zombie destruction. Then you walk out of the city and the demo ends.
I wasn't a big fan of this one. There are hints of a plot, but you never really find out exactly what's going on or why. I don't like not having anybody to talk to, and you're not given a good idea of what to do. There were some good ideas and memorable moments, however. At least this isn't one that I'll soon forget.
--
That's it for 2007. There were a lot of DMODs, but they were mostly quite short, and I was able to get through them in less than two weeks. The DFMAOB sure got a workout this year, with an incredible nine recipients. At least not quite all of them were Skull.
I think I can pick out my favorites this time.
The Bronze Pig: One Screen DMOD Compilation, by various authors
I still think this is a really neat idea and that we could stand to see another one of these. With just one screen, I think people are more likely to participate.
The Silver Duck: Escape, by LadyValoveer
"Escape" just has a great concept. It's especially enjoyable for anybody who's played a lot of DMODs.
The Golden Pillbug: I, Kara Gu, by Arik
"I, Kara Gu" transcends the format like nothing I've seen before. Every design decision is well thought out. The switching mechanic works flawlessly and allows for complicated and frantic action-puzzles. It's a totally new kind of gameplay, and it's fun as Hell.
