The Dink Network

Ye ol' SlipDink has updated All that Glitters! to v1.10. This release includes at least 24 fixes/improvements/corrections, ranging from changing some dialog and some other wording to eliminating several overlapping lines of white text.

Dark Archon, the editor-in-chief at arhn.eu, put together a short documentary called Dink Smallwood: Two Decades of Duck Decapitation. It covers the history of Dink, going from Seth's Legend of the Red Dragon up through the Crazy Old Tim Plays All The D-Mods books, and includes some snippets of Seth and I talking about stuff. It's quite well put together.

I learned some new stuff, like how the original Dink Smallwood CDs included Warcraft music (!). I knew that there were copyright issues, but I didn't know it was that crazy!

Our favorite developer-who-posts-interesting-python-related-tools-to-the-forum, shevek, has released a new Dink Smallwood editor by the name of browser editor.

"Why would I use this when I have Windinkedit?" I hear you ask. "Hey, how did Dan tap into my microphone? This is getting creepy," I hear you continue.

Anyway, this editor is a little bit different than most, in that it runs in your web browser. This means that it works fairly well in a Linux operating system.

So, give it a whirl, and let shevek know what you think.

SlipDink has released his third D-Mod, All That Glitters!. This time around, Dink starts on a quest to a land that is rumored to have an abundance of golden riches: golden ponies, golden eggs, golden geese, and even golden showers.

I think there's a bigger issue here: is Skurn influencing the development of SlipDink's D-Mods? Skurn is known to appreciate a pony or two, and there's a giant glittering pony in a casino environment at the start of this D-Mod. Is this a coded message to Skurn, warning him that he is 'gambling' on 'ponies'? Or is it a mere coincidence?

Five Years.

Almost everyone learns to talk within five years of being born.

A lot of people complete their high school (or secondary school) education in less than five years.

Some people even complete a bachelor's degree in less than five years.

One musical artist even wrote a cool song titled 'Five Years'.

And, now, Bill Szczytko, of Dorinthia fame, admits that he's spent the last five years playing and bug testing Quest for Dorinthia: Special Edition, and is ready to present the fruits of his labor with v2.5. Bill admitted there were too many changes to list (though, presumably, this fixes a bug that happens if you kill the guards before getting the sword). So, now's probably a good time to revisit this classic.

Our favorite rabies-infected canis with a penchant for nueve, rabidwolf9, has released a new development file entitled Disappearing Blood. This will show you how to make the blood sprites fade out (disappear) over time.

So, if your fancy new D-Mod you're making for the Plot Twist Contest has a plot twist where blood, uh, disappears (?), try this.

Crazy Old Tim Plays All The D-Mods Volume 2: 2005 - 2015 is now available to purchase. This volume weighs in at a svelte 398 pages. For more details, please visit our book page.

For those of you who missed the announcement about Volume 1 and haven't been around the Dink Smallwood community for a few years, something really cool happened a few years ago. Tim Maurer (aka CocoMonkey) decided to play through every D-Mod ever released, and write about his experiences as he went. He decided to call this project 'Crazy Old Tim Plays All The D-Mods' (COTPATD). Along the way, he covered all 355 D-Mods, and wrote just under 300,000 words in total. His writing was pretty darn brilliant, and was witty, thoughtful, personal, and hilarious.

Some examples:

• "You know, about 15 minutes into hitting the same bitch-ass duck with a sword, its blood spattered everywhere, you get way too reflective." (Lost in Dink)
• "Oh my, yes. It may have taken several months, but at last somebody released something as bad as the utter dreck I vomited up back in August of 1998. *Sniff* I’m so proud." (Mike Dingwell's First D-Mod)
• "My brains turned to mush and I soon began to fail to follow it. There are a lot of words being spoken, but not a lot happens. I’ve read Proust and it was more exciting than this." (Bishop's Quest Part 1: Enter the Hero)
• "In The Promenade, Bill circles around the cluster again and again, moving subtly toward and away from the crowd in the curves of his movements. Each time, the hive, inhuman and mindless, erupts rapturously in a spray of blood, a hail of axes, a cloud of numbers. They will not turn on each other; they do not even notice each other. In this stage, they are one being, with only one purpose. An occasional confused element will fly off in some random direction, but Bill does a miniature Corral to return them to the cluster, which gets smaller and smaller." (Bill & Kill 3: The Terrible End)
• "I’m sorry. I know that it may seem kind of corny. I know that I’ve 'opened up' and blabbed about my personal issues here probably more times than I should have. But this game, this community and this project have mattered a lot to me, and this little ending just poked me in all of those places in my brain where it matters, it turned on all the switches labeled 'meaning' tucked away in those odd locations, those long-forgotten hallways." (Cast Awakening Part 5: Revolution)

All of these great quotes, and more, can now be shipped straight to your door and sit on your bookshelf (for a little bit too much money).

Are you interested in making your own D-Mod? Or yet another D-Mod? Have you made a few half-finished D-Mods, but never found the motivation to finish one? Do you only make D-Mods when a contest gives you a structure and a deadline?

Yes, we are holding another contest. This time the theme is Plot Twist. Can you twist a D-Mod's plot to surprise and delight your peers? Yes. Yes you can.

Thanks to Mr. Sparrowhawk for suggesting this in the Contest thread.

See the comments for more details.

Prepare for trouble!
Make it triple!

Skurn made some D-Mods but to humanity's everlasting loss never finished them, so here they for you to play with.

Triple Trouble (Caution: contains ponies)

Do you need some more snazz in your life? Is your pixelated Dink icon just too retro for your shiny modern PC? Bluedy saves the day!

The Dink Smallwood Icon Remade is the Dink Smallwood icon which has been, uh, remade. It's so smooth you'll want to lick it.

Crazy Old Tim Plays All The D-Mods Volume 1: 1998 - 2004, a 430 page physical book (!) is now available for purchase. For more details, please visit our book page.

For those of you who missed previous posts about this, something really cool happened a few years ago. Tim Maurer (aka CocoMonkey) decided to play through every D-Mod ever released, and write about his experiences as he went. He decided to call this project 'Crazy Old Tim Plays All The D-Mods' (COTPATD). Along the way, he covered all 355 D-Mods, and wrote just under 300,000 words in total. His writing was pretty darn brilliant, and was witty, thoughtful, personal, and hilarious.

Sadly, he died shortly after completing his project.

Tim wrote COTPATD because he "wanted to give something back to a community that meant a lot to [him] when [he] was younger", and I believe that publishing his work in book-form continues that goal. COTPATD is a glimpse at our community through the silly games that we created together, and having that on a bookshelf makes it more 'real' than a web page that might disappear overnight. I think it is also important to recognize Tim's achievement, as sad as it is that he isn't around to see this.

In editing COTPATD, I've fixed a few typos and grammar mistakes, and added a few missing screenshots. I've also trimmed out a tiny amount of content for formatting purposes. However, I've also added some additional 'context' to Tim's entries, including the community response to the COTPATD project, old forum posts, alternative reviews, and some historical snapshots of what was going on in the community while the D-Mods were released.

I have this absurd fantasy in my head that after the apocalypse, COTPATD is one of the only books that survives. I imagine a future anthropologist in a white jumpsuit, carefully turning each page. They would start to understand a tiny slice of a few lives from the early 21st century, and hopefully start laughing all along the way.

Oh, one more thing: earlier this year, I asked everyone I knew who was connected to Dink if they wanted to write a few words to include in the book, and I received responses from about 20-30 different people. Most of these responses will be included in Volume 2, but some are included in Volume 1.

SlipDink has just updated The Last Quest Part 1: The Oraculum to v1.3a. This fixes some issues so that something happens correctly now when the cave fairy is not slain.

'Cave fairy' makes me think of some sort of... hillbilly fairy, not good enough for the forest, no sir, that thar fairy belongs in ground. In a cave. That's probably just me.

After going through almost two months of beta-testing and bug-fixing, Seth has officially released an update to Dink Smallwood HD (v1.8.9).

Previous versions of Dink Smallwood HD had some big problems. The original game worked alright, but many D-Mods were simply unplayable. This new version fixes a ton of the old Dink Smallwood HD issues, and it now works with just about every D-Mod.

Additionally, here are a few of the nice new features:

• Dink Smallwood HD is Free for all platforms (including iOS and Android).
• Better resolution support in Windows (I personally recommend running at 1280x960, double the original resolution).
• Improved shadows support; the shadows can be upgraded to transparent shadows. This change occurs in the engine, and also applies to any graphics in existing D-Mods.
• Integrated cheats menu.
• In-game D-Mod browser / installer.

It's really, really great!

SlipDink has just updated THE LAST QUEST (part 2) to v1.10a. This fixes quite a few little bugs that snuck into the last release.

I've played it a bit while testing the new DinkHD betas, and I have to spoil the introduction cutscene. Look to your right. That's amazing. I was shocked when I saw that.

And, afterwards, it even features a jungle that feels pretty darn jungle-like, which isn't very easy with the good ol' Dink engine.

SlipDink has updated both of his D-Mods recently.

The Last Quest Part 1: The Oraculum 1.3 includes a few bug fixes, and includes "expanded dialogue to extol virtues of the shrine." What kind of shrine has virtues worth extolling? I guess you'll have to play and find out.

Last, but not least, THE LAST QUEST (part 2): The Iron Ring of Destiny 1.01 includes a few bug fixes (mostly to deal with screenlock issues).