Rediscovering the keyboard.

[J Arcane]

So I have a netbook. It's not a bad little netbook, it does it's job admirably, and even does a little gaming now and then.

However, over time I've been well reminded why I didn't own a notebook or laptop of any kind for so long: input. Touchpads blow. It's serviceable for desktop use, but anything that requires both mouse and keyboard is unplayable, and even anything mouse reliant feels tedious.

So I'm finding myself gravitating more towards old-school keyboard only games. Lately I've been monkeying about quite a bit with Adventure Construction Kit, a DOS freeware toolkit inspired by the old ACS for C64. But the included adventures are mostly rubbish, it's really more a tool for making your own stuff, and I'm still shy on ideas in that category.

I'm trying to think of some other older games that basically just don't use a mouse in any way. Anyone have some good recommendations for old DOS (or even other emulable computers like AppleII or C64) games from the days before a mouse was standard issue?

[biosc1]

I've been playing Quake 1 on my netbook. Doom, Wolf3D, etc...a lot of the older FPSs without a vertical axis do well (granted, Quake 1 has one, but it's limited in single player).

Personally, I've been loving TBS games (such as Age of Wonders) that work well with a touchpad or puzzle games (like Droplitz! or Fortrix).

Edit: Recettear! Almost forgot about that one.

[Handmade.Mercury]

Zork.

10char

[Panthera]

There was an RPG/Adventure creation set that I used to use that made ultima clones. Wish I could remember the name of it.

[Satertek]

Pretty much everything from Apogee and Epic MegaGames back in the day is worth checking out. Boppin, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Raptor especially.

Tyrian and Hardball (4, I think) were two others I sunk a ton of time into as a kid.

Don't forget your boot disk with a config.sys and autoexec.bat set for himem.sys support ;)

[J Arcane]

There was an RPG/Adventure creation set that I used to use that made ultima clones. Wish I could remember the name of it.
Might be ACK, it's very Ultima, even includes an Ultima pack, and one of the nicer games made with it is a UIV parody.

DCWorld/DCGames was another cool old one with an Ultima flair, but the last good version of that was 3, and it doesn't seem to work in Dosbox, it's that old.

Nazghul's a Ultima clone, but all the modding stuff is done in Scheme code . . .

If it's one I don't know about I hope you remember though, because I'm always interested in new RPG creator-y programs.


Right now, I'm playing Alphaman, which is the coolest Roguelike ever. Think I might have to roll a new guy though, my Int is so damn low I can't identify any of the stuff I'm finding.

[Panthera]

Might be ACK, it's very Ultima, even includes an Ultima pack, and one of the nicer games made with it is a UIV parody.

Hah! Pretty sure that was it.

[J Arcane]

Hah! Pretty sure that was it.

It's pretty cool. I like how it comes all preconfigured with Dosbox, and has the cool launcher and everything. You get old school feel with a little more friendly interface. There's even a Mac version.

[Superman's Dead]

T.O.M.E. is my favorite Angband variant, but whichever one you like most is always worth having on there.

Also, Spelunky.

[Vandabo]

Pretty much everything from Apogee and Epic MegaGames back in the day is worth checking out. Boppin, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Raptor especially.

Tyrian and Hardball (4, I think) were two others I sunk a ton of time into as a kid.

Don't forget your boot disk with a config.sys and autoexec.bat set for himem.sys support ;)

Funny you should mention Tyrian and Raptor, as I just finished replaying both of those this last month. Awesome games, and Tyrian is surprisingly deep.

As far as other non mouse games go, there are always emulators. I originally played through Chrono Trigger on an emulator on an old dell laptop while camping in our travel trailer. Good times.

I played Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics on my old laptop at the college library while I should have been studying. That wasn't a very good GPA term...

[J Arcane]

Just found out there's a version of Ogre for DOS, so I'm downloading that along with Space Rogue.

What do folks recommend for a Dosbox front-end? Anything on PC yet that's as awesome as Boxer on the Mac?

[Panthera]

I'm amazed Dwarf Fortress hasn't been mentioned, so there it is. You might have to stick to 3x3 sized forts on a netbook, though.

For actual DOS games, here's a few off the top of my head:
Albion
Dracula in London
Might & Magic III

[scythe]

You'll scoff at this but hear me out: Descent (or D2X-XL (http://www.descent2.de/d2x.html) these days - an excellent remake). I hated playing it with a joystick/mouse and developed (or stole from a website... can't remember) a keyboard only setup which ended up working really well. WA for accel/decel, AD for strafe left right, RF for strafe up down, and IJKL for direction. Map missiles to U and Fire to space and you don't have to move your hands for anything.

[jpublic]

Might and Magic III, IV, V, Swords, VI, VII, and VIII all work well with keyboard.
So does Wiz 6, 7, 8.

[biosc1]

I'm amazed Dwarf Fortress hasn't been mentioned, so there it is. You might have to stick to 3x3 sized forts on a netbook, though.

Ya...DF is pretty slow on my Netbook...It's usually the fluid that slows it down.

Just found out there's a version of Ogre for DOS

How have I never heard about this? My brother and I, at one point, were in the early stages of designing a game based on O.G.R.E. just a few years ago because we thought no one had ever tried.

I still think it would make an awesome iPhone game!