Dungeons of Dredmor 1.06 imminent!

Dungeons of Dredmor patch 1.06 is nearly upon us.  This time Gaslamp Games is working on getting the Linux version up and running, as well as securing more options to buy the game other than Steam.  If you haven't already bought Dungeons of Dredmor, what's wrong with you?  It's $5.

Here's the changelog for patch 1.06:

FIXED:Map zoom is now saved between gameplay sessions
FIXED:a broken room defintion that would always lead to a gargoyle trap spawning behind a food dispenser.
FIXED:Items held in the player’s hand are no longer lost on save/load.
FIXED:Rod charging no longer prevents priming items after use.
FIXED:The game now realizes that you are in a shop after you load the game…and are in a shop.
FIXED:Food vending machines now have correct tooltips.
FIXED:Items from the ground can no longer be used as active skills.
FIXED:Overridden equipment during the start of the character creation process will give you permanent Mystery Bonuses.
FIXED:Monsters will now check to make sure the player isn’t standing on a corpse before they bring it back to life.
FIXED:After you steal things from Brax,you can now use them as items.
FIXED:The DIGEST button will now halt if you see an enemy or get attacked by one.
FIXED:Uberchest lock state no longer resets after save and load.
FIXED:Blink Batties now Blink. (So does Lord D.)
FIXED:Various broken Steam achievements (Monsters with Omelettes,The Critic,anything else with a counter)
FIXED:digging ray crash.
FIXED:misaligned close button in Quest window.
FIXED:Unarmed damage bonuses are no longer applied to range attacks,or thrown attacks.
FIXED:Unskilled weapon wielding penalties no longer affect thrown,or crossbow,attacks.
FIXED:Vandalized Dredmor Statues now save their obstruction state correctly.
FIXED:WASD now breaks statues,lets you run into some other things and use them
GAMEPLAY:The resistance statistic now gives you a roll to block corruption attacks.
GAMEPLAY:Mace and Axe skill trees have been revamped and enhanced.
GAMEPLAY:Lord Dredmor can no longer be stunned or charmed.
GAMEPLAY:Reworked Necronomiconomics.
GAMEPLAY:Smithing is now a Warrior archetype.
GAMEPLAY:Sneakiness has a -20 modifier.
GAMEPLAY:Elemental Weapons now have some Elemental Resistances. Or something.
GAMEPLAY:Added a bunch more items,including a keytar.
GAMEPLAY:Some crafts are now unhidden by default.
GAMEPLAY:Added the Mosolov Cocktail! Don’t drink it all at once.
GAMEPLAY:The 2X bottom bar is now implemented. We’ll do the rest next patch.
COSMETIC:Monster spellcasting now shows up on the text ticker.
COSMETIC:More minimap icons!
INTERNAL:Hidden Fun Stuff to make it so we can turn on the mod support without breaking everybody’s save games. (That said,we have to put it in the patch before the mod support so that…well,so that it doesn’t break everybody’s save games.)
INTERNAL:Hidden Fun Stuff,related to the Other Hidden Fun Stuff.
LINUX:You can haz it.

Roguelike Radio: Episode 5

Episode 5 of Roguelike Radio has been released.  

Welcome to this week's episode of Roguelike Radio. Episode 5 focuses discussion on Frozen Depths, a cold-themed roguelike by Glowie. Talking this week are Darren Grey, Andrew Doull and Ido Yehieli.

Topics covered this week include:
- Food clock systems
- Overarching themes to games
- Terminal interface on modern systems

Join us next week for discussion of Dungeons of Dredmor.

You read that right.  Next week they are covering Dungeons of Dredmor!  I am definitely looking forward to that episode.

Python IDLE Themes

A lot of people were happy about the Python IDLE themes I posted earlier, so I decided add an extra theme and to make it a lot easier by providing a ready made 'config-highlight.cfg' file right here on Rogue Code.

Obsidian, Desert, and Tango are three themes you can use for Python's built-in IDE, IDLE.  To use them you need to download this file, and put it in your '.idlerc' folder (location depends on your system; just do a search).  Then, the next time you boot up Python IDLE, go to Options -> Configure IDLE -> Highlighting, and choose your custom theme.

Python Weekly Newsletter

I discovered this at the Python Newsgroup: Python Weekly.  A weekly newsletter covering all the happenings with Python. 

A free weekly newsletter featuring curated news, articles, new releases, jobs etc related to Python.

 Go sign up for it right now!  If you're not convinced, check out the first issue online.

Dropbox - Free Cloud Service

I am not a fan of the cloud for many things, but one thing it is great for is file synchronization and hosting.  Dropbox is one the best services out there, and I use it everyday.

Here's how it works:  You sign up for a free account on the website and download the lightweight client.  It works on all platforms (Windows, Linux..even Android).  After you install the client, you will have a bunch of new folders within a main folder called "Dropbox".  Any files you put in there are automatically synchronized with the Dropbox server.  If you have Dropbox installed on multiple machines, those machines will automatically receive those files with the same directory structure.  It really is a wonderful service.

In addition to that, if you put a file in the "Public" folder, it doesn't mean that it's automatically public, but if you right click on it, you'll get a link which you can share with anyone which will allow them to download the file straight from your Dropbox.  The link is encoded so it will not allow them to go through your folders and find other files, just the one you want to share.

Use my referral link to get an extra 250 MB to your account.  You start off with 2 GB (plus the 250 MB) and get another 250 for every successful invite you hand out.  Best of all, it's totally free.

Dwarf Fortress Talk

One more podcast I thought to bring to your attention is Dwarf Fortress Talk.  This one actually features the developer of Dwarf Fortress every episode and the download is straight from the Bay 12 Games site.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Episode 16 was just released, and they also have a RSS feed, so you can add it to gPodder with the others.  Strike the Earth!

Netpack 1.0 released!

Netpack, a roguelike pac-man hybrid game, has just been released and it is one of the more interesting concepts for a game that I have played in a long while.  It's like a roguelike, in that you have hitpoints, fight enemies and descend into a dungeon, and it's like pac-man, in that you must "eat all the dots" to proceed to the next level.  When you get the powerups, you can become invincible, and eat enemies instantly, just as pac-man, but if you are not invincible, you must fight them normal roguelike style (hit for hit).

It's definitely a fun game, and since it doesn't cost anything, you should download it right away from here.

Radio Free Python: Episode 2

Radio Free Python has released the released the second episode of their all-Python podcast.

It includes:

Includes an interview with Alex Martelli!

They have also enabled their feed.  So now you can have automatically downloaded with programs like gPodder, which allows you can to subscribe, download, and manage multiple feeds for as many podcasts as you wish.  It's free, open source, and works on Windows and Linux, so I definitely recommend it.

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Review

If you read my earlier post, Here's an amusing tale..., you'll remember that I was waiting on this keyboard, the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

With a name that is like something out of a science fiction movie, and it's rather unique layout, you may wonder why anyone would want such a thing.

I was searching the internet for a good keyboard to hook up to my laptop, which is hooked up to an external monitor for a extended desktop display, when I am programming at home.  Every recommendation I ran into had this at the top.  (for example, check out this post over at programmers.stackexchange.com)

It finally came in about 3 weeks ago, and I have been using it daily ever since.  The box contained only 3 items: a CD, an attachment to raise the keyboard and tilt the wrist pad upwards, and the keyboard itself.

Wrong CD (needs IntelliType)

The CD that came in the box contained the IntelliPoint software which is used for Microsoft Mice, not Keyboards, so I threw that in the garbage, and downloaded IntelliType from the Microsoft website before hooking up the keyboard to my laptop.  Not sure why that happened, but it wasn't a big deal.

Keyboard Tilt

The tilting attachment raises the keyboard up at an angle as you can see in the picture above.  It really does a lot for comfort and really reduces strain on your wrists as it allows you to maintain a more natural position while you type.

The angling of the keyboard itself, which is split down the middle was probably the hardest part to adjust to.  Sometimes I think I would be hitting 'b' and get an 'n' instead since they were not where I "naturally" thought they would be without looking at the keyboard itself while I type.  But once I got used to it, typing is a breeze and I never feel any strain.  I like it so much that I requested one at work.  They keyboard has function lock, but it stays off and never comes back on unless I want it to (something which didn't happen for me with my older Microsoft keyboards I remember).

The keys give a satisfying response when pressed, and have not only improved my comfort, but improved my typing.  Not to mention the price, which is MORE than appropriate.  You can find one on eBay (where I got mine) for around $30.  And I recommend that you do.

Wing IDE 4.0.4 Released!

Wing IDE Pro 4.0.4 with Black theme

Wing IDE 4.0.4 has been released today!  Main features include:

• History in shells operates on whole blocks
• Option to filter shell history by entered prefix
• Use dynamic analysis for goto-definition in the editor, when available
• Auto-editing (must be enabled with Editor > Auto-Editing preferences): * Auto-enter closing quotes, comments, and parentheses, braces, etc * Tab through auto-entered invocation arguments * Apply quote, comment character, or parenthesis to selection
• Support ## comments and new block syntax in Mako files
• Allow scrolling editor one page below the last line
• Refactoring can move symbols to a new file
• PyLint panel improvements, including support for version 0.23+
• Commands to copy editor and project file names to clipboard
• About 70 other minor features and bug fixes included vi mode improvements 

The full changelog is also available..

Roguelike Radio: Episode 4

Another great episode of Roguelike Radio.  This week covering DoomRL as well as the following:

Topics covered this week include:
- What makes a coffeebreak
- Feature creep in roguelikes
- Annual Roguelike Release Party 2011 (briefly)

 Next week will be discussing Frozen Depths.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Ever since I purchased my new laptop (Asus N53SN), I have been using Windows 7, while on my previous machine (Asus K50IJ) I was using various distributions of Linux, such as CrunchBang, Ubuntu, and Mint.  Unfortunately, I have had issues with Linux on my new laptop due to Nvidia Optimus technology among other things, so I have been waiting for the final release of Ubuntu 11.10, although I may opt for something other than the Unity interface, I am planning on giving it another try, with Ironhide to manage my video card situation.  I will be posting a review on Ubuntu 11.10 (codenamed Oneric Ocelot) when that comes out on October 13th.

When I must use Windows, I prefer installing free and open-source applications to get the job done and some of the best software that I have discovered to-date have been through my experiences with Linux.  I've always used Microsoft Outlook in Windows (the version that comes with Office, not the Express version), and have found it to be quite annoying, awkward, and cumbersome. 

Recently, Firefox dethroned Chrome as my default browser so I thought to myself, if I like this Mozilla Firefox so much, why not try their email client, Mozilla Thunderbird.  Last time I tried it around version 3.0, it was alright, but still gave me issues, but they have made great strides, so why not give it a shot.

It was way better than I expected.  Even my Gmail Business Account, and my Google Apps account were setup automatically.  Just type in your email address/password, and let Thunderbird do the rest.  It opens fast, gives you perfect control over appearance and features, and best of all it's free!!!

There is no question why Canonical (creators of Ubuntu) has dropped the old Evolution client for the new Thunderbird, and there is no reason why anyone on Windows need waste their time with anything else.  Get all your email in one place, quick and clean.

Download Thunderbird here.

P.S. Since I like my interfaces in dark colors, I recommend the Bloomind TT DeepDark theme, which can easily be added through the built-in add-on interface for both Firefox and Thunderbird!

2011 Annual Roguelike Release Party

The 2011 Annual Roguelike Release Party was yesterday over at RogueBasin (an all-encompassing Roguelike wiki).  A ton of new roguelikes have been released.  Definitely check them out, and tell us what you think in the comments section of this post.

Python 3 Wall of Shame

This is something I came upon today and think is a spectacular idea in a simple format.  The Python 3 Wall of Shame explains itself rather clearly:

Python 3.0 was released December 3, 2008.
As listed on PyPI - packages in red don't support python 3, packages in green do. Hopefully one day everything will be greener.

 They have a point, don't they? The site contains a long list of libraries (200 to be exact) for Python.  Green (36)  supports Python 3 (in most cases, meaning has a Python 3 version), and the Red (164) do not.  As you can see, there is still a sea of red.  And it is kept up to date:

Status: 36/200 Updated: 2011-09-13 18:49:59.407284

I believe the problem is that most of the maintainers of these libraries simply do not see any benefit to spending any time creating a Python 3 version of their library.  They do not believe that there is enough demand to warrant the effort.  Perhaps by sending emails to maintainers and websites of our favorite libraries requesting Python 3 support, and by doing so in large enough numbers, may we be able to demonstrate the demand, and, hopefully, the rest will follow through.

Roguelike Radio: Episode 3

The creators of the great podcast Roguelike Radio have released episode 3 featuring the roguelike Brogue.  Check it out here.

Topics covered this week:
-The beautiful ASCII style in Brogue.
-The different items in the game, and how they interact together in interesting ways.
-The monsters and how they are unique.

 Next week they will be covering DoomRL. :)

Dungeons of Dredmor Roadmap

Dungeons of Dredmor creators, Gaslamp Games, have posted a roadmap regarding the future of Dredmor.  And the future looks good :)

Here’s a transcription of what Nick posted on the forums earlier today (just to get people to maybe check out our shiny new toy),we’ll endeavor to keep the blog the de-facto “news”source.

I’ve been directed to post some interesting stuff on the forums about what we’re doing next,in order to get as many new people using them as we can. So that said,here’s the plan going forwards,courtesy of today’s company meeting. (Which did,in fact,involve swords.)

- 1.0.6: Linux support and a handful of the more interesting things that need to be fixed. I’d like to get this to the beta testers by Monday. I’d like to do it earlier,but the first part of the week is consumed by rubbish Real Life Stuff. So we’ll see what happens.

- 1.0.7: More fixes,and the introduction of a Super Secret Thing that we’ve…well,I may have talked about it before,and I wanted it to get in for the original game,but I didn’t. So I think we’ll put it in for 1.0.7. Again,I’d like a turnaround of about a week,a week and a half.

- 1.0.8: If necessary,more fixes. This patch may not exist,depending on where we set our cutoffs for 1.0.6 and 1.0.7. Hopefully,we get the female character in by this point.

- 1.1.0: Mod support,including bumping all the strings out of the EXE and into an XML file for the usage of various translation teams. (We have a *really* cool translation announcement coming up later this week,by the way.)
and then various support patches for 1.1.0 moving forward.

There is also the little matter of an expansion pack. Gaslamp as a company –and myself,personally –are universally opposed to charging you for things that should be in the core game. We’re committed to fixing every single one of the one hundred and forty-nine issues in the bugtracker for Dredmor,and we will keep adding more Stuff to the core game every time we send out a patch,so that you always get a little something extra.

We don’t want to try to sell you 99 cent horse armour,either. That’s just…lame.
That said,people have actually *asked* us for an expansion pack,so we have to make one. We think we have a concept for an expansion pack that does justify being spun off to a paid expansion,as opposed to being Horse Armour or Eyebrow Wigs or whatever,and we will be moving on this front as soon as we are happy with the state of the core game. (That is to say,Not Yet. Not For A Long Time Yet.) In typical Gaslamp fashion,said expansion pack will probably be about the price of a package of potato chips. Crawl players will like it. It also won’t be anything you couldn’t put in yourself with the mod support,so in effect we will be putting up an Officially Sanctioned Mod and inviting you to buy it from us. I think this is a reasonable policy. I have no idea when this will be done,either. If I had to pull an estimate out of my posterior,I would guess six months or so. It’ll mainly be frontloading on the art side and less on the code side,and will be something that the company will collectively move on after 1.1.0.

There should also be an announcement about Merch in a few weeks. Buy Merch. BUY MERCH.

So that’s the roadmap going forwards. Questions? Comments? Let us know! That’s what we’re here for.

Pygcurse library released!

Pygcurse has been released   It works with either Python 2 or 3, and requires Pygame to be installed.

Pygcurse (pronounced "pig curse") is a curses library emulator that runs on top of the Pygame framework. It provides an easy way to create text adventures, roguelikes, and console-style applications. The mascot of Pygcurse is a blue pig with a skull tattoo on its butt.

This one works on Windows.  And in case you are someone who needs other Python libraries for Windows (32 or 64bit), and need them for Python 2.x or 3.x, here is a amazing list with links for all the relevant libraries and it is kept very up to date.

Tango theme for Python IDLE

If you're like me, you like dark themes for your desktop applications.  I make my XChat IRC client dark, Firefox, etc, etc.  And one thing I always like to do is get away from the standard white theme of my IDEs, whether I am using Wing IDE (which I love, by the way), IDLE, or even Notepad++.

Customizing Wing IDE was easy enough.  All I had to do was go in the settings, change the background color, and it took care of the rest.  Customize a few colors to my liking and...

And so was Notepad++...

But to change IDLE was a little more work.  It doesn't really offer any custom themes built-in, and you can struggle with trying to balance the colors individually on your own if you want, OR, you can just do the following:

Go to your ".idlerc" folder, wherever it may be depending on your system, and paste the following into your "config-highlight.cfg" file (create it if you don't have one):

[tango]
definition-foreground = #fce94f
error-foreground = #fa8072
string-background = #2e3436
keyword-foreground = #8cc4ff
normal-foreground = #ffffff
comment-background = #2e3436
hit-foreground = #ffffff
break-foreground = #000000
builtin-background = #2e3436
stdout-foreground = #eeeeec
cursor-foreground = #fce94f
hit-background = #2e3436
comment-foreground = #73d216
hilite-background = #edd400
definition-background = #2e3436
stderr-background = #2e3436
break-background = #2e3436
console-foreground = #87ceeb
normal-background = #2e3436
builtin-foreground = #ad7fa8
stdout-background = #2e3436
console-background = #2e3436
stderr-foreground = #ff3e40
keyword-background = #2e3436
string-foreground = #e9b96e
hilite-foreground = #2e3436
error-background = #2e3436

Then launch Python IDLE, and choose your new Tango custom theme in the settings.

Happy coding!

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a website I have been using lately which is a completely free online school.  Right now most of the videos and exercises are math focused, but there is computer science, history, biology, and more to come.

"The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.
All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge."

The computer science videos feature Python, and all the content is really top-notch, so this is highly recommended   All you need to sign up is your Google Open ID (or Facebook).  Your stats are all available to you and private from everyone else.  And you can work at whatever pace you wish.  Don't miss this opportunity to learn something new, or improve your skills...all for the extremely great price of FREE.

Roguelike Radio: Episode 2

Episode 2 of Roguelike Radio podcast is out.  This one featuring Desktop Dungeons, a game which I have purchased and enjoy.  The beta is played in a browser, but I am looking forward to getting the download, and hoping it comes to Steam.

I would suggest a great program I use called gPodder.  It works great on Windows, Linux, etc...  It is lightweight (no bloat), super fast, and lets automatically downloads the latest episodes of your favorite podcasts.  Check it out!

On another note, I've been enjoying the latest release of Dungeons of Dredmor immensely.  Patch 1.05 made a huge difference and I haven't had this much fun in a game...since...well...Leisure Suit Larry (the old, real ones by Al Lowe).  If you haven't purchased Dungeons of Dredmor off of Steam already for the measly $5 asking price, get on it.

Dungeons of Dredmor 1.05 released!

Yes, 1..05!  It was supposed to be 1.04, but due to some save game issues, the boys over at Gaslamp Games have released the new Dungeons of Dredmor patch through the Steam gaming network.  Launch your Steam client for the automatic update.

This is a major patch that really brings about a ton of changes.  So much so, that the Steam leaderboards are getting a reset along with the patch release.  Congratulations to Gaslamp Games on a job well done!

Patch log at the link,

Python 3.2.2 released!

Python 3.2.2 has been released!  It includes a couple small, but important bugfixes from version 3.2.1 detailed in the first Radio Free Python podcast (the main fix being the following: Issue 12576).  Highlights from version 3.2 over 3.1 are:

• numerous improvements to the unittest module
• PEP 3147, support for .pyc repository directories
• PEP 3149, support for version tagged dynamic libraries
• PEP 3148, a new futures library for concurrent programming
• PEP 384, a stable ABI for extension modules
• PEP 391, dictionary-based logging configuration
• an overhauled GIL implementation that reduces contention
• an extended email package that handles bytes messages
• a much improved ssl module with support for SSL contexts and certificate hostname matching
• a sysconfig module to access configuration information
• additions to the shutil module, among them archive file support
• many enhancements to configparser, among them mapping protocol support
• improvements to pdb, the Python debugger
• countless fixes regarding bytes/string issues; among them full support for a bytes environment (filenames, environment variables)
• many consistency and behavior fixes for numeric operations

Head on over to Python's official website to get it!

Dungeon Crawl 0.9.1 Released

This one is a bugfix release:

• Fix missing portals to Zot on D:27 with restart_after_game after Sprint.
• Fix most large special maps not being generated.
• Fix mad amounts of divine gifts in certain cases.
• Don’t duplicate monsters when exiting the Abyss.
• Fix a lock-up on selecting a random character.
• A number of crash fixes.
• Some documentation amendments.
• Don’t stop butchering on unimportant messages.
• Add a command “show runes” (‘}’) that was documented but not implemented.

 Updates for all systems have been released.  Head over to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and have fun!

I am Dave! Yognaut

(pronounced: "i am dave exclamation mark yognaut")

Yes. I am.  In addition to the earlier podcasts that I featured here on the site. (Radio Free Python and Roguelike Radio), there is another podcast that I am quite fond of.  It's more than a podcast, really, it's a whole universe...or...Yogiverse!

This is a podcast I discovered a while back while watching YouTube videos featuring Minecraft. I happened upon a series called "Shadow of Israphel" on the channel BlueXephos (Yogscast).  The videos are hosted by Lewis and Simon, two Brits who are absolutely brilliant and hilarious.  Even if you don't like Minecraft, you will enjoy their videos sheerly for the comedy.

In addition to all that is, of course, their podcast: The YoGPoD!  I never miss an episode of their podcast, or their YouTube videos, and I think once you check them out, you won't either.  And you will probably run around telling people, "I am Dave! Yognaut."

Wing IDE

I've been using Visual Studio 2010 for a long time at work, and although I am normally not a fan of proprietary software, you really cannot compete with Visual Studio 2010 (although we should try).  I use it for .NET programming, including web (C#, HTML, CSS and Javascript).  It's works well.  I don't use the designer, ever.  I actually find it awfully unreliable, So besides that, it's all good.

When it comes to Python, I've been trying numerous different IDEs, from simple, but powerful, editors like Notepad++, to more powerful solutions like Geany and Eclipse with Pydev,  They are all more than adequate, but always left me wanting more.  Maybe I want too much, but I was never satisfied.

During my many "best python ide" Google searches, I stumbled upon Wingware's Python IDE, 'Wing IDE' consistently, but being someone who hates to pay for something I can use for free, I ignored it.  Over and over again, I ignored it.  About a month ago, I broke down, and finally decided to give it a try.  It comes with a 30 day free trial (broken down into 3 separate 10 day trials), which allows you try everything unrestricted.

I was amazed.  I cannot praise it enough.  Every feature you could ever want, and many you would never even think of, for a Python IDE is here.  For example, in the bottom right hand corner, you get a Source Assistant, which gives real-time information about whatever your cursor is on, including descriptions of functions, methods, etc...even giving you the syntax and usage information.

It has auto-completion context menu, which works just like Microsoft's Intellisense.  You begin typing anything, and it will show you all your options.  Press "." and you will see all the methods of that function listed for you, and you will see what they do in the Source Assistant.

I definitely suggest all Python programmers, or "Pythonistas", to give Wingware a try.  There is a free version that is more limited, as well as numerous licensing options.  I'm nearing the end of my free trial, and I have decided to give the full version a purchase.  It's definitely worth and makes Python even more of a joy to program with. Enjoy!

Doom, the Roguelike

A new version, 0.9.9.4, of the DoomRL has been released.  To be honest, I never really tried this game out, and I feel bad about that.  So with this new release, I will be giving this version a go and posting my thoughts.  I have read lots of great reviews about this game and heard good things from people in IRC.  I recommend everyone to try this out and post your own thoughts in the comments section as well.