Any Melee/Wizard computer games?

[tbone]

There's a thread here on using playing TFT virtual systems. But I'm also wondering: Has there ever been an actual TFT computer game?

The system's simplicity would make it a good choice for a computer sim (especially back in the earlier days of PCs). In fact, I know of at least one adaptation: The one I programmed myself in BASIC at a tender age back in the 80s.

It was far from complete – just Melee combat, no Wizard stuff; I think no non-humans either. Player vs player (only two!), with no AI opponent. And the graphics were as crude as could be; the characters were blobs and the map used staggered squares ("the poor man's hexes").

But for all that, it was real, playable Melee. A full selection of weapons and armor, with relevant features intact. Initiative, engagement, defending, injury effects, all that. There were walls and other obstacles that blocked movement, and pits to steer around. (Forcing the foe into a pit was of course one way to win.)

Not a bit of the code remains today. All gone. : (

Anyway. Out of curiosity: Was there ever a commercial or shareware/freeware computer TFT game? Or did anyone else here roll a home-made program?

[Jim Kane]

Originally Posted by tbone

There's a thread here on using playing TFT virtual systems. But I'm also wondering: Has there ever been an actual TFT computer game?

The system's simplicity would make it a good choice for a computer sim (especially back in the earlier days of PCs). In fact, I know of at least one adaptation: The one I programmed myself in BASIC at a tender age back in the 80s.

It was far from complete – just Melee combat, no Wizard stuff; I think no non-humans either. Player vs player (only two!), with no AI opponent. And the graphics were as crude as could be; the characters were blobs and the map used staggered squares ("the poor man's hexes").

But for all that, it was real, playable Melee. A full selection of weapons and armor, with relevant features intact. Initiative, engagement, defending, injury effects, all that. There were walls and other obstacles that blocked movement, and pits to steer around. (Forcing the foe into a pit was of course one way to win.)

Not a bit of the code remains today. All gone. : (

Anyway. Out of curiosity: Was there ever a commercial or shareware/freeware computer TFT game? Or did anyone else here roll a home-made program?

Yes! LOL! But only "sideways". When the movie: 'WARGAMES' was out in '83, I was taking a class in BASIC, so I did a USA vs USSR simulation for a project, and I just "strip-cloned" MELEE with each country as: ST 12, DX 12 2D6 Nukes (Broadsword) No Movement, ect. just Hit or Miss, only a simple text display, with Y/N input, and a "Result Report" and "Status" as displayed text returned - that's it; as the purpose of the project was to write a short program and demonstration of use of the RND (randomization) command with a set integer length. 3-18 and 2-12 was perfect. I had to run it linear, as duping the bell-curve would have been way beyond me. It was fun and more funny than anything when the screen would display: "SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?" like in the movie. I never revealed the "Source" to my "Code". Heh, heh, heh.

MELEE literally begged to be programmed in BASIC.

Sad Metagaming didn't do it at the time. But also, it was so hard to get time in the computer room, and in-home it was the TRS-80 or the Commodore-64. I never saw an Apple in-person at that time.

[Chris Goodwin]

Why not...

100 M = 0
110 FOR N = 1 TO 3
120 M = M + INT(RND*6)+1
130 NEXT N
140 PRINT "You rolled ";M

[Steve Jackson]

Woo! Code I can actually read!

(thumps cane on floor and cackles in delight)

[red2]

I wrote an excel spreadsheet that simulates battle between two opponents, using most of the melee rules, as they stand there and take turns hacking at each other. Excel has a random number generator so you can simulate die rolls but a real code would do a much better job; it is kind of awkward to program in Excel.

It is a good way to see who has the better odds of winning. I like it because I can use it to make sure the games I set up don't kill off the players too fast, but you can learn a lot of neat things. For example, a DX 8 opponent (unarmored doing 3+1 damage) doesn't have a 50/50 chance against a ST=DX=12 opponent (small shield, 2 dice damage) until his strength is 28 (I think that is correct).

[Jim Kane]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

Why not...

"Why not"? Ignorance. We were not far enough along in the class to model a Bell-Curve; and therefore, I was limited to presenting a discrete uniform distribution model (aka: linear integer set).

[Jackal]

I miss my TRS-80 *sniff*

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Jackal

I miss my TRS-80 *sniff*

your phone can probably run an emulator faster than the original could run.

[D67]

I've been really enjoying the new computer version of Ogre and would pay good money for something similar for Melee/Wizard. Maybe with Death Test as a simple campaign?

[JLV]

Originally Posted by D67

I've been really enjoying the new computer version of Ogre and would pay good money for something similar for Melee/Wizard. Maybe with Death Test as a simple campaign?

Ooh! I want to second this request!