Having some trouble with your copy of Dragon Quest V? Having trouble landing a certain boat, in particular? That might be because you’re a dirty, dirty pirate and Square-Enix knows it. They programmed a glitch into the game wherein a cutscene will never end if you’re using a pirated version of the game — though […]

Having some trouble with your copy of Dragon Quest V? Having trouble landing a certain boat, in particular? That might be because you’re a dirty, dirty pirate and Square-Enix knows it. They programmed a glitch into the game wherein a cutscene will never end if you’re using a pirated version of the game — though they don’t state how they know it’s pirated. Of course, workarounds and patches are already finding their way to the net so in the end it has only been partially successful.

To be honest, this seems like pretty good copy protection. It doesn’t affect users who bought the game, and it’s not malicious or limiting in any way. It probably also prevents the game from being sold at the street markets of the world as well. Although copy protection is, in the end, nearly certain to be cracked, a minor obstacle like this would probably convince most casual pirates to either give up or cough up.

Via [crunchgear]

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Yes, it’s a slow enough news day that I’m relying on my own strange hobbies to produce posts. I’ve always admired ASCII graphics, mainly due to my predilection towards retro gaming and massive pixels in general. Just as a game like Portal twists your ideas of space and makes you think differently, games with sufficiently […]

Yes, it’s a slow enough news day that I’m relying on my own strange hobbies to produce posts. I’ve always admired ASCII graphics, mainly due to my predilection towards retro gaming and large pixels in general. Just as a game like Portal twists your ideas of space and makes you think differently, games with sufficiently poor graphics stretch your imagination and make you adopt a new visual headspace entirely.

In fact, many games these days in the independent scene deliberately minimize the graphic component while creating gameplay far greater than more visually impressive offerings. I always keep a few around, and here I’ve collected a couple to keep you busy over the weekend.

Warning! Some of these games will resize your screen, causing your icons to move around.

Shoot’Em

For those of you looking for a swift fix, ShootEm is a great shooter game. You’re a turret defending yourself against falling asteroids. It’s really a layer of ASCII over a basic 3D engine, but it’s really fun. Save the bombs for when you really need them, and watch your ammo.

Rect Winder ASCII

A slightly more cerebral shooter can be found in Rect Winder ASCII. Set up barriers to block incoming shots. Resizes your screen for sure. Download link is kinda in the middle of the page.

Privateer: ASCII Sector

Want to stay in space but craving a little deeper action? Fans of Privateer and games like Freelancer or Escape Velocity should check out Privateer: ASCII Sector. One of those insanely deep games with no graphics to speak of. Actually, considering what they set out to do, I think they’ve done quite a good job in depicting space, battles, and planets using only the ASCII character set.

DoomRL

If you’ve already beaten Doom enough times that you don’t care to try again, maybe you should try it in DoomRL, the insane ASCII version set up as a “Roguelike,” after the original ASCII-based adventure/dungeon crawl game and its brethren. While it doesn’t have the atmosphere of the original (which can still scare), it does appear to have the same labyrinthine map structure.

Dwarf Fortress

Lastly, if you’re really looking to throw your life away, it might be time for you to investigate the dauntingly complex and eye-boggling Dwarf Fortress. I completely can’t stress how complicated and addictive this game is. First, it builds an entire planet for you procedurally, building mountains, running rivers from lakes and so on. It adds civilizations which clash, war, leave ruins, and control territories. You then pick a tiny plot of land to build your fortress on and you’re sent there with a few dwarves and a wagon to build a mighty fortress. You have to tunnel into the living rock (of which there are dozens of kinds), harvest food, build rooms and furniture — pretty much each single aspect of life is accounted for in this beast of a sim, and it is presented in the most user-unfriendly interface I’ve ever seen. So why do I suggest it? I really don’t know, just try it and find out.

Via [crunchgear]

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