Angband News - May 1998

News - May 1998

For current news look at the News Page.

May, 28th 1998

Music section with Angband soundtracks added.
KAmband 1.1 for DOS: Jonathan Santaana has compiled it, so I don't have to bother about compiling the new version myself.
Angband Across America banner added to my site. I'll try to create a more fitting Angband Across the World banner to replace it (if I have some time to spare).

May, 27th 1998

Angband/64 beta-2.0 release 6 by Jurriaan Kalkman is available. Take a look at my Angband64 page to see a list of new features/bugfixes.
KAmband 1.1 by Ivan Tkatchev's is out. I'll try to compile the DOS version in the next days.
Angband Music: I'm currently compiling a list of "fitting" music to play while exploring the dungeons of Angband. The current list shows MY favorite Angband soundtracks and includes "Enya", "Blind Guardian", "Ludwig van Beethoven", and "Carl Orff". If you want to add to it then send me an e-mail and I'll probably include your suggestions.

May, 23rd 1998

ZAngband 2.1.0d is available!
The source code and the MS-DOS version (386 or better) include the following changes:
- Silas Dunsmore's cumulative light radius patch added. Any object in your equipment that has the 'glow' flag will extend your lit-area radius by 1, up to a maximum of 5. The normal light-source objects still work the same, but glowing artifacts and helms of light are actually useful.
- Added a bookstore to the town to free up space in the magic shop.
- Fixed problems with the Summon Demon (Chaos), Raise Death (Death), Phantasmal Servant (Trump), Mindwave, and Adrenaline (Mindcraft) spells on systems without mathematical coprocessor.
- Chaos Warriors no longer hurt (or killed) by the "strain of casting (Mass) Genocide" when the chaos patron casts the Genocide spell ("Let me relieve thee of thine oppressors!").
- Fixed a bug with the sound-effects, the correct effects will be played now.
- Added new sound-events for buying and selling in stores.
- Added support for Adam Bolt's new tile-graphics, transparency- and lighting-effects, MOD-, and S3M-files to the DOS version. Adam Bolt's tiles for ZAngband are not yet finished, most of the ZAngband specific monsters are displayed with other tiles or with ASCII-characters. The special DOS options can be accessed by pressing ! while playing.

May, 20th 1998

Thangorodrim is moving!
The new location is thangorodrim.angband.org and my new e-mail address is rr9@thangorodrim.net. It is sponsored by http://www.angband.org/, a Linux server at Georgia Tech run by some Tolkien fans. The new server is fast, gives me enough disc-space for the site and the files and has very good admins. A big Thank you! to all of them, especially to Jeff Krug.
Please update your bookmarks, addressbooks and all links to my page, because the old page on http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~rr9/ will shut down in the near future.
I'm taking over ZAngband from Topi Ylinen till a new maintainer is found!
I think parts of my last e-mail talk with Topi Ylinen about the future of ZAngband may be of interest for all players, so I'll quote it here:
Robert: I'm volunteering for co-maintaining ZAngband, because I already have a fairly deep knowledge of the ZAngband source code and want to support it, but I simply don't have the spare-time needed for maintaining it alone. If we can find someone to maintain it (I'm sure there are many Angband programmers with enough time, knowledge and enthusiasm) then I would be happy to help him (or her) with any problems arising.
Topi: That would be excellent! You could post in the newsgroup (or put an announcement on your WWW page), saying that you have my recommendation for this (if that matters).
Robert: Is it really so complicated to get Internet access in Finland?
Topi: Actually not, in fact I expect that I will get an access at my work. But I just cannot count on it yet -- the main difficulty is that if I do not get a work connection, I will have no connection at all: I cannot have a home connection because I only have a portable phone (no solid phone connection).
But I assume that the lack of spare time will be the biggest problem for me. In any case -- it would be excellent to see that Zangband did not die when I went away; if somebody else started developing it I would probably download the new versions and play them every night. :-)
Robert: Thank you very much for the BEST Angband variant !!!
Topi: Thank you! It has been very nice co-operating with you...
I'll take over maintenance of ZAngband, till I can find someone as full-time developer. This means I'll try to fix all remaining bugs and slowly enhance it's features. The next big update will include Adam Bolt's new tile-graphics and will be available as soon as he finishes the tiles for the ZAngband monsters and objects. The DOS version is ready (only waiting for the tiles) and I'm currently working on the Windows version. Porting to other systems should be easy, I've already made the necessary changes in the ZAngband-source.
I hope I can keep contact with Topi, if not be e-mail then by snail-mail.
If YOU want to be the new ZAngband developer, or want to compile it for another system, then send me an e-mail!
[Z] Spoilers: I've added a link to Matt Graham's ZAngband spoilers page. The page currently has descriptions of player spell effects and tables listing min level/mana cost/fail rate for each class/realm combo in 2.1.0.

May, 17th 1998

Plans: I've added a page with my current work and future plans. Ideas, questions and comments are welcome, just write me what you think.
ZAngband 2.1.0c: Topi Ylinen finished work on ZAngband 2.1.0c. This will probably be the last version for some time, he's moving and starting a new job. He's currently searching for a new ZAngband maintainer. I'm volunteering for co-maintaining ZAngband, because I already have a fairly deep knowledge of the ZAngband source code and want to support it.
Screenfilling display under DOS: Many people asked me for an Angband version without the extra windows, that's why I've created a new configuration file without the terminal windows. Just replace the old file in your Angband directory with the new one. All graphic modes should now be "screenfilling". Too bad that there are no fonts in this size, so the texts are smaller than the tiles and have a much bigger space between the lines, but it's useable.
Please keep in mind that the tiles are still resized in the smaller resolutions, so don't expect really "good looking" tiles on a 14" screen.

May, 16th 1998

RAngband 1.04b is available. The new version fixes some bugs and adds new features like conical breath-attacks.

May, 10th 1998

KAmband 1.0 is available. I've compiled a DOS version with graphics, terminals, sound, music, and Adam Bolt's new Angband tiles. The new version includes most of the nice features from my DOS-Angband 2.8.3 like a menu for changing sound/music volume, switch graphics and sounds on/off and select the screenmode. You can reach the menu with the "!" key. The only missing features are transparent tiles, lighting effects and the new graphics for the spell-effects.
The Unofficial Angband Page is online again and now maintained by Tom Stirling. Another new page is Bablos Angband Variants Page focussed on the Amiga versions and the variants.
New screenshot: I've added a new picture of Angband 2.8.3 with the new graphics to my screenshot page. It's 800x600 pixels in size and may take some time to load.