The First Three Discworld Games | Hacker News Reader

The First Three Discworld Games

filfre.net

113 pointsrcarmo31 comments

I remember this game. Or at least, I remember the start of it, but not how it ends. I was (and still am) a massive Discworld fan, and it's hard to believe I didn't finish this game. At least it was until this article reminded me how unplayable it was.

Still it was gorgeous, with beautiful details. I remember that when you left the keyboard for too long, Rincewind would start calling out for you, which was a bit creepy first time that happened; as if he'd actually come alive and was really annoyed and irritated by my absence.

I still hold that the peak of the Discworld games was Discworld Noir.

I think you mean Discworld MUD, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary: http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/ . It's delightfully written and a joy to explore, as long as you don't mind getting lost in the twisting alleys of Ankh-Morpork (you'll want to consult this incredible map: https://dw.daftjunk.com/Ankh-Morpork.png ), or the thousands of square miles of sprawling Uberwaldean countryside (in this map, every pixel is one room: https://dw.daftjunk.com/Ramtops_Uberwald.png ), or any of the myriad towns and regions in between (implemented parts of the Disc shown in color: https://dw.daftjunk.com/Discworld.png ).

Even as a Discworld fan, with a good working knowledge of the Disc, AND as a MUD player, I still found the Discworld MUD impenetrable.

Also, and I know I'm being pedantic but I can't help it; the cardinal directions are wrong.

On the Disc, the Ankh runs Hub to Rim and the approved map projection[1] of the Disc position Ankh-Morpork in what we would call the 'South', and on the approved map of just Ankh-Morpork[2], it shows the Ankh running 'North-South', but in the game the Ankh incorrectly runs 'east to west'[3].

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[1] https://i.imgur.com/OKHwm.jpeg

[2] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/73/35/1e733507191968e58398...

[3] https://dwwiki.mooo.com/w/images/9/9c/Am.png

> and on the approved map

To be fair, this game came out in 1992, decades before Pratchett could be coerced into the idea of providing a canonical map of the disc. :P

"You can't map a sense of humor. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs."

I never played any MUDs, having started on computer in the Commander Keen era. I recently tried to get into them through Discworld, but couldn't even get basic stuff like opening cupboards going. As an experienced MUD user, is there a more beginner friendly MUD you could suggest that I try out?

Batmud (bat.org), Aardwolf (aardmud.org) or Carrion Fields (carrionfields.net). Run away from sindome.org, immortals specialize in torturing players in unimaginable ways.

batmud looks great! and they have their own client on Steam which just saves me a lot of startup friction

Wow that looks massive. Is there any sort of fast-travel? How's the density, will you ever encounter other players if you're running around the countryside?

There's lots of ways to get around, though some are limited to certain guilds (classes), e.g. only witches can use broomsticks (with the risk of getting lost if your navigation skills aren't up to snuff), and only priests that specifically worship Hat can cast the spell that teleports you to the location of a random other player on the server (including someone who, for example, might have just been thrown into the River Ankh for failing to pay their Thieves Guild dues). I recall the most reliable method of getting around is the carriage system, where you just need to find a stop for the appropriate carriage (e.g. look at the above map for Ankh-Morpork for the Intercontinental Express carriage (if you can't find it, look for the gray circle on the central island), which will take you to any of the major cities listed in the table at https://dwwiki.mooo.com/wiki/Travel#Carriages_and_Ferries ).

As for encountering other players, a quick look tells me that there's around 50 other players online (a far cry from its heyday, but still active for a MUD in this day and age). You're likely to encounter other players spontaneously in the guild houses, but almost certainly never if you're just wandering the wilds. But there's a general chat if you just want to chill out (or at least I think there is, I haven't actually played in over a decade :P ).

> and only priests that specifically worship Hat can cast the spell that teleports you to the location of a random other player on the server

Actually anyone except for witches and wizards can use that ritual with a faith rod, as well as regular passaging (Divine Hand). And to add a few more methods:

- The JPCT wizard spell (magic portals) is another common method of travel, available to anyone via scrolls (but more easily for wizards, who can remember it).

- There's arcane transport for faster (though more expensive) travel, compared to carriages, especially between continents.

- Some use L-space for travel, or follow Khepresh (an NPC Hat priest who visits random players).

- The taxi system, with players moving other players around (for a small payment, free for newbies). 5 taxis online at the time of writing.

- "Speedwalking" (client-side routing) is commonly used as well.

The t-shop is exceptionally quick at taking you somewhere random, which I amusingly discovered several hours into my first character. IIRC the player run rescue service managed to get me back to AM.

Ok, fair enough. I guess being right doesn't crop up nine times out of ten after all.

Apologies if I came across as aggressive, it's just rare that I find an appropriate context to shill one of the favorite games of my teenage years. :)

No problem :) I'd just forgotten about the MUD as I never got into it, but played Noir multiple times, and was even the first game I played together with my now-wife so I have fond memories.

I'll join you on noir being peak for the games. Am not as interested in the MUD but have fond memories of noir.

HOLY SHIT that’s a lot of rooms. A lot, a lot, a lot of rooms.

Reading the Wikipedia entry for that game (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_Noir) I’m rather tempted to find a copy of that game and give it a play through myself.

Thanks for the tip.

You can find the disc ISO on the Internet Archive.

Thanks, should've thought to look there.

I found a copy of Noir back in 2006 after reading about it on Home of the Underdogs, misplaced it during a move, and never completed the game. Until I came across the save data while exploring old hard drives during the pandemic, I'd completely forgotten about it.

How difficult is it to get up and running? Discworld 2 was a cinch - but then it runs on scummvm so of course it is (greatly entertaining game too). I've read that Noir really doesn't want to run on any modern machine.

You can try this post[0] and its follow-up[1] about getting it running on modern systems. It's basically wrapping DWN in a VM. The follow-up points to a patched EXE that is supposed to work on modern Windows. Good luck getting it working.

[0] https://www.payneful.co.uk/blogsplosion/2017/06/15/how-to-ge...

[1] https://www.payneful.co.uk/blogsplosion/2020/01/12/public-se...

Thanks! This is next weekend's project :).

Came across this recently, tons of retro stuff patched up. https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/2015/03/discworld-noi...

I got utterly stuck in Discworld Noir - Got as far as the docks, but couldn't get on the ship :( I guess I could look up a playthrough these days and have another go, but it's way down on my to-do list.

Great game though.

I got stuck several times, usually you just need to go and talk to every single person one more time and you'll find something you missed! I also found a good hint website which would give you options of increasingly explicit tips for each part of the game which you could click to uncover if you wanted more detail. Good for just getting a pointer to the the part of town you should be looking at.

https://www.uhs-hints.com

By any chance? Great for not getting the answer spoon fed, and being given more of a nudge in the right direction

That. Doesn't. Work.

Burned into my auditory memory.

If you need some reading material, the whole of that "history of home computing and computer games" series on filfre.net is absolutely worth reading.

I loved it but I recall the first CD adventure game being very buggy. I did finish it, but often certain things did not work properly, characters would disappear or jump around depending on what order I tried things, I think I may have done a sequence skip by mistake, and so on. It's been years though so maybe it wasn't as bad as I remember since this article didn't mention that at all.

I loved the books and those games :)

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