I have always liked to muck around a bit in the door games, but I find that I am just not that good at most of them. I enjoy Tradewars, etc. but never seem to be able to get anywhere. The only way I can manage to build anything up is if there are no other human players and even then anything built in to the games takes me out. Any suggestions on games to try? What is your favorite door game?

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: CIA AMIGA BBS - ciaamigabbs.dynu.net:6400 (1:19/38.0)

Re: Best Beginner Door Game(s)
By: Ray Sbaitso to All on Sat Jul 17 2021 02:27 pm

I like Usurper best of all. It remains my favorite door game to this day, because the depth of the game was incredible for its time, offering more for the player to do than just use up the day's turns fighting monsters. Steel beer, get into bar fights, become king, or even a god. Some see it as a LORD clone (not to say that's a bad thing; I love LORD), but it's so much more.
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
* Origin: -=[conchaos.synchro.net|ConstructiveChaos BBS]=- (1:226/18)

I have always liked to muck around a bit in the door games, but I find that I am just not that good at most of them. I enjoy Tradewars, etc.
but never seem to be able to get anywhere. The only way I can manage
to build anything up is if there are no other human players and even
then anything built in to the games takes me out. Any suggestions on games to try? What is your favorite door game?

There was a version of Trade Wars Services that worked with versions 2
and 3...but I lost version 3 in a system crash years ago. I still have
version 2 of it, and while it can run with or without a fossil driver,
version 2 of Trade Wars doesn't have a fossil driver with it. So, you have
to run it under Synchronet with its DOSXTRN utility, and redirect the
comport to "Console".

Version 3 of Trade Wars Services worked with version 3.02 of Trade
Wars, but you saw where Ferrengal and all the other planets were. Yet,
the only way you saw them with version 2 is if you stumbled on them,
or they were your planets.

The thing with Trade Wars Services, you could get extra credits to
build up and manage your empire better. If someone has a version of
Trade Wars Services that'd work with version 3, I'd be interested. The registration key from version 2 works with version 3.

Daryl

... Tagline loading...please wait.
=== MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (1:19/33)

Re: Best Beginner Door Game(s
By: Daryl Stout to Ray Sbaitso on Sun Jul 18 2021 06:15 pm

There was a version of Trade Wars Services that worked with versions 2
and 3...but I lost version 3 in a system crash years ago. I still have version 2 of it, and while it can run with or without a fossil driver, version 2 of Trade Wars doesn't have a fossil driver with it.

Trade Wars, or any other door for that matter, should never "have a fossil driver with it"; the system/sysop must provide a compatible FOSSIL driver. I'm not clear what you're trying to convey here.
--
digital man

Breaking Bad quote #32:
Don't think so hard it's gonna hurt your brain! - Hank
Norco, CA WX: 71.6°F, 51.0% humidity, 0 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Rob,

Trade Wars, or any other door for that matter, should never "have a
fossil driver with it"; the system/sysop must provide a compatible
FOSSIL driver. I'm not clear what you're trying to convey here. --

The way I understand it, if you don't have a fossil driver with it,
it can't be run under telnet, unless:

1) You're running Synchronet with the DOSXTRN utility.
2) You use the Doorway program and a generic dropfile for the door.

Since I'm running Synchronet, I can run fossil or non-fossil doors,
setting them up like a regular door. When I ran Virtual Advanced, I
had to set up a generic dropfile and use the Doorway program, with
DOOR.SYS as the dropfile, if the door didn't support DORINFO1.DEF --
the late Tim Cornett developed a VScript that'd convert the comport
to com0, and combined with Doorway, you could run it under Virtual
Advanced (VADV32).

Daryl

... I'm Ohm of Borg. Resistance is relevant.
=== MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (1:19/33)

Just out of curiosity, is there a way to get Z80 emulated stuff to run as
a door under Sychronet? I have a copy of Zork that runs under my URONode
Packet Radio node but I can't think of how Synchronet could handle this.
Any idea?

... Free speech costs more
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
* Origin: SBBS - Carnage! Hartford, Ct (1:142/103)

Re: Best Beginner Door Game(s
By: Daryl Stout to Rob Swindell on Tue Jul 20 2021 07:19 am

Rob,

Trade Wars, or any other door for that matter, should never "have a fossil driver with it"; the system/sysop must provide a compatible FOSSIL driver. I'm not clear what you're trying to convey here. --

The way I understand it, if you don't have a fossil driver with it,
it can't be run under telnet

Door games don't come with FOSSIL drivers. A door game can *use* a FOSSIL driver, but it would never come with one.

, unless:

1) You're running Synchronet with the DOSXTRN utility.

DOSXTRN.EXE *is* a FOSSIL driver (for Win32). It's also a virtual UART driver.

2) You use the Doorway program and a generic dropfile for the door.

There are several ways in which a door game can send output to and accept input from a user (without relying on "the Doorway program") - FOSSIL is just one of them.

Since I'm running Synchronet, I can run fossil or non-fossil doors, setting them up like a regular door.

Correct, because Synchronet for Windows (not Linux) supports a virtual UART (COM port) within its virtual UART/FOSSIL driver (DOSXTRN.EXE). Since you're running Synchronet, you can also run TCP/socket doors, stdio doors, and DOS console (int21h/29h) doors. For details, see https://wiki.synchro.net/howto:door:index

When I ran Virtual Advanced, I
had to set up a generic dropfile and use the Doorway program, with
DOOR.SYS as the dropfile, if the door didn't support DORINFO1.DEF --
the late Tim Cornett developed a VScript that'd convert the comport
to com0, and combined with Doorway, you could run it under Virtual
Advanced (VADV32).

Okay. <shrug>
--
digital man

Breaking Bad quote #7:
Does the Pope shit in his hat? - Hank
Norco, CA WX: 81.3°F, 39.0% humidity, 7 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Re: Z80 emulated games
By: Brian Rogers to Rob Swindell on Tue Jul 20 2021 07:12 pm

Just out of curiosity, is there a way to get Z80 emulated stuff to run as
a door under Sychronet? I have a copy of Zork that runs under my URONode Packet Radio node but I can't think of how Synchronet could handle this.
Any idea?

The Zork games are not actually Z80 programs, but rather ZMachine binaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-machine

They can be run in native Z-Machine environments for modern OSes and interface (yes) with Synchronet users.
--
digital man

Sling Blade quote #19:
Doyle: I can't so much as drink a damn glass of water around a midget
Norco, CA WX: 81.3°F, 39.0% humidity, 7 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Thanks for the tip, I will have to give that one a try. Speaking of which, I can't remember if I have ever tried LORD. If I did it was a long time ago. Might be time to give that one a try as well.


On Sunday July 18, 2021, Craig Hendricks said to Ray Sbaitso...

I like Usurper best of all. It remains my favorite door game to this
day, because the depth of the game was incredible for its time,
offering more for the player to do than just use up the day's turns fighting monsters. Steel beer, get into bar fights, become king, or
even a god. Some see it as a LORD clone (not to say that's a bad thing;
I love LORD), but it's so much more.

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: CIA AMIGA BBS - ciaamigabbs.dynu.net:6400 (1:19/38.0)

Thanks for the tip, I will have to give that one a try. Speaking of which can't remember if I have ever tried LORD. If I did it was a long time ago Might be time to give that one a try as well.

If you're looking to try out some ... I have over 400 LOCAL doors online.

... Go climb a gravity well.
--- Renegade v1.25/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (1:129/305)

I like Usurper best of all. It remains my favorite door game to this day,

I'm with you! Usurper is the best door game. LORD is probably my 2nd favorite but I only play Usurper these days.
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: CompuBBS | Ashburn VA | cfbbs.scinet-ftn.org (1:275/99)

400?!? It amazes me the number of doors that were created and how many some of the boards have. I've got your info marked down at home to get a chance to stop by. How did you manage to find so many of them? Were you running them all originally or have you found them in the passing years?


On Saturday July 24, 2021, T.j. McMillen said to Ray Sbaitso...

Thanks for the tip, I will have to give that one a try. Speaking of
which can't remember if I have ever tried LORD. If I did it was a
long time ago Might be time to give that one a try as well.

If you're looking to try out some ... I have over 400 LOCAL doors
online.

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: CIA AMIGA BBS - ciaamigabbs.dynu.net:6400 (1:19/38.0)

400?!? It amazes me the number of doors that were created and how many so of the boards have. I've got your info marked down at home to get a chanc stop by. How did you manage to find so many of them? Were you running th all originally or have you found them in the passing years?

I usually only had about 40 or so then around 2002 I said what the hell and added some more. Then around 2010 I added a BUNCH more. ;) Then I put them in alpabetical order. <G>

stop by. How did you manage to find so many of them? Were you running th all originally or have you found them in the passing years?

Danger Bay has a bunch more than I. I grabbed a bunch of them from his board over the years. Now I have 135 shareware CDs online I have tons of files to search for doors in. ;)

... Save toilet paper. Use the other side.
--- Renegade v1.25/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (1:129/305)

Re: Re: Best Beginner Door Game(s)
By: Ray Sbaitso to T.J. Mcmillen on Sun Jul 25 2021 02:27 pm

How did you manage to find so many of them?

You can find several that are now freeware on archives.thebbs.org. If you don't mind running unregistered shareware doors, then there are tons more on the same site.

Sunrisedoors.com has roughly 60 doors available for free (donation optional).

And I found a some others just by browsing the file areas on other sysops' file areas.

Happy hunting!

I'm up to about 230 doors myself (not counting duplicates and non-games), and personally I think that's a lot.
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
* Origin: -=[conchaos.synchro.net|ConstructiveChaos BBS]=- (1:226/18)