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[Genoraven]

There is no way anyone would be able to play this game back in that time =P

[Mohreb el Yasim]

Okay, another scenario then, where do you see dwarf fortress in 5, 10 or 20 years?

the question will be more where do you hide so DF won't see You?

[Neonivek]

I actually had tried to do a bit of calculations on modern versus old games

What I found was that modern games tend to overall be better as a product of the internet age preventing the "Terrible but profitable" game.

Though at the same time when I think about comparing "Great" games, older games seem to have this more often with a lot more dynamics here and there.

The reason why is simple. There was no "good game" template and so games had a lot of risks because you had to innovate. The genres were less defined as they are now.

Not that classic games didn't have tons and tons and tons of clones. Just look at Castlewolfenstien and the 10+ games that are exactly like it.

It is a lot like the Golden Age of Hollywood. Many great movies, buckets of them. But you will never EVER find a time period with more terrible, ABSOLUTELY terrible movies.

[Toady One]

(I removed a spat.  Neonivek's post was in the middle of it, but I decided to leave it, since it wasn't really part of the fighting.)

[Necrisha]

Hmm... Well most of this is half remembered semi-factiods I may or may not bother to look up for posterity so don't quote me without independent review. And don't mind my half-assed natterings if you don't want to think too hard about taking a holistic approach to that sort of question but:

Well to be honest my only recollection of 1987 computer capacities was a third hand (from elementary school) mac that couldn't possibly handle an operating system and running a 2 x 2 embark for a second, let alone generate even the smallest region possible. Hell it didn't even have an operating system that could handle colour and if I recall correctly (it's been years since my sisters decided to take it apart and destroy it) it would have been the mid-range consumer model at the time in my region(western Canada). I miss that thing. I think perhaps a better year to judge by might be 1995 as that's when the computers developed would have the RAM necessary to run DF for any length of time, I think. People who actually collect and keep that sort of hardware might be a better judge. Also the music would be those computer beepy noises they used for very early games if any at all.

Anyways automatically assuming that a computer could run something on that level in 1987 opens up an even bigger can of worms because you'd have to think of what else would be capable of that same fast forward, and the competing influences those games and devices would have...Edit: I was completely of base with that argument concerning the first mp3 device prototype although MPEG encoding started development in 1987 so the music would be far different sounding to to audio constraints until the US patent in 1996 (yay for cold war preventing/creating great difficulty in early use of mp3 encoding in north america)

 Thus there probably would be fallout from a doom like game relatively close to the first distributions of DF which would hardly spread beyond the university campuses and main office workers in my region, suffering a much slower rate of exposure outside of silicone valley and large cities than in current times. It would be tagged with the same hate that first-person-shooters had in the bible belt and quite possibly dragged into the spotlight a great deal sooner in development than in more recent years.

As far as future development goes I never followed the devlogs or listened to the talk's to hear what the Adams' get the most excitement out of so I couldn't project anything other than by 5 years if there isn't multi-threading processes at that point- it would be a major feature in development. The development of multi-core processors means that the strength of each core becomes less important to develop and it will create a ceiling to what DF can do far faster that either of them can run out of ideas.

[Azated]

I now recount from the history books recovered from the fashionable ruins of the old new New York Public Library of great ruler King emperor Mario the Fourteenth -

"Dwarf Fortress, the catalyst of the downfall of humanity, was conceived in the early 1980's, before the reign of our Great Ruler and empeeror among all, Mario the Fourteenth. Released for public view in 1987, the game remained in relative obscurity until being picked up for a reality television show, titled, 'All my beards'. The show featured a cast of over sixty-four thousand sentient beards living together in a volcano, with one beard being voting off to the barbers shop each week. The television program garnered wide-spread, almost cult-like affection around the world. Shortly after the untimely demise of Beardo, one of the remaining eight beards, the show faded into the background, barely managing to stay on the air with a measly seven beards.

Amphibian the Conquerer, known in the year of 1993 simply as Toadicus Oneicus (An archaic script of ancient Marioese), or Frog Two (rough translation. Writing from that era is a rare and expensive delicacy) suffered from Massive Success syndrome. His production team consisted of between forty-one and forty-three million coders, programmers, graphics designers, public relations officers, and managers of their Digital Distribution software, humorously named, 'Original' (While incredibly successful, critics dubbed the software a steaming pile of giant rat fecal matter. However, after the rise of Amphibian the Conquerer, these critics quickly renounced their statements before deciding to live in isolation, often disappearing from existence completely).

Many did not feel that Amphibians success was well deserved. Mario the Wise (Who would later become Mario the first) lead a revolt against Amphibian, destroying his Moon-base and claiming dominance over all his territory. The battle, however, quickly decimated the population of the United Solar Confederation, obliterating Mars and Pluto, and rendering all other celestial bodies uninhabitable (Including the gas giants. Such a thing was not believed possible).

Mario and his chief advisor, Princess Mango, managed to reverse the polarity on one of Amphibians chemicalbiosuperdeathnukes and detonate it during a journey to the centre of earth, creating a barely liveable atmosphere on the planet above. Mario died shortly after returning to the surface, but his genetically engineered pseudo-son ruled in his place, with each successive son increasing in numerals for a successive seven years of long and happy dominion."


~ Unkown author, dated February 31st, year 2000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 (Repeating 18475782873678578623786 times. Author found dead at his computer, an ascii Dwarf seared into his back, finger still on the 0 key. Exact year unkown)

[hops]

*assuming* that by "DF coming out in 1987" means that the game was made with the similar ideal, and not technology, the schoolkids won't be talking about Pokegods, naked Lara Croft, reviving Aeris, and instead talking about the "Spoilerite" while being all secretive and evil. The existence of HFS would be kept a secret among a small clique, and people would pay lunch money to find out what they are up against when they mine away the beautiful god metal.

The children would then grow up inspired by simulation games, and a virtual environment would have been invented in 2000. (or were they already invented at that time? I'm not sure.)

ASCII would rule the gaming industry at that time. and instead of the focus on visuals we would have been focusing on a really fucking powerful system that could evolve into a technology that could predict the Apocalypse (and not miss horribly like the Mayans)

Of course, DF would be probably very bare-bones then, but seeing how there was players even when Dwarf Fortress was 2D, I think the fanbase would still be pretty big.

[tolkafox]

I would have played significantly less masters of magic, and avernum would have never stood a chance.

Realistically though, just the amount of time spent on development. We've always been split between the 'console' (arcade) gamers and the 'hardcore' (DOS) gamers and DF wouldn't have changed that.

I still have floppy discs. They may also work. Anyone up for jumpman?

[loose nut]

Assuming 1987 DF were moddable, that would be one of the most interesting cultural aspects – games back then weren't frequently modified by their users, at least not that I know of. If that idea took root that early, games might be – I don't know, super amorphous? Customizable upon purchase? I don't know.

[triato]

We would have space elevators, world peace (except for those who love war who would be in a designated arena and presented on the TV), end of hunger, no endangered species, mars colonies, voyages to the center of the earth, mind swaping with sharks, sentient AI, etc.

[Lightningfalcon]

world peace (except for those who love war who would be in a designated arena and presented on the TV),

So we'd still be stuck with reality TV.  Damn. 

[LordBaal]

It would be a lot more interesting if those involved died on combat, as punishment you know.

[Nokao]

Hmmm... I'm sure EA would have found a way to ruin roguelikes.

Buy now, extra tile packs.

Only 15.99 to see the difference between a bunny and a bear.

b and B

That's the best. DF minimalism. DFmnmlsm.

[trekkie5249]

I still have floppy discs. They may also work. Anyone up for jumpman?

*Raises Hand*