06-09-2003, 01:21 AM
The using of ASCII characters (i.e. plaintext, like the letters you are reading; further examples are such characters as !@#$%^&*, among many others) is commonplace among many Rogue-clones (such as Angband) and in online MUDs. It allows for a stronger emphasis on gameplay (however simple that gameplay may be) and less emphasis on flashy eye-candy. And, it SEVERELY cuts down on the size of a game. You could, quite literally, fit multiple copies (or even multiple portions of a series) on one, single-sided 5.44" floppy diskette. It's just too bad those drives are so rare, and that you need adapters for them for today's PCs. ;) Ah well; at least we still have 3.5" floppies (although even THOSE are going out now; pretty soon we'll only have CDs and USB devices, as USB boot support is now being introduced to BIOSes).
Roland *The Gunslinger*