What links?

Forums

There used to be an Un-official DM site (now 404) that had a very popular bulliten board. Unfortunately, its demise means that people are now scattered over a few forums. Here is a guide to where they all are, and what they are about. As a side-note, most of the life is in the forums, so I have included a lot of normal site links in these descriptions where relevent, rather than the links section at the bottom!

DMWeb - this is a set of forums started by Ian Clark dedictaed to any aspects of DM or DM-related interests. Forums are: DM, CSB, DM2, DMute, Other DM games, Other games, Clones and General discussion.
It is looked at by most of the people interested in DM who appear around the forums. Its main strengths lie in two forums. The first is the mentioned DMute forum, here not only have all the findings from the defunt Un-offical board been republished, but any new findings, tricks or ideas (and news of all released dungeons) are posted here too. You can also post about any clarifications or ideas. The second forum is a closed archive of all the posts recovered from the closed Un-official bulliten board before its demise. Unfortunately many of the oldest posts were deleted due to space limits on the server before the archive was created, but there are still many interesting threads and points here.

DM&CSB Encyclopaedia Forums - the DME itself is a comprehensive site of all that is DM created by Christophe Fontanel, and should really be your next stop if you have any needs in DM related areas. After the Un-offiical board went down Christophe opened a set of forums on his site: DM, CSB, CSB For Windows, DM2 and General discussion, with two additional upload forums (see below).
As it is connected to the DME then you can post for any clarifications on downloading/running any DM games (though that site is comprehensive enough you should not need to). Also, this site is the home of CSB For Windows (see the clones section of my faq for more information) and as such the creator of it has posted on the CSB For Windows forum personally and seems to check it regularly. Because of this there is also alot of nmew information about recent engine quirks found scattered about the forums.

The two file sharing forums are able to have up to 200kb files uploaded (ajnything larger you wish to upload should be arranged through Christophe). On them all the DMuted/DMEdited dungeons and newest tools have been given a final stable archiving, plus being a forum you can post praise/crtitique on anything found there. As they have recently been combined with the other forums, then all comments are browsed regularly.

 

Drake's forum - this is the most laid back DM forum, and here you can post about anything you like (though it has a way too high percentage of lurkeres right now! Help change this!). Drake himself posts alot about his site updates or anything else on his mind at the time. That site (at http://chaos.zpc.cz) is a DM site, and also has RTC file set links, though soon it will undergo a major rehaul and be expanded to include anything fantasy related. He is an artist who has contribubuted to both RTC and DMJ, so feel free to post about any question if you are develpoing graphics yourself, or just have any interests relating to this. Or just post about anything at all! It is this site that I place, ultimately, as my forum link (on the left there).

Return to Chaos - if you don't know what it is, then check out the clones section of my faq. Basically it is a faithful Windows-based recreation of Dungeon Master/Chaos Strikes Back, that will also have full editablity and expandability for its dungeons. The real life of the project (being written by George Gilbert, creator of DMute) is in the forum. It is run by George and checked most days by him (when real life isn't in the way, he's quite a busy man!) so any questions and queries can be answered, and all information on new versions is posted here. In addition suggestions/bugs/questions can also be posted on in the relevent section.
The site to download RTC, http://www.ragingmole.com/RTC, is also linked there. Using "/DMute" instead will get you to the section to download this powerful (Windows-based) editor of DM dungeons/saved games.

Dungeon Master Java - like RTC, Dungeon Master Java is a clone (see the relevent clones section for more information) though this one is a stand alone java application (not limited to Windows), and comes with a brand new dungeon, new graphics and an editor. And similarly, the life of the project (completed, the child of Alan Berfield) is in the forums. There you can post about any suggestions or bugs (patches have been released to upgrade the game to cover both of these things in the past). You can ask questions about the game or dungeons, plus anything new related to it is posted on here also. This game (and forum link) was posted about on slashdot a while ago, and so alot of old time DM players have been re-introduced to DM through it, while maybe not realiasing all the other projects available.
The game website, http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~alandale/dmjava/index.html, is linked from the forum, as is the other main site http://dmjava.free.fr/, this one run by a DMJ poster with useful information and uploads. Postings about new dungeons/graphics appear all the time. The DM and CSB dungeons are available from http://bigcalm.tripod.com/dmjava/original.htm and the games section of http://wishbone.is-root.com/ repectively. There is a new graphical set being develpoed at http://home.t-online.de/home/rh.hinne/ by a new poster, another new poster setting up a page at http://wizardtower.tripod.com/wizardstower/ with custom weapons, and some in-game portraits are at http://www.geocities.com/fmunoz_/dm/dm.html from a while ago. There is even EOTB available using the engine, downloadable from http://www.geocities.com/remma12/ or http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.hall48/

For a more detailed description of the states of these last two projects, you can also click here.

Other links

The links around the forum descriptions above cover much of the DM community, but there are a few other sites of interest:

DM: Legacy - this is a Dungeon Master clone that is entirely web-based! Still an on-going project, the Hall of Chamions is available to explore and fight through (impressive things are afoot for the main gaming area now). It's written in French, though english translations in the main game are also included, together with an english translation of the proceeding web-pages (click the bottom right hand flag). The alternate address is www.avalon-games.com.

Gen & Wax web page - check this page for the link to download Master of Chaos. It is a multi-player DM/CSB clone playable on the Atari STE/STF or Falcon.

DM Music Sountrack Compilation project - this site is 404 just now, but was the page Tom Hatfield had dedicated for his quest to re-create the midi music of the DM SNES/DM Soundtrack. Computer problems have affected this project recently, but it is not dead - so keep checking back for future updates!

Dungeon Master 2000 - this is a new project by a team to create a DM-like game in glorious 3D (see also the relevent section in the clones section of the faq). The link gives you the directory for a screen shot, and the prototype game. There is a thread open in the DMWeb here (which started here in the RTC boards) for any comments and questions.

DM Clone project - this was a push ages ago to get a team DM clone project on the go. In this climate of so many clones suddenly appearing, the project has died off, but there is still a few nice tools here, and some interesting points raised in the forum.

A fuller list of links is also available at the DM&CSB Encyclopaedia (DME) under the links section.

f so many clones suddenly appearing, the project has died off, but there is still a few nice tools here, and some interesting points raised in the forum.

A fuller list of links is also available at the DM&CSB Encyclopaedia (DME) under the links section.