Why is everyone playing with distorted screen?

Game Talk The Bunker
61

I like it higher than it is long, because fucking every other ASCII roguelike uses that method!

I’m used to it and all its quirks! I don’t want a fucking square font. Feel free to have it for yourself, but it’s what my eyes are adjusted to see and understand better.

62

For me, those serifs just make it seem really really wide. The non-serif’d font feels more compact/comfortable. It also looks kinda like the font from a 1980’s sub game “Red Storm Rising”. I played that as a kid and got it working again recently (DOSbox FTW) so maybe there’s some connection there. ???

(I don’t recall calling the MGS “unreadable”, and if I did, I was wrong: both fonts are readable. Am I comfortable using either for my in-game text? Afraid not.)

63

Every time I see the square font I wince. I find it harder to read the text.

I don’t see any reason not to allow an option for square code for those who want it. Personally, I don’t.

Also - whats with the hostility and the like over a simple thing like preference of font?

64

Wait, does changing the font allow me to play with “Wingdings” rather than “Terminus” Cause that would be awesome.

65

Theoretically yes, although you’d have a hard time figuring out what every symbol means, unless you use a font that simply stylizes the equivalent letters (so an @ is actually a “person” symbol, etc). You’d still have troubles when accessing the inventory (what was the letter I need to press to access the “tree” inventory item?). A new font should probably be created exclusively for this purpose, unless I’m mistaken. Maybe there’s something close enough out there already.

To know more about how to change the font and size check this section of the wiki.

And for the (non feline)lazy:

To change the font used by the game you'll need to edit the FONTDATA file, located in the Data directory. You can edit that file by using any text editor (Windows Notepad, Notepad++, etc).

It’ll display something like this:

Topaz-8
16
16

Change the first line to the name of the font you want to use. The other two lines are the size of the font. Make sure both numbers are the same.

You’ll have to experiment with different font and viewport sizes, by accessing the game’s options menu (from the main menu scree or through (?), (2) while playing), until you get the game properly displayed at the size you want.

66

I like Topaz. It was the default font on my Amiga way back when. I can see that some people wouldn’t like the squished text, though. I say leave it as is, and maybe recommend a square screen using Topaz on the wiki as an option.