ADOM for the visually impaired

[Elwin]

Hi All,

I've been a more or less casual ADOM fan for many years, since version 1.0.0 came out I believe. One of the many reasons I like it, despite failing to get very far, is that I'm totally blind, and ADOM is one of the few games of real complexity I'm able to enjoy.
Unfortunately, the only reason I can do this is because I'm a dabbler in Linux. The current Windows port has poor to non-existent accessibility. I'm also concerned about the Steam version being likely unplayable.
I'm 99% certain there's a small but enthusiastic market of blind fans who would totally love a game like this, but aren't as interested in Linux et al as I am. I guess this is mostly for the devteam, and maybe i should submit an RFE. I'm mostly concerned that the Linux console port will gradually succumb to neglect.
I have actually managed to make more progress this time around, thanks largely to the auto-explore command. (When was that added? I swear it wasn't in 1.1.1.)
So in short, I'm wondering if anything can be done to make a more accessible port of this game?
Thanks much for any input

[yhal003]

Out of curiosity, what makes linux version accessible, is it because it runs in real terminal and you can use the tools that let blind people read from it? According to developers steam version still lets you output to console, or at least it will after some bugs are fixed: http://steamcommunity.com/app/333300...78265876661625

[Elwin]

Out of curiosity, what makes linux version accessible, is it because it runs in real terminal and you can use the tools that let blind people read from it? According to developers steam version still lets you output to console, or at least it will after some bugs are fixed: http://steamcommunity.com/app/333300...78265876661625

Oh, that's news to me. Yeah, the fact it's a "real," terminal is exactly why it's accessible for me. I hope something can be done for the other ports too, since there are far more blind gamers than blind Linux enthusiasts. I don't have an account on the Steam forum yet, since the platform itself isn't super accessible.

[yhal003]

Oh, that's news to me. Yeah, the fact it's a "real," terminal is exactly why it's accessible for me. I hope something can be done for the other ports too, since there are far more blind gamers than blind Linux enthusiasts. I don't have an account on the Steam forum yet, since the platform itself isn't super accessible.

This is relevant portion of Zeno's post on steam forums:

In case of newer versions of Windows (starting with Vista IIRC), it is IMHO impossible to make the pure console look well. NotEye was originally conceived as a way to go around this, to make roguelikes look exactly like they did in DOS. (Ability to support fancy graphics was added later.) Obviously, this works in ADOM too.

By the way, the ASCII Windows executables of ADOM are not using pure console, and IIRC they never were -- I actually received what I wanted by playing the Linux version via ADOM Sage.

NotEye has an option to output to a pure console. In Linux, it is possible to enable this for ADOM Steam, but it is quite complex (I think it does not work in Windows, since each Windows app has to declare whether it is a window or console app, it cannot decide at runtime). Since this feature was not tested recently, there is a bug at this moment, but it should be fixed soon.

[ghostjghost]

I think its totally awesome that the blind can play adom at all.

I was always under the misconception that being blind would make it next to impossible to play any complex computerized game.

Although I guess chess is relatively complex also, so I suppose I simply never gave it much thought.

[Elwin]

If I had to pick a time to be born blind, now is definitely good. I can play Adom and NetHack, and make a fair stab at a few other games, actually. It's when you compare the number I can play to the sheer variety on offer in the sighted world that things get frustrating.
Anyhow, I spent a good few game days tonight wandering around the wilderness in search of the CoC. I guess I'm just looking in the wrong place. I managed to rust my broadsword by swimming in the river, which wasn't very helpful since it's the best/only weapon I have.
I'm curious about the "w?" command. Is it a thing people use pretty liberally, or does it get dangerous as the game gets farther along? I used it throughout the VD, and it mostly helped, but was of course prone to being interrupted by monsters/closed doors/whatever.
One thing which is definitely invaluable is a screen reader command to tell me the coordinates of the cursor. It helps me find where I am and get a sense for level layout. I use it quite a bit when escorting the carpenter, which was an exercise in tedium more than anything.
Enjoying myself so far

[ghostjghost]

From my experience the w key is one of the best features of the game. It saves a lot of time, and the fact that it gets interrupted by monsters, helps keep me from running into the more dangerous monsters like I would if I just held down a direction key.

The only places where it wouldn't really be useful is the few big room levels.

[Harwin]

Well, AFAIK the "w" key and the "w?" key are very very different.
I use the "w" key all the time to quick-walk in one direction. I've never tried the "w?" key. It does some sort of random exploration?

[Mobius]

A side question - when you are on a level, what is your mental model of the layout of a dungeon? Does it end up being like a mental model of your house? As a sighted person, I know my house well enough I could almost move about in the dark. But that's after years of living there - a randomly generated dungeon would be far different. And hooray for screen readers! Now all we need is for the creator & crew to make a special voice pack to use for ADOM.

...
One thing which is definitely invaluable is a screen reader command to tell me the coordinates of the cursor. It helps me find where I am and get a sense for level layout. I use it quite a bit when escorting the carpenter, which was an exercise in tedium more than anything.
Enjoying myself so far

[Elwin]

A side question - when you are on a level, what is your mental model of the layout of a dungeon? Does it end up being like a mental model of your house? As a sighted person, I know my house well enough I could almost move about in the dark. But that's after years of living there - a randomly generated dungeon would be far different. And hooray for screen readers! Now all we need is for the creator & crew to make a special voice pack to use for ADOM.

My "mental model" is very room-based. I try to concentrate on what's immediately around me, or in worst case to figure out roughly how I want to get to, say, the next staircase. Keeping track of the whole level is difficult because I'm only able to take in features one at a time. It slows things down quite a bit I imagine, but I'm just glad to be able to play at all.
Random side note: screw swamp hydras. One just ended my promising fighter. Ah well, I guess it's just the nature of the game.