The Dink Network

And Hark! again. Yon weasel of brass hath released his latest d-mod, Echoes of the Ancients.

Yon Quest promises to be an alternate reality version of Dink's original adventure. Yon weasel of brass hath also let it be known that thou may wishth to use Freedink with this d-mod, for it may not workth in normal Dink.

What kind of bees make milk? BOOBIES!

Ah, I almost thought I was playing a SimonK dmod there for a while. Carry on.

I can confirm it totally doesn't work in the standard Dink engine, I'm getting crashes on the first screen

I'll get FreeDink to check it out though, seems pretty cool from what I saw.

Apparently his BMP files trip up standard 1.08 somehow. Not exactly sure why it happens though, but re-saving them may work.

Thanks toast,
I saved all the artwork in a program I downloaded on Linux called MTPaint. I had hoped this would be more compatible with 1.08, but I guess not. I don't have windows.

Get Irfanview. For whatever reason, it's the only program in existence that saves in a 1.08 compatible colour palette just by doing nothing and saving it.

Thanks Skurn. I'll check to see if that runs in Linux.

I would like to convert the artwork so maybe someone else can use some of it -- if anyone is going to make any more dmods. I think maybe Bluedy and Megadog were planning something?

I re-saved the tiles in Atonement using Irfanview and it got the game to start at least. It makes the BMP header a little different when I look at it in a hex editor.

It also looks like your graphics are all 8-bit BMPs rather than 24-bit. Did you remember to apply the Dink palette to all of your images? 1.09 will work, but they don't look optimal. FreeDink on the other hand will take just about any graphics format and make the best of it (it will even use JPG and PNG).

i have redownloaded free dink just to check out brassweasel's dmod , his dmod always contains something new

I'll be sure to check this out when I have the time.

A few things....
(1) Thanks to those who have reviewed this so far. That was fast! I appreciate that.
(2) There is a walkthrough for this. Should it also go on that walkthrough page? If so, it would be cool if some does that. I don't know how to do that.
(3) Isn't GIMP great! At first it seems very simple, but there is so much one can do with it when you learn.
(4) I have no way of testing my graphics in any thing other than FREEDINK. So if someone can get them to work in 1.08, then by all means feel free to use them or especially to make a graphics pack from the best ones. That would be cool.
(5) I think the dmod most similar to Echoes would be 'The 3 Amulets'. There are a lot of differences, but there are some themes in common. Amulets is actually a favourite of mine personally. Does anyone agree with that?
(6) I am looking forward to the new epic coming soon.

It's not that hard to make the page on dink solutions yourself. There's a nifty page on there that will explain how to do it.

I played this, and I liked it. I don't agree that it's as good as CC2 or PQ though; I disagree with not Brassweasel's opinion on that.

I agree that is feels a bit like 3 amulets; I have no opinion on whether that is a favorite of you, but I believe you if you say so.

I wouldn't call 3 amulets one of my favorite DMods, although I like it, and it does have my #1 favorite boss fight in it.

I don't agree that it's as good as CC2 or PQ though; I disagree with not Brassweasel's opinion on that.

Explain this statement. Who said it was as good as CC2? And what do you mean by "not Brassweasel".

Explain this statement.

To be honest, I'm not sure which DMod you were talking about, but it was one of the top rated ones, so I guessed.

what do you mean by "not Brassweasel"

The text I'm talking about is from the DMod, and it is followed by this:

Disclaimer: Dink's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Brassweasel Productions or its subsidiaries.

Hey Brassweasel, is there any chance I could use a couple of your palm tree graphics for my DMOD? I'll credit you of course, just figured I should ask before I throw 'em in.

Yes, by all means. Use any artwork you'd like. You might have to run it through that program that Skurn mentioned to get it to work properly though, but feel free to use anything you want from any of my dmods please.

Oh, I see what you mean now, Shevek. It was just a little joke, not meaning to be offensive. I was referring to QFD2: island revenge. While there were some very cool things in that DMOD, I got frustrated because I had to spend so much time fighting pillbugs and slimes over and over again. But I recognize that it was a highly regarded dmod, and well made apart from that major flaw. But I just got so sick of the pillbugs and slimes.

I can't fully judge Pilgrim's Quest because there was an error that didn't allow me to complete it. From what I did play of it, I really enjoyed it and I have no complaints.

As for CC2, it is above reproach! That and BFTG, I consider to be the two finest dmods to have been created (apart from the original). The tragedy is that BFTG was never completed, so CC2 was (IMO) the best of them all. I just personally didn't believe QFD2 belongs in top level of DMODS ever made. But that's just me, others feel differently.

On the other hand, there are exceptional DMODS that didn't make it to the elite level for some reason. 'Twins" is an example. It started out slowly, but had some of the coolest things any dmod has to offer. So I would rank it higher, but QFD2, I would move down the list if I were ranking the best DMODS. But that is just me, and my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's.

I like you.

Cloud Castle 2 is major junk.

Gotta deflate EgoTrout. It could be catastrophic if he is any bigger. (I went to the future and Sabre's giant ducking head emerged from the earth and sprayed fire everywhere)

all right, so I downloaded it and tried to play it on DinkHD. I don't really recommend it. I don't mind when the graphics get all wonky, in fact I kind of enjoy it, but I feel like HD is messing up the game a bit more than that in ways that make it slightly unplayable. I say "slightly unplayable" because I'm not sure if it's actually impossible or not. I stopped playing it because the hardness is totally bananas. There is hardness everywhere and it is frustratingly difficult/annoying to travel across screens. I think this is the first time I've played a dmod where DinkHD actually messed up the hardness, weird. So to summarize, don't play in 1.09/DinkHD.

Tried it based on your experience, and yep, would not recommend. I don't think the hardness is actually screwed, it's just that most of the sprites in the dmod are invisible, so you stumble into their hardboxes constantly.

I too found the hardness cumbersome, but it doesn't seem to exist in free-dink.

I also noticed that 1.09HD seemed to use some of the original tiles as opposed to the ones they had been replaced with, such as the wood panel floor in the houses instead of the rainbow rug, and the windows were missing inside the houses as well.

It also seemed that some of the tilesets that had previously included unused squares, generally a 2x4 section but a few with 1x4 section, which were left white and are now either populated with the creamy color used for hardness, for filled in with a new tile.

Hmmm, with that creamy bit, I wonder if the hardness relates to the way 1.09 relates to the palette...