Hey folks!
I'm back again, with a massive update to Usurper Reborn. If you aren't familiar, this is a modern recreation inspired by the old 1993 classic Usurper. I started this project about a year ago by converting the original PASCAL to C#, but it has evolved a lot since then. The game is essentially, brand-new but keeps the spirit of the original alive.
The game is a native .NET 8.0 application that runs as a standard door via DOOR32.SYS and is compatible with win32/win64, all flavors and variations of Linux, and even MacOS. No DOSBOX, no FOSSIL drivers, no emulation layers. It auto-detects your BBS software and configures itself.
It has been tested and is known to work with: Synchronet, EleBBS, and Mystic. Would love to add more BBS software to that list though.
The game has been single-player only up until about a week ago. I finally refactored everything to work as both multiplayer and single-player. I actually have a multiplayer server running at
https://usurper-reborn.net or ssh [
usurper@play.usurper-reborn.net](mailto:
usurper@play.usurper-reborn.net) -p 4000 password: play if you want to check it out.
What's in the game 11 character classes, 10 races 100-floor dungeon with deterministic generation 75 spells, 70+ class abilities 60 persistent town NPCs with advanced NPC-brain personalities, relationships, marriages, and children. 7 Old God boss encounters with multi-phase combat and consequential dialogue choices Full royal court politics - become king, manage treasury, hire guards, etc. PvP arena Marriage, affairs, factions, companion quests A living world that evolves 24/7 even when nobody is player (background world simulator process)
New for 0.40.4: BBS Online Mode (Shared World)
This is why I'm making this post! Up until now, each player played in isolation. BBS Online mode turns your BBS into a shared multiplayer world. All your callers share the same NPCs, economy, king, chat, PvP arena, and news feed.
Standard door command: UsurperReborn --online --door32 %f
The world simulator is an extra background process that would need to also be executed for the 24/7 worldsim. It's very low overhead. I'm currently running it on a t3.micro AWS instance and it barely has any overhead.
UsurperReborn --worldsim
That's the entire setup. The database creates itself automatically. Authentication is handled by your DOOR32.SYS file.
Looking for SysOp Alpha-Testers!
That's why I'm writing to YOU. I have about 75 play-testers currently bug hunting the single-player and online multiplayer, but I need more BBSes to adopt it and try it out.
Links: GitHub (Open source GPL v2):
https://github.com/binary-knight/usurper-reborn 0.40.4 Release (BBS Online Mode):
https://github.com/binary-knight/usurper-reborn/releases/tag/v0.40.4 Setup guide: See DOCS/BBS_DOOR_SETUP.md in the repo Discord:
https://discord.gg/EZhwgDT6Ta Website:
https://usurper-reborn.net
Downloads are self-contained - no .NET runtime needed on the target machine. Windows (x64/x86), Linux (x64/ARM64), and macOS builds available.
Happy to answer any questions. And if you remember the original Usurper, I'd love to hear your war stories. submitted by /u/Snoo_15979 [link] [comments]