Why do hero or player have the charactre '@' in the RPG games?

[John Watson]

I am curious how it all started? What was the first game that use '@'? Why not other character like '☺'?

[Absalom K.]

Le 26-05-2013, John Watson <neko...@gmail.com> a écrit :
> I am curious how it all started? What was the first game that use '@'? Why
> not other character like '☺'?

I can't answer to the first part of your question, but remember that ancient
games had to use ascii characters (and the character you are suggesting
doesn't belong to the ascii charset). Regards.

[Numeron]

On Sunday, 26 May 2013 16:09:39 UTC+9:30, John Watson wrote:
> I am curious how it all started? What was the first game that use '@'? Why not other character like '☺'?

'Cause that's where you're at :)

Also extended ascii is rarely supported in a consistent manner.

[Radomir Dopieralski]

On 2013-05-26, John Watson <neko...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am curious how it all started? What was the first game that use '@'?
> Why not other character like '☺'?

Actually the PC version of Rogue used the "smiley face" character, as you
suggest. Alphaman did that too.

The original Rogue was written for mainframe computers with terminals for
displays and you could only use the ASCII characters with those. The
"smiley face" character is located where ASCII normally has control
characters -- the ones that move the cursor around -- so it couldn't be
used.

I think the @ character is pretty good choice, as it's relatively round
and very "black" -- making it very easy to spot on the screen.

--
Radomir Dopieralski, sheep.art.pl