I dream of Bloodwych Code (literally) [Archive]

Hungry Horace

05 January 2006, 17:56

last night i actually dreamt about the code to my favourite RPG Bloodwych. sad, i know, but i've become very attached to ripping this game apart.

I dreamt that someone had worked out all the different possible hex codes which make up wall data, and lovingly written them down for me to find. (in reality there must be a possible 65536 combinations, but i *know* they cant all be used!) :sleep

anyway, i suspect i dreamt this because i am (very very slowly) learning to code Blitz, with "Mission 1 Objective" being to "create basic Bloodwych Object Editor".... so i was wondering if anyone else has ever had a go at hacking it up or investigated tearing this game apart, because some (many) things still elude me.
Where does it store the later levels? (the towers) Where is the data for the baddies? how does it decide what colour arms/legs or bodytypes are used for each character? :confused questions, questions, questions.... they go on.

anyway, basically, i'm trying to pool any Bloodwych hacking information that may have been gathered, or to encourage anyone who wants to, to have a go at tearing this game apart as much as i have... (or more ;) )- hell i'd even appriciated some decent sprite rips for me to use in my editor!

Eventually i'm gonna get all the information i can find posted onto my Brothers currently unused www.bloodwych.com (http://www.bloodwych.com) site and create the ultimate resource for BW info. All helpers / BW enthusiasts welcome!
cheers guys

bippym

05 January 2006, 18:05

Well I figured out how enemies move around in Captive (I can move enemies to different areas etc), maybe it uses the same method!!

I'll explain when I speak to ya on IRC!

Bloodwych

05 January 2006, 20:24

I always wondered who registered that domain name and when it was going to be complete. :D

It's been under construction for years!

Bloodwych is most splendid, but I'm afraid in order to hack the game you'll have to "look to the towers my friend"....

On a slightly more helpful note, a guy who runs the following site started work on a Bloodwych 3D remake and appears to have ripped some of the graphics going by the screen shots:

http://www.classicgaming.com/bloodwych/

Take a look in the forums under the title "Bloodwych 3D". Perhaps he can be of help if he's still reachable.

Hungry Horace

05 January 2006, 21:16

I always wondered who registered that domain name and when it was going to be complete. :D

It's been under construction for years!

yeah, blame my lame-ass-amiga-abandoning brother for that one!

you might appriciate this little collection of ours;

http://www.djcresswell.com/amigaonline/we-love-bloodwych2.jpg

Bloodwych is most splendid, but I'm afraid in order to hack the game you'll have to "look to the towers my friend"....

:laughing "maybe true but thou should be so lucky" :p

However, i am already fairly adept at the art... just check out my online amiga version with *Trainered* Bloodwych (may be a bit buggy)
http://www.djcresswell.com/bloodwychonline2.zip

On a slightly more helpful note, a guy who runs the following site started work on a Bloodwych 3D remake and appears to have ripped some of the graphics going by the screen shots:
http://www.classicgaming.com/bloodwych/

oh god not that site, :rolleyes with the dodgy frames, and my sardonic FAQ to spells (i was a bit young and miserable back then) - I havent managed to reach the guy for ages, and anyway, i'd rather see an AGA Bloodwych than a 3d one anyday. i do have many GFXs off of screengrabs, but i'd really like the original sprite tables.

hey BW... shouldnt your quote be "Look behind you!" not "I'm behind you!" - Serpent tower (tan gem side?) before that crab sneaks up on you while you grab the mithril gloves? :lol (what a geek!)

oh and if you were to ever want to play the game online... you know where i am!

Bloodwych

05 January 2006, 21:26

hey BW... shouldnt your quote be "Look behind you!" not "I'm behind you!" - Serpent tower (tan gem side?) before that crab sneaks up on you while you grab the mithril gloves? (what a geek!)

:lol yes, I totally crapped myself when that crab turned up. My friend had to save me the first time round!

Nice collection. Glad there are supporters of this game, even though we are quite a rare bunch.

Zetr0

05 January 2006, 23:23

and it was at this point, zetr0 crept off to get the medication.....

psst... dont worry lads.. we will have you fixed in a jiffy :)

Hungry Horace

06 January 2006, 02:20

cheeky Zetr0 - don't knock the ultimate RPG! or this might attack you...
:bowdown http://www.djcresswell.com/amigashots/summon.gif

the game surely does create obsessives! :p

so - check this out for obsessiveness... (although i blame Bippy for actively encouraging me to keep to keep tearing this game up ) ;)

there was me, hacking up the maps, having (a bit too much) fun, when suddenly i turned the arc-bolt machine (dragon tower) into a blodwyn firing constant arc-bolts. i think the "machine" must actually be a baddie inside a wall, since u can even communicate with the mindless sod - but what a cop out!

http://www.djcresswell.com/amigashots/arcbolt.gif

:laughing :crazy

btw BW... i found one of your (really really) old threads "bloodwych data disk, is there a chromatic key bug?" (to which no one replied :( ) and i think there is, although i forget how it happens (perhaps a baddie has the key, and that can go wrong somehow?)
only when i mentioned the game to one of my old amiga buddies the other day, he remembered that bug! nonetheless, that must of been the only time (of the many times i played it) that it happened - cos i'd forgotten all about it!

actually Zetr0 - maybe you better had call up the men in white coats to take me away.:nuts

kriz

06 January 2006, 15:23

You must talk to Amiger , http://www.discreetfx.com/Care/ . he have done updates to Elite and Stunt car racer... very cool stuff.

And discuss here http://eab.abime.net/forumdisplay.php?f=58 :)

Bloodwych

06 January 2006, 20:15

btw BW... i found one of your (really really) old threads "bloodwych data disk, is there a chromatic key bug?" (to which no one replied ) and i think there is, although i forget how it happens (perhaps a baddie has the key, and that can go wrong somehow?)
only when i mentioned the game to one of my old amiga buddies the other day, he remembered that bug! nonetheless, that must of been the only time (of the many times i played it) that it happened - cos i'd forgotten all about it!

I found the solution to that - you have to buy the chromatic key from a shop keeper (he won't drop it if you kill him :evilgrin ) but you only have ONE chance and have to talk to him for a fair amount of time. Miss that chance and you'll get stuck.

Strange thing is, I don't recall getting stuck on this part when I completed it a few times back in 89/90. It was only when going through it with my brother a couple of years back that I encountered this bug or feature!

Nice find on arc bolt firing walls - who would have thought!

I call those summons "Fat Jabbers"! The dodgy animation is so nostalgic! Look at the mean beast go! :laughing

Hungry Horace

08 January 2006, 00:38

I found the solution to that - you have to buy the chromatic key from a shop keeper (he won't drop it if you kill him ) but you only have ONE chance and have to talk to him for a fair amount of time. Miss that chance and you'll get stuck.

mother fu... :D *thats* what it was! i was sure you could kill him and get it though - but i confess, i havent played through the whole of the data disk in a while.

Nice find on arc bolt firing walls - who would have thought!

i'm slowly beginning to find out more & more about how bad-guys work, and how the maps are laid out with reference to them. I managed to create an arc-bolt machine in the recruitment area after that little exploit :evilgrin (firing into poor old Zothen's room ) - I'm building a cheap & nasty map-data reader in AMOS in the hope of working out how some of the more unusual stuff operates.... perhaps leading to a custom built "Bloodwych - Deathmatch Arena" map. :confused

I call those summons "Fat Jabbers"! The dodgy animation is so nostalgic! Look at the mean beast go!
ahh, the many names people give stuff in games. We just called them Fat Bastards (or FatBast's) - also acommpanied by "Big Bastards" - the big floaty things with one eye. The one of those behind the Magelock door scared the hell out of my brother when he first reached it, that was hilarious! Still sometimes catches me off guard and gets a jump out of me.... Grrrr!!! :mad

Photon

08 January 2006, 21:00

When i was 20 I used to dream of electric sheep ... I mean vector code. :D I actually dreamt up a piece of code that would need only 6 lines of code to calculate a 3D vector point. In reality it took like 14, but the point is I think a lot of coders that are into their code dream of code.

Don't do it nowadays though. Guess I care less. There's no Amiga scene where you can prove yourself anymore.

Galahad/FLT

09 January 2006, 01:34

I did the same thing when I got stuck on how to crack something. Would sleep on it, and wake up with a solution and carry on :)

Hungry Horace

12 January 2006, 15:37

glad to hear i'm not the only one! Dreams are supposed to be a great way for the brain to solve problems apparently. :sleep Even if you dont understand what the dream was about, its not uncommon (as with galahad) for someone to wake up with a solution to a previous days connundrum.

as for my dream of map codes.... well, since then i've started building a program to do it for me. Alas, only in Amos right now. and it wont compile. :banghead but its helping me understand the way its alll stored.

if anyone wants to run it themselves (*ahem*) i've posted it here;
www.djcresswell.com/amigaonline/mapread3.amos (http://www.djcresswell.com/amigaonline/mapread3.amos)
keys are... err... cursors, [ ] for floor select, and B for monster reader.

oh i so hope i dont abandon this mid-project! :rolleyes

Hungry Horace

13 January 2006, 00:36

and the silliness continues... anyone want to see all the characters / monsters from bloodwych?

www.djcresswell.com/amigashots/masachar.gif (http://www.djcresswell.com/amigashots/masachar.gif)

its amazing what you can do when you've got a cup of tea and Terminator on the telly. :laughing

MadMunkey

25 February 2006, 01:19

Its been ages since ive been here, only found it cause was looking at sprit ripping again.

Hey my website might be crappy but I did it ages ago and there wasnt anything out there for the game so it might need revamping but the stuff is still good! :p

Lifes been busy and work/kids etc... so dont have much time but seeing as so many people love bloodwych i might try redo the site, its too bad www.bloodwych.co.uk got distroyed when i changed ISP's.

www.dungeon-maker.com is my current project with wishbone and if anyone wanted to remake bloodwych i would take a look the engine i funny capable of doing all the maps in bloodwych the main thing which has stoped me so far is the fact the engine is 3d and i cant model 3d monsters :)

If anyones interested in helping do it let me know, Dom its good to hear from you too bad we lost contact I still love the game as much as always and always wanted to see a remake/update.

Well ill be watching the thread now and it might inspire me to start working on a remake again in dungeon-maker.

Hungry Horace

27 February 2006, 17:03

bloody hell, theres a turn up for the book! (of skulls :rolleyes )

Its been ages since ive been here, only found it cause was looking at sprit ripping again.

;) you *know* how much i (we all) want this! do it! do it now!!

Hey my website might be crappy but I did it ages ago and there wasnt anything out there for the game so it might need revamping but the stuff is still good! :p

yeah, sorry - didnt mean to be rude, there was just a very long period where i could never get the site to load the frame on the side, and as a result i couldnt use it - seems to work these days though.... and i really dont like my spell guide!

Lifes been busy and work/kids etc... so dont have much time but seeing as so many people love bloodwych i might try redo the site, its too bad www.bloodwych.co.uk (http://www.bloodwych.co.uk) got distroyed when i changed ISP's.

ahh, real stuff.... always bound to stop us doing bloodwych stuff! (thus the lack of anything on bloodwych.com)

Dom its good to hear from you too bad we lost contact I still love the game as much as always and always wanted to see a remake/update.

i'm still holding out on Bloodwych AGA! :laughing :crazy
or at the very least an edited version of the original.... (if i can get my damn map reader re-built) - bloodwych stuff still lies close to the top of my pile of "current projects"... i just really need to do some of my uni work at the mo!

bippym

27 February 2006, 17:34

Bloodwych Bah!!

Gimme Captive LOL

MadMunkey

27 February 2006, 17:42

Bloodwych kicks all other rpg's arse :p and that will never change, the way they made such a big game, the way the monsters work the way every block in the maps are used. Its all really well done.

Hungry Horace

28 February 2006, 00:53

MunkeyMate (your new name btw)...

your forgetting one thing that makes it stand out over everything else.... 2 player!!! Even the author of Hired Guns admitted he ripped this off of Bloodwych. :D

MadMunkey

28 February 2006, 02:06

This is very true, I think the thing which made me complete it so many times was the 2 player part.

Also bloodwych was the first game to do 2 player deathmatch! nothink like making a nasty summon then hiding behind some walls!!

I would love to see a truth remake

Hungry Horace

28 February 2006, 03:49

i always liked to trap an arc bolt in a small section behind a door... then wait till they open it and -bam!- arc-bolt in the face! :shocked :nuts

Minuous

11 February 2012, 13:32

I've now released MCE V6.4 beta onto my website at http://amigan.1emu.net/releases/

It now includes support for editing Bloodwych saved games. I welcome any comments or suggestions. It hasn't been tested with the data disk, only with the original version.

Asle

13 February 2012, 20:55

Ah Bloodwych :) Finished it on the Atari STf. Even drew up all the maps save for the last levels as I ran out of food (!) .. ran all the way :). Huuuuuge game ! second only to Phantasie 3 :D

MadMunkey

05 May 2012, 17:33

Hi All, After Playing Legend of Grimrock I decided to do something about my old site...

http://www.classicgaming.com/bloodwych/

We now have www.bloodwych.co.uk for anyone looking for a bloodwych home

FOL

05 May 2012, 18:30

Hi All, After Playing Legend of Grimrock I decided to do something about my old site...

http://www.classicgaming.com/bloodwych/

We now have www.bloodwych.co.uk (http://www.bloodwych.co.uk) for anyone looking for a bloodwych home

Hi,

You may want to checkout horace's section for bloodwych.
Lots of bloodwych related stuff there.

http://bloodwych.ultimateamiga.co.uk