Ambermoon

[seuden]

Originally Posted by alexh

My lotus notes database contains 1000's of emails both personal and work related. You have to understand why I cannot send it you?

Have you tried openoffice.org or libreoffice.org ?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by skdubg

can anyone hack the german version to play

Never used FS-UAE but the version on my website works fine with the latest WinUAE. No patches required.

Post your UAE settings and maybe I can replicate the problem?

[skdubg]

hi,

okay i will post the things from FS-UAE that i can changed.

Amiga model: A4000/68040 CPU
Kickstart: Kickstart 3.1
Chip RAM: 8.0 MB
Fast RAM: 8.0 MB
Slow RAM: 1.8 MB
Zorro III RAM: 32 MB

Expansions:
- uaegfx.card (Picasso96)
- bsdsocket.library (Networking)

Uses AmigaSYS 4 from here (E-UAE):
http://amigasys.ultimateamiga.co.uk/downloadeuae.html
and complete the Install with H&P AmigaOS3.9 CD in FS-UAE

with these settings the AmigaOS is working fine and Ambermoon 1.07 starts normally without problems

thanks for help
greetings

[alexh]

Have you tried switching the CPU caches off and other settings using a tool? Ambermoon is particularly sensitive to "VBR move to Fast". Switch them off and if it still doesn't work then it would point to you not having correctly installed the 040/060 patch by Sam Jordan (one of the two linked on the Thalion Source without any credits or info)

http://aminet.net/package/game/patch/amberfix

P.S. Do you really need 8Mb of Chip RAM?? The max on the Amiga was 2Mb and so for compatibility I always run with this setting.

[skdubg]

ok i will test it, give me some minutes to install the german version

EDIT:
- installed german version from Webshrine
- patched to 1.05
- apply hotfix from your link

but game doesn't start...

EDIT2:
no i doesn't need 8 MB Chip RAM. , with 2 MB there is the same problem

[Gordon]

Need a bit of help with game play. I dropped the book of archinards that you get right at begining in the grandfathers house book cabinet. will i need later in game?

[alexh]

Nope. It contained a hint about how to complete a section of the game with a spiders web. Have you finished that bit?

[Gordon]

Thanks, thats a relief. No I havent. I explored the grandfathers celler before I found the book but i remember the section where the spiders web wouldnt rip where I would use the hint. So I will go back later, just going round trying to find the fourth horse shoe. I was just worried incase I would need to give the book to someone later in game.

[Cherno]

I plad this game a bit as a kid but didn't get too far, maybe up to the Bandit's House in the desert and the orc cave. My older brother however got much further and maybe even completed it. It always felt like such an epic game, with the huge open overworld, cities, dungeons, and even two moons... A far cry from games like Eye of the Beholder where you are confined to a single dungeon.

One time my brother managed to put his high-level character files into my game and I was able to kill the lowly thieves with my Scimitar-equipped heroes... Good fun

And I remember the Firebrand (Flamberge) being such an awesome weapon, I loved the magic effect graphic in combat. And before you get it, all those bandits close in on you in the bandit house... scary and very threatening!

The intro music when the clouds part always startled me because it was so loud

Graphics indeed where top-notch, of course 3D dungeons were unheard of at this time and the first fight against the lizard from the basement well was mighty impressive. Another thing I found to be cool was that even the starting location had to be re-visited multiple times, when you can break through the basement walls and get to the epic fight against gargantua... I recall this huge blue spider coming after my brother's party.

Some years ago I started playing it again on WinUAE but in the circular hallway with the wandering lightning bolts I couldn't figure out the door with four symbols on it. Only about a year later did I finally finish it

I think I'm gonna start playing it again now, anybody got a good idea for a perfect party?

My old party had (sorry if some names are off, my memory is fading :

Me
Erin the warrior
Nelvin the mage
Sabine the healer
The Lion Heart guy
the female illusionist (or something like that) with the venice carnevale-mask (which was quite sucky IIRC )

P.S.: For all german-speaking players: I alwas liked the description when an attempt to learn a new spell failed: "Die Schriftrolle zerkrumpelt") (The scroll crumples). "zerkrumpelt, such a funny word, actually me and a friend of mine who also played it a bit back then (nearly 20 years go) still sue the word sometimes win all board and videogames that have scrolls in them

[Cherno]

So now I've been playing this for the past days straight and have reached the Mines in the Forest Moon. I have Egil, Nelvin, Sabine, Valdyn and Tor, a very nice party and most importantly, I can cast six times the powerful Ice spell (Eis Schauer) with my two destructo-mages :] Tor is a much better choice than the female Alchemist who couldn't do anything the Adventurer or Ranger can't.

After playing it again, I noticed quite some bad design decisions that I overlooked in the past:

Weapons that break frequently (Firebrand), esp. early game when there's no repairing
Gold weighing so much
Fights taking forever because fighters seldomly hit even with maxed attack stats
Those blue glittering dots on the forest moon where insects attack, makes traveling such a pain!
No minimap, everything looks similar so I have to constantly check the map, thanks god there's at least a compass

Of course, the game is from the early 90s so it's excusable

The game would make a good candidate for a boardgame version, with the party cooperatively traveling across Lyramion and through dungeons, and every combat encounter is played out on a simple 6x5 battlegrid. Maybe I'll start creating some stuff for it, just for fun

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Cherno

Fights taking forever because fighters seldomly hit even with maxed attack stats

If you play with WinUAE you can "fast forward" the combat scenes.

[Gordon]

Really enjoying this now but I need help please.

1) how do i charge things up? e.g my holy horn cant be used anymore
2) How do I lean spell? I can buy spells but it doesnt let me use in batle. Im talking about my main character
3) Ive got to Shandras coffin and he tells me to go the temple, but cant find it anywhere on the map? any hints?

[Cherno]

1. You adventurer (blue scrolls) can learn "Charge Item", but it's very expensive magic points-wise. I suggest only using the horns (you get about 4 in the game) only for Banshees and maybe ghouls, however don't kill the Liche Lord with it as you won't get his crown.

You can try to learn a spell when you are camping/resting (the tent icon). Characters can have a hard time learning sppels so if it doesn't work re-load and try again so you don't waste learning points and the scroll.

Some spells can only be used when camping, some only in combat and some when you are not doing either (light for example). Buy a lantern or two until your adventurer has enough magic points to cast light and food comfortably, and always carry some emergency rations.

3. Go to the library in Newlake and use the key Shandra gave you to unlock the door in the north. Take the sleeping poison ingredient list and also search all cupboards for lots of scrolls. You mage will be able to cast scrolls for the next 100 fights
You also find a book about wind gates and a healing plant book.

[Gordon]

Thank you so much, very helpful.

I got the recipe but not sure where to find the flint stone? I have flint and iron but can find flint stone in any of the shops. Anyone remember?

[Cherno]

The thieve's guild merchant in the cellar of the Spannenberg tavern sells flintstones. It's a good idea to carry two or three with you for lighting torches etc. in dungeons to solve puzzles.

[Gordon]

Thank you , completely forgot about that shop!

[Cherno]

Flintstone is included in the flint and iron item, so if you have it it's all you need

[Gordon]

I am now in the brother hood temple and I have the Demon sleep but how do i use it? Every time we fight he kills everyone.

Also, is the witch broom unlimited use?

[Cherno]

The witch broom is unlimited use, but it will be destroyed automatically once you arrive on the forest moon.

In the brotherhood temple, in the hallway that leads to the guardian demon, to the left there's a small alcove where the demon's food bowl is, there you can use the demon sleep to poison his meal and he will disappear

[Gordon]

Thank you!

[dlfrsilver]

i have found another typo, in the NPC_texts.amb, file 18. there is 5 text blocks in this file, and in the first sentence, you have $0090 characters in it, and it look like this :

" YOU SEE A YOUNG MAN WEARING SPECTACLES WITH SMALL ROUND LENSES. HE HAS MANY LARGE ROLLS OF PARCHMENT IN HIS ARMS AND LOOKS AT YOU ABSENTLY. . X "

I know thanks to reverse engineer that each sentence must finish with "20,00,20" sequence and not "20,00,20,58,20". this is garbage as only the text block length is taken in account by the game, this must be removed and as such text block size is now $008F

EDIT : argghh second sentence has another problem, the text block is $0051 in the file, when it's really only $0050 in length, this must be corrected too !

[dlfrsilver]

another one spotted : in file 57, in NPC_texts.amb, related to ketnar, the son of Kire and Dorina. There is a typo in text bloc A which is the same as the one met in the text of the grandfather cave spider thingy, there is an "|END ..." which is accounted in the whole text block. This is all wrong

original wrong text value : $0164
corrected text value : $015F

This explains what Hexaae sent me, and AlexH had noticed in the bugfixed readme,
about the part where ketnar explains to the group where his mother is living (it's present in the text), and the word to open the tree's door (schnism).
The game should originally crash since the text is not terminated correctly.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

This explains what Hexaae sent me, and AlexH had noticed in the bugfixed readme

Hexaae was helping me so the bug readme includes all his fixes.

[dlfrsilver]

the sansrie key bug corrected was not in what he sent me strangely, and he told me that you corrected it yourself.
Do you remember in which file the error was located in, and also can you hint me about the place where the places names shown when the automap is activated are located ?
it's not in the program code (i check for those), and i don't see which file can hold them (like city gates, wharf, tavern, etc etc).

the latest and most boring part await, as the 3map_texts.amb, with all the kire's text :P

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

the sansrie key bug corrected was not in what he sent me strangely, and he told me that you corrected it yourself.

He's remembering incorrectly. It was done by a Russian coder who created the Ambermoon tools I sent you.

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Do you remember in which file the error was located in

AM2_CPU and AM2_BLIT (obviously the game only uses one depending on what speed your CPU is).

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

and also can you hint me about the place where the places names shown when the automap is activated are located ?

I don't know. Never have. You could ask Jurie Horneman?

[dlfrsilver]

ok, i just hope he will answer me

About the sansrie key, have you been able yourself to test the bugfix ?

if only those informations were available, it would allow me to not reinvent the wheel.....

i understand that you were not ok to release patches or even modified code program.
but many guys around could have been testing those new exes by finishing the game,
and today, aside the extraction-insertion tools, nothing remains (or seems so).

i'm not a coder, and still, ambermoon text script is the easier i've ever meet. it was made for easy translation, with no CRC, only specific instructions to follow and respect.

but well, ok, i'll contact Jurie thanks !

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by alexh

He's remembering incorrectly. It was done by a Russian coder who created the Ambermoon tools I sent you.


AM2_CPU and AM2_BLIT (obviously the game only uses one depending on what speed your CPU is).


I don't know. Never have. You could ask Jurie Horneman? He's a friend of mine on Facebook and a member of the Thalion facebook group.

i have not found him on facebook nor thalion facebook groupe

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

About the sansrie key, have you been able yourself to test the bugfix ?

No. Or at least I don't think so. It takes so much time to get from the start to the place where you test the fix. Unless I was sent a game-save near by at the time.

Unfortunately as I said I no longer have access to the emails of the time. And I don't remember the name of the original coder who did the fixes and made the tools. If I ever find the disc containing the lotus-notes database I will share them. But I fear that it has been thrown away.

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

but many guys around could have been testing those new exes by finishing the game

1) You can finish the game without this patch.
2) I was certain I had shared it privately with people helping test. Perhaps I am mistaken.

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

and today, aside the extraction-insertion tools, nothing remains (or seems so).

Plus the 10's of text patches written by the Russian coder who first helped, myself, Hexaae (and Meynef) and now yourself.

What I will do is I will release the "Ambermoon Walkthrough" written by Michael Böhnisch. It is a step-by-step guide to completing the game in incredible detail. It is concise, so hard not to get spoilers for the next section, but it has more information (in English) than any other source.

We can release it at the same time you release your French translation.

[dlfrsilver]

Vitaly Grebenik ? maybe we could try to search him ?

[alexh]

Vitaly Grebennik is the correct spelling...

His alias back then was "MetalliC".

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fro...ga/5HRvFVLTmvk

[dlfrsilver]

mail sent to Vitaly Grebennik !

[alexh]

You found an modern email address for him? The one I had was last active in 2004. No reply.

[dlfrsilver]

indeed i got a unknown user message and there is so many vitaly grebenik :'(

[alexh]

I've found him. Well posts from him to a forum in december 2012.

Let you know how I get on later

[dlfrsilver]

excellent !!!

[dlfrsilver]

i have discovered something really bad : most of 3map_texts.amb files in english are faulty, corrupted, or whatever which can make crash or bug the game engine.

So sorry Alex but the game even in english really needs to be cleaned up. There are so many files wrong ! tell me if you need any information to correct the english file.

[alexh]

If you are right, then how come so many people have played the game to the end with only a handful of fatal errors? No-one has reported the extent of crashes you are talking about here.

Explain technically either here or in a PM.

[dlfrsilver]

ok Alex be my guest then

here is the deal :

you have reported on the thalion webschrine many errors, script typos.
since i wanted to translate such a jewel in french, i needed at first to get the tools, and then to decypher the text script files.

from the errors corrected like the one about valdyn in luminor tower, i have then reverse engineered the text files.

Things happens like this, here is how i translate each text block and what is where in the file. This is script number 348 from 3map_texts.amb file


text decoding for block 348 :
header

0002,0010,00A2 ......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0002 : Number of text blocks => here 2 blocs

0010 : text block 1 length

00A2 : text block 2 length


--------
BLOCK 1
--------

0000 => '20'+'RUINED TOWER+'20'+'00'+'20'

=> '20'+'TOUR EN RUINE+'20'+'00'+'20'

--------
BLOCK 2
--------

0000 => '20'+'ALL AROUND YOU LIE THE REMAINS OF WHAT WAS ONCE A SPLENDID BUILDING. THIS TOWER MUST HAVE BEEN SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET HIGH BEFORE IT COLLAPSED OVER THE OF YEARS.+'20'+'00'+'20'

=> '20'+'IL Y A TOUT AUTOUR DE VOUS LES RESTES DE CE QUI ETAIT AUTREFOIS UNE SPLENDIDE CONSTRUCTION. CETTE TOUR DEVAIT FAIRE TRENTE METRES DE HAUT AVANT QU'ELLE NE S'EFFONDRE AVEC LES ANNEES.+'20'+'00'+'20'

as you can see, aside the word missing between 'the' and 'of the years' how the script is made.

i met in the 3map_texts.amb container, files which have 11 text blocks declared, when only 10 are inside ! you bet the game engine hates this

I have also found files with a text declared, but nothing inside !

a text always start by byte '$20' and ALWAYS finish by 3 bytes : '$20','$00','$20'

any crap thing like '20,00,20,1A,5D,79' is a typo and hence must me corrected by '20,00,20', the '1A,5D,79' bytes are useless and not used by the parser, and prompt to corrupt the text parser which while being easy to understand, doesn't bear any errors.

example : the 0,0 coordinates crash due to the missing text block in the container 1Map_texts.amb related to the whirlwind.

the dwarfs part of the game is ridden of those typos, errors, wrong text block number, and so on, there is even the |END ... crap you found like in the spider text from the beginning of the game.

logically, if those typos were a problem in the beginning of the game, why wouldn't they crash the game later ?

To continue about the dwarfs part, which is huge, the texts are gigantic to translate, and so far, no players have really played the game in detail, only the main line, because i have discovered text lines or paragraph which would have never been displayed in the english release, or cause corruption in memory.

I'll post later a script file or two with crap inside them

[dlfrsilver]

i have a requested, who can send me his save disk or save files in order to test the different parts of the translated text and upload those in the zone ?

Thanks !

[alexh]

I applaud the work you're doing. I'm sure many people appreciate your efforts. (Or will do)

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

i met in the 3map_texts.amb container, files which have 11 text blocks declared, when only 10 are inside ! you bet the game engine hates this

Have you checked the German 3map_texts.amb to see if there is either another text block or 10 declared? The last part is a guess?

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

any crap thing like '20,00,20,1A,5D,79' is a typo and hence must me corrected by '20,00,20', the '1A,5D,79' bytes are useless and not used by the parser, and prompt to corrupt the text parser which while being easy to understand, doesn't bear any errors.

Mistake probably. Correctable yes. Cause a fatal error? The text parser could skip these extra bytes while looking for the next 20,00,20?

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

example : the 0,0 coordinates crash due to the missing text block in the container 1Map_texts.amb related to the whirlwind.

This is not about 3Map_texts.amb is it ?

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

the dwarfs part of the game is riddled withthose typos, errors, wrong text block number, and so on, there is even the |END ... crap you found like in the spider text from the beginning of the game. logically, if those typos were a problem in the beginning of the game, why wouldn't they crash the game later ?

Perhaps because they are never used? Or they are subtly different?

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

To continue about the dwarfs part, which is huge, the texts are gigantic to translate, and so far, no players have really played the game in detail because i have discovered text lines or paragraph which would have never been displayed in the english release, or cause corruption in memory.

Pretty sure I did.

To prove this is real we'll try and do what you asked. Find a specific txt block which should cause a crash, I'll use the netsrak cheat to get to that point in very fast time and we'll test them.