Might and Magic 2 - Gates to a New World

[Vairn]

It has been a lifelong goal for me, in my spare time that is, will loads of starts/stops. To figure out the file format used for the graphics in the old Amiga game, Might and Magic 2.

as of 10 mins ago, I now have all the graphics "ripped" from MM2, with their correct palettes too.

Have fun.

Any questions ask away.

Now I can't remember why I wanted these...

[demoniac]

Terrific! It's my favorite RPG series. I should really replay II.

Originally Posted by Vairn

Now I can't remember why I wanted these...

You wanted to make M&M I for the Amiga.

[Vairn]

Originally Posted by demoniac

Terrific! It's my favorite RPG series. I should really replay II.

It is my favourate RPG series too, I think no 2. has a close spot in my heart since it was the first, followed by Worlds of Xeen.

Originally Posted by demoniac

You wanted to make M&M I for the Amiga.

You are probably correct in this regard. MM1 didn't have real outdoors area's either it is all "dungeons" pretending to be outside.

[Phantom]

It would be great to port MM1 to Amiga somehow (from MS-DOS version for example).

[demoniac]

I probably liked V the best, but II is next. Combining the IV & V was a novel idea.

I had started a campaign for I (back when I was a kid), but I didn't get past the 2nd/3rd city. I read ASchultz's comments in his walkthroughs for I & II and he didn't like I all that much.

Didn't like VI much and stopped the series after beating it.

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by Phantom

It would be great to port MM1 to Amiga somehow (from MS-DOS version for example).

I was looking at the graphics between the platforms and I'm not sure which if I like DOS more than Apple II.

For example, the Apple II colors are better:



The C64 has slightly better colors, but graphics look identical to DOS. Apple II has better details:


The Japanese ports are too far removed from the classic look IMO.

From the graphics standpoint, Apple II version is probably better to convert from if one were to do it.

[Vairn]

I would probably remake it in the mm2 engine, maybe "COMBINE!" them, since there are the gates to another world, in mm1.
so use the gfx from mm2 to start with, and maybe add extra special for mm1 stuff.

That was the idea 10 years ago lol.
There is text and stuff programmed into the exe for mm2 for inn(s) etc.
All of which can be patched, but is a bit of work.

When I did the mm2 WHDLoad, I just patched the exe via the slave for the copy protection. might play around when I have more of this Mythical free time.

[demoniac]

That would be my approach too -- use the MMII engine to start with.

I know what you mean about Mythical free time. It seems like I have less and less now. Maybe my interests are just expanding?

[Vairn]

Well, the maps from mm1 are stored very similar to mm2.
For towns and dungeons, haven't look at outdoors yet.
from a quick investigation

[Vairn]

by very similar I mean Identical, the only main difference is that the outdoor maps in mm1 are not really outdoors.

So mm2 added a new way of doing outdoor maps.

MM1 was more a maze with outdoor gfx.

[demoniac]

Sounds like you're making good progress on the figuring out the map formatting.

Any idea if the monster formatting are the same between I & II?

[Vairn]

They're not the same, sort of similar.
Items and monsters are stored in mm1's exe. at least in the PC version.
mm1 monsters has a max of 16 characters for names, while mm2 has only 14.
so some monster will need renaming.

MM1's items didn't have a plus as a seperate stat, so the items were 'short sword +2' and 'short sword'.

while mm2 has just a short sword, and you can add a plus of upto +64 from memory.

[demoniac]

Thanks.

How about the gfx data formatting if you have taken a look? Let's say between PC and Amiga for MMII, then between PC I and PC II?

[Vairn]

It is different, but I haven't actually looked to see how different.