Extended Ambermoon for Amiga

[Pyrdacor]

Hello guys. Some of you might know me for creating a Ambermoon port for PC, Mac and Linux and maintaining the original Ambermoon and providing fixes for it.

Just recently I wrote an export plugin for the disassembling tool Ghidra to be able to export disassembled code (mainly Ambermoon) to valid Amiga assembler. I also decoded huge parts of the original code, commented and labeled all kind of stuff in Ghidra. There is also a public Ghidra server where we can collaborate and disassemble the last bits of the original Ambermoon code.

That said I am able to compile the original Ambermoon. And I can add changes (either in Ghidra) or by modifying the produced ASM.

And so I did. Original Ambermoon used 2 exe files. AM2_Blit uses the blitter to render walls and other stuff, AM2_CPU uses the CPU (loops) for this. The pre-loader called just "Ambermoon" performs a speed test with the blitter and the CPU and if the blitter is fast enough it used AM2_Blit, else AM2_CPU.

The problem was, that both exes contained 90% of the same code and data. And this data includes all item data, all UI texts, in-game messages, spell names, button graphics and so on. Bugfixing was hell as you had to fix both exes and then both languages (exes differ per language as well). Moreover creating a new language was nearly impossible.

This is now over. I extracted all language-dependent data to external files:
- Item data to Objects.amb
- Button graphics to Button_graphics
- All texts to Text.amb

Moreover the files "Dictionary.english" and "Dictionary.german" are now called just "Dict.amb" in both languages.

I wrote loaders for those files in Ghidra so the data is loaded on startup in Ambermoon now. Moreover I merged both exes into one (AM2_CPU). The speed test is still performed but the result is just given to AM2_CPU as a parameter and then it uses internal logic to use the blitter or CPU dependent on that parameter.


It was a long way and hard work but now it's done.

Ambermoon 1.14 (english) and 1.13 (german) are released and they both use the same exe. https://github.com/Pyrdacor/Ambermoon

If you want to see the effects you can download german and english and exchange files like "Text.amb", re-start the game and see how the texts change. The same is possible for items and button graphics, as mentioned.

I would be happy if someone can test the new release. Best on real hardware.

The only thing left is to make the intro and outro language-independent. Other than that, translations should now be easy. I can provide a zip with all english texts to translate if someone is interested in creating a prototype for a new language. I could help with that.

Thanks for reading.
Cheers Pyrdacor

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Pyrdacor

Hello guys. Some of you might know me for creating a Ambermoon port for PC, Mac and Linux and maintaining the original Ambermoon and providing fixes for it.

Just recently I wrote an export plugin for the disassembling tool Ghidra to be able to export disassembled code (mainly Ambermoon) to valid Amiga assembler. I also decoded huge parts of the original code, commented and labeled all kind of stuff in Ghidra. There is also a public Ghidra server where we can collaborate and disassemble the last bits of the original Ambermoon code.

That said I am able to compile the original Ambermoon. And I can add changes (either in Ghidra) or by modifying the produced ASM.

And so I did. Original Ambermoon used 2 exe files. AM2_Blit uses the blitter to render walls and other stuff, AM2_CPU uses the CPU (loops) for this. The pre-loader called just "Ambermoon" performs a speed test with the blitter and the CPU and if the blitter is fast enough it used AM2_Blit, else AM2_CPU.

The problem was, that both exes contained 90% of the same code and data. And this data includes all item data, all UI texts, in-game messages, spell names, button graphics and so on. Bugfixing was hell as you had to fix both exes and then both languages (exes differ per language as well). Moreover creating a new language was nearly impossible.

This is now over. I extracted all language-dependent data to external files:
- Item data to Objects.amb
- Button graphics to Button_graphics
- All texts to Text.amb

Moreover the files "Dictionary.english" and "Dictionary.german" are now called just "Dict.amb" in both languages.

I wrote loaders for those files in Ghidra so the data is loaded on startup in Ambermoon now. Moreover I merged both exes into one (AM2_CPU). The speed test is still performed but the result is just given to AM2_CPU as a parameter and then it uses internal logic to use the blitter or CPU dependent on that parameter.


It was a long way and hard work but now it's done.

Ambermoon 1.14 (english) and 1.13 (german) are released and they both use the same exe. https://github.com/Pyrdacor/Ambermoon

If you want to see the effects you can download german and english and exchange files like "Text.amb", re-start the game and see how the texts change. The same is possible for items and button graphics, as mentioned.

I would be happy if someone can test the new release. Best on real hardware.

The only thing left is to make the intro and outro language-independent. Other than that, translations should now be easy. I can provide a zip with all english texts to translate if someone is interested in creating a prototype for a new language. I could help with that.

Thanks for reading.
Cheers Pyrdacor

In the end, sending you my ressourced executables did not helped you a bit ?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

In the end, sending you my ressourced executables did not helped you a bit ?

I think they arrived too late? The work in Ghidra by Pyrdacor and nicode was almost done when they arrived.

[alexh]

Awesome work. It opens the door to localisation for the Amiga version. First Dlfrsilver's amazing French translation and then hopefully others. I know someone once translated lots of Ambermoon into Italian.

Also knowing that Ambermoon on Amiga may get some of the new Ambermoon Advance dungeons back ported is fantastic

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

In the end, sending you my ressourced executables did not helped you a bit ?

Well thanks anyway This will allow me to port my translation finally 100%.

[Pyrdacor]

Thank you guys.

@dlfrsilver: Alex is right. It came a day before I exported valid ASM code out of Ghidra for the first time. And the code in Ghidra was already very well labeled and commented and all those labels and comments are exported as ASM comments as well. So this was a bonus over your files. Moreover I can't import your ASM files into Ghidra that easily.

I can send you the English texts so you see what structure I need to use it. Then you can just replace the English texts with the french ones.

I will also document the new file structures I invented for the in-game texts.

I already built a tool to export all texts of a Ambermoon installation. This includes all data files, the in-game texts, the item names and so on. Basically everything which needs to be translated. I will also provide a tool to create a full game out of those text files so you only have to copy your french texts into the folders and the tool does the rest.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Pyrdacor

Thank you guys.

@dlfrsilver: Alex is right. It came a day before I exported valid ASM code out of Ghidra for the first time. And the code in Ghidra was already very well labeled and commented and all those labels and comments are exported as ASM comments as well. So this was a bonus over your files. Moreover I can't import your ASM files into Ghidra that easily.

I can send you the English texts so you see what structure I need to use it. Then you can just replace the English texts with the french ones.

I will also document the new file structures I invented for the in-game texts.

I already built a tool to export all texts of a Ambermoon installation. This includes all data files, the in-game texts, the item names and so on. Basically everything which needs to be translated. I will also provide a tool to create a full game out of those text files so you only have to copy your french texts into the folders and the tool does the rest.

Thanks, yes this would be welcome. It would allow me to inject my french translation more easily as i have less time for that

Feel free to send me the files on gmail mailbox

[Pyrdacor]

I guess you have data files like NPC_texts.amb etc already translated? So you only need the texts from the executable?

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Pyrdacor

I guess you have data files like NPC_texts.amb etc already translated? So you only need the texts from the executable?

Well since you modified quite a bit of data files, it would be better for me to inject my text inside the latest version (v1.14).

So yes, if you can send me the text from the executable, i will translate those

[alexh]

I think you already did. All the text appears to be in the ASM files you sent. Pyrdacor needs someone to reformat them to his new file format.

I've updated *_texts.amb to the latest version using the existing tools. Pyrdacor was making similar ones for *_,data.amb files.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by Pyrdacor

I guess you have data files like NPC_texts.amb etc already translated? So you only need the texts from the executable?

I have quite advanced in the translation of the files you sent.

However, is it normal i found german text inside ? Found some in quite a number of AMB archive text files.....

[TCD]

A new version (1.16) is out: https://github.com/Pyrdacor/Ambermoo...isks/Bugfixing

[pipper]

Awesome! With these number of bugs and correspond ding fixes, I wonder how people played this game at all :-) This gives me the reason to pickup my old save game from the 90’s… I remember I got stuck in a dungeon on that bug infested green moon and never found a way out. Is this maybe a known bug?

[vulture]

I think the 1.16 English .ADFs are broken.

After clicking "Start New Quest", disk 1 will guru.

This happened previously with an older update, I think the issue was something to do with the files built incorrectly.

[blade002]

Originally Posted by pipper

Awesome! With these number of bugs and correspond ding fixes, I wonder how people played this game at all :-) This gives me the reason to pickup my old save game from the 90’s… I remember I got stuck in a dungeon on that bug infested green moon and never found a way out. Is this maybe a known bug?

I got really far into the game too and gave up in around 1999, maybe we were stuck at the same point? It's a shame because back then I was so HEAVILY invested in it. Phenomenal game but one I would no longer have time for

[alexh]

Originally Posted by vulture

I think the 1.16 English .ADFs are broken.

After clicking "Start New Quest", disk 1 will guru.

This happened previously with an older update, I think the issue was something to do with the files built incorrectly.

Report it here

https://github.com/Pyrdacor/Ambermoon/issues

[alexh]

Originally Posted by pipper

With these number of bugs and correspond ding fixes, I wonder how people played this game at all :-)

99.99% are cosmetic. You can finish the game with the original game data. There are about 4 places that made the game crash (in the English version) but you can avoid those places and still finish the game.

Originally Posted by pipper

I remember I got stuck in a dungeon on that bug infested green moon and never found a way out. Is this maybe a known bug?

I don't think so. Have a look :

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...98A/edit#gid=0

Originally Posted by blade002

I got really far into the game too and gave up in around 1999, maybe we were stuck at the same point? It's a shame because back then I was so HEAVILY invested in it.

You must have played it early on, 1998/1999 was when it was released (in English).

[TCD]

New teaser for Ambermoon Advanced: [ Show youtube player ]

[dlfrsilver]

incredibly pretty !

[kriz]

Wow, really epic work here !!