Ambermoon

PiCiJi · 22 August 2005, 18:00

a few things I have seen.

Ambermoon was released in late 1993. There is no PC conversion. The english version of Ambermoon is a fan translation. Ambermoon consists of 9 disks. The tenth is the savegame disk and generated by the game.

Hmm there is a compilation released in 7990 :-)

robotriot · 23 August 2005, 10:45

The Thalion shrine claims the translation was official:

After years of thinking this classic game was only ever going to be fully playable by gamers able to read German. An English version has emerged. I think this is excellent. It is not a hack/translation but an official product that was never published due to the demise of ThalionTM. It seems to be complete (It was the final version) although I have not played it to the end. As you can see from the picture on the right, it was version 1.07 (The last version of the German Ambermoon I have seen was v1.05)

PiCiJi · 23 August 2005, 11:16

thanks for info.

Is the version 1.07 related to the english speech only? Because there is an annoying bug in the dungeon on the forest moon. You have to save very carefully or you can't complete the game. Another bug, I can remember, accidently the lady in the house of healer give you the false key.

ok wrong topic

Marcuz · 23 August 2005, 19:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiCiJi

Hmm there is a compilation released in 7990 :-)

? what's 7990?

lopos2000 · 23 August 2005, 19:23

7990 = 1990 I think.

PiCiJi · 23 August 2005, 20:40

In HOL there is the option "year releasd is" 1995, 96 ect. 7990

.

alexh · 24 August 2005, 09:51

Ambermoon was released in 1993. The English version is NOT a fan translation it is the original. Although never published it was finished by Thalion and lived in the authors disk box for 5 years until it was sent to me in 1998.

The v1.07 has 26 known bugs, non of which prevent you finishing the game. Myself and two other Amiga programmers have produced a patch to fix all these bugs, however with no beta testers I was reluctant to give it out.

I do remember talking to some people about bugs on the Forrest Moon and the Healer thing, however they couldnt be reproduced.

Code:

1) Burnville - Map labels in German * FIXED *

2) Snakesign - Map labels in German * FIXED *

3) Newlake   - Map labels in German * FIXED *

4) LUMINOR's TOWER 3 - text on the door to Valdyn typo * FIXED *

5) BEAST's CAVE - Skeleton's text typo * FIXED *

6) PALACE OF PELANIS - bad-translated hint, 'WORRYING' changed to 'CONCERNS'

7) TEMPLE OF GALA - crystal ball's text typo * FIXED *

8) TEMPLE OF GALA - ba-translated hint, '' changed to 'GALA MUST STAND IN A BRIGHT GLOW'

9) ILLIEN - riddlemouth in SE corner cannot be answered due to two "ring" in the dictionaryenglish.file one of the 'RING' replaced with 'LOST RING'. * FIXED *

10) WHIRLPOOL - missed textblock * FIXED *

11) LYRAMION [0,0] - bug when sailing/flying near this point * fixed *

12) SAND LIZARD - untranslated 'SANDCHSE' changed to 'SAND LIZARD' * FIXED *

13) SANSRIE'S TUNNEL - SANSRIE'S KEY doesnt open tunnel door * FIXED *

14) PELANIS - Several entries refer to 'PELANIS' as 'PELANI' ( 2Map_texts.amb : 1A0.amb, 1A1,amb )

15) SANSRIES TEMPLE - mismatched textures between 2nd and 3rd and 1st and second floors ( down has stairs going up and up has stairs going down )

16) ILLIEN : 'Lendrai's Magic Weapon: open 9 AM to 7 PM' corrected to '9 AM to 5 PM' ( 2Map_texts.amb : 1A0.amb [22/07/01] )

17) WINDGATES : Bitmap corruption at Gemstone (310;736) and Illien (283;250)

18) ($B4) vs ($27) - All the 'S places i.e. WITCH's HOUSE had a ($B4) instead of a ($27) hence didnt show up as "'S" ( 1-2-3Map_texts.amb, dictionaryenglish.file [12/07/01] )

19) LIBARY - typo in dictionary file, LIBARY changed to LIBRARY [12/07/01]

20) MOP - "Mother-o-pearl chai" changed to "MOTHER OF PEARL CHAIN" (AM2_CPU/AM2_BLT [11/07/01])

21) "CHAMBERS OF THE HEAD PRIEST" : too long for map view, changed to "HEAD PRIST'S CHAMBERS" ( 2Map_texts.amb, 1B0.amb [07/07/01] )

22) Zombie Meister - corrected to 'MASTER' ( Monster_char_data.amb, 008.amb [01/June/01] )

23) Burnville - House of artists now has a CR after the cartographers name ( 2Map_texts.amb 11D.amb [03/June/01] )

24) Thieves' Guild shop : Open from 1PM to 8PM corrected to "1 AM to 8 AM" ( 2Map_texts.amb, 109.amb [3/June/01] )

25) Father Antonius mismatch - One string corrected to Anthony "FATHER ANTONIUS TAKES THE FLOWER AND THE WATER OF LIFE FROM YOU AND MIXES THEM" ( NPC_texts.amb, 002.amb [03/June/01] )

26) Lebab's Tower Brass - "hangs a parchment::" removed one ':' ( 1Map_texts.amb, 0B9.amb [05/jul/01] )

alexh · 24 August 2005, 10:03

I think whoever created the HOL entry for Ambermoon got confused with Amberstar which does have a PC conversion. There never was a PC version of Ambermoon.

A PC version of ambermoon was in the pipeline, programmed by the same team which did the PC version of Amberstar. Written in a mixture of Turbo Pascal and Assembler. The authors of the "never finished" PC version of Ambermoon were Frank Usner and Gino Fehr.

alexh · 24 August 2005, 10:19

I notice that HOL has a "magazine review" category. If you need some reviews of Ambermoon feel free to nick them from my site

PiCiJi · 24 August 2005, 19:43

uhh a lot of bugs, so I am playing the german version. ok i am german, so its easy said. The two bugs I mentioned earlier are very easy to reproduce in the german version. to solve it, you have to save and load a few times. so no real inconveniences for everybody who knows it.

No, not the lady in the house of the healer can give you the false key, I wrote earlier, but the chest, you can open with her key contains sometimes the false key, if I remember correct

CodyJarrett · 24 August 2005, 19:52

Thanks alex - I've updated the entry and removed the PC conversion info.

Would you also have screenshots of Ambermoon throughout the game? The entry only has 8 at the moment.

alexh · 25 August 2005, 01:15

More important than more screenshots would be to have the GameMap and the RUNES table, without which the game is almost unplayable. (Both are available on the Ambermoon section of the Thalion Webshrine)

alexh · 25 August 2005, 01:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiCiJi

uhh a lot of bugs

Not really, most are cosmetic due to the game never being beta tested and being migrated from the German version. Non of the bugs prevent the game from being completed, however the English version does have several places where the game will crash if not patched (those areas can be avoided though and have no significance in the game as a whole).

Because no-one was prepared to play the game through from start to finish with the patches in place I have been reluctant to release them just incase they introduced worse side effects.

Michael Bonish, a Thalion fan, has written the webshrine a 100% comprehensive walkthrough of the game (in a text file) documenting every aspect of Ambermoon downto the finest detail. It's truly awesome. Unfortunately it contains too many spoilers in close contact for the average gamer (look for one hint, read 3 others for something you've not got to yet). I keep meaning to convert it to the Universal Hint System (UHS). However you can ask any question about Ambermoon's puzzles to the Thalion Yahoo group and I answer it within 24 hrs.

PiCiJi · 25 August 2005, 10:58

oh thanks for the walkthrough.txt , I am looking into it. I wonder if there is anything, we didn't find out. We played the game really hard in 1993 or (and) 1994.
looking for illusion walls, getting Tarbos and so on.

PiCiJi · 30 August 2005, 10:10

My version of Ambermoon is 1.01. So I have downloaded the version 1.05 from Thalion Webshrine. However the game displays version 1.01 too. I don't get it.

Is it possible to have a look in a file of the game which contents all game text. What editor I need? So I can correct a lot of spelling mistakes in german version.

alexh · 30 August 2005, 10:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiCiJi

Is it possible to have a look in a file of the game which contents all game text. What editor I need? So I can correct a lot of spelling mistakes in german version.

All of the files are joined, then encrypted then packed. You need the unpacker, the decryptor and a program to split and join the files together. The files are in ASCII with ctrl codes embedded.

All tools are not readily available. It's too easy to screw up and make broken files. All the files have CRC's in them, you change any character and you also have to change the CRC.

If you REALLY REALLY want to have a go, you could start by using the AMBtool of http://amberworld.sourceforge.net/ although I dont think it can put them back together.

Feel free to document all the spelling mistakes you can find and if we ever find time to program a reliable tool for editing amb files (auto unpack / compress / encryption / crc) then the changes will be easy.

PiCiJi · 30 August 2005, 13:53

ok I have used ambtool in order to read the game texts. Of course the files contain binary. So what editor is usefull in order to save the changes correct and not to change binary. So that someone can make new amb files.

alexh · 30 August 2005, 14:26

Answer You cannot... you have to change the binary too because it contains (among other things) the string CRC's, formatting (italic, bold, flashing etc.)!, page sizes etc.

There is no simple text edit... fix spelling... save... methodology

If you accidentally remove some important formatting the game WILL crash.
If you change any text and dont update the CRC's or get them wrong the game WILL crash.
If you add more characters so the text window now needs to scroll and you get the page size wrong the game WILL crash.

That said though... if you want to edit any file which contains binary... use a HEX editor.

dlfrsilver · 30 August 2005, 20:12

i would really love to translate in french the whole game, with the help of a programmer
^^. CFOU! would you like that idea ? i translate, you include the files and work ^^ ?

Mail me interested ^^

macce2 · 03 September 2005, 13:23

It's really a shame if the English version is unstable. The game is really cool, I think.
I am currently playing english version of Amberstar and would like to play more english version of Ambermoon in the future.

22 August 2005, 18:00	#1
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	Ambermoon a few things I have seen. Ambermoon was released in late 1993. There is no PC conversion. The english version of Ambermoon is a fan translation. Ambermoon consists of 9 disks. The tenth is the savegame disk and generated by the game. Hmm there is a compilation released in 7990 :-) Last edited by PiCiJi; 22 August 2005 at 20:06.

24 August 2005, 19:43	#10
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	uhh a lot of bugs, so I am playing the german version. ok i am german, so its easy said. The two bugs I mentioned earlier are very easy to reproduce in the german version. to solve it, you have to save and load a few times. so no real inconveniences for everybody who knows it. No, not the lady in the house of the healer can give you the false key, I wrote earlier, but the chest, you can open with her key contains sometimes the false key, if I remember correct Last edited by PiCiJi; 24 August 2005 at 19:52.

25 August 2005, 01:15	#12
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 13,986	More important than more screenshots would be to have the GameMap and the RUNES table, without which the game is almost unplayable. (Both are available on the Ambermoon section of the Thalion Webshrine) Last edited by alexh; 25 August 2005 at 01:24.

30 August 2005, 14:26	#18
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 13,986	Answer You cannot... you have to change the binary too because it contains (among other things) the string CRC's, formatting (italic, bold, flashing etc.)!, page sizes etc. There is no simple text edit... fix spelling... save... methodology If you accidentally remove some important formatting the game WILL crash. If you change any text and dont update the CRC's or get them wrong the game WILL crash. If you add more characters so the text window now needs to scroll and you get the page size wrong the game WILL crash. That said though... if you want to edit any file which contains binary... use a HEX editor. Last edited by alexh; 30 August 2005 at 14:33.

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23 August 2005, 10:45	#2
robotriot Tubby mechanical friend Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Regensburg / Germany Posts: 107	The Thalion shrine claims the translation was official: After years of thinking this classic game was only ever going to be fully playable by gamers able to read German. An English version has emerged. I think this is excellent. It is not a hack/translation but an official product that was never published due to the demise of ThalionTM. It seems to be complete (It was the final version) although I have not played it to the end. As you can see from the picture on the right, it was version 1.07 (The last version of the German Ambermoon I have seen was v1.05)

23 August 2005, 11:16	#3
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	thanks for info. Is the version 1.07 related to the english speech only? Because there is an annoying bug in the dungeon on the forest moon. You have to save very carefully or you can't complete the game. Another bug, I can remember, accidently the lady in the house of healer give you the false key. ok wrong topic

23 August 2005, 19:23	#5
lopos2000 Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cider is best In The West Posts: 1,238	7990 = 1990 I think.

23 August 2005, 20:40	#6
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	In HOL there is the option "year releasd is" 1995, 96 ect. 7990 .

24 August 2005, 10:03	#8
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 13,986	I think whoever created the HOL entry for Ambermoon got confused with Amberstar which does have a PC conversion. There never was a PC version of Ambermoon. A PC version of ambermoon was in the pipeline, programmed by the same team which did the PC version of Amberstar. Written in a mixture of Turbo Pascal and Assembler. The authors of the "never finished" PC version of Ambermoon were Frank Usner and Gino Fehr.

24 August 2005, 10:19	#9
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 13,986	I notice that HOL has a "magazine review" category. If you need some reviews of Ambermoon feel free to nick them from my site

24 August 2005, 19:52	#11
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,148	Thanks alex - I've updated the entry and removed the PC conversion info. Would you also have screenshots of Ambermoon throughout the game? The entry only has 8 at the moment.

25 August 2005, 10:58	#14
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	oh thanks for the walkthrough.txt , I am looking into it. I wonder if there is anything, we didn't find out. We played the game really hard in 1993 or (and) 1994. looking for illusion walls, getting Tarbos and so on.

30 August 2005, 10:10	#15
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	My version of Ambermoon is 1.01. So I have downloaded the version 1.05 from Thalion Webshrine. However the game displays version 1.01 too. I don't get it. Is it possible to have a look in a file of the game which contents all game text. What editor I need? So I can correct a lot of spelling mistakes in german version.

30 August 2005, 13:53	#17
PiCiJi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: germany Age: 44 Posts: 349	ok I have used ambtool in order to read the game texts. Of course the files contain binary. So what editor is usefull in order to save the changes correct and not to change binary. So that someone can make new amb files.

30 August 2005, 20:12	#19
dlfrsilver CaptainM68K-SPS France Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Melun nearby Paris/France Age: 46 Posts: 10,106	i would really love to translate in french the whole game, with the help of a programmer ^^. CFOU! would you like that idea ? i translate, you include the files and work ^^ ? Mail me interested ^^

03 September 2005, 13:23	#20
macce2 Retro maniac Join Date: May 2005 Location: Finland Age: 48 Posts: 1,205	It's really a shame if the English version is unstable. The game is really cool, I think. I am currently playing english version of Amberstar and would like to play more english version of Ambermoon in the future.

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