tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post4911858143706651680..comments2024-03-28T04:44:28.648-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: Game 412: DragonMaze (1993)CRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-20977663497096098022021-11-29T13:12:50.787-05:002021-11-29T13:12:50.787-05:00Sure! I meant to upload some of the missing sharew...Sure! I meant to upload some of the missing shareware versions a while ago, but it slipped my mind. This post turned out to be a helpful reminder for me. Thank you!<br /><br />I don’t have an account on the Repository, I’m afraid, but I do over at the Macintosh Garden. I’ve uploaded the missing versions on there, and included some information about the differences:<br /><br />https://macintoshgarden.org/games/dragon-maze<br /><br />I suggest you start with the ‘Grey Wizard’ campaign, since I think it’s the most interesting. It’s also a really good demonstration of the new features in v2.x. It’s pretty large, too. I couldn’t finish it in a single session!<br /><br />The other campaigns are also worth playing. In addition to what Chet’s written about in his blog post, there’s also the ‘Heart of Doom’, a non-linear campaign in an open-world setting. (Just be aware that it’s possible to stumble onto the final battle of this one by accident if you’re playing on easier difficulty settings!)<br /><br />I also suggest at least trying out v1.0. Monsters drop items in that version, which makes dealing with the opening snake gauntlet much, much easier!Ess-Eschasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-5675455914939311722021-11-28T23:49:40.621-05:002021-11-28T23:49:40.621-05:00Thank you for this post. I love this game and didn...Thank you for this post. I love this game and didn't know there was such a wealth of information on such an obscure game. It's especially intriguing that there are so many versions of it out there, when I was only aware of the 1.1 version. Please, if anybody has the updated versions, upload them to the Mac Repository, which has a page to the game, here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/3513-dragon-mazeJohnny Dannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-53112299999353844672021-07-05T18:27:36.456-04:002021-07-05T18:27:36.456-04:00I found the original DragonMaze on a CD-ROM Today ...I found the original DragonMaze on a CD-ROM Today disc when I was a kid. I always managed to die about ten seconds in, but we had a German exchange student who managed to progress quite far. She had a whole notebook full of tips and tricks for all the little shareware Mac games we had, although the only other one offhand I remember her playing was Oxyd.Bobby Peacocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-8509147250374105072021-07-04T23:32:22.937-04:002021-07-04T23:32:22.937-04:00When I was 8, we had a German exchange student who...When I was 8, we had a German exchange student who spent a lot of time playing the shareware games on our Mac. I know in particular she liked this one (version 1.1) and Oxyd, probably because the latter was a German game to begin with. Both of them came on CD-ROM Today if I remember correctly. She had a notebook full of tips and tricks that she either lost or took back to Germany with her. I wonder what she's doing now?<br /><br />I was surprised that she managed to do so much in Dragon Maze since I always seemed to die in one turn no matter what I did.TenPoundHammerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16877746392425680956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-58474570884658629812021-05-17T17:06:11.822-04:002021-05-17T17:06:11.822-04:00No worries at all. It’s nice to know this sort of ...No worries at all. It’s nice to know this sort of niche comment is appreciated!<br /><br />Thanks also for taking the time to dig out and cover these old Mac games, along with the rest of your project. These articles of yours are a great way to showcase older games, and briefly bring them to the attention of modern audiences. And they provide an great space for collecting information from fans too!<br /><br />Without modern attention, and an incentive to talk about them, games like DragonMaze could easily drift completely into oblivion. So thanks for your dedication, and the time you take looking into these games. Keep up the good work!<br /><br />To round off my previous post, here’s a little more DragonMaze trivia. I don’t have huge amounts of it, but there are a few more bits and pieces that might be worth putting here in the comments for posterity.<br /><br />1. DragonMaze 2.7 actually had several different shareware releases, each with a different free scenario. I only mentioned one scenario in my last post, since I forget there was a second. The two free scenarios I have are ‘Grey Wizard’ – a large, complex dungeon crawl – and ‘Heart of Doom’ – a non-linear scenario set above ground, featuring towns, forests, swamps, ruins, and so on. It’s possible there may be more free scenarios that I never got hold of. I’ll be sure to upload these somewhere, even if I don’t track down the full versions. That way, at least the shareware material will be archived somewhere!<br /><br />2. The full version of DragonMaze 2.7 has two modes. There’s the 10 floor, fixed-design dungeon ‘The Wizard’s Challenge’, as mentioned in the article. But there’s a separate roguelike module too, which I assume plays much like DragonMaze 1.0/1.1. So the roguelike elements of the earlier releases aren’t completely done away with!<br /><br />3. Versions 1.0/1.1 of DragonMaze are actually really easy to customise. All the information about monsters, items and so on – even their descriptions and art – is listed unencoded in the game’s resources. The resource values are even helpfully documented! So, armed with a copy of ResEdit, modding DragonMaze 1.0/1.1 is quite straightforward. This actually provides a nice customisable roguelike engine – although there are probably more convenient ones out there!<br /><br />4. For what it’s worth, this isn’t the only game released by ... by Design. They also released a whole bunch of strategic wargames, including ‘Musket Fire’, ‘Gettysburg’, ‘Ancient Warfare’, ‘American Civil War’, and so on. I’m not really familiar with these sorts of games, but I think they’re about as obscure as DragonMaze, if not more so. For fun, here’s an Archive link to their old website (although, sadly, there aren’t any DragonMaze downloads on there):<br /><br />https://web.archive.org/web/20080411063718/http://www.macwargames.com/DM.htmEss-Eschasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-42820013533917654552021-05-16T17:23:22.835-04:002021-05-16T17:23:22.835-04:00I really appreciate all the supplemental info. The...I really appreciate all the supplemental info. There's no information about DragonMaze 2 or II or any of the versions after 2.1 anywhere online (until now), so if people didn't take the time to leave comments like this, this type of information would be lost forever. CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-14299406866910000722021-05-16T15:23:08.350-04:002021-05-16T15:23:08.350-04:00Hey, that’s alright. After all, it’s probably bett...Hey, that’s alright. After all, it’s probably better that this information is posted somewhere useful, rather than just sitting around in my head!<br /><br />I wouldn’t say DragonMaze is my favourite game, more that I just happened to play it a fair amount over the years. In my opinion, once you’ve worked your way around the quirks, version 1.0/1.1 is a fun way to spend 20 minutes at the end of a busy day. I think it’s a good thing to have a few solid little games like that to hand, in amongst more chunky works!<br /><br />And yes, it’s always good to remember that every game has its fans, no matter how those games look at first glance! :)Ess-Eschasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-62244099267076205842021-05-15T21:50:07.397-04:002021-05-15T21:50:07.397-04:00Thanks for the great info, Ess!
Every game is som...Thanks for the great info, Ess!<br /><br />Every game is someone’s favourite.Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-39465607574012321972021-05-15T18:13:50.288-04:002021-05-15T18:13:50.288-04:00It’s a shame I didn’t notice that you were coverin...It’s a shame I didn’t notice that you were covering this until after your post! This is a series I have quite a lot of experience with, and I probably could have clued you into a few game issues that would have made writing this article much easier!<br /><br />Not least, I have DragonMaze 2.7, which is much superior to version 2.2. It improves pretty much every aspect of the gameplay, adds a few new mechanics (including a nice implementation of swimming), and comes with another free scenario that’s quite a lot longer than the Red Dragon, and better designed to boot: the Grey Wizard.<br /><br />For what it’s worth, version 2.7 describes itself as “DragonMaze II”, so could probably be considered a sequel. DragonMaze II seems to have initially been released in 1995, according to the docs and help, placing it a couple of years after the original DragonMaze. Shareware 2.7 isn't really worth a BRIEF just on its own, given you’ve covered 2.2 already, but it might potentially be worth revisiting in 1995 in its full version. If I ever come across a full copy, I’ll send it your way. In a strange coincidence, I’ve been chasing up a few leads myself, which are in slightly different places to the link that you give here. Actually, since you seem interested in the later release, would you like a copy of shareware 2.7 anyway?<br /><br />I also have version 1.0 which, bizarrely, is a little better balanced than 1.1, and has some additional features that are missing in the slightly later version (such as enemies dropping items, which makes the opening poison gauntlet far, far easier to deal with). I’m not really sure why version 1.1 was dummied down.<br /><br />In any case, you make a couple of mistakes about DragonMaze 1.1 in this article – quite understandably, given some of the odd quirks in the engine! Still, I thought I should just point them out, since this will probably be one of the few places search engines will point to for this game.<br /><br />1. The game actually *does* generate the crystal the lets you win the game: the red gem. The shareware version doesn’t actually let you do anything with it, since you can’t return to the starting floor in order to place it in the receptacle there and win the game, but it does appear. The reason you didn’t come across it is because of a separate bug. When you modify the dungeon statistics at the start of the game, those changes only take hold *after you leave the starting floor*. The starting floor is unaffected. If you specify a one-floor dungeon, the game gets unhappy – and won’t spawn a gem. Play with any other dungeon size, and you’ll get a gem on the final floor!<br /><br />2. The game definitely does spawn stairways. I’m not sure why you weren’t seeing them. If you didn’t quit and restart, maybe your game didn’t recover from you trying one-floor dungeons? In any case, there’s one set of stairs per floor, except for the floor on which the gem spawns. Actually – and I’m not sure if this is a bug or a feature – the stairway spawns in almost exactly the same place in every map, regardless of randomisation.<br /><br />3. Likewise, the Down Stairs Scroll works just fine for me, although I think the name is a bit misleading. It moves the field of view to be centred on that level’s stairs (which is usually unexplored, and so a blank screen). You can return to play just by scrolling the view back to the player character. Again, maybe this broke in 1-floor dungeons, since they might not have any stairs?<br /><br />4. So far as I know, the detached areas on the map are just there for show, to avoid fitting the dungeon into an artificial-looking square. Nothing of importance ever spawns in them.<br /><br />5. Ah, the Formatting Army error! That’s not actually time related, but comes from a field-of-view problem, possibly related to monster pathing. In my experience, it usually only happens when you use scrolls that reveal part of the map. The See All Scroll will trigger it without fail. It can happen in other circumstances too, but in my experience it’s extremely rare. If you just don’t use scrolls that show the map, there’s a good chance you’ll never see it!Ess-Eschasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-7436596269531843172021-05-14T21:42:03.203-04:002021-05-14T21:42:03.203-04:00I picked this one out of the list thinking it was ...I picked this one out of the list thinking it was one I hadn't read before, when it came out less than a week ago. There's too many games called Dragon ______.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14025511634630902101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-64264002394152460662021-05-14T18:00:06.766-04:002021-05-14T18:00:06.766-04:00>I have this sneaking suspicion that emulators ...>I have this sneaking suspicion that emulators (people who emulate) make it hard on purpose because I can never seem to find any clear, step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish anything. <br /><br />Well, my instructions were kind of vague because I was telling you how I would go about solving the problem. I don't have a direct answer for you, because I've never played that game. I'm pretty confident I could solve it, but you've said repeatedly that you don't want people investing a lot of time in this stuff, and I think it would probably take me multiple hours to generate a working WHDLoad image of this game. <br /><br />I was also trying to differentiate between the runtime WHDLoad, which is a small virtualization engine, versus WHDload-the-application, which creates virtual machines for the runtime. WHDLoad is rather like WinUAE in a sense; it lets an Amiga run programs for an alien Amiga, and provides the necessary OS shims to make it work. More modern emulators tend to come in one piece, but WHDLoad was architected as two... one to create the images, and one to actually run them. The application embeds the runtime into the image. That's why you keep seeing the WHDLoad splash screens all the time, showing you an exit key. That's the runtime in action. But that's not the whole story, it's only a piece. <br /><br />Running an image is supposed to be dirt-simple. Find an image, copy it onto your hard drive, double-click it. Done. <br /><br /><i>Creating</i> an image is much harder, and I was trying to give you the basic process of making your own from the original floppy images, with the additional advice that finding a premade image (that was done properly) would be better. <br /><br />I think the general reason you don't find step-by-step howtos is because the talent pool is relatively shallow. The online knowledge base is drawing from probably less than 15 million physical users, ever, and many of those will, sadly, have died by now. The Windows knowledge base draws from <b>billions</b>. It's a lot easier to find someone who's figured out how to run the specific game you want with a talent pool that deep. <br /><br />The Amiga in real life took a great deal of figuring out on your own, and it's only gotten harder with emulation. With the Internet, there's a lot more resources to make that learning easier, so that part is probably an overall wash, but finding the specific exact thing you need is much less likely than with a Windows problem. General guidelines, like my post above, are often the best you'll get. <br /><br />On the Amiga, it's quite possible that nobody living has succeeded at doing the thing you want. Or, if they are still alive, they may have forgotten how they did it. Malornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-73167982813949424192021-05-13T19:14:32.625-04:002021-05-13T19:14:32.625-04:00Speaking of which, one I haven't been able to ...Speaking of which, one I haven't been able to find is the full version of "Zanzi: Quest for the Mastercrown", a 1998 Zelda clone. Though it may be just desserts, as the game uses a lot of graphics from Ari Feldman's SpriteLib and I couldn't find any credits to him on the game's (archived) website or readme.txt.P-Tux7https://www.blogger.com/profile/03201162995038006540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-22672572396335603502021-05-13T16:18:59.899-04:002021-05-13T16:18:59.899-04:00Update: I have enough options for playing the game...Update: I have enough options for playing the game at this point, so no one else should waste their time on this.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-65667107679887541632021-05-13T15:34:57.279-04:002021-05-13T15:34:57.279-04:00OP, thanks for info. I'll keep in mind if I ne...OP, thanks for info. I'll keep in mind if I need to dabble with Amiga emulation again.PetrusOctavianusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-62509806640944135422021-05-13T14:39:08.441-04:002021-05-13T14:39:08.441-04:00The .exes are just WinUAE shortcuts as far as I ca...The .exes are just WinUAE shortcuts as far as I can tell. If it helps, here is the config file:<br /><br />AbandonedPlaces2WHD.uae<br /><br />https://pastebin.com/0sLUEaRdGBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15031332983375940560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-42517866545094799192021-05-12T22:20:39.122-04:002021-05-12T22:20:39.122-04:00Have you tried to switch the settings under quicks...Have you tried to switch the settings under quickstart to a different value and back to it's default value? Because when WinUAE is loaded with a configuration the quickstart options will stay on their default value, but are not reflecting the current config.Finckinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-33439631293959086572021-05-12T21:54:17.307-04:002021-05-12T21:54:17.307-04:00Thanks for checking it out. Something else must be...Thanks for checking it out. Something else must be amiss, then, because that just crashes the game for me. I'll try a fresh install of the emulator.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-11185838061783705952021-05-12T20:05:49.301-04:002021-05-12T20:05:49.301-04:00I managed to run the disk version of the Abandonde...I managed to run the disk version of the Abandonded Places 2 in WinUAE. I downloaded the version from the official site (Christmas 2001 release).<br /><br />In WinUAE I used the default config (under quickstart the one labeled with most common), inserted the disks and it worked. I created a party, started the game, fought a skeleton, was drown in a river and then adored the game over screen with nice synthy guitar sounds.<br /><br />Step by step instructions:<br /><br />- Settings->Quickstart<br /> Emulated Hardware: A500<br /> Configuration: 1.3 ROM, OCS, 512 KB Chip + 512 KB Slow RAM (most common)<br /><br />- Settings->Hardware->Floppy Drives<br />Select the Disk Images from the folder "game" (use the ... button), AP21.ADF goes into DF0:.<br />You can tick on all 4 floppy drives and insert the first 3 disks. <br />Then use the button "Create Standard Disk" to make a save game disk. Now insert this disk in DF3:.<br />You may also set the "Floppy Drive Emulation Speed" to the max (800%).<br /><br />Now you can press Start and play the game. When it is working you may want to save this settings in a config file under Settings->Configuration, once saved you can start the game with a double click on the configuration.<br /><br />btw, when the games asks you to insert disk 4, press F12, eject one of the inserted disks first, then select the image and press OK to return to the game.<br />Finckinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-73570527571231179212021-05-12T19:48:38.963-04:002021-05-12T19:48:38.963-04:00The Amiga fanbase is on the cultish side. The feel...The Amiga fanbase is on the cultish side. The feeling of everything assuming you already know most things is accurate - because most of the people making and using Amiga emulators are the sort who would very much know all the insider concepts.<br /><br />There are a lot of similarities to Apple fans, except that the Macintosh was designed around a "computers for complete idiots" mindset and the Amiga very much wasn't. So Mac emulation is nowhere near as complex.Gnomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13920812227941556716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-38897001634298462402021-05-12T18:32:11.797-04:002021-05-12T18:32:11.797-04:00I wasn't thrilled with the idea of allowing so...I wasn't thrilled with the idea of allowing some .exe I downloaded from a Czech web site admin privileges on my computer, but I suppose if enough people vouch for it, I'll do it. I was just holding out hope someone would say, "I have it working in WinUAE," and we're share configurations, and it would just turn out I had the wrong FPU setting or something. CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-9963430248935842382021-05-12T18:29:02.143-04:002021-05-12T18:29:02.143-04:00(To forestall any confusion, I realize that on tha...(To forestall any confusion, I realize that on that specific page, it provides a link to the ADF files used; they're the same ones I tried to use in a non-WHDLoad setup. I was just responding to Malor's general comment about having to hunt down the original disks used by the creator of the installer. I'm not even sure I'm using words correctly. This is hurting my head.)CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-87376260288550948132021-05-12T18:18:46.210-04:002021-05-12T18:18:46.210-04:00Emulators (the software) may not make it hard on p...Emulators (the software) may not make it hard on purpose, but I have this sneaking suspicion that emulators (people who emulate) make it hard on purpose because I can never seem to find any clear, step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish anything. The Amiga is the worst in this regard. Everything seems to assume you have an existing knowledge base and/or some existing technology. <br /><br />I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I need you or someone to break this down more simply. It sounds like you're saying that the "WHD Load" install of a game doesn't necessarily come with all the files necessary to run the game; that in fact you still have to track down the "exact floppy image that the recipe used." This seems insane to me. Why not just package it with the install?<br /><br />If I go to this site:<br /><br />http://www.whdload.de/games/AbandonedPlaces2.html<br /><br />And download the linked .lha file, what EXACTLY do I need to do to get this running with WinUAE? If it helps answer this, I have a "WHDLoad" configuration that has a mounted hard drive called "DH0." When I load the configuration and "Start," it brings me to a workbench in which I can access that hard drive. There are a couple of dozen games in there already. If I look at those games in Windows, it SEEMS like they all have the same file types as in that .lha file I linked. I swear I remember that in the past, all I had to do to get the "WHD Load" install of a game to work was to put it in the same directory. But maybe I'm misremembering.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-87664934361428361862021-05-12T18:02:59.926-04:002021-05-12T18:02:59.926-04:00I went to that web site and hit "Download.&qu...I went to that web site and hit "Download." I get this message: "Sorry, this file is infected with a virus. Only the owner is allowed to download infected files."CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-50664095902639361842021-05-12T18:00:08.324-04:002021-05-12T18:00:08.324-04:00"HWA Configuration." Christ alive. Is th..."HWA Configuration." Christ alive. Is there no end to the different technologies I have to learn for this platform?CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-79642630097719980822021-05-11T15:27:17.433-04:002021-05-11T15:27:17.433-04:00Sorry for bad englishSorry for bad englishAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com