Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Simeon]

I don't think anybody has reverse engineered Secret of the Silver Blades.

The original Curse codes where cut'n'paste from this page: http://simeonpilgrim.com/blog/2006/03/07/curse-of-the-azure-bonds-cheats/

 

[Thrasher]

OK, well, I got through it.

I'm playing PoD now.

Are there any hacks or command line arguments for it to get past the annoyances?

 

[buccaroobonzai]

Anyone played Buck Rodgers recently or remember some details from this biatch?

I have been playing it straight in Win XP without DOSbox and the combat rounds go faster then you can see! Am I missing some combat options I wonder haha? Should I play it in DOSbox?

Also, the first aid skill, is there any way to use it manually? Or in combat? It seems to be used by the computer intermittantly when it feels like it! I am getting worn down by random encounters so much by the time I get to the village/base on Mars/Venus etc. I enter a battle in the village/base with half HP already lost and I can heal my party, only waiting for after a battle. Any ideas?

I feel the combat is boring and tiresome in the beginning until you get grenades and launchers -stun, mist, chaff, frag, dazzle so you can affect areas and opponents. And with the plasma area effect damage you finally get close to the tactical options presented in the fantasy gold box games. There should be more effect weapons, stealth so you can sneak around and flank in combat, as well as more melee combat manuevers like cleave, reach weapons, trip, grapple etc. I wonder if any of the FRUA mods have added anything like that.

 

[ghostdog]

Should I play it in DOSbox?

yes

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Anyone played Buck Rodgers recently or remember some details from this biatch?

I have been playing it straight in Win XP without DOSbox and the combat rounds go faster then you can see! Am I missing some combat options I wonder haha? Should I play it in DOSbox?

Also, the first aid skill, is there any way to use it manually? Or in combat? It seems to be used by the computer intermittantly when it feels like it! I am getting worn down by random encounters so much by the time I get to the village/base on Mars/Venus etc. I enter a battle in the village/base with half HP already lost and I can heal my party, only waiting for after a battle. Any ideas?

I feel the combat is boring and tiresome in the beginning until you get grenades and launchers -stun, mist, chaff, frag, dazzle so you can affect areas and opponents. And with the plasma area effect damage you finally get close to the tactical options presented in the fantasy gold box games. There should be more effect weapons, stealth so you can sneak around and flank in combat, as well as more melee combat manuevers like cleave, reach weapons, trip, grapple etc. I wonder if any of the FRUA mods have added anything like that.

Definately play it in dos box, and use whatever setting that gets it right for all of your GB gaming. And first aid is useful mainly for bandaging characters that have went down, although it will get you a few HP after battles. The Doctor skill (am I remembering this correctly?) is the one to get for HP after fights. Pump it right up.

Has anyone played that Northstar game yet? Sword of the Stars?

 

[buccaroobonzai]

Northstar is not out yet, you can check out info and updates on the Kerberos sites:

http://northstar.wikidot.com/


http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22

 

[buccaroobonzai]

The mission setup is kinds skewed. The HQ liason tells you to investigate the asteroid belt first. Sa when you go there at lelvel 2 or such, the first thing you run into is a RAM bot with -4 AC you cant hit, and it has like a grenade launcher that crushes the party in 2-3 rounds.
The way I got around this was to go to Mars and Venus and run around taking on random encounters and keep flying back to base to get fixed up, and eventually level up until I could take on the main missions on the asteroid belt, Mars, and Venus. It took hours and hours of grinding to get there.

They could have made this one of the top classics with some changes in the design. More combat options, less grinding and more significant combat situations. They should have had more in game opportunities to use all of the cool skills available, I have not used more then half of the skills in the game yet. The game has all of these skills I thought you would need in the game to get through it, but so far over 80% of the game is based on combat skills and ability. Also a more detailed ship combat system would be great.
The freedom available from the get go to go to any of the mission locations is really coo though.

 

[Satori (original)]

Be sure to check out Space Quest too!

 

[Maxor127]

I've been trying to get the Amiga version of Pool of Radiance to work since it probably has the best graphics and sound of any version. However it's either buggy as hell or WinUAE doesn't emulate it properly because it loves to break when I try saving and my save states will eventually break too, leaving me with corrupt saves and forcing me to start over. That led me to look to see if a FRUA version existed, which led me to here. I installed the Pool of Radiance FRUA mod and UAShell, but I noticed a few oddities.

First, it seems that after patching FRUA to v1.2, MT-32 audio no longer works. I was using a special Munt compatible build of DosBox. Just throwing that issue out there to see if anyone knows what the problem is.

But my REAL question is, what's up with the minotaur and centaur icons when you create a character? I noticed ALL of the icons are different and some of them look better than the original, but the minotaur and centaur ones are completely out of place and glitchy. Makes me wonder if I have something installed wrong. Is there a way to mix and match the icons so I can have a mix of original and UAShell icons?

And I'm guessing the interface changes are intentional too? Pool of Radiance has a very dark interface and I can't even see the letters I type when naming a new character. Azure Bonds has a very blue interface. Looks like I can load the mods in directly through FRUA without UAShell and keep the original icons and interface, but I don't know if that will lead to any problems.

It's been forever since I played FRUA, and I had the Mac version. I only ever tried making my own mod and never messed with haks or mods or anything, mostly because the Mac version didn't work on newer Macs and the internet was still very young back then.

 

[mondblut]

I've been trying to get the Amiga version of Pool of Radiance to work since it probably has the best graphics and sound of any version. However it's either buggy as hell or WinUAE doesn't emulate it properly because it loves to break when I try saving and my save states will eventually break too, leaving me with corrupt saves and forcing me to start over.

Strange. While Amiga version is laggy, I never encountered any crashes or corruptions, unlike many other GB games I run on UAE. In floppy version, that is, WHDLoad one doesn't even work for me. Do you have latest UAE version? Floppy or WHDLoad POR?

First, it seems that after patching FRUA to v1.2, MT-32 audio no longer works. I was using a special Munt compatible build of DosBox. Just throwing that issue out there to see if anyone knows what the problem is.

No clue, don't even know what an MT32 is.

But my REAL question is, what's up with the minotaur and centaur icons when you create a character? I noticed ALL of the icons are different and some of them look better than the original, but the minotaur and centaur ones are completely out of place and glitchy. Makes me wonder if I have something installed wrong. Is there a way to mix and match the icons so I can have a mix of original and UAShell icons?

Icons are a separate hacked file. It's unlikely something is installed wrong. If you don't like the set, you can replace it with the default one or any other hacked set, standalone or taken from another module (the file is cbody.tlb, if I am not mistaken). To mix and match you would have to manually decompile the tlb and create a new one with a set of icons of your choice with special tools, not advisable to beginner.

And I'm guessing the interface changes are intentional too? Pool of Radiance has a very dark interface and I can't even see the letters I type when naming a new character. Azure Bonds has a very blue interface. Looks like I can load the mods in directly through FRUA without UAShell and keep the original icons and interface, but I don't know if that will lead to any problems.

It very well might lead to problems, as they might have many more hacks than just interface and cbody hacks. Just remove cbody.tlb and frame.tlb (I think that is the file with interface design, defining first 16 palette colors, which are also used for fonts) from the module folder and reapply it with UAShell - you should have original character icons and interface scheme back without messing anything else up.

 

[Maxor127]

For the Amiga version, I have the latest WinUAE version configured with the recommended settings that I found on back2roots. I'm using IPF images since I think the ADF ones worked even worse. Sometimes when I'd save, I'd get this error: "Software Error - Task held - Finish all disk activity." And save states would eventually have that error too when I try to load them. And now when I try to load the game, the OS says my save disk is corrupted and to use Diskdoctor. So I've pretty much given up. I have disk emulation at 800%, but I think it would do this when it was at 100% too.

I solved the MT-32 problem. It seems I was patching the game wrong, and it was having an odd effect.

I'm guessing the minotaur and centaur icons are supposed to be in the game since those .tlb files are inside the actual mod folder. I don't see what their point is though since they don't fit the game. There's a weird floaty imp icon too. I might still use it just because I like some of the other icons. I kind of miss making my own icons like in the old games. There wouldn't happen to be a mod for that, would there?

Which games had the custom icons you could make? I could've sworn Pools of Darkness had it, but I guess I was wrong. Weird how I have those icons fresh in my head, but I'm sure I didn't play the older games as much as Pools of Darkness or Dark Queen of Krynn. And when I did, they were probably on the C64, and I don't think it had the sort of detail I remember. That leaves the Amiga versions, which I barely played, the DOS versions which I barely played because I hated the sound, and the Mac versions which I barely played because they didn't work on newer Macs.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

What do you mean by 'icons'? You mean character models for combat? Or Pool of Radiance on the C64 which had the bodies and heads you could use for your characters in inventory? (with the hilarious option of mixing female heads/bodies with male heads/bodies).

 

[Maxor127]

I meant the combat icons where you can select the head and weapon and change the colors. Based on the mobygames screenshots, I assumed Pools of Darkness had pre-made icons like Unlimited Adventures, which went against my memories. I loaded up Pools of Darkness myself to see, and it uses the same combat icon system as the other games. Dark Queen of Krynn definitely uses pre-made icons though.

 

[mondblut]

For the Amiga version, I have the latest WinUAE version configured with the recommended settings that I found on back2roots. I'm using IPF images since I think the ADF ones worked even worse. Sometimes when I'd save, I'd get this error: "Software Error - Task held - Finish all disk activity." And save states would eventually have that error too when I try to load them.

Dunno, I used .adf at 800% and never had such a problem. Didn't play it much though, too lagging.

I'm guessing the minotaur and centaur icons are supposed to be in the game since those .tlb files are inside the actual mod folder. I don't see what their point is though since they don't fit the game. There's a weird floaty imp icon too. I might still use it just because I like some of the other icons.

Well, these icons are inserted into cbody by designer's intent, as for why, beats me Are they normal-sized (1 cell), or some experiment with high and wide icons in cbody? I've been away from FRUA scene for so many years, don't have a clue on its more recent hacking developments.

I kind of miss making my own icons like in the old games. There wouldn't happen to be a mod for that, would there?

Impossible. FRUA, just like DQK it is based on (and Buck Rogers games too) doesn't have icon generation utility. The farthest you can go is make icons you want in any goldbox that supports it, screencap them, crop, convert to pcx and use special tools developed by FRUA community to compile these icons into a new cbody.

Which games had the custom icons you could make? I could've sworn Pools of Darkness had it, but I guess I was wrong.

Pools of Darkness had icon generation. DQK is the only one among the 9 "proper" goldboxes not to feature it.

 

[Maxor127]

The minotaur icon is two spaces high and the centaur icon is two spaces wide. So they're not normal sized and they don't represent any playable race in the mod or in any FRUA/Gold Box game I've heard of.

I used to make my own icons when I dabbled in FRUA back in the day. I guess i'll have to learn how to edit those tlb files. I'll probably just use whatever the mod offers me.

On the subject of Buck Rogers... are there any mods for those? The cheap PC speaker sounds in Matrix Cubed always bugged me. The old DOS versions of SSI games would be so much better with a sound upgrade from PC speaker sound.

If only I could get the old Mac versions to work properly, I'd be set. Thanks for the help.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I thought Matrix Cubed had soundblaster options? Could have sworn I remember this... It is the only one I ever played on dos (only because it never came out on C64 or Amiga).

 

[Maxor127]

Matrix Cubed has different options for music, like Sound Blaster and Roland, but sound effects, like lasers and walking, etc. all sound like cheap PC speaker effects.

 

[mondblut]

The minotaur icon is two spaces high and the centaur icon is two spaces wide. So they're not normal sized and they don't represent any playable race in the mod or in any FRUA/Gold Box game I've heard of.

Probably just a gimmick then. "Look, a first ever (or not) mod with larger-than-man-sized character icons".

 

[Maxor127]

I just spent over an hour trying to figure out why I kept sometimes getting normal text and sometimes blue text in FRUA whenever I tried loading the PoR or CotAB mods from UA-Shell. I thought I had it all figured out at first when everything looked normal. Then suddenly I kept getting blue text and I didn't know why. I thought something was installed wrong, so I deleted everything and reinstalled and I was still getting blue text in the game. Restarted the computer, reinstalled again, redownloaded, did everything but still blue text. Turns out, if I press ESC at the intro screen, it makes the text blue for some reason. The text loads normal if you press space bar instead. I guess I'd been pressing space bar and subconsciously switched to pressing ESC. So anyone else wondering why they're getting ugly colored text, press space bar instead of ESC at the title screen.

I started messing with removing tlb files and thought I did something wrong. The Curse of Azure Bonds blue interface was annoying me because I kept seeing something called "Deep Purple by Debbi Rapp" flash in the picture area for a split second. It's especially noticeable when encamping. So I replaced the interface with the original. And there are a couple original combat icons I can't live without so I replaced the combat icons with the originals as well.

One thing I noticed that's bothering me is that newly created characters start out way too old. I'll try creating a human 1st lvl ranger, and I'm lucky if I generate him as younger than 30.

 

[mondblut]

Turns out, if I press ESC at the intro screen, it makes the text blue for some reason. The text loads normal if you press space bar instead.

Hah, I remember that peculiarity, it used to puzzle me for a while on hacked mods too. The game looks into frame.tlb (probably) for a color it uses for a font if you press space, but into some other file - likely the one with cursors, unless they are part of frame.tlb as well, which I don't remember - if you hit escape. With default interface both colors are the same, so you won't see the difference, but with hacked files these colors are often different.

UPD: no, I remember now. The problem is with introduction sequence actually. If you let it play out or skip it with space, the font colors load properly from wherever they are, frame or whatever file holds cursors. But if you skip it with escape, it somehow aborts incorrectly, and overrides that palette color that is used for font. It happens even in vanilla FRUA, with no hacks to frame, cursors or introduction.

I started messing with removing tlb files and thought I did something wrong. The Curse of Azure Bonds blue interface was annoying me because I kept seeing something called "Deep Purple by Debbi Rapp" flash in the picture area for a split second. It's especially noticeable when encamping. So I replaced the interface with the original. And there are a couple original combat icons I can't live without so I replaced the combat icons with the originals as well.

I remember the name, she used to be one of more prolific FRUA artists. A lot of files by her @ Rosedragon. Sometimes generic pics take a split second to load, and you can see leftover junk from some hacked files (frame, likely) flash at the moment.

Dunno, I think the default DQK/FRUA cbody is pretty fugly. I used to have my own cbody compiled out of the best handpicked icons out there, and put it into all the mods I played. I think I even put it into DQK at my last playthrough (the file format is identical).

One thing I noticed that's bothering me is that newly created characters start out way too old. I'll try creating a human 1st lvl ranger, and I'm lucky if I generate him as younger than 30.

Starting age can be changed in editor mode, I think. If not, and age limits are hardcoded in exe, then it might be hacked too.

 

[Maxor127]

Yeah, I was never too fond of the original character icons either, but there are a few I've grown attached to, like the blonde girl with the mace I use for a cleric, and the white bearded guy with a staff I use for a wizard, and the hooded guy in a dark robe with a knife I use for a rogue. I've tried looking into editing the cbody.tlb but I don't know where to begin. Can't find any guides online. I see a UAShell doc that says:

CBODDEF.MNY: This file restores the default versions of the PC icons.

CBODEDIT.MNY: This file runs Dan Autery's CBEDIT programs to import PC
icons from PCX or TLB files.

CBODSAVE.MNY: This file shells out to DOS. Once you return to UA-Shell,
this file offers you the chance to save any changes that
you may have made to the file CBODY.TLB."

But I can't figure out how to run these programs. I couldn't figure out how to change the age in the editor either. Did you mean the UAShell editor or the standard FRUA editor?

 

[Flux_Capacitor]

The UAShell download doesn't actually include those programs. They were written by several other people, and you need to download each of them separately. Instead, I believe UAShell logs the changes (in the DIFF.TBL file) made when you launch those programs through it, so you can back them out later.

Here's a place where you can download the programs you're looking for:
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/hacks/

UAShell should include instructions on how to 'install' them so that UAShell can make use of them properly.

I don't remember if there's an editor for making changes to a character's age. Does age even do anything in the game? I can't recall any time where it ever mattered. If you're familiar with hex editing, you could just make the changes in the character's file. The file format is pretty basic, so it shouldn't be difficult.

 

[Maxor127]

Thanks, I figured it out after downloading the program from the link you directed me to. Don't know if there's an easier way, but I loaded the characters in a game and took snapshots of their animations, deleted the backgrounds, pasted them in the DRAWCPIC.PCX, and imported them over the icons I hated the most. Everything looks good. This is making me want to restart my old module. It's probably been 15 years since I last worked on it though.

 

[Maxor127]

I must like frustrating myself. I started playing Pools of Darkness for DOS and I noticed it has cheap sounding sound effects like Matrix Cubed. I grew up playing the Mac version, and it has much better sound effects, but the music doesn't sound as good. And the intro isn't animated in the Mac version, but the maps and portrait animations are all the same. Very odd. I think I'd rather have those shortcomings and better sound effects though since those are what you hear through 90% of the game. The graphics are pretty much the same, but the Mac version has an interface more similar to Unlimited Adventures, but it lets you create your combat icons like Pools of Darkness and older Gold Box games. The Mac effects sound the same as what you hear in Unlimited Adventures. I tried the Amiga version just to check it out, and it's pretty much the same as the Mac version but the music sounds a little better, but that's more personal preference comparing music between the three platforms. Sound effects and interface are the same as the Mac version, but the Amiga backdrops and walls and tiles are FUGLY. I don't understand how they can have great looking VGA graphics and such ugly interior/exterior graphics.

I guess there's no way to get the Unlimited Adventures sound effects in Pools of Darkness for DOS? I'm assuming Dark Queen of Krynn has FRUA-style sound effects too? I hate when games have the best that they have to offer spread across different platforms. I'll stop asking questions that no one cares about but me now.

 

[Thrasher]

Almost done with my full run through. I beat the final triple showdown on my first try. This after expending a lot of spells to stop the clock (to no avail I might add), and exploring some of the other rooms.

I'm trying Dave's challenge tonight. if anyone has some ideas I'd like to hear them.