Silver Blades

[manikus]

Wow. Pretty impressive. I assume that like FRUA (which I know the most about on the code side) the DAX file has monster fields that are all the same number of bits and follow the same format, so it's just a matter of pulling the data in the correct length from the correct spot?

That doesn't sound too bad. But, through FRUA, I can just look in the monster editor and do it the easy way.

[Shadow Stranger]

That is the what I was expecting, what I actually found was: the records were stored in areas of variable length! After removing the names, the records seemed to range from 71 through 109 bytes. So I needed to take the thing from Excel into Word to adjust the lengths of the lines.

This file starts with the little-endian hex for 630. There are 70 sequences of nine bytes each, these give the start locations of each record. Each sequence has the number 0 thru 98, the start location, four numbers that are the same for all sequences and the length of a given record. (Number 0 thru 98, not all numbers are actually used.)

As for what the numbers in the records actually mean, I am still working on that. FRUA, this will enable me to compare the records with what is created by me.

Edit:
FRUA is seriously dead! I could not find a single module download page that was still functional.

[manikus]

Really? Check this out ->
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/modules/

I think there are about 400 to 500 modules for download. In other directories at this site, there are the hacks/art/news letters/etc.

The FRUA community has about 500 members of the Yahoo list with maybe a dozen or two fairly active members. They still put out mods, hacks and art. (If you want this link, let me know.)

[Shadow Stranger]

Good stuff.

I was able to download and install FRUA. Everything went as it should. I copied the files onto floppies first just to make sure things went smoothly.

By contrast, with SSB the install.bat does nothing much. When activated from the floppy drive it just flashes some message then quits, a message too fast to actually read.

From the hard drive it tells me that there is a flaw in the command, it just generally gives me the run around.

Running start.exe will get me to the character creation screen but I can't actually save. (I could try tampering with blades.cfg.) The entire game occupies about 1.05 MB, am I missing anything. If the files are compressed I would need to install them to uncompress them.

[manikus]

I was having similar problems with SotSB until I started running it under DOSBox. I had the same issue with a couple of the other Goldbox games. But, running them under DOSBox seemed to do the trick.

If you're not familiar with Icestorm9999, check out his site for all of the Goldbox games as well as tips and tricks on how to run them.
http://www.icestorm9999.com/1.html

[Shadow Stranger]

The OldDosBox is up and running. Now the demo is shown at a normal speed. But still the program refuses to accept the file “install.bat”, I keep hitting the first error condition below:
“echo Please change to the directory that contains the
echo Secret of the Silver Blades Program and re-run install.
echo Note: type "install" in all lower-case letters.”

I delete the relevant five lines and replace them with “goto fine”, then I get:
'xcopy' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

Looking at the file, it might be expecting two floppy disks not one. For reference this the text of the batch file:

echo off
cls
echo %0
pause
if "%0.bat" == "install.bat" goto fine
echo Please change to the directory that contains the
echo Secret of the Silver Blades Program and re-run install.
echo Note: type "install" in all lower-case letters.
goto exit

:fine
if "%1" == "" goto nodrive
if "%2" == "" goto nodrive
echo Installing as %1:\%2
md %1:\%2
xcopy install.bat %1:\%2 /s
if not exist %1:\%2\install.bat goto died
copy *.* %1:\%2 >nul
if exist dungcom.dax goto cdone

:nodrive
echo Usage: install X Y
echo where X=letter of your hard disk.
echo where Y=name of the directory
echo Example: install c SECRET
goto exit

:died
echo There was an error creating %1:\%2
echo Secret of the Silver Blades was not installed.
goto exit

:wrongo
echo Install must be run from the Secret of the Silver Blades Cd only.
goto exit

:cdone
cd %1:\%2
%1:
cls
echo Secret of the Silver Blades is now installed.
echo Run START.EXE to start playing
:exit

[manikus]

Icestorm helped me with my issues, but I can't recall what it was I needed to do.

I know I didn't mess around with any of the .bat files, but I'm also running DOSBox through a front-end - D.O.G.

[Shadow Stranger]

The version from Icestorm has the same problem with install batch file but it is running normally enough. Currently I can't move though, have to look into this. Party members can rest and cast, just can't move.

Edit: the Move command, forgot about that.

The not so good news is that if the game is working that means the files are all as they should be. Currently they make little sense when I try to decrypt them.

As for FRUA modules, they could be converted into Dungeon Craft mods, this should be simple enough.

[manikus]

Dungeon Craft actually allows you to import FRUA mods. You have to have the art in place (to autoload) or you can import the art afterward.

When CocoaSpud started working on DC, one of his main goals was to be able to import and play FRUA mods.

[Shadow Stranger]

I found the maps file. Using the freeware hex editor Hexplorer I opened the file "geo1.dax". Fill function enabled me to replace every byte in the selected area with a single byte of constant value. I turned everything after place 108 into a zero: 3,782 bytes of various values were turned into 3,782 instances of the byte with value zero.

This made all the terrain vanish, except for the first five lines of New Verdigris.

Now I don't know what to make of what I find. There is no readily obvious 1:1 pairing of a square in the game with a byte in the file. Gold Box games had fairly simple terrain, their maps might have used a modular approach. Each building is a module with a number, to record a map you would need a list of modules with the coordinates of where they were found. Or it might be a matter of recording walls and doors.

Edit:
I don’t know how Gold Box games work. It may be the case that if a wall divides two squares that it is considered to exist in both squares at once. If you want to conserve space on a floppy disk you want to minimize the number of bytes used to record the town map. It is good if it equals the number of squares, but that really narrows the options down. Four sides per square means only two bits per side for a byte equals 8 bits. Each side can have a door, a wall, nothing, an arch or some special terrain like a stairway. Now two bits can only record four separate possible states, and here we already have five possibilities.

It might be based upon the wall segment not the square, the terrain is basically walls anyway. My impression is that the map has a 1:1 correlation to the number of town squares but the terrain has no simple connection.


Edit:
I am now checking 100 bytes at a time.
I turned everything after address 608 into a 0, this meant that no doors and signs were functional in New Verdigris.
Doing this at address 704 onwards meant that most signs but no doors were functional.
Doing this at address 800 meant that all signs and two doors worked.
At address 900 meant that everything in New Verdigris seemed to work.

At address 1,000: bits of the old Verdigris ruins appeared in the northwest of the area (of the ruins), apart from that the ruins were just empty space .