Kroah

Hi, I'm 29 and live in France at Orléans (near Paris) working as project manager (and sometimes as developer). I've played my first game on Atari 2600 and my father bought the Atari 800 XL (initially with a tape recorder, but quickly got the costly 1050 disk drive) and on which we were spending nights copying code (full of bugs) from a french magazine named "Hebdogiciel". My next computers were an Atari 520 STF upgraded to a 1040 and an Amiga 500 (for my brother). I hated the war between those 2 computers because both have strength and weakness. I have no special hardware nor any of these systems at home (everything stocked at my parents home). Cheers, Pascal (Kroah)

Hi all, The ST Version uses at least 2 simultaneous palettes. One for the view representation (exterior, buildings interior), one for the text (top and bottom). Personally, i've played the 8bits and 16bits on Atari and i've found them very similar in the gameplay. Even if the gfx are really different on Atari ST, i love them. I've played on Amiga and PC too, but found them like unfinished. The atari 8bits version is far superior from the others, but the disks accesses are killing the game. I'm actually decompiling the Atari ST version of the game (and not the 8bits) because it progressively keeps everything in memory (easier to work on). I thought the coding was much simpler (it's a port) but, heh, it's like a mini multi-tasking environnement with function vectors everywhere. I've found lot of interactions between stats like the 8bits version does. For me, it sustains this version is really similar to the original (with some added features like spells). But it will only be confirmed when someone will have decompiled the 8bits version. And it's not an easy one. What do you think about the differences between the Atari ST and 8bits version ? Kroah

Thank you James. The disk images you've sent me work perfectly. I don't think so. The gfx of the PC version with different video mode (CGA, EGA, VGA and Tandy) and the levels aren't the same. But they're similar to the Coco version:

Thank you all for your kind words. This push me everyday to keep on working Like Blake said it, i've added a preview of my tool to my site. Next I will add (when ready) a ST disk containing new levels. And finally i'll release the editor. @Cybergoth: the release of the source code is planned, but i must clean it before. It's not on my priority list PS: If anyone has got a playable color version of the disk image on Coco, i'll be really happy

The VSTR string is coded like this: | V S T R | $36 $33 $34 $32 And JAYS will be: | J A Y S | $2A $21 $39 $33 I have found 5 occurences of the VSTR string in my disk image at addresses: $2400 $2681 $38CE $4C0B $4E40 After replacing them, the game plays fine with the new name. I've attached the modified disk. Regards, Pascal Star_League_Baseball___Jays.zip

Hey, please don't do that! Every game is a pleasure on its own and yours is really promising. Even if you don't have much time and will take several years to finish, don't give up!... please Pascal

Unbelievable, I thought it was a joke... And now, i can't even imagine how some FX are done... @miker: Can you provide a link of the source ? I can't find anything on the net about this demo Thanks ! Edit: oops, kevin242 has been faster than me

Hi Atarian, I have opened a new section in my website about the game "Archon". I was curious to know the creatures stats and some obscure rules (I haven't finished all the AI stuff for now). Next game is on Atari ST, sorry for 800 lovers Have fun, Kroah

A little update correcting an uncommon bug and adding an intermediate level of fog (tranparent and showing all the entities). PS: the fog is only enabled when viewing a saved game. @SpicyChronos: don't know if i'll add an edit feature, the game isn't really difficult. Depends on demand Kroah

Hi all ! I have opened a new section in my website about the game "Seven Cities of Gold". I've almost decompiled the game, but i have no time to write everything down now. I have added a new Utility allowing you to browse the maps and your saved game too ! Thanks to Goochman having provided me a saved game of a very peaceful Explorer... (Berzerker is a better word i think). I've corrected lots of bugs @Heaven/TQA: nice informations about RoFL. But the disassembled code is a real pain to read... i love gotos so much... @doctorclu: Ultima games are already well known, not very intersting for me. But i think i'll try something with Archon! @Gury: Thank you, every links to my site are welcome. Have fun, Kroah

Thank you very much ! I've corrected some bugs in the tool, i'll add it soon to my site. Kroah

Hi all, Does anybody have a game in progress of Seven Cities of Gold ? I'm writing a little tool, but to test it, i need a (well) advanced game... it's a long game, and i haven't enough time to play it now. Could you post an ATR of your game in progress (the second disk) ? (It could be the America or a random build world) Thanks in advance, Kroah

Hi all, I'll post any updates to my Website here And by the way, i announce you that the Gateway to Aphsai section is opened ! The status of my website is actually: - Mule decompiled, section to finish (translation) - Dragonriders of Pern decompiled, section to write - Gateway to Apshai decompiled, section opened - Return of Heracles decompiled, section opened, Utility to add ! - Colonial Conquest decompiled, section to write - Phantasie 3 decompiled, section to write If you have any comments/suggestions, i'll be happy to read them PS: I use the verb "decompile" and not "disasssemble" because half of the binaries i decompile come from compiled C code (most from Atari ST) and i go further than disassembling (i translate some disassembled code to pseudo code to understand the mechanisms of the game). Have Fun ! Kroah

Hi BLarry71, You have sent me a PM. Your question is interesting, and i think it's not really off topic. That's why i'll answer it in this forum, some people could found it useful When you play a dungeon, the level is stored from $1000 to $2FFF. The player start at X cell 32, Y cell 5 (for dungeon 1 level 1). The width of a map is 128 cells, so a cell in front of the player is at adress $1000+32*128+5+(2 or 3 cells) = $2007. You can pock this cell with a number and you'll see the objects of the game, but you can't pick it up because the item is not added to the list in the dungeon (Most objects are split in 2 cells, $24 and $25 for the staff for example). Only 6 bits ($00-$3F) are used (bit 7 holds the information 'discovered (0) or not (1)' and bit 8 holds 'if the cell is passable (0) or not (1)'). 1 byte: $00 Wall $01 Door $02 Secret Door $03 Floor $04 Floor border 2 bytes: $08 Key $0A Armor $0C Weapon $0E Spell $12 Bow $14 Arrows $16 Potion $18 Shield $1A Gauntlet $1C Amulet $1E Helm $20 Wand $22 Cross $24 Staff $26 Trap $2E Chest $3F Extern Calls the debugger (F8) when you just start level 1 dungeon 1 and types: c 2007 24 c 2008 25 It's a coincidence, the adress $0fc0 and following are part of the end level bonus code (by the way it looks like the death of jumpman too ): [...] 0FB6 INC strengthMax 0FB9 INC strengthRealTime 0FBA 0FBC loc_0FBC: 0FBC LDA console; 001: luck ; 010: strength ; 100: agility 0FBE AND #4 0FC0 BEQ $0FD3 0FC2 LDX #19 0FC4 loc_0FC4: 0FC4 LDA string6,X ; __HIGHER_AGILITY!__ [...] I'm doing the Gateway to Apshai part of my website, you'll be able to see the effect of the Wand (as if it was generated in the dungeon... Suspense !) Regards, Kroah

By the way, has someone already seen a Staff or a Key in this game ?

Yes, i'll release the source code with the binary soon. I clean a little the code of the algorithm because it's full of wonderfull gotos (thanks the old coding style in assembler ). In this game, the maps are randomly generated but are the same each game. The game uses an (ugly) random number generator to compute the sequence of random numbers. If the seed is the same, the sequence will be the same. That's why the maps are the same each game, but are programmatically generated 'randomly'. That's why the first step of this reverse engineering was to write the same random number generator the game uses. A good way to have a different sequence every game, is (generally) to use the clock as seed. But the developpers wanted fixed seeds to let the player learn the dungeons and choose the good and bad ones. The lack of memory prevented to store all the dungeons (9k per dungeon). So they've done a random map generator using fixed seed. Does your word 'mathematically' mean the same thing ? edit: spelling

I've added the feature suggested by Rybags. You can now play the game with the seeds you have carefully chosen. Some maps are really interesting, some are... really ugly But i still think this map generator is surprising for its time Another game having a good random map generator (some years later) is 'Captive'. I have the original generator for PC created by mindscape in 1992 and it's... surprising for its time too. Have fun ! v1.01 Added: The seed of each dungeon can be modified. Added: Load feature which can get the seeds from an existing ATR image of the game. Added: Save feature which can put the seeds to a new working ATR image of the game. GatewayToApshaiUtility___v1.01.zip

Thank you for your kind words. Like i've said in the ReadMe, the Dungeon 8 from Level 7 loops endlessly. Could someone tests the cartridge version on a real Atari ? It's easy to do (Supposing you have the hardware) because you can skip each level until the level 7 and choose the dungeon 8. I've tried 3 different disk version of the game, but i had the same result. Never tested the cartridge version, nor the apple II version (dunno if they have the same dungeon generator algorithm though...). Huhu, i like this feature !

Hi all, I've just finished to reverse engineer the map generation part of the game 'Gateway to Apshai'. I've done an utility you can download in attachment to show the process of the generation and the resulting map with all the items, monsters, traps and chests. For now, the seeds are the ones from the original game, but maybe i'll add the possibility to choose any seed you want. I've copy/pasted the readme file here. GatewayToApshaiUtility___v1.00.zip

Thank you very much for the scan, i'll add it to my website soon.

Hello all, I'm looking for the manual of the game "Age of Adventure: Return of Heracles". I've only found the text manual of the "Age of Adventure: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from Project 64. Could someone make a (good) scan of the manual if you own it ? I want to use it for my website. Thanks in advance, Pascal

Does anyone already finished at least one or all of these games ? Warriors of Ras I: Dunzhin Warriors of Ras II: Kaiv Warriors of Ras III: Wylde Warriors of Ras IV: Ziggurat When i was young, i rememeber to always die after few battles. Is there any trick to survive ? Or i've missed something ? Before playing them again, i'll want to hear your opinions Thanks, Kroah

Thank you Atari Frog. I already know the website (with a quick search on both your forum and this one), but i couldn't find any information about the ATX format. And i'm soooo curious I'll test this special version of MULE soon Kroah

Hi, Do you know if the ATX Format used for VAPI is made public ? It's only for personal knowledge. Thanks, Kroah

Yeah, at first i was using google and babel tanslation service (for www). But the length of the document translated was limited. This solution was good because it didn't try to translate the sentences already in english. Now, i use a software from Systran, it's not limited in length, pretty fast, but it try to translate the english part. To avoid this, i can put some tags in the document, but i should remove them when i'll translate it manually. That's why for now you'll find very strange things like double-translated sentences... Next week, i'll translate it manually. Sorry for the convenience. Kroah