Hey,
I've been playing a bit of BTIII (the C64 Version) -Mainly because I the Apple IIe version has allot of corrupted monster images, and I noticed that when using a Giant Figurine and then viewing the summoned monster, the image displays only a black screen. Is this normal for the C64? or is it again a corrupted image file? Anyone know?
Monster Images in C64 Version
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dragonbait
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 12:21 am
- Location: Under the Ruins of Yulash
Didn't see this -- haven't been by the last few weeks.
To answer your question, no, this doesn't happen because of corrupted images. The blank screen happens when you summon a monster whose image is unique to a particular disk. Some images are common to all the disks (character, dungeon A, and dungeon B) -- for example, the picture of the gremlin-like humanoid that's used for Herb, Molten Man, Greater Demon, Fire Elemental, and Earth Elemental. You summon any of these creatures, and you'll get the appropriate image regardless of which disk is currently mounted in your emulator.
Other images are only on a particular disk. So for example, the Frost Giant (from the Giant Figurine), Wind Ogre, and Wind Giant have an image of an ogre-like creature which I believe is only on the dungeon disk with Lucencia (you encounter a bunch of other monsters that use this image in that dimension). You'll never see these monster pictures if you summon them while in the Wilderness around Skara Brae. Similarly, the most common of the 3 dragon pictures in the game is used for the Wind Dragon and Blast Dragon (from the Dragon Figurine). If I remember correctly, you get a blank screen if you cast Wind Dragon in the wilderness, but you'll get the appropriate picture everywhere else.
And yes, I have finished the list of all the Bards Tale III monsters. Before I post it, though, I want to examine the monster listings in the MONSTERH and MONSTERL files from the PC version. By careful cross-referencing, I'll be able to figure out which duplicate monster names refer to identical monsters with the same stats versus different monsters with different stats. I'm convinced that Bards Tale III appears to break the previously sacred 16-monsters-per-level rule because they use the same name for different monsters. In some places, you can see it if you pay attention -- for example, the 3rd level of Malefia has 2 different types of Vortexes, one that appears at 10' distance and the other that appears at 20'. But if identically-named monsters are also assigned identical starting distances, there is no way to know the difference except by hacking.
Marco.
To answer your question, no, this doesn't happen because of corrupted images. The blank screen happens when you summon a monster whose image is unique to a particular disk. Some images are common to all the disks (character, dungeon A, and dungeon B) -- for example, the picture of the gremlin-like humanoid that's used for Herb, Molten Man, Greater Demon, Fire Elemental, and Earth Elemental. You summon any of these creatures, and you'll get the appropriate image regardless of which disk is currently mounted in your emulator.
Other images are only on a particular disk. So for example, the Frost Giant (from the Giant Figurine), Wind Ogre, and Wind Giant have an image of an ogre-like creature which I believe is only on the dungeon disk with Lucencia (you encounter a bunch of other monsters that use this image in that dimension). You'll never see these monster pictures if you summon them while in the Wilderness around Skara Brae. Similarly, the most common of the 3 dragon pictures in the game is used for the Wind Dragon and Blast Dragon (from the Dragon Figurine). If I remember correctly, you get a blank screen if you cast Wind Dragon in the wilderness, but you'll get the appropriate picture everywhere else.
And yes, I have finished the list of all the Bards Tale III monsters. Before I post it, though, I want to examine the monster listings in the MONSTERH and MONSTERL files from the PC version. By careful cross-referencing, I'll be able to figure out which duplicate monster names refer to identical monsters with the same stats versus different monsters with different stats. I'm convinced that Bards Tale III appears to break the previously sacred 16-monsters-per-level rule because they use the same name for different monsters. In some places, you can see it if you pay attention -- for example, the 3rd level of Malefia has 2 different types of Vortexes, one that appears at 10' distance and the other that appears at 20'. But if identically-named monsters are also assigned identical starting distances, there is no way to know the difference except by hacking.
Marco.