Apple II Dungeon Mapper

[Quantum Reality]

GOT IT!

If you look up Computist No. 47 you'll see a dungeon mapper that can load 'em straight off the BT1 dungeon disk.

What's even better is I found the entire disk collection with all the big HC programs ready to run! I yanked the mapper program off the image and stuck it onto my Bard's Tale 1 utilities disk and IT WORKS! (See below)

So another side project of mine will be to use this thing to figure out how the dungeons are stored in the Apple ][ version so we can make custom dungeon maps!

Edit:

For proof, here's the Catacombs Level 3 in all its glory. Little dots indicate the presence of "something special", traps, or stairs.

[Quantum Reality]

ANALYSIS:

Code: Select all

 250  PRINT : INPUT "CHOOSE A NUMBER (1-17): ";C: IF C < 1 OR C > 17 THEN 210
 260  IF C = 17 THEN  END 
 270  REM CALCULATE TRACK & SECTOR
 280 T = 15 -  INT (C / 2 + .5):D = C - 1
 290  IF C = 1 THEN S = 15: GOTO 320
 300  IF C = 2 THEN S = 7: GOTO 320
 310 C = C - 2: GOTO 290

These things right here tell me how the track/sector layout for the dungeons works.

Since the program just numbers the dungeons you can pick from 1 to 16 (17 means quit the program), the math for the track basically tells us that the dungeons are stored contiguously moving from track 14 (15 - int(0.5 + 0.5) = 15 - 1) for the Scarlet Bard Cellar, working to track 7 (15 - int(8 + 0.5) = 15 - 8 = 7) for Mangar's highest dungeon level.

The sector calculator in lines 290 and 300 tell us that each dungeon takes up roughly half a track (so sectors 0-7 for one, or 8 to 15 for another). I haven't worked out yet which order (0 --> 7 or 7 --> 0) the actual dungeon parameters come in, but I'll probably just grab a hex dump of the entire damn thing and put it somewhere so ZeroZero or Darendor can compare to the C64 version.

More as I keep rooting through the dungeon mapper util.

UPDATE:

Looked quickly with a sector editor at Track 14 sectors 0 to 15.

The dungeons are stored in backwards sector order as I saw nothing from sectors 0 to 7. So the wine cellars start from track 14 sector 15 and you work backwards.

I have no idea where if any, the goddamn Catalog track is on this disk if there even is one. It's even easier to move the catalog track than it is to change the sector interleave and this was a great simple trick to throw off normal DOS 3.3 disks which automatically set the catalog track on #17. I looked there and what's on it doesn't look like any freakin catalog to me. Probably EORed or some damn thing.

[Quantum Reality]

ZeroZero advises me that the C64 version can almost certainly hold more dungeons. The Apple version will accommodate at least one more, but there will be serious limitations to adding extras.

TODO: Investigate if the program will accept swapping disks, in effect creating a third dungeon disk for the custom dungeons.

[Darendor]

ZeroZero advises me that the C64 version can almost certainly hold more dungeons. The Apple version will accommodate at least one more, but there will be serious limitations to adding extras.

TODO: Investigate if the program will accept swapping disks, in effect creating a third dungeon disk for the custom dungeons.

Each dungeon can hold up to eight levels.

[Darendor]

Compare this thread here:
http://brotherhood.de/Bardstale/talefil ... sc&start=0

[Quantum Reality]

ZeroZero advises me that the C64 version can almost certainly hold more dungeons. The Apple version will accommodate at least one more, but there will be serious limitations to adding extras.

TODO: Investigate if the program will accept swapping disks, in effect creating a third dungeon disk for the custom dungeons.

Each dungeon can hold up to eight levels.

I'm talking about the physical disk storage limitations, as well as dealing with any hard-coding of the track and sector locations.

[Darendor]

Oh.

[dulsi]

I'm talking about the physical disk storage limitations, as well as dealing with any hard-coding of the track and sector locations.

Assuming you are running under an emulator you might be able to modify it to support files with additional track/sectors. Of course that depends on how it loads the disk information.

[tpth]

GOT IT!

That is massively awesome.

[Darendor]

If I ever get the energy for it, I'm tempted to port this over to the C64.

Anyone interested?