Black Cauldron remake 1.2

dreammaster · Sun 26/09/2004 14:23:46

EDIT: Version 1.2 has been released - it fixes a problem with the game not properly ending if Gurgi sacrifices himself for you.

EDIT: I've uploaded a new version that fixes the problem with the restore button on the death dialog not working.

I'm pleased to announce version 1.1 of my Black Cauldron remake. In addition to giving all the gui's a consistant look and feel, this new version alsoÃ,Â includes:

* Support for more than 20 saves (I wrote my own save/restore wrapper code)
* Full keyboard support in the save/restore dialogs
* Double click support in the save/restore dialogs
* The up/down arrows in the save/restore dialog support repeatedly scrolling

I've also fixed a few bugs that people have found in the game.

You can download the game from http://tg_comics.tripod.com/bc.html

The download contains both the executable and the full source for the game - hopefully, the source will be helpful to other people starting out with AGS.

Pft! · Sun 26/09/2004 14:53:48

Well you should of made better GUIs, the GUIs that are there dont match the game at all sorry to say.

Iv4n · Sun 26/09/2004 18:09:53

Found one bug: when you are at the brige screen, go to the lower left corner and you will find yourelf on the other side of the fence.

Pft! · Sun 26/09/2004 20:26:11

Yeah I got that bug too. Great game BTW add some new GUI's and its a master piece, I've never wanted to play BC before you remade it. 8)

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Mon 27/09/2004 06:34:26

Another remake as first project... AGIStudio and SCIStudio make it ideal, I guess.

I haven't gotten far, haven't really even tried, but a couple of things:

1 - SQ4.5 has a point about the GUIs. If you can't draw, try and make something fitting. For instance, my GUI for Larry 2 remake was very, very simple - in the style of the entire game. It was basically like the game's original pop-down menu (visually, not functionally). Consider this.

2 - Careful with that goat in the 2nd screen! If the goat hits you, it won't move on right away! It might keep hittihng you 3, 4, 5 times at a stretch before moving on!

dreammaster · Mon 27/09/2004 10:30:42

Thanks for the feedback and bug reports. 8) I'll have to have a think about the GUIs, and see if I can figure out a style of GUI that would suit the game a bit better.

Kweepa · Mon 27/09/2004 14:59:27

Get someone here to do some GUI elements for you.
You just have to ask!
Not me mind you - I haven't played Black Cauldron. And I'm not going to until the GUI fits

Developer · Sun 10/10/2004 21:34:35

Why not make a GUI like RedruM's Larry 2 remake?

Pesty · Mon 11/10/2004 03:25:18

I've only played a little bit, but I'm confused by everyone's criticism. What's wrong with the GUI? It's a Sierra game and, although the backgrounds and characters are AGI, it fits fine. If it were in VGA would it be any different than other VGA remakes of AGI games that Sierra did officially and Tierra did unofficially? Just because it's the AGS ult GUI doesn't mean it's wrong for every game.

Now, aside from that, I would like to see the graphics redone in VGA. Because it's a remake, it should have more than just a point and click interface added. I never finished the original Black Cauldron, though, so I'll still play this one, but you might keep redoing the graphics in mind for maybe a later re-release.

dreammaster · Mon 11/10/2004 04:42:48

Thanks for the enthusiastic response. I'd certainly have redone the graphics if I had any graphics talent. As it is, if anyone's ever interested in providing VGA graphics, I'd certainly be willing to integrate them.

I'm currently putting the fine touches on a consistant GUI interface, complete with my own implementation of the save and restore dialogs. It should be ready within the week for a version 1.1 release.

Bigryan · Wed 13/10/2004 02:02:46

When that goat hit me I was stuck eternally.

I was a big black cauldron fan as it was my first adventure game ever played.

dreammaster · Wed 13/10/2004 06:58:22

Yes, version 1.1 will contain a fix for that - I've set up a flag so that the goat won't butt you a second time until it's been a fair distance away from you after the first butt. I'm still sorting out the custom save/load code, and am hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend.

iron_man · Thu 14/10/2004 08:54:45

I downloaded your game dreammaster, and i have to say that you did a very nice job!Ã,Â

The source can be very helpful for the begginers and it was a kind move of yours.

I believe that soon an artist will help with the graphics.
Someone called auroranoir(do not remember the exact name) had draw some good backgrounds for this game.
Does anyone have his email?

How long did it take you to program the game ?

PS : are you interested in replacing your current icons
(hand, talk, walk etc) with colored icons of space quest 4 CD ROM version ? or even king's quest colored pointers ?

Rulaman · Fri 15/10/2004 18:29:59

Hi there,

I loaded the source into AGS, but when I selected a room
AGS gives me an error:

---------------------------
AGS Editor
---------------------------
load_room: room file created with newer version (too many hotspots/objects)
---------------------------
OKÃ,Â Ã,Â
---------------------------

PS: I use the version 2.61
whats wrong?
I haven't found any newer version.

JBiker51 · Sat 16/10/2004 02:04:30

Hey, Rulaman? You look a little like my cousin.

And the Black Cauldron remake looks like a promising adventure game. I haven't really gotten to play it, but I probably will. Still waiting for Apprentice 3: Checkmate! , so until then, I am a forum game hunter.

splat44 · Sun 17/10/2004 08:58:44

Quote from: JBiker51 on Sat 16/10/2004 02:04:30
Hey, Rulaman? You look a little like my cousin. And the Black Cauldron remake looks like a promising adventure game. I haven't really gotten to play it, but I probably will. Still waiting for Apprentice 3: Checkmate! , so until then, I am a forum game hunter.

Yes, Apprentice series are great. Apprentice developement will probably start in year 2005 as state in following link. So I providing that for your information.

http://herculeaneffort.adventuredevelopers.com/app3.html

Rulaman · Wed 20/10/2004 18:28:27

Hey I got it,

i have downloaded the new Beta version 2.62.

dreammaster · Thu 21/10/2004 13:39:59

Yeh, sorry I didn't reply too quickly. As you found out, the current source has been compiled with the latest beta. It's taken kind of longer than I expected to get the save/restore dialogs working properly, since I want them to have more than 20 slots, which means I had to implement my own ordering code. Hopefully I'll get it finished shortly.

iron_man · Thu 21/10/2004 13:54:56

dreammaster, how many months did it take you to finish this project?

dreammaster · Fri 22/10/2004 03:21:08

About two months for the main body of the game, once I got beyond general experimenting with AGS and decided to concentrate on remaking Black Cauldron. But keep in mind that I dedicated a lot of time to it, frequently working until after midnight on weekdays, and all day on the weekends.

I somewhat sacrificed my social life whilst working on it, but it was so damn engrossing, and so cool to see the game coming to life as a result of my efforts.

iron_man · Fri 22/10/2004 17:03:42

sometimes we have more need to be creative than just having more of 'a social life' . The result of creativity can be very rewarding. These results definately deserve two months of less social life i think.Besides it is only a small period of time.Well done.

dreammaster · Tue 26/10/2004 14:41:21

Thanks for the praise. I've finally gotten version 1.1 finished and ready for download. I took some extra time to add some spiffy features, like a custom save/restore wrapper to allow more than 20 savegames, and enhanced keyboard and mouse support in the new save/restore dialogs.

Joacim Andersson · Wed 27/10/2004 02:05:07

I've found an annoying bug... When I die (which you obviously very easily can do in this game) I'm presented with a small GUI with three buttons, Reload, Restart, and Exit but clicking the Reload button causes the game to crash. I had to click the Restart button and then reload a saved game.

Otherwise I don't have any problems with the GUI except that since some of the hotspots are a bit small I wish you would draw hotspot dots on the cursors.

lakerz · Mon 06/12/2004 07:07:01

Hi,

I never played the original Black Cauldron, so I was interested in giving this remake a shot. But now I think I may have ran into a bug:

Spoiler

I got to the end of the game. I'm standing on the ledge above the cauldron and choose to jump in. That furry animal I befriended sacrifices himself instead of me. The text says he jumps in, yet he remains standing besides me. Then, when the cauldron blows up, the game says I get thrown out of the castle and into the moat holding on to a piece of wood. However, I'm actually back on that switchback path above the moat instead. The ending never comes.

[close]

Mickey Bitsko · Tue 07/12/2004 16:42:43

Dreammaster - you've done a great job! You've really caught the feel of old school Sierra.

I would go into more detail about what I enjoy about your game, but I've got the flu and am heavily medicated at the moment. Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy what you've done!

DragonRose · Sat 18/12/2004 00:10:07

Woah! I found a HUGE bug.

Spoiler

I started wandering around in the forest after Gurgi jumped in the cauldron, and all of a sudden- boom! Gurgi appears and starts following me around. Whoopsy!

[close]

Really though, is there any way to finish this game? As I mentioned above, I did the thing that SHOULD end the game, but the game just keeps going. So... I'm confused.

Church · Fri 31/12/2004 15:08:02

I am new to AGS, and I plan on making old-school Sierra-style games. Well, one of the ways I planned on learning the scripting was by downloading this Black Cauldron remake and referencing the source code. Bottom line: I can't seem to be able to load the source material into AGS.

I have the newest version of AGS (just downloaded 2 weeks ago), so I don't know if that's the reason why. Also, I noticed that after unzipping the SOURCE folder there is a file called 'edit this.ags game' or something like that, but when I open an already existing game in AGS it doesn't allow me the option of loading any files that AREN'T in a .dta extension.

I hope someone can help me with this problem? Maybe you, Dreammaster? I really love your version of this game! It's just like the original that I remember so dearly from when I was a kid. It would have been better with VGA graphics of course, but no complaints here!

If I can figure out AGS scripting soon enough, I plan on re-doing all of the Space Quests in SVGA graphics!

-Church

strazer · Fri 31/12/2004 15:23:22

The "Edit this .AGSGame" is just for making an association with the AGS editor so you can double-click it to load the game into the editor:

Quote from: Pumaman on Mon 10/05/2004 21:54:42In the version of AGS that was distributed as a windows installer, it created an association for ".AGSGame" files so that you could double-click the "Edit this AGSGame" file to open the game in the editor.

You can create this association manually if you like, just set up .AGSGame files so that their association is:

c:\path\to\ags\agsedit.exe -shelllaunch "%1"

But isn't there a .dta file in the source that you can open with the editor?

Church · Mon 03/01/2005 16:10:39

Yes there is a .dta, but when I load it into AGS it says that there is a file missing, and that AGS might not be able to load it properly... so I ignore that and go ahead and load it anyway, and when I go up to TEST GAME in the file menu, I get all these crazy error messages and then the computer locks up, kicking me out of AGS and Windows Explorer.

It's weird, cause I've got an awesome computer, so there's no hardware issues. Other AGS games I've downloaded work fine within AGS. I *have* encountered some games that were written on old versions og AGS, and I have the newest one, so is that maybe what I'm dealing with, with Black Cauldron?

I just want to learn how AGS works through the art of mimicry, and what better to mimic than a game that I actually played when I was a kid! I mean, if I could get the source code for Tierra's KQ2 remake, that would be even better, but I'm almost as impressed with the BC remake.

I grew up with these 3D adventure games, both the old text-based ones and the newer point and click ones. The first game I ever played (which changed my life, not to sound so dramatic, sorry) was King's Quest 4, and I knew that someday I would make games just like it. Then, of course, games evolved into the Playstation/1st person shooter/3D world-kind of games the kiddies are playing today, and I have no interest in them. I'm still stuck in the early 90s where computer games immersed you into a fantasy world full of pretty colors and MIDI music, and you actually had to THINK to play these games.... does anyone remember that... THINKING?

Anyway, thanks for your help strazer!

Church

strazer · Mon 03/01/2005 16:35:18

QuoteYes there is a .dta, but when I load it into AGS it says that there is a file missing, and that AGS might not be able to load it properly...

That's because BC was made using the agsCreditz plugin. When you test the game, it can't find the functions provided by the plugin and crashes. Why it would crash and not give an error message, I don't know.
Anyway, copy the agsCreditz.dll file from executable.zip to your AGS editor directory and the Compiled folder of the game.

Church · Mon 03/01/2005 22:05:01

Okay, so I did what you told me... I copied the .dll to both the AGS Editor main folder AND the BC/Source/Compiled folder. Interesting thing is, now the game supposedly loads up correctly into AGS (meaning I don't get the "AGS Credits.dll is missing" error upon loading the game), but then when I go up to Test Game it gives me a crazy error message that says:

*************************************************************
---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x004A1A2E ; program pointer is +9902, ACI version 2.61.747, gtags (2036,32)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.

Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
*************************************************************

... And then upon exiting AGS I go and look in the Compiled folder and that .dll is no longer there! It's still in the main AGS folder, but not in the BC/Source/Compiled folder. So I tried sending a copy of it to BC/Source (instead of going all the way to Compiled), which is where the majority of all the source files are anyway, but I still get the above error.

This sucks. Is it me? I guess I got a lot of learning to do here if I'm going to understand this program. I used to write adventure games in regular old Quick Basic back in the day, and I never had any problems way back then. I wish I could just run Quick Basic on this computer... <sigh>

Are there any other good AGS games I can download that contain the source code I can learn from?

Church

strazer · Mon 03/01/2005 22:37:43

First of all, download the latest stable version of AGS, v2.62 and try that.

Some other games with source that that come to mind are Airbreak, Exile and Keptosh.

dreammaster · Tue 11/01/2005 23:28:17

Hey Strazer, thanks for providing for providing such good support for people asking questions.. I just got back from my summer holidays, so if anyone has any further questions, I can answer them now.

Dragonrose, if you're still around, I'm not sure how you managed to start walking around the forest again.. when Gurgi's entered the Cauldron, and the cutscene of going down the river is finished, the walk cursor is meant to become disabled, preventing you from moving, and forcing you to talk to the witches and end the game.

DragonRose · Thu 13/01/2005 18:32:57

Okay... I got no cutscene. The castle shakes, Black cauldron is destroyed, I get a message saying I grab onto a piece of wood and hold on for dear life, then I'm at the end of the river and I can do whatever I want. I'm VERY confused!

dreammaster · Thu 13/01/2005 22:16:05

If you could send me a savegame from the cauldron room before you try to jump in (and Gurgi takes your place) to tg_files@hotmail.com, I'll have a look into the problem.

dreammaster · Tue 18/01/2005 11:58:21

Okay, I sorted out the problem. It seems that several lines dealing with Gurgi actually falling into the cauldron, and flagging his death were missing - I must have accidentally removed it. I've put the appropriate code back, and uploaded a new version of both source and executable to my website.

Thanks for pointing it out to me.

Iv4n · Wed 19/01/2005 08:22:25

So where we can download 1.2? On your site is 1.1.

dreammaster · Wed 19/01/2005 22:39:03

Whoopsie. The download is version 1.2.. I guess I forgot to simply update the labels on the webpage. I'll do it tonight.

Ieremiou · Fri 28/01/2005 18:45:48

By the date, I'm sure the version is 1.2 but inside the game's gui; it says version 1.1

.
I also was able to get it to compile in the latest 2.72 beta by changing a few variable names otherwise it seems to be exactly the same hehe.

/Ieremiou