The Black Flame

Custom dungeons for CSBWin. Includes all Confux 2 and 3 discussions.

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PaulH
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Post by PaulH »

Thankyou for the review!

Armageddon seems to be a split pot - you either love it or hate it. I wanted it to be very chaotic but maybe I could have made it a little more playable.

I thought it was a fairly small dungeon lol! You are gonna love Conflux and ToC!

I hope you do replay it as I added a small random item generator, so things will be in different places. And I agree a few more scrolls wouldn't go amiss, I am not the best story teller though!

Again, thanks for playing

Paul
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Trantor
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Post by Trantor »

PaulH wrote: Armageddon seems to be a split pot - you either love it or hate it.
I love AND hate it. It is probably the single most evil and frustrating dungeon level I have yet played, but I like its symmetry and general structure. Sure, several parts of it are very obscure ("WTF did THIS switch do now?!"), but I sort of enjoyed it very much in a masochistic way. At least it is not as ultra-evil as it was in the DMute version - that was almost unplayable for me.

Great review there TyGuy, hope you will play another custom dungeon soon and post a review as well!
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Paul Stevens
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Post by Paul Stevens »

what is your games section
http://www.dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/Games/
I added a small random item generator, so things
When you get it as you like it could you supply
a dungeon and CSBwin version that you recommend so I
can replace the one I have?
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PaulH
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Post by PaulH »

It is how I like it for now. The random item mech is just a very simplified version of the one in CSB that uses gigglers. So if replayed, a few swords and not essential things will end up scattered differently.
Shawax
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by Shawax »

Hi,

I'm currently playing Black Flame (really nice game, by the way!). I seem to be at the last level but don't understand what has to be done: I killed some monsters (including the dragon of the level below), got the skeleton keys (and used them), got the firestaff, used the vorpals and... tried several things after that but... nothing works...

I can also remember a door two levels up (in the terrible Armageddon area) which I couldn't open (this door has an original red design look, I can see a teleport behind it and there is a lock on a wall just in front of it). I suppose one can open the door by putting a (iron ?) key in the lock, but I don't have any.

Thanks for any clue :)
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PaulH
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by PaulH »

Can you send me your save game file? it will make it easier for me to see what is what lol.

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PaulH
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by PaulH »

The door in Armageddon is not that important - but the key you have missed on the above level.

Lord Order has the object you require to complete the game - you must kill him somehow. Not with magic or swords though ;-)

It seems the animation for the 'fire haze' is not working on the lower levels, but is a minor glitch.
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by Shawax »

Damn! How could I miss that (what has to be done with Lord Order!). I did the same thing with Chaos before and was certain that I had also tried it with Lord Order but that it did not work. I should be tired for having played too much :)

Thanks Paul for the great game. I agree the reviews of Trantor and Tyguy6.

For information, I played with 4 resurrected characters (who never lacked food) and without drawing any map.

I really enjoyed the game (and especially the original ending - and it's atmosphere, brrrr... -, even if I found it hard understanding what had exactly to be done at that level). The game is quite linear, clear and never boring, the difficulty is OK (maybe the start is a bit difficult with monsters that can kill you with only one attack but the rest is very well balanced: not too easy but really feasible). It is the same concerning the puzzles (except, maybe, for the Armageddon area, which seems to have have already been discussed here ;). Oh, I just remember another thing that made me crazy: the riddle with the footprints!

As a whole, the game is really original (as original as Towers of Chaos): the spirit of the oldies DM/CSB is still there but has been well renewed.

I'm looking forward to playing your next dungeon, Paul!
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PaulH
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by PaulH »

Thankyou! It is great that an oldie like this is still played lol.

I do have a couple;e of projects in the pipeline, so watch this space ;-)
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by Phoenix »

While replaying this dungeon, I encountered possible deadlock situation with the northern gate on level 10(Armageddon). As PaulH has stated in this thread, killing the scorpion will open the gate. The problem is, if you kill the scorpion and open the gate before you release the deth knights at 10(05,06), then they can wander into that same alcove and reclose the gate. If they do it's impossible to get the last orange gem as deth knights can't be killed by poison bolt or cloud and lightning won't go through the gate.

It seams to me the easiest fix is to add another monster barrier at the gate or make the pad a one time pad.
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PaulH
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by PaulH »

I'll take a look, thanks.
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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

Where can I download The Black Flame for CSBwin?
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ChristopheF
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by ChristopheF »

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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

Thanks ChristopeF. Couldn't find it in the shareddrive. TOC was there but needed a password to extract the files.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.
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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

I downloaded from where ChristopheF suggested...http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/1243 and got the dungeon file. Substituted it for the original and the game loaded. The dungeon doors opened and got a system error...save game corrupted.
What am I doing wrong? I haven't played Thee Black Flame, never mind saved it.
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Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.
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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

I cannot see The Black Flame on the sharedonedrive. How come that it's not there?
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Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.
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ChristopheF
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by ChristopheF »

This a dungeon for Dungeon Master for PC. I just launched DM in Dosbox, and this dungeon loads fine.
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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

Yes, I know that it's a dungeon for PC. My point that I'm trying to make is that when downloaded you only get 2 files. One is a readme and the other is the dungeon file. Where are the rest of the files. I downloaded Tower Of Chaos by the same author and it comes with all the files. You just have to make a new folder (TOC) and put all these files in there. You don't need Dosbox. Check out the download link that you gave me...2 files.
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ChristopheF
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by ChristopheF »

TOC was designed as a CSBwin dungeon (big endian format). It is not a DM PC dungeon (little endian format).
You cannot just replace the TOC dungeon file with any DM PC dungeon, CSBwin cannot load them (it only accepts big endian format because it is a port from the Atari ST version).

You must play 'The Black Flame' with the original DM for PC engine (hence using Doxbox nowadays), or you may convert the dungeon file from little endian to big endian format and then try and test the converted file with CSBwin. Converters here: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/700
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Paul Stevens
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by Paul Stevens »

ChristopheF wrote:CSBwin cannot load them (it only accepts big endian format
Oh, dear. This should not be so. If you are quite sure of this then
I will attack the problem. CSBwin should load both (and lots of
versions of each). I put significant effort into seeing that it was so.
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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

ChristopheF.....So why is it that Towers Of Chaos works and The Black Flame doesn't?
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agarules
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by agarules »

Paul Stevens...thank you. It is very much appreciated.
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ChristopheF
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by ChristopheF »

As far as I know, CSBuild can load both little and big endian dungeon formats, but CSBwin only accepts big endian format.

I just tested with the CSBwin version available here: http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/Games/D ... 171117.zip
and it failed to load the original DM PC dungeon.dat file with error message "saved game damaged".
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Paul Stevens
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Re: The Black Flame

Post by Paul Stevens »

Good afternoon, Christophe,

You have refreshed my memory. Indeed, it was CSBuild that went
to the trouble of recognizing all the various file formats. My
attitude was that a person needed only to load and save a design
with CSBuild in order to play it with CSBwin. Hopefully that still
works. Sorry about the confusion.
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