RTC V0.39 Dungeon Master II Demo

Daecon · Post by **Daecon** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:01 pm

I've just downloaded RTC version 0.39 and tried out the DMII demo.

I've never played Dungeon Master II before...

I have to say I'm completely blown away! It's incredible, the graphics are amazing!

I can't figure out why there are two different combinations of coins and gems for each item in the shops. Which one is which?

Daecon · Post by **Daecon** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:39 pm

Ah, nevermind. Looking at the .txt file I see one's a buy and one's a sell table. I was trying to purchase items from the sales table, and wondering why nothing was happening!

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 3:39 pm

Yes, it's not at all obvious is it, although the arrows do point the way (but as they're also used for forward / back it's not the greatest way of showing it).

To be fair to the original game though, it was explained in the manual that came with it (and is reproduced online in the Encyclopedia).

Glad you like it otherwise though

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:27 pm

Mr. Gilbert.

Wow!

Deep bow.....PAul

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:43 pm

Stunning! Absolutely superb George.

I noticed the sandals-not-going-on-the-feet thing but to hell if anyone thinks I'm going to complain about anything after such sweet work. I really hope things can progress from here (i.e monster sounds, in-game sounds, monster graphics) but regardless of if they do or not, bravo Sir, bravo!

EDIT: Just imagined how all RTC dungeon designers are probably wetting themselves right now due to the almost limitless ideas they can re-create now for their own work hehe.

Sabreman · Post by **Sabreman** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 6:07 pm

RTC is already probably the best thing ever on the internet, but just imagine if DMII was added to it as a complete game...

I never had the chance to play DMII properly, and I find things like DOSBox far too fiddly.

Edit: I've just had a quick go and I have to say it's rather ace. Top marks for doing away with that annoying double-step thing as well, that bothered the hell out of me.

ian_scho · Post by **ian_scho** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:50 am

Last week I actually downloaded DMII/DosBox, installed, then installed again without the 'patch' (to get the sound effects working), and finally got to play the game. I have to agree that the movemento of two steps per one square is the most annoying thing in the game, that could have easily been turned off.... Then there was the magic interface, which was prettier, but more clicks.
We await for some kind, patient person to recreate the DMII dungeon. (There's one for CSB here.)

Well done George.

purple1 · Post by **purple1** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:56 pm

In all fairness, to get the true DMII experience, use a Macintosh. DMII runs flawlessly on pretty much any Mac OS up to the current one (not sure for Intel based machines).

Post by **Ameena** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:03 pm

I find DM2 works fine in DOSBox (I have the original game on CD, not a download)...I played it a few months back and it worked fine.
Still, fantastic work on the DM2 demo, GG

. I reckon anyone who can't get access to "proper" DM2 isn't missing out much by playing your demo

.

Post by **linflas** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:19 pm

this demo is better than the original imho : faster interface, no ugly slow double-step movement !

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:38 pm

If this thing gets completed, I might even play DM2 again.

Post by **Gambit37** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:20 am

This is completely awesome! You've added so much to the engine since I last looked at it in detail (v0.35) that I simply don't know what other goodies might be in there... fabulous stuff.

My only complaint would be that it does slow down on a regular basis, I think it's related to the weather...

andyboy_uk · Post by **andyboy_uk** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:26 am

Only just looked on here today (for a while) and I just cant believe what im seeing!! Well done George, sterling work with the DM2 demo, worked perfectly, brought back great memories.

*andy bows down in ultimate respect*

Post by **Zyx** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:38 am

The versatility of RTC is amazing!

Daecon · Post by **Daecon** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:06 am

I can't wait for some custom dungeons to be made... There must be so much more versatility now, not to mention a whole laod of new graphics!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:06 am

There already were alot of new features and people just asked for more rather than trying out the ones there *shrug*

I am supremely impressed with the recreation of DM2, the opening screen alone is now very felxible, the graphical timings etc on glops, all the little faithful recreations. And the shop mechanics seem to work erfectly right down to the putting your coin box on the table and getting it accepted for buying!

Definitely well done!

Post by **Gambit37** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:41 pm

Yeah, this is very cool indeed. I have no idea how all these new actions work -- the weather in particluar looks complicated!

I also need to investigate how the 'area portal border images' work -- those wall elements that are displayed right on the edge of the screen as you transition between each wallset. -- This has given me some nice ideas about how to update DM with new distinct areas, say giving the Tomb of the Firestaff a different wallset from the rest of the dungeon without having a jarring wallset change.

You must have worked on this for ages, GG -- getting all the assets in alone must have been a long job!

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:24 pm

Gambit37 wrote:Yeah, this is very cool indeed. I have no idea how all these new actions work -- the weather in particluar looks complicated!

It's actually quite simple - the rain is just a haze (like those used for teleporters, but with rain shaped / coloured bitmaps rather than blue dots) and the puddles, clouds and lightning are just different wallsets.

All the actions and relays that control the weather just toggle the hazes / wallsets on and off.

So it's big (because there are lots of different levels of rain / cloud) but not that complicated.

Gambit37 wrote:I also need to investigate how the 'area portal border images' work -- those wall elements that are displayed right on the edge of the screen as you transition between each wallset. -- This has given me some nice ideas about how to update DM with new distinct areas, say giving the Tomb of the Firestaff a different wallset from the rest of the dungeon without having a jarring wallset change.

They're nothing special - no different from a puddle, grating, slime or any other benign flooritem. The key point is that the bitmaps they use are quite large and cover up the sharp lines between the different wallsets.

Gambit37 wrote:You must have worked on this for ages, GG -- getting all the assets in alone must have been a long job!

Ignoring the resources themselves, surprisingly little time actually - probably less than 10 hours to put together everything.

For the bitmaps, it was just a question of copy-and-pasting-and-resizing the DM2 bitmaps (extracted easily thanks to Kentaros editor). In fact, the longest part was resizing those border images and wallsets by hand because the perspective used by DMII is different to those used in DM / CSB / RTC.

Post by **Lunever** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:14 pm

Less than 10 hours ?!?! Astonishing! Or, as Kosh would say, "Efficient."

Adamo · Post by **Adamo** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 5:37 pm

awesome work ! it`s marvellous !

Linfas wrote:

this demo is better than the original imho : faster interface, no ugly slow double-step movement !

I agree in 1000%, this is mainly why I never liked DM2

KlausM · Post by **KlausM** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:26 pm

Firstly: big thanks GG for that amazing game

Secondly:

Adamo wrote:awesome work ! it`s marvellous !

Linfas wrote:
this demo is better than the original imho : faster interface, no ugly slow double-step movement !
I agree in 1000%, this is mainly why I never liked DM2

That's correct, thats better than DM2, but you can't use both hands for attacking like DM2 and you can't see the magic map while step around in the dungeon.

And normally in DM2 you can open chests by using it like a weapon to view into it, independent which character inventar you're viewing.

Klaus

Post by **Lunever** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:29 pm

Yep! But even if some features wouldn't suit into the other games it might be worthwhile to implement them for DM2 and custom dungeons in some future release, like double weapons

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 9:01 pm

You can see how small the interface is now you have the DM 2 graphics there...imagine that split in two

What you could try, which is waht i had wanted to try in CSBwin, was allow two handed attacks by making, at higher fighter levels, certain low attacks like chop, swing instant, and having a weapon in your other hand get quickly switched to your action hand, then back
enough to make a second attack if you were fast anough, but not liek you were gettign a berserk for free

Might work with some painful relay work : )

Daecon · Post by **Daecon** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 1:21 pm

Heeey! I just found something cool out.

If you cast a fireball at the unlit fireplace (next to the Sun Picture), it becomes a lit fireplace!

That's SUCH a cool little extra.

I never noticed that before because I never cast a fireball at it to try and light the fire. Imagine my pleasant surprise when it worked!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:11 pm

yup, that's how it worked in DM 2!

I was disappointed that lighthouses's demo didn't have this, good to see GG included it!

L!ghthouse · Post by **L!ghthouse** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:03 pm

lol.

I play tested GG's DM2 demo before v0.39 was released and told him about the fireplace being lit by fireballs, which is why it is now included. Guess I should have looked closer at mine too.

@GG: Are you going to be finishing this DM2 project? If so, I have already recreated the demo and included the entire map. If you would like it, let me know (it's just the .txt file, so it's not very big). If you don't want to finish it I guess I could try to do it, but I don't want to have to keep adding my own objects if you are going to add them all in a future release anyway...

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:02 pm

Are you going to be finishing this DM2 project? If so, I have already recreated the demo and included the entire map. If you would like it, let me know (it's just the .txt file, so it's not very big). If you don't want to finish it I guess I could try to do it, but I don't want to have to keep adding my own objects if you are going to add them all in a future release anyway...

The DM2 demo was only really meant to be a demo of what sorts of things RTC can do rather than of DM2 itself!

That said, in retrospect DMII deserves to be included as a "proper" dungeon in RTC in its own right and so should get done. I'll certainly do a bit more whilst I've got some spare time, so there'll be a few more objects in the next release. I'll take a closer look at the various DMII mechanics later on in the game (I havn't actually ever played it, so I should probably do that first

)and see how that goes and take it from there.

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:04 pm

BTW - when you say you have "already recreated the demo and included the entire map" do you just mean the floor layout (i.e. just the walls / floors rather than any items).

If so; I think you already sent me the map for the ground level - if not, let me know exactly what you've got!

Sabreman · Post by **Sabreman** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:58 pm

George, if you incorporate the whole of DMII into RTC I will love you forever (in a manly, adventuring fellowship type of way).

zoom · Post by **zoom** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:00 pm

George Gilbert, there are two versions of DM2 at least graphic wise.
Just to tell you!