Dungeon Master ... Again!

[Sphenx]

[Gambit37]

Nice! How is this done -- a custom DM2 dungeon?

[beowuuf]

Interesting...

[Jan]

Interesting... OK, so, tell us: How did you manage to get so deep with Mophus in your party?

[Rasmus]

Hmm, weird.. I don't think it is Dungeon Master 2 we are looking at.. The first screenshot shows that the walls aren't seemless.. I would say RTC or DSB, but I don't think the two handed weapon system would work then
Or is it the project you have been working at lately? In that case you have changed directions abit

My conclution is that you are joking, and that you have made it in MSPaint!

[beowuuf]

Sphenx was working on porting DM2 and making a DM2 enhanced. This seems to be the first stages!

[Rasmus]

Ahhh, in that case.. Good work

[Bit]

*evil grin*
You got them, Sphenx

[Sphenx]

The ebony door ...



The first mummy ...



And the lowest level ...

[Lee]

Yum yum.

[Twiggy]

Looks so weird seeing the old places in a newer looking dungeon

[boyflea]

LIKE.

[Sphenx]

One of the problem is that there are still bits I don't control with DM2 engine ... so let's have black flames "running" around!



And a bigger problem is that some mechanisms from DM1 are not implemented in DM2 (or not the same way, I think about some "actuators") - which make many puzzles not functional yet.



On the other hand some implemented mechanisms are unused in retail DM2, like the VI altar. (I found it while studying the skwin code). So I can reactivate it for this DM1 conversion.

[beowuuf]

Wow, nice to be surprised by info after all this time

[Seth]

i like!
very much!
)

[Sphenx]

This is now time for Theron's Quest ... Again !

[ChristopheF]

Cool, can it be downloaded somewhere ?

[Sphenx]

Yes, here it is : Theron Skull.

I'm glad I can finally present a playable converted dungeon for native DM2! Starting small and continuing my work on Theron's Quest (on SPX-DCS).
This is the first dungeon : Ak-Tu-Ba.

This is less ambitious than the original full DM1 dungeon, but moving step by step is a good way to make the whole thing progress.
One big challenge is about the actuators; as some DM1 actuators don't exist in DM2, I needed to update some traps by redesigning them using specific DM2 actuators. I am still learning more about DM2 actuators. But in some case I was not able to find something equivalent. Or maybe I just don't know it yet. (Note to self: a "Flag inverter" targeting itself makes DM2 in infinite loop.)

The overall conversion comes with the dungeon.dat (of course), a modified graphics.dat (to handle DM1 gfx/items/creatures) and a modified PC-DOS skull.exe because creatures stats are hard-coded in the exe (with no modification, Screamers and Mummies would act as static indestructible pillars...). For that last part, I don't control yet all creatures stats very well so this will need adjustments later.
DOSBox is embedded in the zip for easy start. I also put the Skullwin version started by Bit.

There are still some glitches you can find while playing. I'll try to fix them soon.
Some bits are still not working:
- Chest can't be taken -- I don't know why
- Texts/scrolls are messed : this is a consequence of my handling of "simple actuators" which share the same category object of "texts" in DM2. Currently this messes the texts.
- Magical Box can't be activated.

Enjoy!

[Sphenx]

Some news here.
"If you can't convert DM1 dungeon to DM2 ... then convert DM2 engine for DM1".

As original DM2 is missing code for several actuators used in native DM1 dungeon, it appears difficult to figure out how to fully convert DM1 dungeon for DM2 engine and I'm still not sure if it is possible to do so for every mechanisms and traps implemented (that is a reason why I could not make good progress with this Dungeon Master Again conversion).

Recently, I went the other way to adapt SKWin code and implement back the missing code from DM1 (as much as I could) to make those dungeons to work.
I'm pretty glad that I have reach some interesting point so far.
The thing is that now SKWin can run a native DM1 dungeon (with no modification) and play it.

Here are some results for original Dungeon Master running through SKWin :




Kid Dungeon :



Theron's Quests :



and Chaos Strikes Back :



You can download this from the SKWin Current package .

But there is a big warning!
There are still many places to improve and unfortunately vicious bugs are still crashing SKWin (however I think SKWin is in a better condition than before).
Overall it is playable, but you would probably save game before changing a level from stairs or pit as there is high chance to crash when changing levels (I have not yet understood all dynamic loading stuff that happens at that point).
CSB is less playable because at some point, generated timers become quickly uncontrollable and crash SKWin.
There are also other small bugs or graphics issues, creatures are kinda dumb, but I have already spent much time to reach that milestone ... so it will be for a next time.

This will certainly conclude my year of contribution to DM.



Little bonus -- DM64 :

[ChristopheF]

nice progress!

[baikin]

nice