Dungeon Master Forum

New DM website online now:

http://dm.dfxdx.co.uk

I will be adding more material on a regular basis, including info and reviews never seen on the web before. Please take a look and check for updates.
Apologies in advance:

1/ Dodgy menu system: will be redesigning soon
2/ Large graphics: the only way I can reproduce some material is using images. Sorry to dial-up users - it will be slow!
3/ Just tested using IE - transparent PNG images do not look so good... Best viewed in Firefox or Safari. Will change to transparent GIF images.

If I know that people are interested, I will add more material. Webmasters: pretty please add a link to my site.

The more the merrier... but do we need another site? Christophe's site is pretty comprehensive. I wouldn't like you to spend time building a site if no-one was to use it. I suppose if you have something new, or a new slant/idea on the game or its future then it would be worthwhile. For instance a site databasing new graphics and dungeons, with in depth reports, and clones/new work would have people interested.

On your site you mention that floppy disks for Atari ST and Amiga use 79 tracks. This is not true, they use 80.
for example, do the multiplication for single sided Atari ST:
80 tracks x 9 sectors per track x 512 bytes per sector = 364032 bytes = 360 KB

With 79 tracks, the total size would be 355.5 KB only.

Aaahhh the master has spoken! It is not easy to reach the dungeon master technical knowledge of Christophe
And I tend to agree with PaulH on the need (or not) of two separate web sites on DM.
Moreover, the upcoming release of the Encyclopaedia seems to bring a collaborative approach to handle the updates, with an easy way to add articles/comments/etc... which can be interesting to build together a beautiful Encyclopaedia.
Christophe, do you have a comment on this point?

Regards,
GreatStone.

Well, you'll be very disappointed when mine surfaces then. That'll make it three. Excessive!

Gambit, your site DID promise a lot a few years ago... Time marches on! You need to sell it again.

yes, but the info Gambit was offering WAS/IS unique.. thus far I'm not seeing actual *new* content.. the majority of the info was.. as stated.. copied Verbatim from the Encyclopedia. Two sites with roughly the same infor? or one site with a few new bits added.. hmmm.. I'd vote submit the new info to Christophe and he can add it.

Then again I could be speaking too soon and amazing new info will appear shortly. *shrug*

moo

First off: apologies to Christophe, he is right, the ST and Amiga use 80 tracks. My count started at 00 so my screen said 79 for the last track. I will correct. As for copying verbatim: There is a reason and just bear with me. All will be revealed soon. I just want everyone to know that I am in no way intending to cause offence to Christophe or rip off his material but very soon (once I convert all my pics from the ST currently in Degas format - Christophe: thanks for the tip re xnview but a Gimp plugin worked better) some unique and new material re copy protection is going up and slightly contradicts the material on DM & CSB Enc. My info gives the real deal re copy protection on the ST. Just wait and see!

Re multiple sites: I agree wholeheartedly that Christophe's site is the best and will remain the number one resource, BUT, there is nothing wrong with having lots of sites about. My site is primarily for my own benefit and I just wanted to have control <ego power trip here>. I will be quite happy for Christophe to copy my material to his site to create the ultimate resource BUT please continue to cite sources!
My other motive is that I see sites that were last updated in 2004 or earlier. I will be updating mine on a regular basis (at a stretch every 6 weeks but probably sooner) with NEW stuff.
Go see - update going up today: second advert panel for CSB.

If you genuinely have new stuff, then go for it. I can't imagine that there is that much left out there!

Its a pity I do not have my old ST Action magazines left, where I could have scanned in reviews, hint pages etc.

dfxdx, I'm not offended in any way, you can use material from my site as long as you put the appropriate credits.
I don't mind if you prefer to create your own web site. I prefer new content on a new site than no new content at all (Gambit, your site is welcome, we have been eager to see it for years! Any release date?)
About the 79/80 tracks: you forgot to correct the value in the text below your table.

It is true that my web site has not been updated for a long time (nearly a year). But I have not been inactive during this year:

First, Greatstone and myself have spent litterally hundreds of hours over the past 6 months working to decode DM data files. This includes reverse engineering the files we have from the various versions of the game (Greatstone and me), and implementing and debugging a tool to extract that data (Greatstone). We have done a lot of work on DM for SNES where we have major advances. We work with kentaro to finalize the decoding of the JP version. No release date yet but I believe the tool will be published before the end of the year.
We also worked on Theron's Quest a lot. There have been a lot of advances too, but mainly foundation work. A lot more work is to be done before we can release something really useful.

Second, I have been working on a major upgrade of the Encyclopaedia to move it from a static web site to a dynamic web site (using a database and a content management system). This is also a lot of work and I plan to publish a first version next week. All features will not be available at start but I will add them progressively. The site will be easier to manage and update, it will allow me to add new content on a more regular basis. Also it will allow me in the future to give users the permission to submit/update some pages. People will be able to manage their own section of the site. Like Pierre for his extraction tool for example, Paul for a CSBwin documentation section, etc...
I also plan to include an efficient system to manage custom dungeons. Lot of new features to expect!

I know that people are waiting for these but this is just a hobby that I do on my free time...

A bit off topic, but will your new site have discussion built in Christophe, or will you still direct people here?

PaulH wrote:If you genuinely have new stuff, then go for it. I can't imagine that there is that much left out there!

Its a pity I do not have my old ST Action magazines left, where I could have scanned in reviews, hint pages etc.

There is lots of 'new' stuff out there, or rather within my archives. New: as in never seen on the web before!

Christophe: Many thanks. Sorry that I did not ask for permission but there is a good reason for copying your info. I could have come up with the same info via my own sources but why not quote the master?

Another update today: another advert for the DM Editor.
<begin indignation>
New stuff so far: Advert panels for CSB, advert for DM Editor. Please let me know if you have seen this stuff before somewhere. I hear grumbles that there is no original material but AFAIK these are unique to my site.
<end indignation>
No updates next week. Eagerly anticipating the new DM & CSB Enc

Gambit37 wrote:Well, you'll be very disappointed when mine surfaces then. That'll make it three. Excessive!

Many thanks since that implies that everyone already thinks my site is one of the best.

Ah, no. I was commenting on this point by greatstone:

And I tend to agree with PaulH on the need (or not) of two separate web sites on DM.

If the thought is that two are one too many, then it will surely be disappointing for him when there are three available!

dfxdx, I guess you haven't discovered my old sample of what I'm preparing. It's way out of date, contains a lot of temporary inaccurate data and broken links, and has changed a lot since that went up, oooh, years ago:

http://www.dmcodex.com/sample/

Oh, and as a quick note, please do not use any of this content in your new site. Cheers.

Gambit37: I am very impressed with your site and the graphics are brilliant. I look forward to seeing the final version. (When?)

I am a bit worried now: people seem to think that I will be stealing their material! In response, I promise not to borrow or quote any more material without permission.

Gambit37: I will say however that my (forthcoming) material is looking very similar to yours. To counteract any accusations of theft, I will continue to cite my sources and, since I do not have access to a scanner, I will add photos of my original documents to my site. I am hoping that this will be enough to convince people that I am not just out to rework other people's material - I want to contribute to the community.

dfxdx/Gambit: having an active DM community with a lot of DM sites is better than having a sleepy one. As long as there is no twice (or more) identical sites, I will be happy to browse all of them.

Perhaps can I also bring my own DM site? Who knows...
<joke>Is it time to publish my scan of a DM review in a german magazine? Really?</joke>

Long life to DM!

Hi to all,
hopefully everyone has been digesting the revamped DM & CSB Enc. Good work Christophe! WE WANT MORE!
<begin shameless advert>
I have added a little infrastructure update to my site - a new RSS feed. Everyone please bookmark - it will make the updates easier to access.
<end shameless advert>
I have been working very hard to add lots of new stuff. Coming soon, I promise. Loads of new material, just very little time to add it to the site.

Since this is the best place for DM news - I have just added a review of DM to my website. It comes from ST Action which was a monthly British magazine devoted to Atari ST games. The writers loved DM and included a letters-based hints section devoted to answering queries from users. I will be adding a selection of such letters to the site when I get the time.
Please subscribe to the RSS feed since this will be my main method of announcing updates.

Website update!
Have updated navigation to something a little more user friendly. New material includes the ACE review of Dungeon Master and the Zero review of CSB.

Some nice info on there, but painfully slow to download. You don't need such large 24-bit PNGs, that homepage image is nearly 300Kb! Try using 8-bit dithered PNGs or GIFs instead.

Good idea - now just got to find the time. My final coursework deadline is end of Sep - hopefully updates more often after that. All feedback welcome - are any of you actually interested in reading the game reviews?

Yep, I love the reviews and have collected quite a few myself in various magazines while searching for content for the DM Codex site I was working on.

Hehe... ACE's 'predicted interest curve' tailing off towards the one-year mark. If only they knew

Good to see that old ST Action review again. A friend of mine carried around issue six of STA all the time, as it had their play guide in it.

As long as people are interested in the reviews then I will continue to add them.There are other things coming but the bulk will be magazine reviews, oh, and the obligatory scans of tangible stuff.
Gambit37: old question - so what has happened to the site you were working on?

Just posted an update to my website. This has a little information on the copy protection used by Dungeon Master. For the moment, it only includes info on the system that uses 'flakey bits' but I have also added the original patent details. I am working on part two which I hope to add fairly soon. You will find the update in the Dungeon Master section.

As a very special Christmas present, I have updated my site with the complete article on Dungeon Master's copy protection system. Enjoy!

Now I'm not a technophile, but I actually found that article interesting. Well done!

dfxdx wrote:New DM website online now:

http://dm.dfxdx.co.uk

the dungeons and discdrives section has my letter from ST Action magazine. i'm famous!

I like the Predicted Interest Curve in the ACE review. Apparently interest would drop to near zero after 1 year ! I wonder what they would have predicted for 19 years !

oops already noted before I see.

Hey, long time no see froud - welcome back!