Dungeon Master Forum

Version: 1 for RTC V0.43
Platform: RTC
Author: Sophia
Date published: 2006, July 26
Date last updated: 2006, July 26

Here it is, Dark Portal, an RTC dungeon for version 0.43:
A quest to save the land from an evil warlock-- what else is new! However, be warned.

Story:


Every 1000 years, the planets align such that a gateway to another plane can be opened. This gateway is the Dark Portal. Beyond it lie forces of chaos and evil that had best not even be imagined. This year, in revenge for his expulsion from the Council of Mages for necromancy and other perverse experiments, the Warlock Lord seeks to open the portal. As he is of such immense power, he can manipulate the portal with his own innate magical ability, and he is making great strides in opening it. The dark clouds and lightning lingering in the sky almost constantly these days tell as much.

Still, there is hope for the land. Legends tell of a great relic called the Staff of Ages, that can boost the magical abilities of its user to levels even greater than the Warlock Lord's. This is, truly, the only hope for closing the portal and standing against this evil force. As the legends go, only one with the royal blood can use the staff, so the last king of the land sets out to ensure he still has a land to rule...

Aim:
This is not a typical DM Dungeon. Though it does still possess the core mechanics of wandering around, avoiding pits, pushing on wall triggers, casting spells, using items, and so on, the actual gameplay is very different. It is 100% puzzle-based. These puzzles may be based on logic, button-pushing, items, spotting small details, speed, or, often, combinations of the above, using mechanics both familiar and not familar to DM players.Even combat is puzzle-based, in that the proper item or spell used on the monster will instantly defeat it, and other attacks will have no effect at all.
This means that training is rather worthless. Just as in DM, though, not every monster can or needs to be killed.

It is rather inspired by the "Shadowgate" game on the NES and PC, though many of the puzzles have been expanded and altered to fit the DM
mythos. The name is a pun on "Shadowgate," to be truthful.

Notes:










Hints and comments:
http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=25804

Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)

Sounds interesting! Looking forward to giving it a go

OMG I loved Shadowgate!

The link to Dark Portal doesn't work.

I just clicked it, and it worked.

Momentary internet glitch, possibly? Either that or something's not right on your end...

I loved Shadowgate on the Amiga all those years ago -- have downloaded and got through the first few puzles, nice to see how you adapted the solutions to DM....

I'm stuck now though! Trying to resist looking at the spoiler thread...

PLEASE DO! Just try everything, try DM-like thigns and then completely un-DM like things, and most importantly don't assume something won't be implimented/doable!

beowuuf wrote:Just try everything, try DM-like thigns and then completely un-DM like things, and most importantly don't assume something won't be implimented/doable!

I wholly agree with that.

Don't think of the dungeon as being a DM dungeon. Just treat each puzzle as a puzzle you'd find in real life (or at least some perversion of it!), and then come up with a solution. Only then, try and work out how you'd go about doing it in the game.

Lol, indeedy

Though sophioa is sneaky and likes DM, so very, very rarely, if you are trying to think about things in a completely new way...she'll spank you with a DM flavoured solution!

I recall a certain incident with you being stuck for way too long on something that you would do about 50 times playing the DM dungeon...

Exactly.... I felt thoughroughly spanked as was very red for ages afterwards

*nods*

This is a great dungeon. Nicely done Sophia!

I use to have Shadowgate on my Amiga, but hated it as I couldn't solve the tasks and kept being killed. Without the save function, it was very frustrating.

But this quest can allow saving often so at least I have a better chance.

Also the game is infact designed (RTC bugs not included, *cough*) to not leave you in a no win position - or in other words, while there are some instant death endings, so saving good, you won't then curse fate you saved and now cannot complete the game. With shadowgate it seemed mandatory to save all the time in staggered saves and be prepared to restart at the very start anyway :(

Just played shadowgate recently after DP, and must admit to prefering DP :)

Playing this has inspired me to do the same for Uninvited, I loved that also.

I'm pretty sure I'll never find the time to do a whole normal DM dungeon -- one of these puzzle-fests seems easier and quicker. And with cool new wallsets and music could be a real treat...

Gambit37 wrote:one of these puzzle-fests seems easier and quicker

Oh, really?

DP actually was a pretty good bit of work for me, adapting all of the Shadowgate puzzles to DM mechanics, and adding a few of my own, to boot... not to mention replacing so many of the DM mechanics with stuff that fit the DP dungeon.

It may have been slightly quicker, but I wouldn't be too sure, especially if you want to add new wallsets, which always take time. (Not nearly as much thanks to WHACK though, if I may engage in a bit of shameless self-promotion)

WHACK, eh? Indulge away...

Recompiled for 0.43.

Have been trying to download Dark Portal for a few days but can't.

What happened?

I clicked the link and it downloaded without a problem...

I've tried the link in Firefox and IE and both times it's 'problem loading page'.
I've switched off the pop up blocker. Can someone let me know what else I can do please. I'm able to download other dungeons.

What about if you right-click the link and select "Save Target As..."

Or have you tried that already?

The download works for me too

I can e-mail you directly with it if your e-mail address you mailed me from is still current

Done it!! Right-click worked Ven Ra and thanks Beowuuf for the download by email.

Since I'm still busy gathering version information and backupping files -

Sophia, can you confirm that Dark Portal is all V0.43 and no update to any later RTC version exists?

I know you're not much into RTC anymore since there is DSB - still, since you did some marvellous things with dungeon mechanics that should be preserved, would you maybe allow me to add your source files to the backup collection? Of course as usual you'd still be in charge about what get's released and what isn't (though having your source files released could probably provide a couple of good examples for more complicated mechanics).

Yes, 0.43 is the latest version. Pretty much all of my notes about Surgical Strike also apply to Dark Portal-- I don't think its educational value is that good, and I'd rather get people using DSB anyway.

Yep, I wouldn't dream of questioning the vast superiority of DSB

Still, after all those years of RTC and CSBWin and others it'd be great to gather all their dungeon data together - so if you could send me the source files (text files and possibly additional media if such have been used), that'd be wonderful. My name here at gmail dot com.

Please also specify what is for public release and what isn't.