Release Albion

[M-HT]

And while Albion is great, I always find myself playing Ambermoon instead

I started playing Ambermoon a few weeks ago and finished it today. (It was the first time I played it.)And while it is a good game, I think that Albion is better

Too bad that the reverse-engineering effort (of Ambermoon) is stalled. A native version could fix some annoyances I had with the game.

 

[_jr_]

And while Albion is great, I always find myself playing Ambermoon instead

I started playing Ambermoon a few weeks ago and finished it today. (It was the first time I played it.)
And while it is a good game, I think that Albion is better

Is it because the later parts of Ambermoon feel unfinished? Or the SciFi vs. Fantasy angle?


To me Ambermoon feels more epic and I really don't care that much for Albion's main hero (and hate the final fight).


But then again, Albion is among the very few games I actually finished.

Too bad that the reverse-engineering effort (of Ambermoon) is stalled. A native version could fix some annoyances I had with the game.

Yes, if only there was more time. I've fantasized about working on it (at least I'm somewhat familiar with 68K). If you want to have a go at it, I'll offer you a bounty.

 

[M-HT]

Is it because the later parts of Ambermoon feel unfinished? Or the SciFi vs. Fantasy angle?

I'm OK with the SciFi vs. Fantasy angle - afterall Albion has it too.
Major things:

After finishing first two islands and visiting Newlake, you are left wandering aimlessly around and hoping that you find something that allows you to advance the plot.

You must visit places which are not on the map or mentioned anywhere in the game. Or if they are mentioned, you still have no idea where they could be.

You visit Kire's moon not because you have any reasonable expectation that you will find something there (or even that you can return), but only because you have nowhere else to go.

And exploring Kire's moon is a nightmare by itself. I spent a lot of time trying to find the second village and even after downloading a map of Kire's moon I still couldn't find it, because there's no visible indication that the village is there. (That's partially my fault, because I missed the dwarf that tells me that the second village is southwest of the first village).

Minor things:

Some ideas are underused in the game:

- cursed items - I'm aware of only one in the game and I didn't even find it (I read a walkthrough after I finished the game to see what I missed.)

- animal talk - you can learn to talk to animals (I didn't), but I remember only one animal, that you can talk with - the cat on Mera's island

- items usable only by one sex - I only found two items usable only by females

- windgates - I found and repaired all of them (because of XP), but I only used them to go to Sansrie's island and back - mostly because most of them are in the middle of nowhere

- two islands are practically empty (except for windgates)

The timeline is weird. According to the intro, Ambermoon starts 90 years after Amberstar. But for instance the grandfather is 80 in Ambermoon and he was 18 in Amberstar.

Low amount of dialogs. People respond to three topics at most (I think).

Too much gold and nothing to spend it on.

Final dungeon - after returning from Morag and creating crystal harp, I was expecting a big final dungeon, instead I got a really small one with three groups of enemies plus the final one.

I haven't played Amberstar yet - some of the things might be obvious to people who played it, but not for people who didn't.

Too bad that the reverse-engineering effort (of Ambermoon) is stalled. A native version could fix some annoyances I had with the game.

Yes, if only there was more time. I've fantasized about working on it (at least I'm somewhat familiar with 68K). If you want to have a go at it, I'll offer you a bounty.

Not at the moment (or forseeable time).I know nothing about 68K or Amiga in general. I somehow managed to install and play Ambermoon on Amiga emulator, but that's the whole extent of my knowledge about Amiga.

 

[_jr_]

Many thanks for these impressions. I played Ambermoon the first time when it came out and can't really remember how it felt then, except that it was totally awesome


But I had much more time (being a student) that I didn't mind the exploring (still have my - ugly - handdrawn maps). Though I remember being positively overwhelmed by the moon, not finding anything and the deadly animals everywhere do fit very well IMO. Interestingly I always feel more lost in Albion on leaving the first village. Don't know why.


But i fully agree with your points about underused ideas. I don't know, but it seems that after the first two worlds they simply did run out of time.


I have never finished Amberstar. It simply did not hook me like Ambermoon or Albion.

 

[M-HT]

But I had much more time (being a student) that I didn't mind the exploring (still have my - ugly - handdrawn maps). Though I remember being positively overwhelmed by the moon, not finding anything and the deadly animals everywhere do fit very well IMO.

It fits very well, but it's not much fun to play.

I have never finished Amberstar. It simply did not hook me like Ambermoon or Albion.

I tried playing Amberstar before Ambermoon, but I lost interest very quickly (while exploring Twinlake). It's just too different from Albion, too primitive.So I chose to play Ambermoon first. The difference between Amberstar and Ambermoon is smaller that between Amberstar and Albion. Hopefully I won't lose interest this time.

 

[M-HT]

Hi,

I updated Albion to version 1.4.0

Download it here:

Repo

Changes:

* added enhanced 3D rendering - activated by default

  (the 3d part of the game is rendered in the native resolution,

   instead of rendered in the original resolution and then scaled)

  (there are some minor issues, read the readme for more information)

From readme:

Enhanced 3D rendering renders the 3d part of the game in the native resolution, instead of rendering it in the original resolution and then scaling it.

There are some minor issues:

- it works best when the 3D window size is set to 100%

- semitransparent messages, dialogs and menu shadows are displayed with black background

- when toggling scaling or enhanced 3D rendering and the game is in 3D mode and a message, dialog or popup menu is displayed, the 3D part may not be displayed correctly (until the message, dialog or popup menu is closed)

Enhanced 3D rendering can be turned off in the configuration file (or using the configurator).

 

[EvilDragon]

Oooooh, that does sound nice. Thanks

 

[_jr_]

Just tried it and the new renderer is looking very good. I greatly underestimated the texture quality (or did you enhance them somehow?). Thanks! Really appreciated.

This is getting my hopes up that the 2D map resolution could be doubled, too, so I don't get lost as often

 

[rygD]

I am using the non-touchscreen controls, and when I go to the screen to select a save position it brings up a place for me to name it.  Keyboard does nothing, so I bring up the virtual keyboard and make the name, then click "OK" which also does not put text on the line.

How do I save a game?

 

[M-HT]

Just tried it and the new renderer is looking very good. I greatly underestimated the texture quality (or did you enhance them somehow?).

The textures are not enhanced. All difference is in the increased rendering resolution.

Thanks! Really appreciated. This is getting my hopes up that the 2D map resolution could be doubled, too, so I don't get lost as often

It's possible in theory, but it would mean a REALLY lot of work (which means no in praxis). Also getting lost is part of the game . Either get better or get used to it .

I am using the non-touchscreen controls, and when I go to the screen to select a save position it brings up a place for me to name it.  Keyboard does nothing, so I bring up the virtual keyboard and make the name, then click "OK" which also does not put text on the line.

How do I save a game?

I took a look into it, I don't have a fix yet, but this is what I found out. When using alternative SDL by notaz, when Fn key is pressed, the keyboard stops working (also virtual keyboard).Until I can fix it, either don't press the Fn key or turn off using alternative SDL by notaz (using the configurator or by editing the configuration file).

When you want to save the game and the keyboard is not working, cancel the saving (using right click) and quit the game. When you run the game again use "Continue game" and save it then.

 

[M-HT]

Hi,

I updated Albion to version 1.4.1

Download it here:
Repo


Changes:
* fix pressing Fn key when using alternative SDL library (by notaz)

 

[fettouhi]

I'm trying to get albion working on my CC pandora. I downloaded the game files from

<sniiiiip> ~ Please do not post abandonware links from unauthorised sites. - Wally

and installed the game as it mentioned in the readme file. The only thing that launches is the setup for setting touchscreen etc. then nothing more. Can somebody list how the files should places on the pandora?

 

[M-HT]

If you follow the readme, after you install the game to your harddisk, the list of files should look like written here.

Then you must copy the content of C:\Games\ALBION to the directory pandora/appdata/albion/game/ on your SD card.

That means that on your SD card you should have following directories on your SD card (and the rest of the files):

pandora/appdata/albion/game/SAVES

pandora/appdata/albion/game/DRIVERS

pandora/appdata/albion/game/XLDLIBS

pandora/appdata/albion/game/ALBIONCD

 

[fettouhi]

If you follow the readme, after you install the game to your harddisk, the list of files should look like written here.

Then you must copy the content of C:\Games\ALBION to the directory pandora/appdata/albion/game/ on your SD card.

That means that on your SD card you should have following directories on your SD card (and the rest of the files):

pandora/appdata/albion/game/SAVES

pandora/appdata/albion/game/DRIVERS

pandora/appdata/albion/game/XLDLIBS

pandora/appdata/albion/game/ALBIONCD

Many thanks for the link. I got Albion working now on my Pandora. I had copied the wrong content into the ALBIONCD directory. Strange thing though the version of Albion I have doesn't have the intro movie.

 

[M-HT]

Movies are often removed from games to reduce the download size. (I would tell you to buy the original, but since it's not sold anywhere I'll save myself the effort.)

 

[M-HT]

Hi,

I updated Albion to version 1.5.0

Download it here:

Repo

Changes:

* fix playback of background sound/music effects (played using music driver)

(it's MIDI, but not General MIDI)

 

[BAFelton]

Hi !

I tried to install Albion but it doesn't work for me.

I mounted albion.iso (as D)  in dosbox and installed it.

Copied the content of the installed game in pandora/appdata/albion/game

Andthe content of the CD in pandora/appdata/albion/game/ALBIONCD

I have the menu to choose touchscreen or not and then nothing.

An error.txt in the game directory gave this :

**** Error log ****

 

Albion v1.38 (created on Jul 25 1996 12:39:09)

Executed on Wed Dec 24 11:11:28 2014

 

BBERROR: ERRORSTACK START:--------------

BBDOS Library:  DOS_setcurrentdir: unknown error - FILENAME: D:\ALBION - DATA: 0 - OSERROR: 1

Xload: File does not exist.

     (Name : Slab)

Albion: File access error.

(line 679 of file g:\albion\src\game.c)

BBERROR: ERRORSTACK END----------------

 

 

EDIT : Sorry, wrong path in the setup.in, it works now 

 

Thanks

 

[PowerGod]

@M-HT: did you made also an x86 Linux version while at it ?

 

[M-HT]

Yes (even before ARM version), but I don't see much point in releasing it (where would I release it ?), since Albion is perfectly playable in DosBox.

 

[PowerGod]

Well, reading the description I was thinking you had somehow improved the graphic and other things so it should be better and faster than running it from dosbox, but I will not be able to try it on a pandora for a while...