Curse of the Azure Bonds - build 1.0.13

The game can now be completed.  I finished my dungeon crawl last night, with the help of the magic God’s Intervene cheat.

Here are the changes in build 1.0.13:

  • Fixed issues stopping the end-game sequence from working, so the game is now winnable
  • Fixed the crash that happened when sword of Frost Brand, or Flame Brand is readied
  • Fixed the way text wrapping happens, so the end game text is displayed the same as in the DOS version
  • Fixed the animation picture code, so end-game animations are drawn correctly
  • Fixed a small 3D view rendering problem with the far distance wall
  • Cheat settings are now saved in your user profile, so you don’t have to keep turning them on each time you start the game
  • Time now passes correctly when resting or searching and after combat
  • Altered the Area Map to now overlay the arrow icon cleanly
  • Added new cheat “Improved Area Map” that shows doors in blue, allowing for walking around a dungeon completely from the Area Map

I have been working on getting the sound sub-system ground-work done, but functioning sound is still a long way off.

Comments:

Dave 2008-09-20 10:55:17

ok so i really really want to play this game cuz i could never get it to work when i was younger. So im trying to update it with you builder but obviously having problems. . . when i try to run the main.exe it tells me i need to have .net framework whats that all about and how do i get it???


Dirhauge 2008-08-26 14:06:18

First off… Amazing work!!!

I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to re-write the gold box series in .Net and wouldn’t you know it… someone already is!

I checked out your code and was able to compile with 0 errors. Even was able to load up my old saved game from the dos version, Truly AMAZING!

After browsing through the code it seems a little crazy. Any plans to clean up the naming or re-organize the code? It looks like you have it cleaner in some areas than others, just would be cool to see a real object model here. It would be cool to be able to one day replace the display engine with something newer (of course that would be VERY difficult I realise).

I would love to help out with this (also an avid coder).

All in all great work!


Simeon Pilgrim 2008-08-26 15:55:14

It’s plays your DOS games, because it is the DOS version, literally in C#/.Net

Yes the code is very yucky. That is mostly an artefact of how the original Pascal modules where laid out. It is my plan to move to a more OO fashion, but that classic procedural code with public single linked lists is hard to re-weave.

You actually lucky that is complies, as I am in the middle of messing with the global player list, and I expect it to break more than I have tested. One of the major restraining factors to renaming/OOing the code is that there is still translation bugs, and I don’t wont to move to far from the assembly, till it’s all works.

Long term, I would like to get the project cross platform (Mono/Mac for me) and using OpenGl for the graphics.


smallfry 2008-09-02 06:37:14

Hi, does that mean you have the original Pascal source code for CotAB? I would *LOVE* to get my hands on that (as well as the rest of the gold box games).

And, great work on this project! :)


mkilany 2008-07-30 14:51:33

Simeon,
I downloaded the file, when I double click it starts to install… preparing to install then nothing happens… What should I do?


Simeon Pilgrim 2008-07-30 15:14:37

Try Start Menu -> Run
C:\Program Files\Curse of the Azure Bonds\main.exe


Simeon Pilgrim 2008-09-02 09:05:25

I wish I had the original code also, but alas, all I have is the binary/assembly from the executable. But the assembly code is not optimised, so is quite easy to see what the original code was. Except where I have mistranslated the assembly.


Simeon Pilgrim 2008-09-21 02:32:08

Hello Dave,

You can get the .Net Framework 2.0 from Microsoft. Here is the page to download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en


Simeon Pilgrim 2008-07-29 14:22:00

Good point, I forgot the links in this post… http://code.google.com/p/coab/


mkilany 2008-07-29 13:26:47

Man, Curse of the Azure Bonds is my number one game from childhood… It’s great seeing someone putting such an effort… where can I download your fixed version…


Sif 2009-05-16 15:30:39

A huge fan of the ssi gold box games, I am actually thinking of buying a PC to run an emulator or whatever I need to run cotab.

I am on a mac, and really hope someone makes it possible to play these games on os x.

Good luck on your quest, it is a noble one.

Returning these games to anyone who misses them today, is an act of heroics.


Simeon 2009-05-16 19:59:36

Don’t buy a PC, you can play the originals on you Mac (or any PC actually) via DOSbox, it’s plays them perfectly. That is if you happy to put up with the originals input/output, visuals etc.

My major plan is to remake, and then go one better if I can. As a PC and Mac guy, I’m keen to get it working on both platforms. At this stage it should be doable, I’ve just not invested the time to learn how todo the Mac OSX UI work.


Howard Toburen 2009-07-29 21:59:35

There are already MAC Versions. There is a ‘Gold Box’ cd with Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness and Dark Queen of Krynn.

I’ve read on the net that it won’t work on Dual Core G4’s though.

It requires OS 9.2.2 or Classic. I have heard it works with back to OS 7.

It’s readily available at Amazon or eBay.


Simeon 2009-07-30 11:26:02

I agree that you can buy the games, and you should really. How every nether of the Gold Box type bundle mention Mac versions. Also when I say Mac I mean modern OS X not the older OS’s.

But if you have the original media, then DOSBox plays the game flawlessly.

So really this project is about remaking the game and having fun making it ‘better’ where I can.