Manalink Classic Rogues Gallery Project

[CirothUngol]

A couple of weeks ago, I was happily playing Manalink 3.0 with all of it's updated rules, thousands of new cards, thousands of PlayDecks, extra options and spiffy new graphics... and then it happened.

"CirothUngol vs. Therza Dorc"

Up pops the same old grotesque PlayFace that I've been using for over a decade, followed by one of the hideous old Rogues I've been dueling for over a decade. The archaic graphics now look even worse than ever against the beautiful backdrop provided by Mathusalem, Sonic, Sarlack and others.
"Something must be done", I thought... so I did.

I've created a new Rogues Gallery to replace all 66 of the old images used in Microprose MtG. Instead of sticking with a Magic-Theme, I usually went for the ridiculous. It's populated mainly by cartoon, anime, advertising and video-game characters. They're also done in the classic 138x170x256 resolution and converted to Microprose's proprietary .PIC format using Mok's BMP2PIC program, so their size is tiny and they will work on any version of the game (old or new).

Here's how they work:
The Rogue PlayFaces used for Single Duel, Gauntlet and Sealed Deck are located in the \Exp1Art\Rogues\ folder, and they are accessed by the game using the Rogues.csv file located in the main program folder. In addition, the comments made by the computer opponent at the end of each duel and while SideBoarding are located in the Text.res file under the following headings:
@DIALOG_ENDEXP1DUEL_LOSE
@DIALOG_ENDEXP1DUEL_TIE
@DIALOG_ENDEXP1DUEL_WIN
@SEALDECK_OPPONEDITING

Here's what you do:
The archive contains the .PIC files for the new Rogues and a proper Rogues.csv file to use them. You can just unzip to your Magic Program Folder and you're done. If you'd like to combine the original set with the new set, you can extract it elsewhere, then just add the contents of the old Rogues.csv to the new one, or vice versa (make sure not to include the additional header). Otherwise, you can safely remove the Rogue*.pic files as Manalink will no longer attempt to access them (or you can leave 'em... we're talkin' 534Kb here). Some of the original Rogues aren't bad, and are well worth keeping. Dump the original Rogues into MtG_PIC2BMP, convert, and scan through them to find the ones you like, then just copy the necessary lines from the old Rogues.csv file to the new one.

If you'd like new End-of-Duel and SideBoarding comments, you can snag the ones I'm using below. You'll have to manually edit the Text.res file in a text editor to add the following contents under the proper headings. This is necessary because the file Text.res is under active development and you can't just clobber it like you can with Rogues.csv.

Code: Select all

@DIALOG_ENDEXP1DUEL_LOSE
30
Gotcha! Man... I bet you didn't see that one coming.
Gotcha! You gotta admit... that was rather spectacular!
Gotcha! ...don't be such a sore loser. You wanna play again?
Gotcha! ...and there you have it, another superior game played by me.
Gotcha! ...what?! You didn't expect to win against a Computer, did you?
You're a loser.  I can't believe you lost to a computer... HA!
You're a loser.  Don't feel too bad, we were all beginners once.
You're a loser.  That makes me the winner! Now I get to gloat... nyaa-nyaa.
You're a loser.  Seriously?! Was that the best you could do? Sad... very sad.
You're a loser.  Well, that felt good... wanna go again?
I've won this hand... and no, I didn't cheat. Not even a little.
I've won this hand. Didn't I win the last hand... and the one before that...
I've won this hand... because I'm a much better player than you.
I've won this hand, and I'll probably win the next... 'cause you're so predictable.
I've won this hand. Winning isn't everything... but losing really sucks. Ha!
I win!  Oh yea, that's right... in your face!
I win!  So I think that would make you... the Loser.
I win!  As a human you must know that you are vastly inferior to my kind.
I win!  Again and again I win... why don't you ever get any better?
I win!  You lost to a computer... am I the only one who thinks that's funny?
You've lost the game.  I don't think that really surprises anyone.
You've lost the game.  I'm a computer... it was an inevitable outcome.
You've lost the game.  Come on, admit it. I played a really good game.
You've lost the game.  You wanna celebrate by playing another hand?
You've lost the game.  My grandmother plays a better game of Magic.
You lost.  And don't try that mana locked excuse on me bub.
You lost.  No...the computer doesn't cheat. Not even a little bit.
You lost.  Hey, you could always try badminton.
You lost.  So what do you do for an encore, line dance?
You lost.  I've played better games against your toaster.

@DIALOG_ENDEXP1DUEL_TIE
10
I didn't win?! We must play again, so I can kill you proper.
OK, that was really lame... dying at the same time like that.
You are a fierce competitor... let us duel again.
A tie? ...really, what are the chances. Tie-breaker time!
We tied? OK, get ready for a tie-breaker.
It's a tie?! That's no way to end a duel. Another hand will settle this...
Really, a tie? That's very unsatisfying... and I demand satisfaction.
The duel was a tie.  You've found your equal!
The duel was a tie.  At least you didn't LOSE to a computer.
The duel was a tie.  At least I didn't LOSE to a human.

@DIALOG_ENDEXP1DUEL_WIN
30
What the..? I can't believe that I just lost to a human.
What the..? But you ALWAYS win... it's not fair, I'm tellin' ya.
What the..? Man, there's nothing more humiliating than losing to a human.
What the..? Another landslide, that was a total massacre!
What the..? Another horrible loss... to a human... when will I ever learn?
I lost?!  I'm a computer... how could this possibly happen?
I lost?!  ...does not compute ...does not compute ...*sizzle*
I lost?!  Ok, so how'd you pull that off?  ...no, seriously. How'd you do it?
I lost?  But I was so close! That really burns my diodes.
I lost?  To a human?! Don't tell the other computers, this is really humiliating.
I lost this hand. That's surprising... you're usually such a poor player.
I lost this hand... and I'm simply not very happy with that. *grr*
I lost this hand. That's weird... I usually kick your butt, don't I?
I lost this hand. That's impossible... you must've cheated. Cheater!
I lost this hand, but it's a new deck, and I'm still workin' out the kinks.
You're a winner.  OK, so you won a hand... big whoop.
You're a winner.  Well, there's a shock. I didn't think you had it in you.
You're a winner.  Yea, yea... Sure, sure... go ahead and gloat.
You're a winner.  You really steam-rolled me that time.
You're a winner.  That makes me the loser. Sad... very sad.
You've won the game.  That'll teach me to stop paying attention to the game.
You've won the game.  Again?! When will I ever catch a break?
I've lost the game.  That's not supposed to happen... ever.
I've lost the game.  Revenge, I seek revenge... one more hand.
I've lost the game.  Yikes! That was a massacre. I didn't stand a chance.
You won!  Don't gloat, computers are people too.
You won.  Give me a bigger swap file and I'll wipe that smirk off your face.
You won.  Yeah, but can you beat me using only 1s and 0s?
You won.  Of course, I didn't draw enough land...
You won.  Wanna play "best 0101 out of 0111"?

@SEALDECK_OPPONEDITING
25
There's more where that came from, you just wait!
I'll do even better this next hand... Die!
Prepare to meet thy doom, mortal. The next hand is MINE!
I've got some cards that'll kill THAT color. Editing now...
Man, this next hand is a cinch. You'll never see it coming...
I've got more where that came from... prepare to DIE!
I'm gonna pull out a few cards... Ok, I'm ready.
...surely I can do better than that. I'll trade out some cards.
Oh, you're using THAT color. I need to trade out a few cards...
I have something to eraticate your deck. I'll add that now...
I'm trading out a few cards, you should do the same.
I need better cards, editing my deck now...
I'm diving for color-hosers, gimme a minute...
I need to change some cards, hang on...
I've got something for you, editing now...
I'm changing some cards, gimme a sec...
There are a few cards I should change; one moment...
Please wait while I trade out a few cards...
Hang on a sec while I find the cards I need.
I'm editing my deck... prepare yourself!
There are some changes I should make; one moment...
Editing my deck, please wait.
Just a second while I make a few changes to my deck.
Editing my deck; this will just take a minute.
Making a few changes to my deck--hold on.

These are so easy, there should be over a hundred of 'em in there... at least!

I've really enjoyed using the new Rogues in Manalink. I think they're fun, breathe a bit of new life into the game, and most of them look much better than the majority of the originals (especially with the other updated graphics), but I understand that my tastes are rather odd and not for everyone, which brings me to...

How you can help:You can post with a new Win, Lose or Draw comment for the computer opponent end-of-duel list above. I'll then add them to the list for everyone to use. You could also...
Make a new Rogue! I'm a video-guy, not a picture-guy, so I'm sure there's a better (easier?) way to be doing this, but this is the proceedure I developed for creating old-skool Rogues:
I captured all of these images from the screen using Fastone Capture in proper Height x Width ratio by first measuring the Height or Width of the desired image using Fastone and then finding the missing dimension with the formula:
FoundWidth x 170 / 138 = MissingHeight
FoundHeight x 138 / 170 = MissingWidth
Open the captured image in PhotoShop, resize to 138x170 (Image\Image Size), change to Indexed Color (Image\Mode\Indexed Color), load the 256 color Manalink palette (palette\custom, or palette\previous after loading it once), and choose a dither setting. Usually None looks best, but not always. You can then zoom-in, outline the image and remove the background using a combination of bucket and brush tools. You can use the EXAMPLE.BMP from Mok's FaceMaker and the EyeDropper Tool to get True Black and the Background Transparency Color (Color#255, an uber-bright green), as well as a proper 256 color palette (load EXAMPLE.BMP and Image\Mode\Color Table then Save).
After editing and saving your Rogue (as an 8-bit\Windows BitMap), you just run it through the Preconfigured Standalone DOSBox version of Mok's FaceMaker (BMP2PIC.EXE) and it will produce the .PIC file. 8.3 FileNames only (you can rename them later) and a maximum produced .PIC file size of 13000 bytes. If it exceeds this size, you'll have to re-edit the image to add more transparency (this happened to me maybe 3 times out of ~80 images).
Afterward, zip the file (along with the original, unconverted BitMap) and post it in this thread along with the Screen Name and Quote necessary for the Rogues.csv file. If I ever get enough of 'em (let's say 32... maybe less with a little padding from the 6-8 acceptable originals), I'll collect them into an archive and release it in the first post of this thread.

...come on, who would you really like to duel in Manalink?

A special thanx to Mok for creating BMP2PIC.EXE; to Huggybaby for assembling the DOSBox version of FaceMaker (very convenient); as well as to all of the talented artists whose hard work was knowingly, willingly, and liberally raped for the sake of this project. For the curious, all of these images came either from Google Images or deviantArt.
My sincerest apologies to all those who are affected.

PS-
Any of these Rogues can also be used as your PlayFace, just copy 'em to the PlayFace folder.
Manalink will also load modern, full color\resolution BitMap files for PlayFaces. It'll even stretch-to-fit... but I haven't figured that one out yet.
Besides... that's another thread. ^_^

[stassy]

Hum I can't seem to find the Manalink color palette file for Photoshop, did you put it in the archive or must we create/generate from other files?

[CirothUngol]

You can use the EXAMPLE.BMP from Mok's FaceMaker to get a proper 256 color palette. Just load EXAMPLE.BMP into PhotoShop and select Image\Mode\Color Table then Save, or you can grab the .ACT and .PAL files from the archive below.

[stassy]

Oups sorry missed the example part.

I have a minor issue with transparency, when I save to bmp with my image in indexed 256 color 8 bit and ML palette, the green color is replaced with white. Do you know a workaround for that?

Hum weird, got it to work now, now onward to the others

Edit: Aaah new graphic issue, I have green border on my pic because of transparency, how to get rid of them since they should be transparent?

Edit2: Argh the conversion need to be really tight on pixel issue, you really need to have a straight outline in 256 colors else it will be marked as green

Edit3: Protip : After you convert your image to indexed colour, you can start to hunt for semi transparent pixel and you need to color them into green pixel or it will show as...green pixel ingame. Hopefully the size of the image is quite small and the hunt doesn't take long.

I wonder about the size restriction, since the default image largely bypass it (Chunk for example is 276x170), as it was done by Mok because of slow connection in the past, wouldn't it be possible to raise it since now even the lowest internet connection speed is 10th faster?

[CirothUngol]

I wonder about the size restriction, since the default image largely bypass it (Chunk for example is 276x170), as it was done by Mok because of slow connection in the past, wouldn't it be possible to raise it since now even the lowest internet connection speed is 10th faster?

Sure, but someone would have to re-write BMP2PIC (the 13000 byte size limit is hard-wired into the executable). Also, 276x170 is equal to (138x2)x170, since the Rogues and PlayFaces are doubled in width with the Mask Transparency to the right of the image... BMP2PIC does this automatically.
Incidently, Rogues and PlayFaces can be BitMaps of virtually any resolution (they'll even stretch-to-fit)... you just can't use BMP2PIC to automatically add the Transparency Mask or convert them to .PIC files for use with all versions of Microprose's MtG.

Also, I never seemed to have an issue with semi-transparency... just lucky I guess. ^_^

I hope you get these issue resolved. I'd love to see more Rogues in the game!

[stassy]

So here it goes, my first batch of custom avatar, bear with me with the cleaning errors, it was my first time doing that

This batch has a theme : Magic cards user so at least it's tied with MTG a little

Name
Alice Riddell



Origin
She is the main character from the game Alice: Madness Returns, wearing her Royal Suit.

Commentary
Despite the fact that she doesn't use cards, I choose her because of her alter ego the Queen of Hearts and the popular fanarts depicting her with that theme.
Even though her image source was graphically heavy it was one of the fastest pic to be done thanks to the high contrast.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Alice Riddell, 3, "How many times must I tell you? I only take tea with friends!", ALICE.PIC

Name
Elizabeth



Origin
Elizabeth is a character from the game serie Persona and a denizen of the Velvet Room. She help the hero by providing him quest rewards but is revealed to be the Ultimate Opponent of the game.

Commentary
Another easy image with high contrast outline, I choose a boss card user this time.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Elizabeth, 4, "You know, it's a shame, really, that humans only believe in what they can see.", ELIZA.PIC

Name
Gambit



Origin
Also known as Remy LeBeau, he is a character from the Marvel Comics and is known from being the ladies man member of the X-men mutant team, fighting with his Bo staff and kinetic energy charged throwing cards.

Commentary
This one took me the longest time to finish, because I couldn't find any appropriate material, plus his jacket got horribly jinxed during the indexed colors conversion and the final image got past the size limit, so I had to redo it in 2 colors...Orz

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Gambit, 2, "You wanna play with Gambit? Here, pick a card! ", GAMBIT.PIC

Name
Hilda Rhambling



Origin
She is one of the protagonist from the game Tales of Rebirth. She is a beautiful, but cold fortune teller, and she attacks with magic cards in battle.

Commentary
This image was quite easy at first so I began to work on adding transparency in the hair. The color conversion was surprinsingly good.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Hilda Rhambling, 2, "I will win! I'll show you that I can prevail over myself!", HILDA.PIC

Name
Illyasviel von Einzbern



Origin
She is main character of the soon-to-be-animated manga Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA which is a spinoff of the franchise Fate/stay night.
In this story she become a card hunting magical girl after forming a contract with the Kaleidostick Ruby, and she can use the power of the cards to summon Heroic Spirit as Servant or use their Noble Phantasm as weapon.

Commentary
This is what happen when trying to work too much on hair transparency, I gave up on the hair as it was too much work to clean T_T

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Illyasviel von Einzbern, 3, "Compact Full Open! Expanding connection to alternate realities! Magical Girl Prisma Illya has arrived!", ILLYA.PIC

Name
Natsuki Shinohara



Origin
A spirited 18-year-old high school student and a close friend of Kenji Koiso from the animated movie Summer Wars. She help him disable the virus Love Machine which menace to crash a satellite on a power plant by challenging it in playing Koi-koi, a card game which use Hanafuda cards, in a virtual world where she use this avatar.

Commentary
Quite easy at first, there were a lot of white outline to be corrected though and I was to clean the furisode after color conversion. It's one of the few image that got cropped on purpose.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Natsuki Shinohara, 1, "Of course this family would bet everything on Hanafuda...", NATSUKI.PIC

Name
Reimu Hakurei



Origin
She is the main character of the Touhou Project serie, as the Miko of Hakurei, she manages the Hakurei Border of Gensokyo and exterminates youkai with her spellcards.

Commentary
Another hair hell, but this time I got the hang on it.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Reimu Hakurei, 3, "This is some youkai's doing again!", REIMU.PIC

Name
Sakura Kinomoto



Origin
She is the heroine of the serie Cardcaptor Sakura. After accidentally freeing a set of magical cards from the book in which they had been sealed for years, she is tasked with retrieving those cards in order to avoid an unknown catastrophe from befalling the world. She use her cards to release elemental and conceptual powers.

Commentary
Thanks to the anime style cell shading, color correction was made easier.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Cardcaptor Sakura, 1, "Everything will be alright!", SAKURA.PIC

Name
Syaoran Li



Origin
He appear at first in the serie Cardcaptor Sakura as an antagonist, however, as the series progresses, and especially after Sakura is officially deemed the new mistress of the Cards, Syaoran drops his rivalistic attitude towards her, and becomes a reliable ally and a beloved friend. Through the use of jufu - slips of enchanted paper - Syaoran can summon various elements.

Commentary
Since it was a breeze for Sakura, I went straight for Syaoran

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Syaoran Li, 1, "I'm going to get all the Clow cards.", SHAOLAN.PIC

Name
Yami Yugi



Origin
Also referred to as the Nameless Pharaoh, is the spirit of Pharaoh Atem that has been sealed in the Millennium Puzzle. He is the main protagonist of the original and second series Yu-Gi-Oh!, along with Yugi Muto. After Yugi Muto solved the Millennium Puzzle, Yami Yugi resided in Yugi's body and would take possession of it when Yugi or his friends were in danger. After Yugi became fully aware of Yami's existence, Yugi could voluntarily give control of his body to the Pharaoh.

Commentary
The first image to blow up the size limit, had to remove his jacket in order to fit everything in.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Yami Yugi, 4, "It's game time!", YUGI.PIC

Name
Zuo Ci



Origin
Zuo Ci is a legendary person who is famous for visiting Cao Cao from the historical novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the video game inspired from the later, Orochi Warriors, he is one of the members within the mystic army that opposes Orochi's tyranny. He use paper talismans inscribed with the belief to dispel various forms of ill fortune when used.

Commentary
His Guile hair was a nightmare, but the rest was ok.

Image Source

Rogue suggestion stat

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Zuo Ci, 1, "I shall now demonstrate my knowledge of the arcane arts.", ZUOCI.PIC

Attached is an archive with the .pic files, I didn't include the Rogue.csv because I couldn't convert it with LibreOffice Calc

[Huggybaby]

A special thanx to Mok for creating BMP2PIC.EXE; to whoever assembled the DOSBox version of FaceMaker (very convenient)

I did the DosBox package. I should have given myself credit in the readme, but I'm such a modest person, you know how it is. Most importantly, we're all very glad you were able to put it to such excellent use!

[CirothUngol]

Wow... Very Nice!
Clean graphics, good theme, fun characters, even the presentation is great... quite frankly, I'm impressed. ^_^

Thanks for participating with nearly a dozen new Rogues, Stassy. Now we already have more adversaries to duel against than were available in the original game, and they look much better to boot!
As stated, once I have enough I'll compile a full archive for the first post, but for now I've cleaned up the FileNames and built a Rogues.csv to use them.

I didn't include the Rogue.csv because I couldn't convert it with LibreOffice Calc.

This .CSV is small and simple, so I used a TextEditor (GetDiz, actually)

I did the DosBox package. I should have given myself credit in the readme, but I'm such a modest person, you know how it is.

Indeed I do. If fact, my humility knows no bounds! ^_^
Thanx for the convenient package, I've edited the info so you need be modest no more.

PS: Where can I find a more complete list of supported BBCode? I'd like to be able to do that.

[stassy]

Thanks, I have more avatar theme in mind more in line with MTG...well kinda

About the BBCode, I don't know if that is possible, will have to ask Huggy for that.

[Huggybaby]

When you reply with the full editor mode, most of the bbcode is there. but I'm sure you know that. We don't have as many options as other places, but we can add it when needed. So, what exactly are you trying to do?

[CirothUngol]

@stassy
Any chance of getting the unconverted BitMaps for the characters? I'll place them in the Rogues Gallery archive on MediaFire... just for completeness' sake.
Also, are the images in your post hosted locally (@slightymagic) or did you use a different host?

@Huggy
I think I see how to do everything except Collapse. Is [collapse][/collapse] available?

[Huggybaby]

Try spoiler tags.

| Open

Spoiler test

BTW wouldn't these work with your new Shandalar 2 complete?

[CirothUngol]

Oh, OK... I see that now. Thanx.

BTW wouldn't these work with your new Shandalar 2 complete?

Yes and No.
It seems the transparency is different in Shandalar. Also, it won't load other types of PlayFaces like Manalink will. You can rename the files and replace the contents of the Faces folder for Rogues, or replace MAGIC*.fce in the program folder for your character. It works, but the results are sporatic... maybe Shandalar should be next?

[stassy]

Here is the archived bmp, I use postimage.org as a hoster and I though it would retain the filename but seems to be it convert bmp into png even if the size is small.

[kr0kus]

i downloaded the rouge zip from CirothUngol's sig...
do i just unzip it to my manalink 3.0 folder?