Updates on the way.

[gmzombie]

Just want to say this game is a bit harder now. So everybody knows. The ai seems to be better at decisions for the most part. I'm addicted all over again lol

[Huggybaby]

Bog Wraith could you please remove now the following sentence under Shandalar in main forum that irritates me?
The original game, only fixed for modern operating systems.

and put instead the one like under Manalink 3.0:
Continuing Development of MicroProse's Magic: The Gathering!

Don't you think it is the right thing to do!

I agree with you that it is now time to change that text. I don't know where that particular control is as I don't think that as a moderator I have the access for that. I will PM Huggy and ask him to do it because he originally set up all the different forums when CCGHQ was coming online, so he knows where all the skeletons are buried!

Yeah, it's an admin thing.

The subtitle is updated now, and thanks for the suggestion and the continued interest. Of course if there's anything else I can do, just ask!

[quatrocentos-e-vinte]

Read only files I can understand but having it encrypted is not something I did or understand how that would've come about.

I also thought it was weird. When I extracted the files, the resulting folder was green in Windows Explorer (which usually happens when you set up either disk encryption or disk compression); after getting all the bugs, I went to the folder's properties and.. yeah, the files were both set as "read-only" and disk encryption was activated for them (even though I'm not using disk encryption at all). Just unselecting those options and clicking on "apply" fixed the issues, though.

[stassy]

Must be from Bog Wraith computer then who provided his working version

I noticed another thing with his version also, the animation which plays when defeating a single creature will play on XP but not on win7, maybe because the game processes it too fast?

[Bog Wraith]

Caught in my own nefarious scheme, eh stassy!

I still have no idea why the files end up being shown as encrypted. It's probably an artifact of taking the working copy that I uploaded being from the game I'm running in Windows 7 on my Mac, which is where I spend the vast majority of my time playing the game on.

As for the animations playing at the end of a duel, I've seen it work & not work across multiple computers & multiple platforms throughout the years. It's not been something that runs properly all the time due to different hardware configs, video Codecs & Windows versions. Sort of hit & miss with those after duel animations as is also the case for the tutorial & the end of campaign Arzakon videos.

[podbelski]

hey thats amazing news! I just don't see the download link anywhere, please help!

[Bog Wraith]

hey thats amazing news! I just don't see the download link anywhere, please help!

Here is the link which is on page 5 of this thread. I suggest that you read this thread and that particular post carefully so as to understand how this works:

viewtopic.php?p=178459#p178459

[Korath]

So, I tinkered for a while yesterday and today trying to get higher resolution working.

The good:
Almost everything works, with hardly any effort. Almost all draws to the screen are scaled by current window size, so I mostly only had to disable the resolution change at program start and end, and force all graphics to load from the 1024x768 versions.

(Uncompressed images: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right)

The bad:
It crashes hard, in the middle of a very opaque function, at any aspect ratio except 4x3, and some blt destinations are hardcoded by resolution (only 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768) instead of being computed by the real current resolution. Hence the corruption in the bottom two screenshots in the first image below and in the top screenshot in the second. That can be dealt with, though, without too much effort; I already had to do the same for the outer frame.

(Uncompressed images: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right)

(Uncompressed images: top, bottom. The deckbuilder works just fine at full width, since it's external.)

The ugly:
The landscape graphics don't work at all. It seems to be a problem at the point where they're loaded, rather than when they're displayed; even increasing the horizontal resolution by 1 pixel to 1025x768 gets me this same corruption. I can't figure out how to fix them, and they're kind of a dealbreaker.

(Uncompressed images: top, bottom)

At least one of the versions of Shandalar floating around here doesn't change resolution, either, but runs in a 1024x768 frameless window; if I just disable resolution changes myself, though, the game still sees my full screen resolution and tries to scale to that. Anyone have a link to that version handy, so I can see what I'm missing? Even being able to run in a normal window without having my dev environment shrunk would be an improvement.

[edit: fix link to last uncompressed img]

[Huggybaby]

Here is one of the 1024x768 versions: viewtopic.php?f=76&t=2349

[Korath]

.

[quatrocentos-e-vinte]

Suggest better permanents to give the AI in dungeons and castles than like Greed and Leviathan and Crusade.

In the specific case of Greed and Crusade, the most obvious replacement options (without changing the type of bonus given) would be Phyrexian Arena and Honor of the Pure, respectively.

[gmzombie]

So, I tinkered for a while yesterday and today trying to get higher resolution working.

The good:
Almost everything works, with hardly any effort. Almost all draws to the screen are scaled by current window size, so I mostly only had to disable the resolution change at program start and end, and force all graphics to load from the 1024x768 versions.

1080p-montage1.jpg

(Uncompressed images: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right)

The bad:
It crashes hard, in the middle of a very opaque function, at any aspect ratio except 4x3, and some blt destinations are hardcoded by resolution (only 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768) instead of being computed by the real current resolution. Hence the corruption in the bottom two screenshots in the first image below and in the top screenshot in the second. That can be dealt with, though, without too much effort; I already had to do the same for the outer frame.

1080p-montage2.jpg

(Uncompressed images: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right)

1080p-montage3.jpg

(Uncompressed images: top, bottom. The deckbuilder works just fine at full width, since it's external.)

The ugly:
The landscape graphics don't work at all. It seems to be a problem at the point where they're loaded, rather than when they're displayed; even increasing the horizontal resolution by 1 pixel to 1025x768 gets me this same corruption. I can't figure out how to fix them, and they're kind of a dealbreaker.

1080p-montage4.jpg

(Uncompressed images: top, bottom)

At least one of the versions of Shandalar floating around here doesn't change resolution, either, but runs in a 1024x768 frameless window; if I just disable resolution changes myself, though, the game still sees my full screen resolution and tries to scale to that. Anyone have a link to that version handy, so I can see what I'm missing? Even being able to run in a normal window without having my dev environment shrunk would be an improvement.

My one question to you is this. If deckbuilder scales to size of your screen why is it still big and blocky and not smaller and size appropriate for the higher resolution? or is this due to the game taking a forced sized as opposed to a dynamic size? I may or not may not know what im talking about though lol but it is a question to ask none the less:)

[Korath]

It's because the game only changes screen resolution at startup, at startup of the Facemaker, and at program exit. It could probably be made to change resolution at the start and end of deckbuilding, and at the start and end of a duel; but I haven't given up on making it all run at modern resolution yet.

[Bog Wraith]

Well it took forever to find the right dungeon, then I had to travel over half the way across Shandalar to get to it, then I entered one of the red dungeons which traditionally has the most enemy creatures of all the dungeons. After that I had to battle 5 creatures just to find it!

Now it's mine.

MINE!!

Now I have to go and find some Mind Stealers as well as some of the other creatures that give you a duplicate card of your choice when you kick their ass.

I'll have 4 Necropotence's no matter what, even if I have to walk the whole damn plane, looking for those creatures I need to get 3 more of these beauties from!

The Black Skull shall be mine!

Mine I tell's ya!

MINE!!


BTW if you look closely, you can see that I've built a Griffin loaded deck that combines with the 4 Moat cards I have to now own a true aerial attack force & it's saving my butt when I come across some of the big hitters in dungeons and in other big battles. I'm having a blast with this deck.

Have I mentioned lately just how awesome playing with these new cards in Shandalar is!

[jiansonz]

Now it's mine.

MINE!!

Now I have to go and find some Mind Stealers as well as some of the other creatures that give you a duplicate card of your choice when you kick their ass.

Nice!!

Do you know which the other four creatures are?