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Spellbound Dizzy Remake - DizzyAGE Community Project

Started by Adam Markey on 19 February 2013 • 49,978 views

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#55245
Before Peter walked of into the sunset, he uploaded the latest beta version of his DizzyAGE Remake of Spellbound that he was working on and off for almost 5 years.

I've had a play through this and I'd say that the remake is 96% complete.

https://www.yolkfolk.com/site/spellbound.zip - The game already runs on the latest version of DizzyAGE (v2.4).

Peter has said that he will no longer be working on the remake, aswell as future DizzyAGE games he originally planned to work on in the past.

He also said that he hopes that the remake will someday see the light of day in the hands of another DizzyAGE Programmer. Hopefully you guys can help.

Peter didn't give us any detail on what work needs doing on the remake, but I'm guessing that the extra menu options like on his past remakes (i.e. Dizzy's sprite colour and selecting diffrent HUDs etc.) may need to be implemented.

Here are various bugs and unfinished pieces I was able to find on my run.
[spoiler]- The music needs to be changed from the C64 version to the Spectrum version.

- The game crashes when you select OPTIONS in the Main Menu.

- You don't lose energy when you hit the ground too hard. Maybe a menu option for that.

- In the Inventory box, the background changes from transparent to plain black when you use the arrow keys.

- Theodore's dialog(s) needs altering, he says "couple of stars" instead of "five stars".

- The item "THIN STICKS" cannot be dropped.

- In the room "THE OLD MINE WORKINGS", the falling rocks do not appear and kill you when you walk towards the bottom-right corner.

- One of the "DAMP AND DRIPPY" acid raindrops is impossible to dodge.

- Dizzy does not drown underwater whilst He's moving. Keep him standig still and he will start to drown, but when you control Dizzy when the energy bar starts to drop, the energy bar stops going down. (Although if you fall into the right hand side of "THE RESERVOIR", he drowns like normal.)

- None of the underwater enemies move or hurt you.

- Other underwater enemies from the original game are missing on this version. (i.e. the crabs and sea slugs)

- There are certain bugs with the windy shaft no matter how many boulders you have. One of the major ones is that you can't reach the level where Shamus and Grand Dizzy are with the three boulders.

- Dizzy's "eating with Aqualung" sprite is missing.

- With the "KILLER B'S" if you leave the smoking log in that room, leave the room and walk back and the bees still appear even with the smoking log. But they do dissapear again if you take the smoking log and re-enter the room.

- The Whale does not sneeze anywhere near "A VAST LAKE" no matter where abouts you use the pepper. On the original version, you need to get the Whale to sneeze on that screen to reach for the flippers. Denzil can be reached on this remake.

- The item "STICKY TAPE" cannot be dropped.

- The room the hides the "PRETTY CLOTH" is not named. It's called "THE ILLUSION RETURNS!".

- The item "PRETTY CLOTH" cannot be dropped.

- The Tasty Seaweed does not get rid of the bats in the spooky cave.

- The fishing net in "THE RESERVE TANK" is impossible to reach.

- The game crashes when you give Theodore Pogie's collar. [/spoiler]
We hope that any DizzyAGE Programmers out there are willing help us get this remake 100% completed.
Both me and Andrew aren't too familiar with the DizzyAGE engine and neither of us have time to actually look into the engine and make a decent game out of it.

If any DizzyAGE Programmer does wish to help us out, PLEASE let us know here first and make sure you keep Peter's name on the credits. After all, he has done an awful lot to this remake and we truly thank him for it.

Latest Beta version - Updated 13th Feb 2014
https://www.yolkfolk.com/media/games/yolkfolk/SpellboundBeta.zip

Special thanks to Delta, SnTrooper and Pogie.
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#78894

  :surprise: what's happened to Peter?

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#78898
oh yeah, didn't notice that.
I'm sure there is someone here who will get Spellbound completed. but if it's almost finished I'm surprised he didn't just finish it off as a finial farewell. Lot of hard work and dedication for nothing if nobody picks up the pieces.
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#78899

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="55245"]

– The music needs to be changed from the C64 version to the Spectrum version.

[/quote]

It's a matter of preference. Maybe make a menu option for that?

I never tried Dizzy Age, so I'll leave it for the pro's. I might try learning how to code in Dizzy age(I'm a programmer, after all) but I guess Delta or someone else will do the job :wink:

Also, back when I was translating Spellbound Lite for DizzyAge Peter mentioned that he wants to make a language selection for Spellbound Dizzy too. I'm willing to translate the game, but the question is: Is lang. selection menu coded? I hope so.

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#78913
If no-one takes this up, I might have a look at it sometime. There are a few issues however:

- I have other interests and things to do these days, so I have less time.

- Ditto with inclination.

- Plus I never finished the game, and don't have the original to compare it to.

- Lastly, the trouble with programming is that you can't just come in and easily finish someone else's work. They will have different ways of coding things, and it could take you ages just to work out what on earth it all does.

Some of the issues you highlight will be easy to do/fix, others less so. I'll go through the bug list and say how difficult I think each would be to fix:

[SPOILER]
- The music needs to be changed from the C64 version to the Spectrum version.
Easy.

- The game crashes when you select OPTIONS in the Main Menu.
Easy. Depends on the reason for it crashing.

- You don't lose energy when you hit the ground too hard. Maybe a menu option for that.
Difficult. Would involve messing around with movement code and other complex stuff like that.

- In the Inventory box, the background changes from transparent to plain black when you use the arrow keys.
Unsure. It depends how Peter coded it. From what I remember of him discussing this years ago, it sounded like he'd done it a horrendously complicated way, and it might simply be easier to replace the entire code for this with the code I used for MFD.

- Theodore's dialog(s) needs altering, he says "couple of stars" instead of "five stars".
Easy.

- The item "THIN STICKS" cannot be dropped.
Medium. God knows why an item can't be dropped. Could be easy to fix, could be a sod to fix. Who knows?

- In the room "THE OLD MINE WORKINGS", the falling rocks do not appear and kill you when you walk towards the bottom-right corner.
Easy. Sounds like this section hasn't been added, but there's enough games have done something similar.

- One of the "DAMP AND DRIPPY" acid raindrops is impossible to dodge.
Easy.

- Dizzy does not drown underwater whilst He's moving. Keep him standig still and he will start to drown, but when you control Dizzy when the energy bar starts to drop, the energy bar stops going down. (Although if you fall into the right hand side of "THE RESERVOIR", he drowns like normal.)
Medium.

- None of the underwater enemies move or hurt you.
Easy. Well, easy but time-consuming.

- Other underwater enemies from the original game are missing on this version. (i.e. the crabs and sea slugs)
Easy. As above, assuming it's known where they should be (which I don't).

- There are certain bugs with the windy shaft no matter how many boulders you have. One of the major ones is that you can't reach the level where Shamus and Grand Dizzy are with the three boulders.
Difficult. Likely to be a complex piece of coding. Finding out why bugs happen with it could be very difficult.

- Dizzy's "eating with Aqualung" sprite is missing.
Easy. Ish.

- With the "KILLER B'S" if you leave the smoking log in that room, leave the room and walk back and the bees still appear even with the smoking log. But they do dissapear again if you take the smoking log and re-enter the room.
Easy.

- The Whale does not sneeze anywhere near "A VAST LAKE" no matter where abouts you use the pepper. On the original version, you need to get the Whale to sneeze on that screen to reach for the flippers. Denzil can be reached on this remake.
Medium - Difficult. That whole section of code is probably missing.

- The item "STICKY TAPE" cannot be dropped.
Medium. See Thin Sticks.

- The room the hides the "PRETTY CLOTH" is not named. It's called "THE ILLUSION RETURNS!".
Easy.

- The item "PRETTY CLOTH" cannot be dropped.
Medium. See Thin Sticks.

- The Tasty Seaweed does not get rid of the bats in the spooky cave.
Easy.

- The fishing net in "THE RESERVE TANK" is impossible to reach.
Easy. Probably.

- The game crashes when you give Theodore Pogie's collar.
Easy.
[/SPOILER]

Don't hold your breath on me doing it though.
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#78915

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="78913"]

– Plus I never finished the game, and don’t have the original to compare it to.

[/quote]

If you did decide to take it up I have the emulated Spectrum version that I could send you.

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#78916

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="78913"]

If no-one takes this up, I might have a look at it sometime.

[/quote]

Well if anybody could do it I'm sure you could Delta, ( please?) {eggs2}:help:

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#78918
I too have never actually completed Spellbound but I know my way around many parts.

When I was going through the remake, I had to have the original version on a Spectrum emulator running the background to make sure which sections are right and which ones aren't right.

The quickest way to navigate through all the rooms in the original is the "IWANTANOMLETTE" cheat, click the spoiler the tag to see how the cheat works.
[spoiler]Start the game and then quit by pressing Q. Now type in IWANTANOMLETTE and the border will flash. Now start and you can press C for a cheat menu.[/spoiler]
Interestingly, I was going through the Amiga version of this game not long ago, and it appears there that Dizzy doesn't lose energy when he hits the ground too hard.
And the scroll next to the lake reads something like "Meet Willy the Whale, he looks kinda hungry..." or somewhere along those lines.
The way Dizzy goes the down windy shaft on the Amiga is odd too, when you have a boulder, Dizzy just simply goes down like he's on a lift.
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#78919
Sorry guys, but I haven't got the time to go through the original and compare it with the remake. However, I will try to fix any bugs that are posted here, then send the changed zip file to adz, so that he can upload it for others to test, and post about other bugs :smile:

So I've spent an hour or so on this, and done the following:

[SPOILER]
- The music needs to be changed from the C64 version to the Spectrum version.
Do you have the Spectrum music?

- The game crashes when you select OPTIONS in the Main Menu.
FIXED

- You don't lose energy when you hit the ground too hard. Maybe a menu option for that.
Not looked at this yet

- In the Inventory box, the background changes from transparent to plain black when you use the arrow keys.
Trying to fix this. Odd bug.

- Theodore's dialog(s) needs altering, he says "couple of stars" instead of "five stars".
FIXED

- The item "THIN STICKS" cannot be dropped.
FIXED

- In the room "THE OLD MINE WORKINGS", the falling rocks do not appear and kill you when you walk towards the bottom-right corner.
As I suspected, this hasn't been coded yet.

- One of the "DAMP AND DRIPPY" acid raindrops is impossible to dodge.
FIXED

- Dizzy does not drown underwater whilst He's moving. Keep him standig still and he will start to drown, but when you control Dizzy when the energy bar starts to drop, the energy bar stops going down. (Although if you fall into the right hand side of "THE RESERVOIR", he drowns like normal.)
FIXED - actually a problem with walking in front of scenery underwater, not walking in general. Most scenery was set so that the material could be read, and that material is set as 'air'

- None of the underwater enemies move or hurt you.
As I suspected, this hasn't been coded yet.

- Other underwater enemies from the original game are missing on this version. (i.e. the crabs and sea slugs)
Not looked at this

- There are certain bugs with the windy shaft no matter how many boulders you have. One of the major ones is that you can't reach the level where Shamus and Grand Dizzy are with the three boulders.
Can you tell me exactly which sections you're supposed to be able to reach with each amount of boulders? I notice that if you're carrying two boulders and fall as far as you can, you're pretty much stuffed.

- Dizzy's "eating with Aqualung" sprite is missing.
Do you have the animation sprites for this? It doesn't come with DizzyAGE.

- With the "KILLER B'S" if you leave the smoking log in that room, leave the room and walk back and the bees still appear even with the smoking log. But they do dissapear again if you take the smoking log and re-enter the room.
Not looked at this yet

- The Whale does not sneeze anywhere near "A VAST LAKE" no matter where abouts you use the pepper. On the original version, you need to get the Whale to sneeze on that screen to reach for the flippers. Denzil can be reached on this remake.
FIXED

- The item "STICKY TAPE" cannot be dropped.
FIXED

- The room the hides the "PRETTY CLOTH" is not named. It's called "THE ILLUSION RETURNS!".
FIXED

- The item "PRETTY CLOTH" cannot be dropped.
FIXED

- The Tasty Seaweed does not get rid of the bats in the spooky cave.
As far as I can tell, this hasn't been coded yet. It's probably pretty easy to do, but more information about what you're supposed to do and what is supposed to happen would be great.

- The fishing net in "THE RESERVE TANK" is impossible to reach.
FIXED - can now walk in front of the pipe without being sucked down.

- The game crashes when you give Theodore Pogie's collar.
FIXED
[/SPOILER]

I'd appreciate someone else who knows DizzyAGE coding the baddies though, I haven't really got time to do all those. Similarly with the rocks in the disused mine.
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#78920

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="78919"]

– The music needs to be changed from the C64 version to the Spectrum version.
Do you have the Spectrum music?

[/quote]

Doesn't a file with Spellbound music (Dizzy 5) come with DizzyAGE? There's only one tune on the Spectrum version.

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="78919"]

– Other underwater enemies from the original game are missing on this version. (i.e. the crabs and sea slugs)
Not looked at this

– Dizzy’s “eating with Aqualung” sprite is missing.
Do you have the animation sprites for this? It doesn’t come with DizzyAGE.

[/quote]

Both of these I'll look into asap. But It's unlikely I'll be able to get them converted into .tga format.

As for the exact whereabouts for each underwater enemy, the map of the original version should help. https://www.yolkfolk.com/site/showmap.php?map=74

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="78919"]

– There are certain bugs with the windy shaft no matter how many boulders you have. One of the major ones is that you can’t reach the level where Shamus and Grand Dizzy are with the three boulders.
Can you tell me exactly which sections you’re supposed to be able to reach with each amount of boulders? I notice that if you’re carrying two boulders and fall as far as you can, you’re pretty much stuffed.

[/quote]

1 boulder - As far as the tunnel where the mine cart is, That's already sorted.
2 boulders - Well on the original version had the same issues but it did eventually get you back up to the passage where Theo's Grotto is.
I'd say stopping on the Theo's Grotto passage with 2 boulders would make things easier.
3 boulders - As far as the passages where Grand Dizzy and Shamus are. Not fixed, those passages cannot be reached.
4 boulders - To reach the ceramic lid. That's how far down the shaft goes. That's already sorted

The level with the passages leading to the Spare ore crusher and Control Room should be easy to get to anyway if you have 3 or more boulders.

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="78919"]

– The Tasty Seaweed does not get rid of the bats in the spooky cave.
As far as I can tell, this hasn’t been coded yet. It’s probably pretty easy to do, but more information about what you’re supposed to do and what is supposed to happen would be great.

[/quote]

Touching those bats is instant death with a message. "You were bitten by vampire bats".
Using the tasty seaweed, standing near the water water comes this message. "The bats take one whiff of the seaweed and retire to a safe distance!"
Afterwards, a still bat sprite appears between the green stalactites, it won't harm you.

Hope this helps. :smile:

I found another minor bug.
From "THE ORE CRUSHERS", you can't walk back down to "THE OLD MINE WORKINGS".

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#78922

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="78920"]

Doesn’t a file with Spellbound music (Dizzy 5) come with DizzyAGE? There’s only one tune on the Spectrum version.

[/quote]

I think it does, now you mention it.

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="78920"]

Both of these I’ll look into asap. But It’s unlikely I’ll be able to get them converted into .tga format.

[/quote]

If you can give me bitmap images of the aqualung eating sprites, I can convert them to .tga format.

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#78923
Dizzy Eating with Aqualung sprites.



The missing underwater enemies.

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#78924
I'm quite capable to coding the fish/crabs if that's any help.
Providing i know what direction their moving and how many rooms they're passing though.
And we'll need to decide what ID number to put them under so it doesn't clash with other tags.

I had a look at the map so it's easy to locate them, theirs quite a few fish and crabs.
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#78926

I think all the enemies stay in the room they're in.

Anyway, this is the latest beta version Jamie sent me earlier with the easiet bugs fixed, ready to be tested again.
Apologies I didn't post this earlier, forgot to check my Emails. {yolkfolk}:redfaced:

https://www.yolkfolk.com/media/games/yolkfolk/SpellboundBeta.zip

I'll have a go at this, later.

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#78944

I've had a go at this and have found a ton of more things to fix. I've been able to fix most things wrong with the map (missing grass behind objects, missing water material, adding enemies, fixing colors of objects, etc) and with graphics (made the crab, seaslug, and Dizzy, fixed the bear, fix some of the items that had black backgrounds instead of transparent, etc). I was able to fix a couple of coding things but with my skill level for that still in the "inept" stage there is a lot I can't do. I'm going to give it one more try before I give in and send it along.

Also if Adz.M or someone could get these missing graphics/animations so I could add them in that would be great.

 

  • The three fish (that where already placed) animations
  • The school of fish
  • The whale is missing his bottom flipper
  • The Leprechaun animation
  • The smoking log when on the ground is animated
And there are a few things I could easily figure out and fix if I could just look at the Lite version (like the Leprechaun animation for example) but it is password protected. Anyone know what Peter set it as?

 

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#78977
I've gotten a ton more done. I fixed the windy shaft, got the bats puzzle working, got all of the water creatures moving, I was able to figure out how to get all the graphics I asked for above (plus a few more I didn't realize weren't correct too, like the jellyfish), and about a dozen other things that I had found where wrong.

I want to set the enemies to move between the correct spots and then try to figure out the collapsing mine and a couple of other small things before I give up. Unless someone can tell me what is the password for the lite version that is.

EDIT: Enemies are all moving correctly! Now onto the rock fall.
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#78997
WHITE FLAG! I've done everything I am able to do right now and have sent it along. Here are all the things that I or Adz.M (anything that is in quotes) found wrong that I wasn't able/didn't try to do.

[spoiler]SERIOUS PROBLEMS:
~ Poogie's rescue doesn't work: Theo says that he has already done it when you haven't.
~ Theo rescue is wrong: He just disappears and doesn't appear in the final screen. I don't know if this is a normal problem or from using the cheat menu to rescue Poogie.
~ "Dizzy's "eating with Aqualung" sprite is missing.": I've made the .TGA file but I can't figure out how to get it into the game
~ Rockfall in mines is missing: I've got it so it hurts you when you go in there and added the rocks to the map. It needs to be scripted so that when you enter the rocks fall randomly and stop if you leave.
~ If you go to the right of the the beast without the talisman it eats you despite not being anywhere near it:
~ Drowning, fish, crab and rockfall death messages don't show up: They are in the game.gsl and def.gs files but they don't work.
~ "You don't lose energy when you hit the ground too hard.":
~ readme.txt needs to be created:

MAJOR PROBLEMS:
~ There is air around the mushroom in THE BEAST'S LAIR: If water is added in there like it is supposed to be the mushroom stops working.
~ "From "THE ORE CRUSHERS", you can't walk back down to "THE OLD MINE WORKINGS".": However it was that Peter made the Up, Left and Right leaving room triggers a Down trigger needs to be created too.
~ Message about beast falling under the talisman's spell is missing: When you push the beast back halfway the message should appear. I've already added the message in with the others. This should only happen the first time.
~ Message about the seaweed tasting garlicky when you pick up the TASTY SEAWEED is missing: I've already added the message in with the others. This should happen every time you pick it up.
~ The shove food in mouth animation is missing: When you get food there should be a animation of Dizzy putting it in his mouth before chewing. I've made the .TGA files no clue how to implement it.
~ Dora doesn't turn around when she is rescued:
~ "In the Inventory box, the background changes from transparent to plain black when you use the arrow keys.": It doesn't just turn black, it darkens. My guess is every time you hit a key it redoes the script that darkens the box.
~ "With the "KILLER B'S" if you leave the smoking log in that room, leave the room and walk back and the bees still appear even with the smoking log. But they do disappear again if you take the smoking log and re-enter the room.":
~ You shouldn't be able to get the honey if the smoking log isn't in the screen: Peter already had the message with the other in the game.gsl file he just didn't script it. If you try the bees should swarm around you.
~ When you get the GLOWING JAR by using the Cheat Menu the game crashes:

MINOR PROBLEMS:
~ Background of the inventory and message boxes should be tinted blue: Fixing this may also fix the darkening inventory box problem. Or compound it. :umm:
~ When you have the talisman the beast should move out to you when you enter the screen: Right now it warps out to you.
~ The smoking log should get soggy when you enter any water:
~ In THE RESERVE TANK you shouldn't be able to walk in front of pipe: In the original game when you jumped out of the water you would go flying up like you had jumped on a mushroom. That is how you would get over to the FISHING NET. I don't even think that that would be possible to script correctly in DizzyAGE so this is probably something that will just have to be different.
~ Fireflies can escape into adjacent screens: If you leave the screen with a firefly just as it is hitting the edge of the screen it goes into the next screen with you. Not accurate but also not really a problem except in the FIREFLIES screen.
~ Option to switch between colored and white Dizzy: I've already made all the white .TGA files. There are also the mine cart ride, eaten by beast, and crushed images that would have to be switched too.
~ Option to be able to switch which version's music you want to use:
~ Option to be able to switch which version's HUD you want to use:
~ Option for if you want to lose energy when you hit the ground or not:
~ Icon should be changed to Spellbound Dizzy icon:

NITPICKY PROBLEMS:
~ Splash screen of other Codemaster games is missing from the beginning:
~ Items in inventory should be opaque not transparent:
~ You shouldn't be able to walk in front of mushrooms or the TRAMPETTE:
~ Message about the bees being pacified is displayed every time you enter the screen with the smoking log: It should only display if the bees are flying about.
~ The bear's message about the honey should be when he gets to the honey not when you first put it down:
~ The whale's sneeze moves to slow:
~ The Whale should continue to move when you are in the screens under it: I thought I knew how to do this but when I tried it crashed. :sad:
~ Theo's message asking for stars and a Yolkfolk's item shouldn't be display when it is last five:
~ When you rescue one of the Yolkfolk by using the Cheat Menu they stay upset: It doesn't change their appearance so if you haven't talked to/helped them they are still upset.[/spoiler]

Considering that I did almost as many things as I didn't, Methinks that Peter was exaggerating when he said he was 96% complete. {yolkfolk}:crazy:
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#78999
Well thank you for trying anyway, SnTrooper. :smile: Here's the link to the version you've tinkered with.

https://www.yolkfolk.com/community/SpellboundBeta%20(1).zip

Looking at your list, I'm guessing you didn't use the version that Jamie tinkered with?

On the first page, I've now added a small list of beta versions attempted by other DizzyAGE Programmers.
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#79000

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="78999"]

Looking at your list, I’m guessing you didn’t use the version that Jamie tinkered with?

[/quote]

No, I did use it.

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