16 replies to this topic

[Daeglin]

Hi everybody, as a first batcher I am going to port my engine for the classic DOS RPG "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" to Pandora. Sure it would run inside DosBox but a native version will have some goodies like improved user interface, optimization for Panda input devices, support for higher resolution and most notably mods support.



See the project homepage for details, source code and more screenshots

CODE

http://www.wonderland.cz/lotr/

I plan to release in-game map editor (nothing fancy) sometime around my first LoTR release for Pandora (events are scriptable in Python). I hope it will get some follow-up and new content for the game will emerge - the game could use new plot twists and side-quests.

In the mean time, you can spend some quality time gamin^H^H^H^H^Htesting and thinking about the new content. I would also appreciate if somebody compiles the beast for Windows so that it can get larger audience (should not be difficult, the game runs on Linux, OSX, DS and AmigaOS4 already).

Edited by Daeglin, 19 February 2009 - 09:56 PM.

[skeezix]

AWESOME!

I had no idea anyone had built an engine to support that old title. *Kudos*

Looking forward to this,

jeff

[fusion_power]

I didn''t even know there was an LOTR Game for Dos.
I hope someone can do a german translation, looks like many text in this game. ^^

[pandorasloveflaps]

You legend - just read up on this and can''t wait! Thanks loads - another cool title to look forward to....

[PoisonedV]

I think Ive played this. I''ll have to take a look at my DOS manager. either way, this is fantastic.

[Magic Sam]

Hi,
It seems to be a great game, thanks for porting it to the Pandora
I have compiled your engine on my computer which runs Ubuntu 8.10 64 bits, and I can not hear a single sound, is it normal ?
Anyway, I can not wait to play this game on the Pandora, because I have read the book three times when I was a kid
Bye, Magic Sam

[adtbm]

Really good news. I loved that game too. and i still got it at home.

The game was released only in english. There was never a german translation.
I wouldn''''t have a problem helping to translate into german.

I do remember that the game had lot''''s of quests and also tons of text.

There is also a second part of the game.i have to look if i still find it somewhere in the depth of my
dos gamebox.

I bought it with this german release [img]http://www.photouplo...ype=jpg&f=22970[/url]

Edited by adtbm, 20 February 2009 - 08:33 AM.

[Daeglin]

Hi and thanks for your positive feedback.

I have compiled your engine on my computer which runs Ubuntu 8.10 64 bits, and I can not hear a single sound, is it normal ?

No, this is not normal, does the game write any error messages on the console? The game is quite sparse on sound effects and it has only one music track (which is IMHO one of the best game musics). May be, you need to install GUS patches to your system, the package is called freepats on my Debian (try also to install timidity player). It it still doesn''t work the game saves music in midi format to temporary file /tmp/lord?????

Also try to follow the Bag End Road west and south and go near the women on the road. It is Lobelia S-B and there is a sound effect when she hits you by her umbrella.

Anyway, I can not wait to play this game on the Pandora, because I have read the book three times when I was a kid \:\)

Three times? You are sooo n00bish

[Daeglin]

There is also a second part of the game.i have to look if i still find it somewhere in the depth of my
dos gamebox.

The second part is partially supported by this engine but it is probably not possible to win without cheating since not everything is implemented. I never loved the second part as much as the first one, so I do not plan to work on it in the near future. Still it could be interesting if the game data from both volumes could be combined in mods.

I wouldn''''''''t have a problem helping to translate into german.

If you are interested I can rip all the game texts for you (send me a PM or write me to my e-mail which can be found on the project web-page). Support for the translations would be fairly easy, except for unicode (the game has obviously only English characters in the font) but many languages can be quite well readable in Ascii and support for other alphabets can be added later.

[adtbm]

Update for the german,austrian and swiss LotR DOS players.

I received all the templates neccessarry to translate the game into german from Daeglin ! (Thanks again)
I have started with the translation.

Since i try to be as precise as possible to Tolkiens work i would like to ask german and german speaking Tolkien fans to help me from time to time with some name translation to get the proper meaning to stay as close as possible to the original work.

example: Since we all know that Rose Cotton is in german Rosi Hüttinger
or Bilbo Baggins is Bilbo Beutlin (Tolkien loved to fiddle with names, meanings and words) Bagend-Beutelsend, Lillypool-Lilienteich there will be some names where i would like to ask the german speaking forummembers for advice.

One good example is Alan Mugwort. Would you translate it to Alan Krugwürz ? Becherwürz? Krugwürze?
For that example i have used Alan Krugwürze.But should i translate the firstname too? Suggestions anybody? Sometimes the firstnames are getting translated too, sometimes they don´t.
Next example would be Farmer Maggot. His german name is also Bauer Maggot, but originaly his name would be translated Maggot = Made. But there they didn´t translated it it stays Maggot

Like i said, i will take the task, there is alot of work to do and of course, if somebody is intressted helping me, send me a PM.

@ Daeglin: If it´s OK with you, i leave this post in your Thread running, otherwise i create a new Thread with the LotR DOS translation topic only.

[BaDToaD]

I''ve only just spotted this thread. Great stuff Daeglin! I''m really looking forward to playing this again after so many years.

[Tramb]

I''''''''ve only just spotted this thread. Great stuff Daeglin! I''''''''m really looking forward to playing this again after so many years.

Great stuff Daeglin, I wasn''''t even aware someone was reverse-engineering LOTR!

I cloned your git this morning at home before going to work, I can probably make a build with MSVC8 express and send you patch for the projects tonight or in a few days (mostly depends on some girl stealing my PC or not).

Cheers,
Tramb

PS : Do a git gc on the server

Edited by Tramb, 24 February 2009 - 01:14 PM.

[adtbm]

One good example is Alan Mugwort. Would you translate it to Alan Krugwürz ? Becherwürz? Krugwürze?
For that example i have used Alan Krugwürze.But should i translate the firstname too? Suggestions anybody? Sometimes the firstnames are getting translated too, sometimes they don´t.
Next example would be Farmer Maggot. His german name is also Bauer Maggot, but originaly his name would be translated Maggot = Made. But there they didn´t translated it it stays Maggot

OK after starting my research and before some people will throw stones at me ;-) i bring one small update.

My above used example was simply wrong !
According to Tolkiens Guide for Translators, Mugwort is a kind of a herb or Spice. (not like above thought Mug and wort)
Margaret Carroux translated it into Labkraut, while Wolfgang Krege translated it into Beifuß.
In that case (and there are not many) Kreges translation is according to Tolkiens guide correct.
So i will use Beifuß (also because it fits better to the naming of Hobbits).
In most cases i prefer Margaret Carroux translation because she was able (and thats my opinion) to convert the feeling better.

OK you will hear the next update when i am finished with the Character names list !

[Daeglin]

I cloned your git this morning at home before going to work, I can probably make a build with MSVC8 express and send you patch for the projects tonight or in a few days (mostly depends on some girl stealing my PC or not).

Great! Please, if you find time, compile a version with DEBUG=1 (cheat mode - can be set in Makefile) and some larger resolution too. Some people would also appreciate Two Towers build (configured in lotr.h), may be, only debug version makes sense here (TTT is probably still not quite playable).

PS : Do a git gc on the server

Done

[Tramb]

I didn''''t have much time yesterday night so I created the projects and fixed a few compile errors and posixisms with #ifdef _MSC_VER and #ifdef WIN32.
I still have to make it link, I hope I an send you a patch and binaries before this week-end!

This was such a great discovery that you had a working LOTR engine, I myself am slowly reversing Veil of Darkness but have never enough time for this. Already can depack samples and sprites (with wrong palettes).

Edited by Tramb, 25 February 2009 - 10:26 AM.