+therealbountybob Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 Was going along nicely and then accidentally pressed reset - not a great one for play on the XE 2nd go picked all dungeon 2s and got through to level 6. Has some real panics where I had to hit option and hope I found a spell - hint might be worth dropping or re-using picked up items to keep the option list short. Those magic arrows are good and I somehow on level 6 jumped up a lot of points, might have been a strength stone or something I collected. 14,715 Level 6 has Ghosts to contend with will start the new poll later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 Round 18 poll OPEN 15,180 It was going well tonight, down to level 6 armed with a 2 handed sword and a Gauntlet but those turbo rats got me and I lost loads of stuff then seemed to get killed by something too soon Not sure if disarm works on a Rabid Rat but it was all I had left, luckily managed to get one stuck on a wall and escape! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 (edited) 6050 points. I definitely remember playing this as a teenager (the age when you have endless time at your disposal without valueing that fact). Very uneven scoring, went from 1000-something to 4000ish in a short while, then progress got slower again. I wish I could see my health somewhere on the main screen. The following little routine running in immediate VBI (which is not used by the game) displays one asterisk per health point for health 19 or below on the lowest line of the screen unless the game prints a status message there. At the time I can only get it to run in an emulator as the game jumps to WARMSV and resets the VBI routine after loading and I have not had the time to patch the game code itself yet (Shamus + needs to be done!). Health is stored in $C4, the third line below the dungeon ("status line") is fixed at $3C28. The routine checks whether the first byte of the status line is empty and then if health is below 20. If both conditions are met, it stores one asterisk per health point into the status line screen ram and exits. With health 20 or more, there is no display at all, it only kicks in when health drops below 20. A patched version of the game is included but it needs $222/223 set to 0C 06 after initialization to work. (In Altirra hit F8 for the Debugger and then E 0600 0C 06 <ENTER> and then F8 again.) Gateway to Apshai with Health Display.xex Edited October 3, 2017 by slx 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 4, 2017 Author Share Posted October 4, 2017 Would be nice to get that health display working automatically - another game to disassemble!! Made it to level 7 tonight 16,805 - my main trouble is you get something tough and fast at you, and unless you have spells that's about it. Also I think poisoning is getting me (or possibly ghosts that I am not aware) of as I seem to just get killed without any warning. I had Magic Armour/Wand and all sorts of stuff. Fairly relaxing plodding around game, I've enjoyed playing it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 5, 2017 Author Share Posted October 5, 2017 latest tables Gateway to Apshai 1st therealbountybob 16,805 12pts 2nd ballyalley 10,715 11pts 3rd McKong 7,625 10pts 4th carlsson 7,570 9pts 5th slx 6,050 8pts 6th Deteacher 5,760 7pts 7th RedThunder 1,855 6pts 8th jblenkle 1,635 5pts Round 18 poll OPEN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 (edited) Would be nice to get that health display working automatically - another game to disassemble!! Presto! It's not very nice looking but it works. Found the original byte to decimal number conversion routine and used that instead of the stars display. Health is now displayed all the time, except when a message is present on this line. It is refreshed every 25 frames on both PAL and NTSC systems. And here's the code for those who are interested: ; Gateway to Apshai Health Display ; slx, 2017 ; SETVBV equ $E45C SYSVBV equ $E45F org $3f00 ins "Gateway to Apshai.bin" org $600 STARTPATCH LDA #$20 STA $4232 LDA <INSTALLVBI STA $4233 LDA >INSTALLVBI STA $4234 JMP $3F06 INSTALLVBI LDY <HEALTHDISPLAY LDX >HEALTHDISPLAY LDA #$06 JSR SETVBV LOOP LDA #$11 STA $026F RTS HEALTHDISPLAY DEC COUNTER BEQ DISPLAY EXIT JMP SYSVBV DISPLAY LDA #25 STA COUNTER LDA $3C28 BNE EXIT LDA $F8 PHA LDA $F9 PHA LDA #$29 STA $F8 LDA #$3C STA $F9 LDA #40 STA $3C29 LDA #26 STA $3C2A LDA $C4 LDY #3 JSR $847C PLA STA $F9 PLA STA $F8 JMP SYSVBV COUNTER .BY 00 run STARTPATCH GApshai+.xex Edited October 5, 2017 by slx 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 Tried another round before bedtime. Still nice to play, although the constant fiddling with the control keys is tedious. This would benefit a lot from a multi-button joystick (like a Sega pad). Fighting is not very smooth either, I find I have to constantly move back and forth to attack and then retreat. Any better tactics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 6, 2017 Author Share Posted October 6, 2017 Tried another round before bedtime. Still nice to play, although the constant fiddling with the control keys is tedious. This would benefit a lot from a multi-button joystick (like a Sega pad). Fighting is not very smooth either, I find I have to constantly move back and forth to attack and then retreat. Any better tactics? Thanks for patching this with the health display, will try it out tomorrow I've been running (slowly) away and turning and swiping them, with arrows getting some distance first. For the ghosts and fast movers just hacking and hoping I get them before they get me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Gateway to Apshai - 14175 pts This took me almost 30 mins to reach, for the record. I'm using the unpatched version, so death may come suddenly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 Thanks for playing guys, I won the round with carlsson taking 2nd place Special thanks to slx for patching the game to show the health on the main screen (see post #31 above) and a 5pt bonus for your efforts Gateway to Apshai is a nice game, not an RPG by any means but somewhere inbetween that and an arcade game. I suspect the instantish deaths might make it less fun than it could be but I will play it more from time to time final tables Gateway to Apshai 1st therealbountybob 16,805 12pts 2nd carlsson 14,175 11pts 3rd ballyalley 10,715 10pts 4th McKong 7,625 9pts 5th slx 6,050 8pts 6th Deteacher 5,760 7pts 7th RedThunder 1,855 6pts 8th jblenkle 1,635 5pts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDeath Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 My favorite version was the colecovision. You don't have blast spell scrolls so i guess you can't blast through walls (never played c64 version or atari so i just don't know this spell). Loved Kroah's decompilation of the game and the map threads for dunjonquest games). Yep at start of colecovision you choose dungeon 1-99. No random so you could map them i suppose (lord know i tried in the 80s, 90s and early 2000). Mostly i recorded on a list items, traps, monsters. I never explored every dungeon. When your 99 timer runs out off to level 2. Again you can choose 1-99. Rinse and repeat until you hit level 8. From here (if you live) you can eventually play each of the dungeons as when time runs out you simple get put to the menus and choose 1-99 again. No gate found (though exploration is a mega pain with death traps, curse traps, and damn poison needles. I had found a dungeon where i could load up on death and stun spells. There was a dungeon you could finish where each of the treasures that are trapped had non-debilitating traps. Some of the monsters on this path were annoying at first but if done right you could get all three stats to go up by one before the timer runs out. It took days (and a very hot power pack) but i eventually had a gut with 99 in each stat. I could kill even living statues. A stun spell cast with 99 int lasts forever. Mobs are frozen and it trumps paralyse or stone spell since those spells only affect monsters you are in the same room in. Stun affects the whole dungeon. I don't know if luck lessens damage from monsters but seemed like with solid magic armour+ nothing could hardly dent me. Even with a dagger you could kill about anything. So end game guy has only to worry about traps. You just load up on disarm i suppose (forgot the dungeon #). Score on colecovision? It scews up after a time showing symbols. Still even with a player that powerful i either screwed up or the game got too hot and froze. A little trick i learned was toggling the on/off switch to toggle the gfx to blocks. Once it changed the game a bit and my block could move faster than warrior, wizard, or mamba. Pity no ending and i hear the key graphic was never used. No gate graphic. Thinking on it... The gateway to the temple of apshai seems harder than the temple itself. All those dragons, living statues, vampires, blinking bats, warriors, wizards, super ghouls (ad compared to regular ghouls on lvl 3), and more. In fact a lot of humans in there unless they are antman warriors, lackeys, priest, etc. Pretty huge too if 99 dungeons x 8 levels x (60+ rooms each). Sheesh. Hated the time limit and no way to climb up to previous levels. Could use a remake. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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