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Realms of Arkania questions

Joined
Nov 1, 2008
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Cuntington Manor
Elwro said:
When playing the 3rd part, remember to check the walkthrough for the proper quest order. It would seem you could do a few of them in arbitrary order, but it isn't true. I wasn't able to finish the game because of this bug, a critical NPC didn't spawn. (Back then I didn't even have the internet to search for info about the problem...)

Don't you love it when this happens? I am used to this kind of thing from many older games. Always lots of fun.
 

Antagonist

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
Messages
484
Location
Glorious Vaterland
VentilatorOfDoom said:
- missing manual
- completely missing soundtrack
- removal of CP also removed advanced mode
- Startrail not fully playable (ends when you have to insert CD2)

Good Job JoWood.

This sucks as I bought the version spontaneously a couple of weeks ago. Since I already showed my goodwill by paying for this travesty I'm not ashamed to ask if someone could pm me a link to a download site with the complete version of all 3 parts.
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,966
ELwro, was it the vampire that didn't spawn? AFAIR thats the only joinable npc you get in that game (though its been many years)
 

sirfink

Scholar
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
Messages
290
It's easy to find the first two on abandonware sites, but the third is impossible to find. The only place I see it is on eBay, and that's crazy expensive and it's only the Jowood CD-ROM versions, which has problems, as mentioned earlier in this thread.
 

Claw

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The center of my world.
Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
AndhairaX said:
@Claw: Yeah its possible to fight the elves though you do eventually have to turn back. Theose bitches are TOUGH, especially as they keep blinding you. Star Trail had good AI for the time; they blind your ranged ppl (including mages) first.
Let's just say I didn't find them so tough later on. Of course I played the shit out of Trail before finishing it. Heck, I beat the guys who demand the Salermander Stone after you leave Lowangen.
 

Mackerel

Augur
Joined
May 17, 2009
Messages
700
Okay, now I remember: I played all three games a while back using the Trilogy version released by TeamRPG on various torrent sites. The first two games on CD 1 lack the aforementioned CD audio tracks (I really don't think the English versions ever had CD audio, it just used MIDI) but CD 2 contains just Riva and is definitely the complete game. You have to install them through Dosbox and for Riva you mount the image as a drive using Dosbox to play (the image has to be in bin/cue format and comes in ccd, so you'll need to convert it).
 

Jasede

Arcane
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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
There are two paths east.

One leads to the battle you guys talk about - difficult waves of elves before you have to turn back - the other, if you continue along it, leads to instant arrow through the neck death.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I searched for Shadows over Riva on torrent sites and had no luck. Then I found the CD of it somewhere in my room and remembered that I once ordered it for 10 cents from some German PC hard- and software mailorder shop. Yes, they sold it for 10 cents.
 

Redlands

Arcane
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
983
I picked up Shadows over Riva by pure fluke; got it in Bargain Bin at The Warehouse, the same way I got Simon the Sorceror in the box (which had the manual in the front cover flap, which was as amusing as the game in some places).

There's one really catchy piece of music on the SoR CD that I listen to when I'm playing a music-free RPG. It just so revs me up to go adventuring, it's awesome.
 

Elwro

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Krakow, Poland
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2
I remember I really liked the one with the choir chanting some occult words... I used the soundtrack during PnP sessions.
 

Sir_Brennus

Scholar
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Jun 7, 2006
Messages
665
Location
GERMANY
Jasde wrote: Give them a chance. Start with RoA/DSA 2. They're better in German. DSA 1 is pretty buggy. No big deal bugs in DSA 2, but you CAN screw up the game permanently if you do stupid things. (You can starve, you can lose important plot items if you are careless, you can lose ALL your items multiple times in the game. There's a point where you can get permanently stuck. You ARE warned about it, but, well, gamers these days don't really see this things coming and cry that they saved over their savegame.)

I disagree.

Blade of Destiny is not as buggy as often stated and it is a worthy experience if you like map travel and overland adventuring. The bugs were mainly in the Amiga and ST versions if I remember correctly. But there are some rulebook violations (especially how you can access closed areas using Penetrizzel and Teleport spells) and poisend weapons are WAAAY overpowered. The only REAL problem with BoD is the fact that you couldn't attack in a diagonal way in the first release. I don't know about the latest, though.

You can also screw up BoD in multiple ways: The hermit, the bowls of intestines etc. -> all game stoppers.

BTW: The CTD in the automap only appears in Star Trail.

Listen to the MIDI music at http://arhiel.blautann.de/the-dark-eye/

EDIT: typ-o-mania
 

Andhaira

Arcane
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Messages
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@Jaesde: Yes yo are right. The one where you get the arrow is a short distance after you are insulted by some knights! :D
 

CheekySp

Novice
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
3
Hey everybody,
perhaps I'm inventing a bicycle, but if there weren't any English releases with CD audio this is a good news: I've managed to run English Arkania 1 - Blade of Destiny with the CD audio from German version. Using dosbox and creating a CD in mixed mode. Gosh it's so easy. I'll try to create Star Trail with CD-audio from German version too.
 
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Cuntington Manor
CheekySp said:
Hey everybody,
perhaps I'm inventing a bicycle, but if there weren't any English releases with CD audio this is a good news: I've managed to run English Arkania 1 - Blade of Destiny with the CD audio from German version. Using dosbox and creating a CD in mixed mode. Gosh it's so easy. I'll try to create Star Trail with CD-audio from German version too.

How did you do this?
 

CheekySp

Novice
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
3
Blackadder said:
How did you do this?
I've had English versions lying around for quite some time, but recently I've got my hands on the full DSA collection (German cd versions).
I've installed German Arkania 1 (Schicksalsklinge), and replaced SCHICK.DAT with BLADE.DAT from English version (renaming it to SCHICK.DAT).
It's that easy.
When playing in Dosbox you need to mount the CD using the -noioctl switch, otherwise CD-audio won't play. Also, characters should be created in English version beforehand (GEN.EXE - generator program files - are not interexchangeable).
I didn't notice any crashes running around the city, entering random houses and exiting to global map. Have to try fights still.
 
Joined
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CheekySp said:
Blackadder said:
How did you do this?
I've had English versions lying around for quite some time, but recently I've got my hands on the full DSA collection (German cd versions).
I've installed German Arkania 1 (Schicksalsklinge), and replaced SCHICK.DAT with BLADE.DAT from English version (renaming it to SCHICK.DAT).
It's that easy.
When playing in Dosbox you need to mount the CD using the -noioctl switch, otherwise CD-audio won't play. Also, characters should be created in English version beforehand (GEN.EXE - generator program files - are not interexchangeable).
I didn't notice any crashes running around the city, entering random houses and exiting to global map. Have to try fights still.

Let us know how all the tests go, and perhaps some enterprising individual might make a nice package to download.
 

CheekySp

Novice
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
3
Blackadder said:
Let us know how all the tests go, and perhaps some enterprising individual might make a nice package to download.
I'm doing the Hyggelik quest and already reached level 2.
Alas, there are some glitches. For example, "You hit DER brigand" (in combat), "This is EIN sword" (in inventory). Inventory page is a bit messed up (encumbrance numbers are not aligned with the word "Oz"), but nothing major. After combat, strange experience is sometimes reported as given (65535 for example), but it does not affect speed of gaining levels per my observation, i.e. amount of actual experience gained is normal).
Other than that, game seems perfectly playable. I'll post more as I finish it.
 

sheek

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Feb 17, 2006
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Cydonia
Jasede said:
Yeah, what Zomg said. But you won't miss -that- much. Star Trail start out a little rough with a new party, but it's worth it, and more challenging than if you import. I'd only import if you also have DDA/RoA 3, so you can attain the highest level.
No, start with Blade of Destiny. It's a good game and the interface is better IMO (the 'scrolling' turn in 2's 2D environment makes me sick), it is more straightforward to start off and will tell you whether you like the genre.

Also, for installation Shadows over Riva is very tricky to get working but I found a way.

You can get all of these games from abandonware sites with the audio so that's not a problem.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I liked blades of destiny when i played it (except getting trapped into the spider caves). Very nice overland map exploration.

The find the n! pieces of map quest was annoying, but what can you do.

My only magic weapon got erased when importing into SoR, and that game was whacked anyway what with the hardcore(tm) time limit.
 

Wolfus

Arcane
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
2,117
Location
Slovakia
This is older thread, but if somebody likes original 2-CD german version of Star Trail and 1-CD version of Blade of Destiny, I have them (bought them 10 years ago in one austrian second-hand).
 

Saxon1974

Prophet
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
2,104
Location
The Desert Wasteland
About to play Star Trail....

I tried it once along time ago and get a bit frustrated with the sheer amount of details, I think you have to even have utensils for your party to eat right?

Anyway any advice for a rookie to this series? Should I play Blade of Destiny first or start with STar Trail?

Blackadder you play through these games and what are your impressions?
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
Start with Blade of Destiny. Dunno why, but I can remember a lot from it, but almost nothing from Star Trail.
It's bigger game, with many cool things to explore.
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,966
I suggest you start with Star Trail, as it is the best of the trilogy.
 

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