peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (09/06/87)
I would not recommend "The Bards Tale" to anyone. First of all, it doesn't use Key Disk copy protection, so you can't boot off a backup and stick the main disk in when needed to verify it's for real. Secondly, it hits the disk a *whole* lot more than it should. It doesn't seem to add any buffers in startup-sequence (do it myself? Write on the master disk? Are you out of your MIND?). Thirdly, the copy protection is so tough it gets disk errors fairly frequently. Finally, it doesn't manage memory properly! It leaves bunches of RAM allocated. Today it told me it didn't have enough memory left to enter the city... this from a program that runs in 64K on a C=64. If you absolutely must have it, wait for another release. If there isn't another release... don't worry. You aren't missing much. It's just Wizardry with fancy graphics & sound. -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!peter -- 'U` <-- Public domain wolf.
oconnor@sunray.steinmetz (Dennis Oconnor) (09/09/87)
Gee, did people miss my earlier BT posting? Tisk.
1. Yes, BT is copy-protected. So I bought it, then bought MARAUDER II.
End of problem.
2. Yes, BT does lots of silly disk access. So I bought FACC.
Beginning of the End of the problem.
3. No, you can't modify the startup file. But you can :
a. boot BT
b. leave the game
c. put a workbench disk in and use WORKBENCH:C/NEWCLI
d. use the new CLI to get FACC running.
e. remove the workbench.
f. go to the originl CLI, type "bardstale".
End of the End of the problem.
WARNING, Will Robinson : I do this on a 1meg 2drive A500.
Your results may vary depending on what you use.
Personally, I like SDI'd "makeram" technique a lot better.
Once again : I don't pirate software, and I don't buy
copy-protected software unless MARAUDER II backs it up.
--
Dennis O'Connor oconnor@sungoddess.steinmetz.UUCP ??
ARPA: OCONNORDM@ge-crd.arpa
"If I have an "s" in my name, am I a PHIL-OSS-IF-FER?"eric@hippo.UUCP (Eric Bergan) (09/10/87)
> 3. No, you can't modify the startup file. But you can : > a. boot BT > b. leave the game > c. put a workbench disk in and use WORKBENCH:C/NEWCLI > d. use the new CLI to get FACC running. > e. remove the workbench. > f. go to the originl CLI, type "bardstale". > End of the End of the problem. Actually, I went a step farther. I changed the s:startup-sequence to start facc (I put facc, runback, and the other necessary pieces on the character disk). I also have it call AutoFACC, which boosts the amount of buffers associated with FACC. Then after than, I turn off the rest of the extra memory with the utility provided with FACC, so even the songs work correctly. Note, once I have FACC II, the AutoFacc piece will be unnecessary. -- eric ...!ptsfa!hippo!eric
kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth) (09/10/87)
Actually, I have been rather interested in Bard's Tale as a study of the
type of bugs that get left in production software. Have you noticed:
1. That dead 'specials' don't always go away when they're supposed to.
2. That the coding for the he/she/it in the text description is screwed up
3. That pictures of creatures offering to 'join your party' don't always
come up.
4. That you get disk access to replace pictures of creatures with the same
picture.
5. The system sometimes runs out of memory and suddenly returns you to the
AG. (Actually, I was pleased that it at least tidied up in this way
rather than leaving you with a wrecked character disk, as it would do if
it died suddenly.)
I also am infuriated that the game doesn't do more to cut down on disk
usage. You would think they would either have cached pictures in memory or
used one of the standard tools that caches disk sectors.
I hate the CP too. I havn't bought Marauder yet. Does it break Bards Tale?
If it does, I would like to try the following modifications:
1. Get rid of the dreadful font they use. I think they are using a
66-char-per-line font, and I would try an 80-char-per-line font, but if that
didn't work out, at least a nice clean sans-serif font.
2. As someone else suggested, more disk buffers.
Sigh.peter@sugar.UUCP (09/12/87)
6. Try typing something in to a prompt, then erasing it, then typing it
in again. Eventually you will have backspaced to the middle of the
picture. Perhaps changing to the 80 character font would fix this?
In article <1716@sputnik.COM>, kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth) writes:
> I hate the CP too. I havn't bought Marauder yet. Does it break Bards Tale?
Didn't for me. Did for others. I don't know. maybe I need a newer version,
mine's pretty old.
> 1. Get rid of the dreadful font they use. I think they are using a
> 66-char-per-line font, and I would try an 80-char-per-line font, but if that
> didn't work out, at least a nice clean sans-serif font.
How about gene.font from Shanghai?
--
-- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- 'U` ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Not seismo!soma (blush)bryan@cca.CCA.COM (Bryan Pendleton) (09/12/87)
In article <655@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >I would not recommend "The Bards Tale" to anyone. > .... Finally, it doesn't manage memory properly! It leaves >bunches of RAM allocated. Today it told me it didn't have enough memory >left to enter the city... this from a program that runs in 64K on a C=64. If you have a 512K Amiga with an external drive, this (HIGHLY ANNOYING) bug can be avoided by just unplugging the external drive before you power on. Turns out that last 25K or so used by the external drive's code is CRITICAL to the proper functioning of the program. Try the game a little more...it's pretty good, actually. -- bryan@cca.cca.com or decvax!cca!bryan