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Been playing DragonWars a little lately. Nice enough game, but...
I think I'll give up on it. In order to play all 4 games I intended to (Dragon Wars, Bard's Tale 1-3) and enjoy the game plots and story arcs without being bored to tears, I'd have to:
1) hack the save files (done);
2) write a savegame-backup script (they have only one save slot!) (done);
3) hotkey the whole tedious combat experience (could do easily); because combat really gets old fast, two or three combats and I'm sick of them already. I've done hundreds. I spent 20 minutes clicking buttons for one combat - and got 4XP for the party at the end!
4) script an automap for the three that don't have one (feasible); DragonWars has a nice enough automap, the others don't, and I can't be bothered with graph paper nowadays.
5) script a paragraph-display for Dragonwars (tricky); this is because it occasionally pops up "read paragraph 287" or somesuch, and you have to flip through the manual to find it. I have both the manual and a PDF of it, but still... distracting, I just want to play the game!
... but I think I'll just go play something more interesting instead. There are limits to even my gamer-masochism.
But I thought I'd save what I'd done so far here, just in case anyone else was feeling masochistic.
First, the savegame format. For Bard's Tale 1-3 it's a matter of record and plenty of places have it. For DragonWars, nowhere seems to have it, so here is what I could find out.
Each character's info is 200Hex bytes long.
The characters are stored at 2E26, 3036, 3226, 3426, 3626 and I presume onwards if you have more than 5 characters in your party. The order they are displayed on screen is the order they are in the savegame.
Name Strings for items and characters are stored a little unusually. They are allocated 12 bytes, and the high byte of every byte except the last character of the name is set. So, the string ends after the first character that does not have the high bit set. If the name is less than the full 12 characters then generally the next character is a null, and the rest are random, but they don't need to be. If you put in the string "Sword" (no high bits set) then you will see the string "S" displayed, since it ends after the first character that has no high bit set, regardless of what follows.
All numbers are stored little-endian, so the least significant byte first. For example, 0x0201 (513dec) would be stored as "01 02" in your hex editor. I doubt any of these numbers are signed, but I generally never took them high enough to be sure.
The character information blocks are pretty obvious in a hex editor, but to make sure that they aren't in a slightly different place, find the name of your first character as a NameString, and work from there. At least one site reports the info at a different address, claiming to find the health info where I see the name. That site also has Bard's tale save file info).
Inventory
I haven't done a whole lot of work on the inventory. It's clearly a bitfield and there are bits that I haven't figured out the meaning of yet.
Byte addresses are for the first item in the first character's inventory.
Skills list
Each of these skills has 1 byte each.
What "Merchant" does, I don't know - it does not appear on the "X" experience point list, but will appear under your character's general skills list if you hack some points into it. An unimplemented or hidden stat?
Spells bitfield
I'm giving the bytes in the "reverse" order here, as it is little endian and this makes the spells group more logically. One of the things I always worry about spells is that spells are often used for "quest gates" - you can't complete the quest until you have the spell to unlock the gates, or turn the statue to a living person or whatever. I don't know if this is done in this game, but if you want to follow the plot, it might be worth just going with hacking the purely offensive, defensive, and healing ones, rather than the world changing ones like summons, wall creation/removal, etc.
Batch file for backing up saves
This is pretty sucky - it doesn't diff the files and only save if it's different, for instance, so you'll get way more saves than you need if you save rarely... and if you want to restore from backup, you'll need to copy it yourself.
It's modified from a similar but more complex version I did for Falcon's Eye, which worked better.
Anyway, for what it's worth... (obviously this is public domain code, use it all you want!)
I think I'll give up on it. In order to play all 4 games I intended to (Dragon Wars, Bard's Tale 1-3) and enjoy the game plots and story arcs without being bored to tears, I'd have to:
1) hack the save files (done);
2) write a savegame-backup script (they have only one save slot!) (done);
3) hotkey the whole tedious combat experience (could do easily); because combat really gets old fast, two or three combats and I'm sick of them already. I've done hundreds. I spent 20 minutes clicking buttons for one combat - and got 4XP for the party at the end!
4) script an automap for the three that don't have one (feasible); DragonWars has a nice enough automap, the others don't, and I can't be bothered with graph paper nowadays.
5) script a paragraph-display for Dragonwars (tricky); this is because it occasionally pops up "read paragraph 287" or somesuch, and you have to flip through the manual to find it. I have both the manual and a PDF of it, but still... distracting, I just want to play the game!
... but I think I'll just go play something more interesting instead. There are limits to even my gamer-masochism.
But I thought I'd save what I'd done so far here, just in case anyone else was feeling masochistic.
First, the savegame format. For Bard's Tale 1-3 it's a matter of record and plenty of places have it. For DragonWars, nowhere seems to have it, so here is what I could find out.
Each character's info is 200Hex bytes long.
The characters are stored at 2E26, 3036, 3226, 3426, 3626 and I presume onwards if you have more than 5 characters in your party. The order they are displayed on screen is the order they are in the savegame.
Name Strings for items and characters are stored a little unusually. They are allocated 12 bytes, and the high byte of every byte except the last character of the name is set. So, the string ends after the first character that does not have the high bit set. If the name is less than the full 12 characters then generally the next character is a null, and the rest are random, but they don't need to be. If you put in the string "Sword" (no high bits set) then you will see the string "S" displayed, since it ends after the first character that has no high bit set, regardless of what follows.
All numbers are stored little-endian, so the least significant byte first. For example, 0x0201 (513dec) would be stored as "01 02" in your hex editor. I doubt any of these numbers are signed, but I generally never took them high enough to be sure.
The character information blocks are pretty obvious in a hex editor, but to make sure that they aren't in a slightly different place, find the name of your first character as a NameString, and work from there. At least one site reports the info at a different address, claiming to find the health info where I see the name. That site also has Bard's tale save file info).
Each character information block is split up as follows: 2E26 - 2E31 12 bytes. Character name as Name String (see above). 2E32 1 byte. Str - each of the next 4 stats is repeated, I guess for current and max values. 2E33 1 byte. Str 2E34 1 byte. Dex 2E35 1 byte. Dex 2E36 1 byte. Int 2E37 1 byte. Int 2E38 1 byte. Spr 2E39 1 byte. Spr 2E3A - 2E3B 2 bytes. Current health. 2E3C - 2E3D 2 bytes. Max health. 2E3E - 2E3F 2 bytes. Current stun. 2E40 - 2E41 2 bytes. Max stun. 2E42 - 2E43 2 bytes. Current pow. 2E44 - 2E45 2 bytes. Max pow. 2E46 - 2E60 27 bytes. Skills, see list below. 2E61 1 byte. Number of advancement points left to spend. 2E62 - 2E69 8 bytes. Bitfield for spells. See below. (The following may all be arranged in a more complex bitfield, I dunno.) 2E6A - 2E71 8 bytes. [Unknown purpose, always seems to be 0?] 2E72 1 bytes. Status bitfield. 0=OK, 1=dead, 2=chained, 4=poisoned. (part of a larger bitfield? Setting other values seems to do nothing.) 2E73 1 byte. [Unknown purpose, always 0?] 2E74 1 byte. 0 if male, 1 if female. (part of a larger bitfield? Setting other values seems to do nothing, though the manual does claim "Male, female, sometimes, never" as values for gender.) 2E75 - 2E76 2 bytes. Level. 2E77 - 2E7A 4 bytes. XP. 2E7B - 2E7E 4 bytes. Gold. 2E7F 1 byte. Armor Value. 2E80 1 byte. Defence Value. 2E81 1 byte. Armor Class. 2E82 1 byte. (unknown purpose, but not 0). 2E83 - 2F11 143 bytes. (unknown purpose, always 0, possibly padding?). 2F12 - 3025 276 bytes. The inventory, as 12 items * 23 bytes. See below.
Inventory
I haven't done a whole lot of work on the inventory. It's clearly a bitfield and there are bits that I haven't figured out the meaning of yet.
Byte addresses are for the first item in the first character's inventory.
2F12 - 8 if wielded, 0 if not. 2F13 - Bits 2 & 3 are the stat required to use the weapon. 0x02=Dex, 0x04=Int, 0x06=Spi. Bit 0 seems to do nothing, and using any higher bits in the byte gives garbage skillnames when taking the item to be evaluated at a trader. 2F14 - Bits 1-5 are how many points are required for the above skill, 0 to 31. Don't know what the top 3 bits are for, but setting them does not affect the displayed skill requirement when evaluating. 2F15 - Unknown. Seen as 0x00 (hand axe) and 0x10 (battle axe, dagger, shortsword). 2F16 - Type, see below. 2F17 - Unknown. Only seen as 0x80. 2F18 - Unknown. Only seen as 0x00. 2F18 - Unknown. Seen as 0x40 (hand axe), 0x80 (battle axe), 0x00 (dagger), 0x20 (shortsword). 2F19 - Unknown. Only seen as 0x00. 2F1A - Unknown. Only seen as 0x01. 2F1B - 2F26 (12 bytes) Name string for the item. See above for explanation of name strings. Item types 0x00 - General Item 0x01 - Shield 0x02 - Full Shield 0x03 - Axe 0x04 - Flail 0x05 - Sword 0x06 - Two-handed sword 0x07 - Mace 0x08 - Bow 0x09 - Crossbow 0x0A - Gun 0x0B - Thrown weapon 0x0C - Ammunition 0x0D - Gloves 0x0E - Mage Gloves 0x0F - Ammo Clip 0x10 - Cloth Armor 0x11 - Leather Armor 0x12 - Cuir Bouilli Armor 0x13 - Brigandine Armor 0x14 - Scale Armor 0x15 - Chain Armor 0x16 - Plate And Chain Armor 0x17 - Full plate Armor 0x18 - Helmet 0x19 - Scroll 0x1A - Pair of Boots 0x1B and above - blank (no text).
Skills list
Each of these skills has 1 byte each.
What "Merchant" does, I don't know - it does not appear on the "X" experience point list, but will appear under your character's general skills list if you hack some points into it. An unimplemented or hidden stat?
2E46 - Arcane Lore 2E47 - Cave Lore 2E48 - Forest Lore 2E49 - Mountain Lore 2E4A - Town Lore 2E4B - Bandage 2E4C - Climb 2E4D - Fistfighting 2E4E - Hide 2E4F - Lockpick 2E50 - Pickpocket 2E51 - Swim 2E52 - Tracking 2E53 - Bureaucracy 2E54 - Druid Magic 2E55 - High Magic 2E56 - Low Magic 2E57 - Merchant 2E58 - Sun Magic 2E59 - Axe 2E5A - Flail 2E5B - Mace 2E5C - Sword 2E5D - 2-Handed Sword 2E5E - Bow 2E5F - Crossbow 2E60 - Thrown Weaponry
Spells bitfield
I'm giving the bytes in the "reverse" order here, as it is little endian and this makes the spells group more logically. One of the things I always worry about spells is that spells are often used for "quest gates" - you can't complete the quest until you have the spell to unlock the gates, or turn the statue to a living person or whatever. I don't know if this is done in this game, but if you want to follow the plot, it might be worth just going with hacking the purely offensive, defensive, and healing ones, rather than the world changing ones like summons, wall creation/removal, etc.
2E4E 0x01 - [Not used] 0x02 - [Not used] 0x04 - [Not used] (Misc spells) 0x08 - Poison 0x10 - Kill Ray 0x20 - Zak's Speed 0x40 - Charger 0x80 - Summon Salamander 2E4D 0x01 - Radiance 0x02 - Guidance 0x04 - Disarm Trap (Sun Spells) 0x08 - Major Heal 0x10 - Heal 0x20 - Sun Light 0x40 - Armor of Light 0x80 - Light Flash 2E4C 0x01 - Mithras' Bless 0x02 - Column of Fire 0x04 - Battle Power 0x08 - Holy Aim 0x10 - Inferno 0x20 - Fire Storm 0x40 - Wrath of Mithras 0x80 - Rage of Mithras 2E4B 0x01 - Exorcism 0x02 - Sunstroke 0x04 - Wood Spirit 0x08 - Beast Call 0x10 - Invoke Spirit 0x20 - Soften Stone 0x40 - Create Wall 0x80 - Cure All 2E4A 0x01 - Exorcism 0x02 - Sunstroke (Druid magic) 0x04 - Wood Spirit 0x08 - Beast Call 0x10 - Invoke Spirit 0x20 - Soften Stone 0x40 - Create Wall 0x80 - Cure All 2E49 0x01 - Greater Healing 0x02 - Brambles 0x04 - Scare 0x08 - Whirlwind 0x10 - Insect Plague 0x20 - Fire Blast 0x40 - Death Curse (High magic) 0x80 - Fire Summon 2E48 0x01 - Water Summon 0x02 - Earth Summon 0x04 - Air Summon 0x08 - Sense Traps 0x10 - Cloak Arcane 0x20 - Group Heal 0x40 - Healing 0x80 - Cowardice 2E47 0x01 - Vorn's Guard 0x02 - Sala's Swift 0x04 - Reveal Glamor 0x08 - Mystic Might 0x10 - Dazzle 0x20 - Big Chill 0x40 - Ice Chill 0x80 - Poog's Vortex 2E46 0x01 - Elvar's Fire 0x02 - Fire Light (Low magic) 0x04 - Mage Light 0x08 - Lesser Heal 0x10 - Luck 0x20 - Charm 0x40 - Disarm 0x80 - Mage Fire
Batch file for backing up saves
This is pretty sucky - it doesn't diff the files and only save if it's different, for instance, so you'll get way more saves than you need if you save rarely... and if you want to restore from backup, you'll need to copy it yourself.
It's modified from a similar but more complex version I did for Falcon's Eye, which worked better.
Anyway, for what it's worth... (obviously this is public domain code, use it all you want!)
@echo off :loop echo Hit enter to restore from your latest save. echo Or anything else to quit. set /P in=Your call: if X%in%==X goto play goto end :play dragon.com if exist data1 goto save goto loop :save REM Yes, this does check for the existence of 500 files. Yes, it is faster than you'd think: the dir info gets cached. set b=test for /L %%a in (1,1,500) do if exist saves\save.%%a set b=%%a set /A b=%b% + 1 echo Saving to saves\save.%b% copy data1 saves\save.%b% goto loop :end echo Quitting at user request. set /P a=Hit enter pause
I loves Bards Tale on the Amiga. I remember mapping loads of the levels on graph paper, and then getting pissed off when I realised there were areas that "looped". Grr.