Atlantis: The Lost Tales

[Jwrath 1]

Hi there,

 

I'm new to this site and first of all I'd like to thank you all for the wonderful work you do here.

 

 

One of my all-time favorite games is Atlantis: The Lost Tales and GOG gave me the chance to play it again after so many years.

However I had a major problem with the mouse especially when I was playing the puzzle segments.

The puzzle with the crabs took ages to finish.

 

Fortunately with your help (by tampering with Hex Editor) I managed to fix that problem. GOG never provided any help on that.

 

There are of course other issues, one of them is the incomplete graphics (you mention that in your page) [Actyon's beard, chainmail on the guards helmet, etc.]

and the lack of some sound effects

- when playing the puzzle with the sun and the moon there was a clicking sound whenever I turned the handles

- after completing the puzzle there was a sound of the lion's mouth opening

- after inserting the sheep in the lion's mouth the door made an opening sound

- when I put the ear-ring on the door there was another sound of the door opening

- when I jumped out of the window there was another sound of Seth landing on the pavement

 

these sounds don't work on the GOG version.

 

 

Is there a way to tamper with the sound settings through Hex Editor, like I did for the mouse?

 

 

Plus, I've tried the DOS version of Atlantis and the graphics are perfect, the mouse in the puzzles and menus works perfectly,

but when I try to turn the camera the mouse is choppy.

I've tried to reduce the cycles and the mouse moved properly, however the entire game was going very slowly.

Whenever I increase the cycles back to normal, the mouse sticks again.

That's odd since there is no problem with the mouse when I'm in menus or puzzle, just when I turn the camera.

 

Is there a way to fix that through Hex Editor without decreasing the cycles?

[Mirh 103]

Hi.

I'm the author of 99% of the game page.

I must confess I just randomly selected that game to write a page for PCGW.. and man.. it was really mindblowing (not to mention the second and third episodes)

 

I even had to download the original CD version (try even the w95 one, not only DOS).

In this way I realized GOG version is based on the Voodoo3/Banshee patch (that indeed ruined the base game, at least for us modern people)

I compared the vanilla version with the patched one, and I tried to reverse the changes (only by chance) until I luckily found that code that managed to actually solve it.

Please remember that this is by no means scientific, as that would require to know assembly and how to reverse engineer executables (with tools such as IDA)

 

The limitations of my "rude" method came to light when I tried to do the same to fix the bugged graphics... Changes are probably spread.. so you would need somebody with those skills.

 

Speaking of mouse problems... so much time passed.. and I may not remember everything.. though IIRC mouse speed was bound to game speed... (or something similar..). I used that tricky method with DxWnd because I couldn't find other tools that could limit frame rate with Direct3D 3...

 

I should have written something on gog forums with pcgw account... Try to check there for further information I could have forgot atm.

[Jwrath 1]

I've checked GOG numerous times and asked for their help, especially since I bought Atlantis from them, but no help was given.

The Hex editor trick was your idea and I can't thank you enough for this.

 

But what about the DosBox version?

As I was saying the DOS version works perfectly (the graphics are complete, OK the music breaks up a bit) but the mouse still refuses to move when I try to look around.

It works just fine in the menus, it's sticky only when I move the camera.

Reducing the cycles, mouse sensitivity, or changing the core from auto to dynamic in the dosbox.conf didn't help.

 

Is there a way to fix that with Hex Editor just like I did with the GOG version?

I really don't know anything about Hex Editor. All I see is letters, numbers and symbols and it doesn't make sense.

 

How can I find which attributes are connected to the mouse? And change them into what?

[Mirh 103]

Is there a way to fix that with Hex Editor just like I did with the GOG version?

I really don't know anything about Hex Editor. All I see is letters, numbers and symbols and it doesn't make sense.

 

How can I find which attributes are connected to the mouse? And change them into what?

Neither do I. As I said I know nothing of assembly. The right way to do it would be with a x86 disassembler like IDA Pro long live to Ollydbg

Besides, DOSBox is supposed to perfectly emulate a true dos environment.. It really should behave almost like the original...

Edited April 7, 2016 by Mirh

[Jwrath 1]

Neither do I. As I said I know nothing of assembly. The right way to do it would be with a x86 disassembler like IDA Pro

Besides, DOSBox is supposed to perfectly emulate a true dos environment.. It really should behave almost like the original...

 

True, it is behaving like the original, the only problem is with the mouse and I don't get it.

I've tried every possible combination - changing from DirectDraw to Surface and OpenGL. Cycles limitation, mouse sensitivity, core but I still don't understand why does it do that.

I've even tried other CRYO games with the same OMNI3D technique, like Versailles 1685 and Egypt 1156, but they work perfectly with no such problems.

Any idea what else to try on dosbox.conf?

I haven't tried changing the cputype or machine which is set to svga_s3 by default.

Will that help?

 

Is there a mouse calibration setting on Dosbox that I should be aware of?

[Mirh 103]

When you say that "mouse is choppy".. do you mean that the game overall is lagging.. or are you really sure it's a mouse only bug?

Could you record the problem?