Sorry for necroposting.
I've recently working on the italian translation of this DOS game I used to play when I was a child. The official italian translation was beyond absurd and completely different from the boardgame (another game I used to play with my friends back in the days).
The game was also plagued by a bug that prevented the player to save the progresses of any character. Only now I found out that it was a bug of the italian version only. Upon fixing it I've decided to go deeper and use the project as pretext to learn some assembly. I've already had mild debugging experiece but hey, there is always room for improvement.
So, I came across this excellent and detailed topic by @kurgan and used it as reference to understand what can be done to improve the game. I am now at a point that almost every "complaints" of this topic have been solved.
What I am at now is the hard part: monster pathfinding and shooting. Help wanted!
Monsters are really dumb and the crossbow is insanely powerful (if you find the right spot and shoot perfectly diagonal, you can take down a monster at the other end of the map even across multiple undiscovered rooms).
I've reverse engineered pretty much all the code and understood most of the functions, memory locations and variables. Every things I've mapped are now on moddingwiki page.
A (mostly) comprehensive list of the bug fixed and features added so far:
Sorry for the chatgpt translated changelog:
- Code: Select all
01- The Genie's "reveal a room" spell now works correctly. Also made it usable only once, added text when nothing is found. FEATURE/BUG
02- Fireball spell texts corrected. BUG
03- The hidden well trap square was not clickable with the mouse, which inadvertently revealed its position. BUG
04- Found and restored orphaned original strings. BUG
05- In Quest 4 "The Gold of Prince Magnus," the message "you can only take one" did not appear and it was possible to take 4 treasure chests. BUG
06- Casting a spell on an empty square no longer wastes it – not even on a monster/hero out of the line of sight. BUG
07- The hero was walking in mid-air at one point in the quest "The Fire mage". BUG
08- In Quest 6, even after having equipment removed, heroes were still retaining their stats. BUG
09- While searching for traps, once a secret passage was discovered, any other traps after that were not revealed. BUG
10- Special event ID 0x16 (Quest 17) did not reveal the secret door when triggered. Replacing it with ID 0x02 (with the same outcome) makes it work. BUG
11- The special events "find a shield" and "find a spear" do not assign the equipment to the mage, even though he can use it (fix removed). BUG
12- In Mission 9 "Race Against Time," the second treasure chest was not assigned when traps were searched first and then treasures. Added the message "you can only take one." BUG
13- When defeating Bellthor, no text was displayed. BUG
14- The graphics for the heroes’ head icons have been aligned with their in-game appearance. FEATURE
15- The map for the quest "Legacy of the Lord Orc" has been aligned with the ZX and C64 versions (the better ones). FEATURE
16- Added the missing throne in the final room of the quest "The Search for the Blade of Spirits." FEATURE
17- Restored the protection screen while retaining the crack. FEATURE
18- Saving the heroes crashed the game. (Original bug present only in the Italian version!) BUG
19- More than two healing potions are no longer assigned. (NOT A BUG, WON'T DO)
20- In Quest 24, the Witch Lord could be killed by magic. Added custom text. Fix1: the final screen was no longer visible. Fix2: he could be injured by all weapons. BUG
21- Casting "body healing" on a monster caused the message "the hero recovers" to appear, and the monster became out of range for any weapon. BUG
22- Open doors or secret doors were blocking the line of sight. BUG
23- The mage can no longer use all equipment but only special items, a staff, and a tool bag! FEATURE
24- It is now possible to sell your own equipment! FEATURE
25- It was possible to shoot through a fallen rock. BUG
26- In the mission "The Forbidden City," some doors were already open, creating artifacts on the line of sight. Fix1: door 2. BUG
27- Random events were not truly random but followed a predefined sequence. Fix1: pseudo-random sequence. Fix2: sequence reset upon mission change. FEATURE
28- If a weapon was deselected, Borin’s armor was also deactivated. BUG
29- In Mission 2 (Ragnar’s rescue), the message "all have fled" appeared when the last hero died. BUG
30- Reversed the target order of the monsters to: Ragnar – Mage – Elf – Dwarf – Barbarian. FEATURE
31- Removed the unnecessary confirmation to insert the save-game floppy disk. FEATURE
32- Added a brief description of weapons, potions, and spells in the bottom bar and in the armory. FEATURE
33- In the armory, you can now SELL an item or PASS it to another hero. Fix2: exit from the second scroll and optimized code. Fix3: incorrect unequip. FEATURE
34- Potions were being lost between quests. BUG
35- The refresh key was resetting the character’s profile to default values, whereas it should have reset only body and mind. (+2 from the Talisman of Science.) FEATURE
36- The healing potion used to cancel out all of the hero’s effects—both negative and positive. Now it cancels only the negative ones. BUG
37- Now the hero self-heals when losing his last wound to save himself from death, even with magic if he hasn’t acted. Fix2: Stone Skin. BUG+FEATURE
38- Spells now display a brief description underneath. Previously, their effects were only understood from the manual or after casting them. FEATURE
39- The Stone Skin spell no longer vanishes after the first defense but remains until the hero suffers a wound. (The recovery potion’s text was the same as the Stone Skin spell.) BUG
40- The Courage spell no longer vanishes after the first attack but remains until there are no more monsters in the room. BUG
41- The Sleep spell cast on a hero now vanishes after the attack. The monster no longer defends the first time it is attacked while under its effect. BUG
42- In Quest 6, the ENTIRE inventory is now removed and returned to the hero when found. The hero also retains gold and potions found during the mission. BUG
43- The refresh option for body and mind points in the menu now works like a paid HEALER. Fix2: it healed with cancel. FEATURE/BUG
44- The Strength potion erroneously displayed the same text as the Courage spell. BUG
45- The random events in the treasure hunt previously followed a preset sequence. A modern Fisher-Yates algorithm is now correctly applied. FEATURE/BUG
46- During the search, treasures are now removed from the deck, as in the board game (potions were already handled correctly). BUG
47- Casting a spell without moving sometimes prevented melee attacks. Fix1 The heroic infusion didn't allows a hero to cast a spell or self-heal using magic. BUG
48- Falling into a well or another trap no longer allows the hero to attack and correctly ends the turn. Fix2: in case of the Recall Wand. BUG
49- It is no longer possible to search for treasures in corridors. A room-based hero search has also been added. FEATURE
50- Attacking or defending from within a well now correctly removes one attack or defense die. Fix: minimum number of dice = 1. FEATURE
51- In the mission "The Mansion of Mystery" (Quest 10), monsters can now move onto the teleport square. BUG
52- The witch Kessandria is no longer injured by any spell, only by fire spells. BUG
53- In QUEST08, once Balur was defeated, all heroes (even those not participating) were awarded 150 coins, and the hero who defeated him would exit again. Corrected. BUG
54- In the mission "The Gold of Prince Magnus," the message "all the foolish heroes have fled!" did not appear when the last hero left the quest. BUG
55- In some missions, it was not checked whether all heroes had exited. BUG
56- QUEST08 content restored: "magic has no effect in this place." BUG
57- Monsters can now have more body points as in the USA version. It is still possible to change quests by modifying the individual monsters' body points. FEATURE
58- The monsters’ characteristics (body, mind, attack, defense, movement) have been aligned with the US board game. FEATURE
59- If Manfred died before the heroes, no text was displayed and the coins were still assigned to the hero who freed him. BUG
60- In Mission 11, if a hero finds a shield he already possesses, it remains available for other heroes. (Mission 3: the spear.) BUG
61- When reaching the stairs, instead of immediately ending the mission, a confirmation to exit is requested. FEATURE
62- The spear trap only displayed the message for losing a life point, but not the dodge message. BUG
63- The Wandering Monster was always only one, even though more were discovered while searching for treasures. Now they are "infinite." FEATURE/BUG
64- Changing weapons now costs an action. FEATURE
65- Sometimes during treasure searches, the second potion found was not assigned. BUG
66- The talisman and the wand are now equipped by default (they have a white border, but it doesn't change anything—it’s only cosmetic). FEATURE
67- Upon the death of bosses and the Lord of Sorcerers, a scroll now appears to reward the player's achievement. FEATURE
68- The three trap events in the treasure hunt all had the same text "thread on the leg." The two missing ones have been restored. BUG
69- Monster movement is no longer blocked by traps. They can step on them without triggering them, thereby no longer giving the player any "hints." FEATURE/BUG
70- Fixed a blocking issue: it is now possible to remove a fallen rock from outside a room or corridor. BUG
71- Monsters can now attack and move across different sections of corridors. Fix: trap search when the monster changes section. FEATURE
72- The Fog now functions as in the board game, allowing the hero to move through monsters. Invisibility and the possibility of ending the turn on a monster have been removed. BUG/FEATURE
73- The fallen rock trap did not calculate the probability of failure as in the board game, and now displays a message when you save yourself by wearing the helmet. BUG/FEATURE
74- Attack spells cast INSIDE the room now follow the line of sight. BUG
75- The Orc's bane special ability now works against goblins as well. FEATURE
76- Fixed the bug that allowed diagonal attacks to hit through a wall. BUG
77- Finally adjusted the line of sight for throwing weapons and attack spells. Now the projectile no longer passes through walls and does not perform impossible hits. BUG
78- The map did not display the entire left vertical corridor if the hero discovered it from below. BUG
79- Corrected the erroneous display of two walls in the corridors of Quest 07. BUG
80- When a hero tried to jump over an already occupied well, nothing happened. BUG
81- Redesigned open and closed doors to make the map display clearer. FEATURE/BUG
82- The furniture is now aligned with the tiles in the exact position shown on the map. GLITCH
83- Restored the rear views of monsters (currently assigned a 1/6 probability of appearing). FEATURE
84- Secret open doors have been drawn to differentiate them from normal ones. FEATURE
85- The font has been reduced to standardize the size of accented characters (added ì and é). FEATURE
86- The level bosses were all erroneously displayed as Gargoyles. Restored the graphics for Ulag (orc), Spirit Rider (skeleton), and Doomguard (chaos warrior). BUG
87 - In Melar’s Maze, the gargoyle in room 16 now correctly activates when searching for secret passages. BUG
88 - In the quest The Mystery Manor, the wandering monster has been correctly replaced with the ghost of Ollar's text. BUG
89 - Trap gargoyles that cannot be attacked are now properly displayed as "stone statue." BUG/FEATURE
90 - If holy water was used to kill an undead with a death event (e.g., Star of the West), the counter was set to zero. BUG
91 - The Immovable Rock Wall and Removable Fallen Rock now have distinct names in the 2D map. FEATURE
92 - If the QUEST.SAV file was missing, the game generated an empty one, making heroes unplayable. Now all slots have default profiles. BUG
93 - The Discovered Pit Trap now has a visible name in the 2D map. FEATURE
94 - In quest 24, the four magical orc statues now destroy the hero's weapon if attacked.
95 - Moved the save slot block outside the language file to leave more space for text. QOL
96 - Disarming a trap now counts as an action and ends movement if you've already moved. BUG
97 - Diagonal attacks at range 1 with a crossbow are no longer allowed. BUG/FEATURE
98 - Added the special event "The chest is empty" for rooms with a chest but no event. FEATURE
99 - Trap chest special events are now independent from specific rooms and also check if the trap has already been triggered. QOL
100 - Throwing axe and spear can now be recovered after being thrown. FEATURE
101- Unique artifact such as Spirit blade or Orc's bane cannot be duplicated anymore. BUG
102- Wand of recall and Talisman of Lore can now be equipped and effects are correctly applied. BUG
103 – In the “Halls of Visions” mission, carrying Agrain’s Key halved your movement. BUG
104 – Redesigned the in-game equipment description bar and added space for two more characters. QOL
105 – Mouse cursors on the 2D map now change according to the action to be performed (physical attack, magic, inspection). FEATURE
106 – The Genie’s attack no longer automatically kills a monster. Only Skulls inflict damage and can be blocked by Shields. Added a scroll summarizing SKULLS/SHIELDS. BUG
107 – Fire attacks were intended for monsters with only 1 body point (they no longer instakill monsters with more than 1BP). FEATURE
108 – The Treasure deck is now reshuffled whenever wandering monsters or traps are drawn. BUG
109 – White and black shields have been drawn to differentiate hero and monster defense rolls. FEATURE
110 – Displaying the Pit's name in 2D map made it impossible to cast a healing spell on a hero inside it. REGRESSION
111 – In the 2D map, the final part of long names was not being properly cleared. BUG
112 – Monsters can now face all four possible directions; their sprite is no longer fixed facing southwest. FEATURE
113 – Restored the correct chance for the white shield to appear in the hero’s defense roll, from 4/6 to 2/6. BUG?
114 – The Orc's bane now grants a second attack if the first was made against an orc. BUG
115 – Balur can now use the special Escape action and cast the Courage spell on himself. FEATURE
116 – “The Halls of Death” quest has been restored to match the board game: heroes start separated, captured, and without equipment. FEATURE
117 – In quests already featuring the maximum number of monsters (32), the spawn of a wandering monster caused artifacts. FIX
118 - Stone statues must be immune to spells. BUG
119 - The falling rock traps in Quest 13 are special and should not spawn the fallen boulder. BUG
120 - In "Castle of mistery", the mine is now always searchable, and each hero can drop gold at the start of their turn. FEATURE
121 - The image of the dead dwarf was drawn outside the tile. BUG
122 – Aligned monster attack and defense animations so they no longer overlap with those of the heroes. BUG
123 – Balur can now cast the two offensive fire spells. FEATURE
124 – The Witch Lord in quest 24 can now summon one monster per turn with a magic attack. FEATURE
125 – The Witch Lord in the final mission (quest 24) can now be harmed by fire spells. BUG
126 – Added the X markers in quest 22 (The Forbidden Caverns), from which 2 random undead enter each of Morcar’s turns. FEATURE
127 – Monster movement is no longer limited to their original room. FEATURE
128 – Karlen’s revelation now occurs upon his death, not when entering the room. BUG
129 – When a secret door is found, the monsters inside the newly revealed room now activate correctly. BUG
130 – Monsters should no longer be able to enter the rotating room in "The Cold Halls". BUG
131 – Restored content for "The Halls of Visions": doors disappear when the four mummies are slain and reappear upon finding the gems, and the mummies do not attack the gem bearer. FEATURE
132 – Two doors separated by a single corridor tile could not both be passed through in the same turn. BUG
133 – Manfred now moves with a single die, can search for traps, passages, or treasures, and can use potions. All doors now swing open. FEATURE
134 – Monster types, heroes, and passages in Quest 24 have been organized as in the original; added text for failure conditions. FEATURE
135 – Added the ambush event to the first quest of the Gate of Doom expansion. FEATURE
136 – The 2D map now shows, along with the name, the real-time statistics of the monsters. FEATURE
137 – When the hero moves through a door using the directional arrows, the orientation does not always match the movement direction. BUG
138 – It is now possible during the quest to trade any items (weapons, armor, potions, and special items) between two adjacent heroes. FEATURE
139- Character sheet is now available in the Armory page. FEATURE
140- The Dwarf automatically disarmed traps. It now fails on a black shield result. BUG
141- Fixed door opening (missing), kill (identical to attack), and trap (identical to spell) sound effects for AdLib and Roland. BUG
142- The Healer now shows only the body points that can actually be healed. FEATURE
143- The 2D map now shows, together with the HERO’s name, its real-time statistics, including modifiers from spells, potions, and equipment. FEATURE
144- Modified the font to also include numbers from 10 to 24. FEATURE
145- Improved readability of the 2D map: added room grids, new monster icons, white walls, and aligned furniture. FEATURE
146- Improved monster movement: if they cannot reach the Hero, they will move closer. FEATURE
147- The Sleep spell was not broken when the monster was attacked. BUG
148- Monster stats under the effect of the Sleep spell are now replaced with "-". FEATURE
149- In the quest "The Halls of the Dead", the Elf and Barbarian now start hidden and do not lose any equipment found or traded when recovering their own. FEATURE
150- The Sleep spell now takes the target’s Mind Points into account and fails on the first black shield rolled. Previously, it was a single roll and failed on a white shield. BUG
151- When a monster wakes up from the Sleep spell, a wake-up message is now displayed before it attacks. FEATURE
152- The Summon spell of the Witch Lord now has its own specific text. FEATURE
153- Fixed a rare issue that could make item trading in the Armory impossible. BUG
154- Heroes not selected at the start of the adventure no longer die at the end of Missions 6 and 20. BUG
155- The Dwarf can now have two Toolkits: a standard one and a special one (his ability), which is restored upon death. FEATURE
156- Courage spell now correctly “remembers” the room where it was cast. BUG
157- Modified two assembly instructions that were not working on 286 machines. BUG
158- If Karlen was killed from outside or outside his room, the final message would not appear. BUG
159- The ESC+CTRL combination allows killing all trapped Heroes who have not yet exited via the stairs. FEATURE
160- The Dwarf must retain his trap-disarming ability in Quest 6 when he loses his equipment. FEATURE
161- The character sheet for Heroes and monsters is now language-independent, with new icons. FEATURE
162- Equipping the Talisman or Wand would deselect armor. BUG
163- The Wandering Monster removed the trap it spawned on. BUG
164- If the Wizard or Elf cast "Pass Through Rock" on themselves, the effect would activate on the following turn before the movement result was known. BUG
165- Replaced the rotating coin animation with authentic HeroQuest red dice, slowed the animation speed, and added a rolling sound effect. FEATURE
166- Added the east-facing throne icon to the 2D map. BUG
167- Updated monster animation sequences to match each action type (blocking, attacking, and dying), and added blood effects. FEATURE
168- Increased Hero movement animation from 6 to 8 frames and graphically refined all sprites. FEATURE
If you want to help or betatest please feel free to do so!
Download the english version of this remastered version HERE.
