Month: January 2017

Debug Commands

Use NMI or Symbol Shift to enter debug mode.

A – Avatar mode
B – Sound FX test
C – Call RAM address
D – Dungeon teleport
E – Equipment max
F – Food max
G – Gold max
H – Heal party
I – Items max
J – Jump to co-ords
K – Keys max
L – Level-up party
M – Magic max
N – New game
O – Output RAM from address
P – Party modify
Q – Quest flags
R – Resurrect party
S – Spawn horse / ship
T – Time shift
U – Talk to NPC
V – View mode toggle
W – Win fight
X – XP increase
Y – Music / FX test
Z – Stats adjust

Armour

a – skin
b – cloth
c – leather
d – chain mail
e – plate mail
f – magic cloth
g – magic leather
h – magic chain
i – magic plate

Class Restrictions
Wizard based classes are restricted to cloth armour.
Rogue based classes are restricted to leather armour.
Priest based classes are restricted to chain armour.
Multi-class characters have the armour restrictions of the weaker class.

Weapons

a—hands
b—staff
c—dagger
d—sling
e—mace
f—axe
g—sword
h—bow
i—crossbow
j—spear
k—halberd
l—magic staff
m—magic dagger
n—magic sling
o—magic mace
p—magic axe
q—magic sword
r—magic bow
s—magic crossbow
t—magic spear
u—magic halberd

Class Restrictions
Wizard based classes are restricted to staff, dagger, and sling.
Rogue based classes are restricted to single-handed weapons.
Priest based classes may not use edged or pointed weapons.
Multi-class characters have the weapon restrictions of the stronger class.

Commands

a – attack
b – board
c – cast
d – descend
e – enter
f – fire
g – get
h – hole up
i – ignite
j – jimmy
k – climb
l – look
m – map
n – new order
o – open
p – pick pocket
q – quit & save
r – ready weapon
s – search
t – talk
u – use
v – volume
w – wear armour
x – exit
y – yell
z – stats

symbol shift – trigger NMI / enter debug mode

Spells

There are two schools of magic with their own sets of spells. Each spell has a mana cost in parenthesis.

Wizard Spells

A—Smite Goblinkind (0)
B—Magic Missile (5)
C—Light (10)
D—Down (15)
E—Up (20)
F—Fireball (25)
G—Blink (30)
H—Mind Blast (35)
I—Great Light (40)
J—Priest Magic (45)
K—Mass Fireball (50)
L—Kill (55)
M—Time Stop (60)
N—Mass Mind Blast (65)
O—Mass Decay (70)
P—Mass Kill (75)

Priest Spells

A—Smite Undead (0)
B—Open (5)
C—Heal (10)
D—Light (15)
E—Up (20)
F—Down (25)
G—Blink (30)
H—Cure (35)
I—Exit (40)
J—Great Light (45)
K—Great Heal (50)
L—Peer (55)
M—Kill (60)
N—Resurrect (65)
O—Mass Kill (70)
P—Great Resurrect (75)

File Extensions

These are the internal file extensions used by the ZXodus][Engine.

.atr:   LZ77 compressed attribute map for 8x2 mode
.bmp:   LZ77 compressed bitmap for 8x2 mode.
.ctile: ColorTILE format tile set.
.dng:   LZ77 compressed dungeon map.
.enc:   LZ77 compressed encounter map.
.img:   LZ77 compressed 8x8 mode.
.map:   World map.
.fnt:   Font set.
.m:     LZ77 compressed P3X music file.
.raw:   Byte-order bitmap data.
.sfx:   Sound effects file.
.twn:   LZ77 compressed town map.
.txt:   Digraph compressed strings, terminated with a zero.

JRPG Class Suggestions

I’m assuming at some point that someone else may want to make a game with ZXodus. Therefore here are some alternate class suggestions.

  • Warrior — Ronin
  • Wizard — Shugenja
  • Priest — Gakusho
  • Rogue — Yakuza
  • Warrior-Priest — Samurai
  • Warrior-Rogue — Budoka
  • Warrior-Wizard — Artisan
  • Priest-Rogue — Shinobi
  • Priest-Wizard — Shaman
  • Wizard-Rogue — Merchant
  • Multi — Kyudoka

30 Years of Ultima III

Yes I know it was released in 1983. But the Atari ST version that I played didn’t arrive until 1986, and I didn’t play it until 1987. Anyway, I’ve decided to give myself a target deadline to finish U3.5. Not publishing it, but hopefully it will enable me to make some progress this year. To begin with, I’m rationalizing the number of groups and pages I’m involved in on Facebook. One side effect of this is that I’ll be moving some ZXodus][Engine documents to this blog. Happy 2017!