Arcomage

[slam23]

I like minigames in RPG's, remember Arcomage from Might and Magic VII? I believe that one was so succesful they brought it out as a standalone game. Wouldn't play under XP though.

[Corwin]

Actually, it will, but you have to fiddle a little. I forget how now, but there's details on some of the M&M forums (Telps) and back at the Dot. Dteowner might remember, as we were playing through them at the same time a couple of years ago!!

[dteowner]

Nope, never did buy the standalone Arcomage. Kinda wish I had, to be honest. I do remember some discussion that included a way to get it to run in XP. I think I saw it over at Celestial Heavens.

I'm working on an ironman game of Wiz8. Melee heavy party.

[slam23]

I found it at underdogs: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=5228
I regularly find old abandonware and public domain games there that are not obtainable easily anywhere else. So now I'll try to get it working under XP, @Corwin: you're on the way of becoming my go-to guy for advice on running old games on XP, that fits your avatar quite nicely :-) @dteowner: thanks, I'll check out the Heavens

[magerette]

I found it at underdogs: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=5228
I regularly find old abandonware and public domain games there that are not obtainable easily anywhere else. So now I'll try to get it working under XP, @Corwin: you're on the way of becoming my go-to guy for advice on running old games on XP, that fits your avatar quite nicely :-) @dteowner: thanks, I'll check out the Heavens

This will take you to the Win XP workarounds:
http://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id=383

Were you saying you found Arcomage at underdogs or pazaak?

[dteowner]

The link is for Arcomage. I've done the DL and am currently burning it to CD as instructed. Thanks for digging up the thread at the Heavens!

[dteowner]

The link is for Arcomage. I've done the DL and am currently burning it to CD as instructed. Thanks for digging up the thread at the Heavens!Well, I've been a bit hasty. Burning to CD was misbehaving for some reason so I switched over to a virtual drive kinda thing. When the install program tries to run, it pukes and says "Arcomage does not support Windows NT/2000". Does this mean I'll have to come up with some dual-boot setup?

Also, the Heavens thread is excellent for MM1 thru MM9 but has no info on Arcomage. I did a forum search over there for Arcomage and came up dry.

[slam23]

@dteowner: I have not burned the files to CD yet as I was of to work this morning. I'll get to it this evening and will report. I also saw a version on eMule, maybe a different format. Would be great if we get it to work. A search for work-arounds for XP did not yield anything though.
@Corwin: are you sure you got it to work under XP?

[dteowner]

Found a 2-part RAR file that had the same files. Same result. There were comments on the download page saying it wouldn't install but the uploader said he was running the game in XP. My guess is that you could run it in XP's compatibility mode if you could get it to install.

@mods: might make sense to split this conversation out of the "now playing" thread.

[magerette]

Also, the Heavens thread is excellent for MM1 thru MM9 but has no info on Arcomage. I did a forum search over there for Arcomage and came up dry.

Sorry,dteowner--I noticed after I looked closer that it was only the MM's--but since Arcomage was originally an embedded game in MM7, I foolishly hoped it might work...As I recall, the *** thing crashed constantly just as you were winning, locking up the pc and requiring a restart, so maybe it's not such a terrible loss.

sorry about the off-topic--didn't mean to highjack the thread ;)

[dteowner]

sorry about the off-topic--didn't mean to highjack the thread ;)No harm done, and it's probably my cross-topic-bane anyway. It's a good topic and should be pulled into its own thread if possible so it doesn't get lost.

[Arhu]

Done.

Personally, I've never played Might and Magic VII, but heard lots of good things about this mini-game. Guess I'll have to give it a shot, huh? ;)

[Corwin]

M&M 7 is brilliant and challenging; especially the good side which has really weak spells compared to the evil path!! Game 8 is TOO easy and 9 we don't discuss!!

[Ubbax]

Originally Posted by slam23
I found it at underdogs: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=5228

Hey thanks very much for this. My collection of games harks way back to the dawn of gaming. This was the only one ever liberated from me and never returned. It won't replace the original but it will bring back the fun ;)

Originally Posted by dteowner
Well, I've been a bit hasty. Burning to CD was misbehaving for some reason so I switched over to a virtual drive kinda thing. When the install program tries to run, it pukes and says "Arcomage does not support Windows NT/2000". Does this mean I'll have to come up with some dual-boot setup?

Also, the Heavens thread is excellent for MM1 thru MM9 but has no info on Arcomage. I did a forum search over there for Arcomage and came up dry.


I unziped the file which created an Arcomage folder with the contents of the zipfile.
Then I used Nero to burn the Image to a CD. Nero selects the Arcomage.cue file and then burns the files to the CD.

To install the game once the files are burned to the CD:
1) Explore the CD and go to the _setup folder
2) Right click on Setup.exe with the mouse and choose "create shortcut" (I chose to save the shortcut to the desktop)
3) Right click the shortcut on your desktop and select properties, under the compatibility tab select Windows 98/Windows Me
4) Run your shortcut, The installshield will load; follow the instructions.

To run the game under Win XP:
1) Once the installation completes; find Arcomage.exe in the directory you installed to, right click the file, select properties, chooses Win98/Me compatibility mode.
2) Arcomage only runs in Windowed mode in 16-bit colors. So you will need to switch to 16 bit color before running the game.
Right click your desktop and select properties. On the Display Properties Panel that opens, click the Settings Tab, locate Color quality and on the drop down Menu select Medium (16 bit).
3) The Pdf manual is in the install directory. Take a look at it and the readme.txt
Enjoy the game.

Remember to change back to 32-bit color when your done playing the game.

Once again thanks much for locating this game !

Ubbax
"Men only truly want two things in life to be easy, Exams and Women and they don't study for either." -Red Green

[slam23]

@Ubbax: great, thanks for the workarounds!

[dteowner]

All hail Ubbax!

What a fun little game.

[slam23]

I just finished my 10th game of Arcomage in under an hour....man I did not remember how addictive it was. A shame I can't get it to host a local IP 2-player game. ......Ubbax? :) It's probably trying to invoke some ancient windows 95 ritual to find a local network and setting up as a host. As that would be hard-coded I'm not hopeful for a workaround, am I right? Ah well, I'm still having fun with beating the comp AI.

[Ubbax]

I just finished my 10th game of Arcomage in under an hour....man I did not remember how addictive it was. A shame I can't get it to host a local IP 2-player game. ......Ubbax? :) It's probably trying to invoke some ancient windows 95 ritual to find a local network and setting up as a host. As that would be hard-coded I'm not hopeful for a workaround, am I right? Ah well, I'm still having fun with beating the comp AI.

That's odd, I have been playing this with my youngest nephew and a friend up here at the cottage. We've had no problems getting games running over the network.

I have a little network setup over an old wired Netgear 4 port router. Of course 2 of the 3 machines are setup with a dual boot configuration; MsDos 6.2/Win98SE. The 3rd machine is setup with Windows 2000 Professional; it's a fully updated version running on a laptop. The Win2000P machine also has Norton Systemworks 2006 Priemier on it with all options on and running. The virus protection doesn't affect the ability to host or join games at all.

Since reading your post I hooked up the Windows 2000 Professional machine to the network and copied the installed game directory over to the Win2000P machine. I ran Arcomage.exe and the game loaded right up. Runs like a charm on Win2000P.

1) Once it was running I pressed F1 to open the Options panel, checked the box beside Networked Version.
The Host must also choose the Play and Victory conditions.
Make sure each player has the Network Box checked on their machine.

2) Next click start; a little window opens asking if you want to Host or Join?

2a) To Host a game:
Select Host; another window opens listing the machines IP and I hit OK.
Now the game will sit with a blank window till it detects someone trying to connect to it.

2b) To Join a game:
Select Join; a box opens in which you must type the IP address of the machine hosting. Then click OK.
At this point a box opens on each machine asking you to type your player name.
Type it in press return and the game begins.

The game is fun in single player, has that addictive quality. Strangely the AI beat me 6 out of 10 games the first time I played. Then my 8 year old nephew informed me that you could discard a card in your hand instead of choosing to play one by right clicking on the card. I've lost very few games since then against the AI. Selecting different Play Conditions or Tavern Presets can make it a bit more challenging against the AI. I still find it fun to play without choosing to discard at will; a bit more challenging.

The network games really shine, they are a lot of fun, it's a bit harder to beat a real person though I still find a lot depends on the luck of the draw.

Slam23, I figured you must be playing on Windows XP since that was the installation procedure I had outlined. Unfortunately up here at the cottage I don't have an XP machine setup. My ability to connect to the internet is limited to very specific times (lines are shared up here) and connection to the net itself is quite sporadic.

I did get a neighbor to bring over a laptop that has a fully updated Windows XP Pro installation on it. I tried to set it up as a Host and it pops up the Microsoft Error reporting Box; the one that asks if you want to send a report to Microsoft, after which it shuts down Arcomage. XP will join a game hosted on another machine though without any problem what so ever.

I'm not sure what the problem was concerning the problem with hosting under XP. The neighbor was not keen on letting me fool with the network settings on his perfectly working XP installation ;)

The game uses IPX and TCP/IP which windows XP supports. Odd it only has a problem hosting. Could be something to do with the windows firewall or security settings. Unfortunately I cannot check further till I return home.

There are a lot of smart people frequenting these boards and running the site; perhaps one of them may have some ideas. Uriziel probably has the tools at hand if he was so inclined but I'm sure the others are just as capable.

Here's something interesting that someone sent my way after being directed to this post. It's a working Win32 version of Arcomage done by a Czeck University student as a project for one of his classes. In addition to the Win32 working version he has also made available the Source Code which can be compiled under windows or Linux: http://urtax.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~stick/stick/projects/arcomage/

I managed to download this and try it out. It's well done, even has 2-player hotseat as well as multiplayer. Some screens it looks like you cannot exit from but just hit "escape" to back out of these screens (like the Credits) or if you want to shut down an unfinished game your currently playing.

It does have bugs which pretty much unbalance the game. Some cards have the wrong cost, sometimes the costs are not deducted, the computer doesn't seem to play again when a card allows it to and so on. But hey he supplied the source code and some industrious person could fix it if so inclined. Probably even expand it. If nothing else it would probably be interesting for someone learning to code.

Ubbax
"It's easier to beg for forgiveness sometimes than ask the wife for permission." - an anonymous friend

[magerette]

Not having any luck with the download from underdogs. Keep getting the error page, and their explanations and instructions are pretty much incomprehensible to me--I am only a geek wannabe ;)
As far as I can tell I am getting the 'referrer" error, which asks me to disable proxy servers--but my browser(generic ATT dsl) does not appear to be set to proxy(if I have understood it's advanced options correctly.) I tried the download with Internet Explorer as well. No luck.
Anybody have any ideas?

[slam23]

@ubbax: thanx for the long post! I'm indeed on a XP (SP2) dual-core 2 GB machine, no software firewall but I'm behind a wireless router with build-in firewall functionality. I don't have the skills to look inside the program to learn about the way it handles hosting unfortunately and what may cause the crashing behaviour. The link to the Czech thing was very cool, I tried it and I was impressed with his work. As a game it is indeed a bit unbalanced and buggy. Maybe he'll update it sometime. If you get the original to work on XP let me know. Smart neighbor btw :) Don't mess with a perfect install I say.....

@magerette: I'm not sure what goes wrong. Are you able to access the download page at all? The big thing with Underdogs is that they don't allow multiple connections from 1 IP (so don't use Getright or any other download accelerator). It doesn't seem that that is your problem though.

I don't know if you know how to use eDonkey or eMule but this is a reliable link (I checked it out) to the game via P2P. I figure if you can get it from Underdogs for free it is ok to use eMule as that would indicate that it is abandonware. Otherwise I'm all for buying software as that would be the decent thing to do.

ed2k://|file|Arcomage.English.v3.0.(osloskop.net).zip|464 85152|B2E1AADFE7B27458565047ACBE1CDDDA|/

Moderators: if I'm crossing the line here please let me know, I haven't found any forum rules pertaining to this specific situation.

[dteowner]

We've always had a dim view of piracy, but that's not an issue in this case. Your link is fine.

[Corwin]

As dte said, I don't see a problem with this, Underdogs is normally a very reliable site and if it's available there, then everything should be fine!!

[Maylander]

Aaah, I remember travelling around in MM7 and MM8 winning Arcomage games at taverns so I could get the big prize for winning the championship - it was a huge prize! One of the absolutte best minigames I've ever seen in a game, I still enjoy it whenever I play MM7-8. Never got the standalone version though, I don't want to wear it out in case I decide to start playing one of the old MM games again. :)

[magerette]

Thanks slam23, but *hangs head in shame*apparently my computer is smarter than me--why this is a surprise I don't know :-/ Whatever download manager is hidden in the murky depths of my browser is invisible, and I'm sure that is where the problem lies.

Anyway, I've found a great work around--I installed all the XP patches and have got M&M7 running, so not only am I going to get to play Arcomage,(once I slaughter a few thousand goblins and rats) but also experience once more the kind of gameplay you just can't hardly find anymore..

Boy, the pixels are huge on widescreen,tho:biggrin:

[HiddenX]

I liked Arcomage so much, that I built a real card game from it.

I played for days to calculate the probability for each card to show up, and then I printed out the cards with the right count.

- that's applied statistics :-)

[Maylander]

Impressive! How did it work out?

[slam23]

That sounds like a true collector's edition! Did you make those cards solely for the purpose of playing Arcomage in MM7-8? Or did you use them as a "standalone" game outside the computer? How did you manage the resources/towers/walls?
Great idea!

[HiddenX]

I made the cards for human players - we noted the current resources /walls / tower stats on paper or used roulette chips.

cards - see below (edited)

[slam23]

I like the idea of towers and walls of poker/roulette chips crashing down.....and for the origami-inclined: the pictures of the cards are grouped into one file when Arcomage is installed: sprites.bmp. With some patient copy and paste actions it should be possible to print them individually. Thanks for the idea HiddenX, now I can multiplay Arcomage in real life :) Any chance you can post the frequency table for the cards?

[HiddenX]

Green Cards - look below - the first number is the count of the card in my deck.

It's simplified to 1x and 2x, because if you take the original frequencies you'll end up with a thousand card deck.

[slam23]

Thanks for the card descriptions!

[HiddenX]

Green cards

Count (Beast-Value) / Description
1x (0) Full Moon / +1 to all player's zoo, you gain 3 beasts
1x (0) Mad Cow Desease / All players lose 6 beasts
2x (1) Moody Goblins / 4 damage, you lose 3 gems
2x (1) Faery / 2 damage, play again
1x (2) Elven Scout / draw 1 card, discard 1 card, play again
2x (3) Goblin Mob / 6 damage, you take 3 damage
1x (3) Husbandry / +1 Zoo
2x (3) Orc / 5 damage
1x (4) Goblin Archers / 3 damage to enemy tower, you take 1 damage
1x (5) Slasher / 6 damage
2x (5) Dwarves / 4 damge, +3 Wall
1x (5) Imp / 6 damage, all players loose 5 bricks, gems and beasts
2x (6) Ogre / 7 damage
1x (6) Little Snakes / 4 damage to enemy tower
1x (6) Rapid Sheep / 6 damage, enemy loses 3 beasts
1x (6) Shadow Faerie / 2 damage to enemy tower, play again
2x (7) Troll Keeper / +2 Zoo
1x (8) Spizzer / If enemy wall=0, 10 damage else 6 damage
1x (8) Tower Gremlin / 2 damage, +4 wall, +2 tower
1x (9) Unicorn / If magic >enemy magic, 12 damage, else 8 damage
1x (9) Werewolf / 9 damage
1x (10) Elven Archers / If wall>enemy wall, 6 damage to enemy tower else 6 damage
1x (11) Corrosion Cloud / If enemy wall>0, 10 damage else 7 damage
1x (11) Rock Stompers / 8 damage, -1 enemy quarry
1x (12) Thief enemy loses 10 gems, 5 bricks, you gain 1/2 amt. round up
1x (14) Succubus / 5 damage to enemy tower, enemy loses 8 beasts
1x (15) Stone Giant / 10 damage, + 4 wall
1x (17) Vampire / 10 damage, enemy loses 5 beasts, -1 enemy zoo
1x (25) Dragon / 20 damage, enemy loses 10 gems, -1 enemy zoo


Blue cards

count (Gem-Value) / Description
2x (1) Quartz / +1 tower, play again
2x (2) Gemstone Flaw / 3 damage to enemy tower
1x (2) Prism / draw 1 card, discard 1 card, play again
2x (2) Amethyst / +3 tower
1x (2) Smoky Quartz / 1 damage to enemy tower, play again
1x (3) Power Burn / 5 damage to your tower, +2 magic
2x (3) Spell Weavers / +1 magic
2x (3) Ruby / +5 tower
1x (4) Quarry's Help / +7 tower, lose 10 bricks
1x (4) Gem Spear / 5 damage to enemy tower
1x (4) Solar Flare / +2 tower, 2 damage to enemy tower
1x (5) Discord / 7 damage to all towers, all player's magic -1
1x (5) Lodestone / +3 tower, this card can't be discarded without playing
2x (6) Emerald / +8 tower
1x (6) Crystal Matrix / +1 magic, +3 tower, +1 enemy tower
1x (7) Harmonic Vibe / +1 magic, +3 tower, +3 wall
1x (7) Crumblestone / +5 tower, enemy loses 6 bricks
1x (7) Parity / all player's magic equals the highest player's magic
1x (8) Shatterer / -1 magic, 9 damage to enemy tower
1x (8) Crystallize / +11 tower, -6 wall
1x (9) Pearl of Wisdom / +5 tower, +1 magic
2x (10) Sapphire / +11 tower
1x (12) Crystal Shield / +8 tower, +3 wall
1x (13) Fire Ruby / +6 tower, 4 damage to all enemy towers
1x (14) Empathy Gem / +8 tower, +1 zoo
1x (15) Sanctuary / 10 tower, +5 wall, gain 5 beasts
1x (16) Diamond / +15 tower
1x (17) Lava Jewel / +12 tower, 6 damage to all enemies
1x (21) Dragon's Eye / +20 tower


Brown cards

count (Brick-Value) / Description
1x (0) Strip Mine / -1 quarry, +10 wall, you gain 5 gems
1x (0) Lucky Cache / +2 bricks, +2 gems, play again
1x (0) Brick Shortage / all players lose 8 bricks
1x (0) Earthquake / -1 to all player's quarrys
2x (1) Friendly Terrain / +1 wall, play again
2x (2) Work Overtime / +5 wall, you lose 6 gems
2x (2) Basic Wall / +3 wall
1x (2) Innovations / +1 to all player's quarrys, you gain 4 gems
1x (3) Sturdy Wall / +4 wall
2x (3) Foundations / If wall=0, +6 wall, else +3 wall
2x (3) Miners / +1 quarry
1x (4) Collapse! / -1 enemy quarry
1x (4) Mother Lode / if quarry < enemy quarry, +2 quarry, else +1 quarry
1x (5) Copping the Tech / If quarry < enemy quarry, quarry = enemy quarry
2x (5) Big Wall / +6 wall
1x (6) New Equipment / +2 quarry
1x (7) Dwarven Miners / +4 wall, +1 quarry
1x (7) Forced Labor / +9 wall, lose 5 beasts
1x (7) Tremors / all walls take 5 damage, play again
2x (8) Reinforced Wall / +8 wall
1x (8) Secret Room / +1 magic, play again
1x (9) Crystal Rocks / +7 wall, gain 7 gems
1x (9) Porticulus / +5 wall, +1 zoo
1x (11) Harmonic Ore / +6 wall, +3 tower
1x (13) Mondo Wall / +12 wall
1x (15) Focused Designs / +8 wall, +5 tower
1x (16) Great Wall / +15 wall
1x (17) Phase Shift / trade your wall with the enemy's wall
1x (18) Rock Launcher / +6 wall, 10 damage to enemy
1x (24) Dragon's Heart / +20 wall, +8 tower


zoos produce beasts
quarrys produce bricks
magic produce gems

[dteowner]

You're missing a 17 brick card, phase shift, that trades your wall with your opponent's.

[HiddenX]

thank you dteowner

I don't have this card - maybe I lost it -
added it to the list.