Gates of Skeldal (Brany Skeldalu)

Dagar · June 25, 2018

Oldrich said:
Well, I was kinda hoping the players might help me with the mistakes Pointing me to the mistakes. There should be no bugs affecting the gameplay, I did some play-testing to prevent that.

I will check all the texts so far in my gameplay and report back to you here. I've been playing this quite a bit for the last few days and got caught up in the game

Dagar · June 25, 2018

Oldrich,

As far as this goes:

- All apostrophes were lost in a magic storm, Freghar is working on a solution

If you replace the apostrophe character you used in the dialog text sections, the apostrophe will show properly…

Replace: ´
With: '

I tested by replacing some of them in DIALOGY.DAT and the apostrophe will now show properly in the text dialog. You have to replace them one by one. For example if you open the file in Notepad++ and select Replace All it replaces some non-text apostrophes that should not be changed and you will get errors in the game.

Dagar · June 25, 2018

Attached I have modified the DIALOGY.DAT file to correctly show the apostrophes during text. Seems to work fine, but I'd like to get Oldrich's feedback on this.

For Oldrich:

I checked over your English translation and it is very well done.
Here are a few corrections for the English translation - DIALOGY.DAT file:

- Line
- Error
- Correction

DIALOGY.DAT
=========

Line 44:
with a healthy douse of irony.
with a healthy dose of irony.

Line 47:
We are new here and we'd like to find find our way
We are new here and we'd like to find our way

Line 51:
everoyne agreed on the question
everyone agreed on the question

Line 60:
We'd like to buy somehting
We'd like to buy something

Line 60:
Noone from the party was able to respond
No one from the party was able to respond

Line 67:
Only the palace of caredbar's mayor
Only the palace of Caredbar's mayor

Line 67:
The reason he did this is an old legend, accoring to
The reason he did this is an old legend, according to

Line 68:
Perhaps, after all even Artol has left us many propecies,
Perhaps, after all even Artol has left us many prophecies,

Line 69:
Isn't this one of the propesized signs?
Isn't this one of the prophesized signs?

Line 69:
but we greet you aswell, wanderer.
but we greet you as well, wanderer.

Line 72:
He spoke about the disbelieveing locals in Caredbar
He spoke about the disbelieving locals in Caredbar

Line 79:
Thanks, thats all
Thanks, that's all

Line 85:
the powerful spell of the grimoire, suppored by the will of your mages.
the powerful spell of the grimoire, supported by the will of your mages.

Line 86:
as he saw your party standing embarrasingly at the door.
as he saw your party standing embarrassingly at the door.

Line 90:
and the whole party unsheated weapons.
and the whole party unsheathed weapons.

Dark Savant · June 25, 2018

Oldrich said:
Translating the manual is easy. Question is, which manual do you have in mind?
- There is a printed czech manual for the DOS game, which came with the original game package. Probably not available anywhere on the internet
- There is another printed czech manual for the DOS game, which came from a local gaming magazine GAME4U. It is available on the internet.
- Next, there is the manual for the windows launcher (an .rtf file within the launcher source codes).
- Then there is the map editing manual (aka. Documentation).
And then, there are other fan-written manuals and guides.

Any will do. Guess the one available as PDF download would be the easiest to translate.

Dark Savant · June 25, 2018

Dagar said:
Just use the installer provided by Oldrich and then download:
Brány Skeldalu pro Windows Release Version 1.2 Build 20 (562KB) (1.8.2009)
from the link I posted above.

This will download the file: SkeldalW_12b20.zip
Extract to your game install directory.
It simple replaces the main file Skeldal.exe with the latest build 20.

Weird thing is if you check the details of v20 skeldal file it is still version 19.

Dagar · June 25, 2018

Dark Savant said:
Weird thing is if you check the details of v20 skeldal file it is still version 19.

Yes I noticed

However it should say Version: 1.2 Build 20 in the lower right corner of the games opening screen.

Dark Savant · June 25, 2018

Dagar - Thanks

Any way to add subtitles to intro and outro videos? I noticed there is file with Czech text for intro.

Oldrich · June 25, 2018

Great job Dagar! Thank you.

I was forced to use the ´ instead of ' , because I was editing the .DLG files. Those are basically code/txt files for the adventure manager, which are then compiled into dialogy.dat. In .DLG files, all dialogue texts have to start and end with either " or ' (that's how it was programmed), and because I was using " to show direct speech, I had to use apostrophe as the containing character. Using the selected containing character more than two times in a text generated an error when compiling dialogy.dat.

A quick test with your file seems to cause no issues. I also corrected the spelling errors you pointed out and put them into a v0.2. I'll also look into creating my own installer (in English and with the latest patch) for v0.2, then I'll upload it to my folder again.

Dark Savant said:
Any will do. Guess the one available as PDF download would be the easiest to translate.

I'll take a look at the available manuals and translate the relevant parts then.

And one more thing - I sent an email to the author of the windows launcher. In case he's willing to help, I will try translating all the launcher texts as well.

Oldrich · June 25, 2018

About subtitles.. Skeldal will display subtitles for the intro video when you either set the game to have no sound device in the skeldal.ini, or when you add TITLES 1 into the skeldal.ini file.

I tested it just now:
- The Windows version does not display subtitles with TITLES 1. It crashes if I try to run it with disabled sound device in Windows. If I try to disable sound device in the wskeldal.ini file, it closes with the message that I can only use Direct Sound as my sound card.
- The DOS version can display subtitles just fine, using both ways works (tested via DOSBOX).

Dagar · June 25, 2018

Dark Savant said:
Dagar - Thanks

Any way to add subtitles to intro and outro videos? I noticed there is file with Czech text for intro.

I had a look, and I don't think there is a way you can turn on those subtitles for the intro video?

Oldrich · June 28, 2018

I had a look a the video today. The MGF (MGIF) format is a tough nut to crack. If someone wants to look into it:

The video must be converted into a set of PCX images or a FLC/FLI animation file, which can then be converted into MGF using the tools from the game CD. I tried using IrfanView to convert it into PCX, but the resulting MGF was always a black screen, so there must be a specific format type.

For now I have simply recorded the DOS version intro with translated subtitles and uploaded it to my mega repository, you can find it in the Extras folder.

joxer · June 28, 2018

Never heard or tinkered with that format. Did you install irfanview plugins package (that installation is separate from base util)?

Dagar · June 28, 2018

Oldrich said:
I had a look a the video today. The MGF (MGIF) format is a tough nut to crack. If someone wants to look into it:

The video must be converted into a set of PCX images or a FLC/FLI animation file, which can then be converted into MGF using the tools from the game CD. I tried using IrfanView to convert it into PCX, but the resulting MGF was always a black screen, so there must be a specific format type.

For now I have simply recorded the DOS version intro with translated subtitles and uploaded it to my mega repository, you can find it in the Extras folder.

I also looked into the issue of the subtitles not displaying during the intro video of the Windows version. No luck. I read a blog post from the dev of the Windows conversion saying he used a Direct X wrapper for the Windows version. It seems the SRT-like subtitles are not displayed because of this incompatibility. Trying different codecs may solve the issue but not worth the trouble as other things aside from the game would have to be installed.

Thank you for the translated intro taken from the DOS version. I was checking out the DOS version a few days ago, was there ever a patch released for it? The DOS version I have is 1.0

An update on my play-thru of the English translation:
Up to the part where I got Gralt to join my party. Everything looks great. I'm enjoying this game very much, excellent game!

Oldrich · June 28, 2018

joxer said:
Never heard or tinkered with that format. Did you install irfanview plugins package (that installation is separate from base util)?

I don't remember installing any separate plugins. IrfanView says I have 10 installed plugins, like the IrfanPaint, video tools, etc. I believe the ability to convert images into PCX comes with the default install.

As for MGF, there is a Czech description of the format, included within the documentation for the Skeldal map editor. There are also DOS command line utilities (included on the game CD) that work with this format. A short translated description:

MGF Motion GIF ver 97

A rather complex format. It uses similar structure as FLC except for a few big differences. Firstly, it uses the LZW method for compression, commonly used in GIF files. Secondly, the whole format is optimized for video-playback in HICOLOR.

@Dagar;: Yes, there were definitely some updated DOS releases. My setup.exe says it's version 1.995. An included "ctimne.txt" file says it's version 231298.

Oldrich · June 29, 2018

Well, I finally found the culprit...
The option "Preserve aspect ratio (proportional)", which is enabled by default in IrfanView's batch conversion (under advanced options) was causing the issues. Unticking the option solved the issue and MGIF converter produced a working MGF file from the PCX batch. However, the difference between hardsubbed video and default subtitles is like night and day (see attachment).

With one issue resolved, another has appeared - adding a sound file into the newly created intro. It wants a 22KHz 16-bit .wav file, so I created one using Audacity, the utility mgifedit recognizes the file, but always produces a silent audio track. I'm starting to think that modding the intro is not worth the time you have to spend battling with the old utilities...

netrate · April 4, 2020

dude, you dedication is beyond reproach. Thanks so much for all the effort. I know that sometimes it seems like a personal labour of love, but although I can't speak for everyone, I for one appreciate it.

netrate · April 16, 2020

Looking for help getting this game running on a netbook acer travel mater pc. The graphics are messed up and it flickers. This acer runs other games fine, but this one it won't.
I have this program installed on my PC and it runs perfect. Just the netbook. Any ideas?

Oldrich · September 6, 2020

Hi there!
Version 0.2 is up. You can get it at the usual place:

https://mega.nz/#F!AENX1CZa!2zDeRq1CjDQ-XEwiY6nU-A

What's new?

v0.2
- Added translated end credits
- New english game manual (manual.html)
- Apostrophe fix (thx Dagar)
- Several spelling fixes (thx Dagar)
- Fixed stat overflow caused by several items
- Labyrinth of Singing Waters first dialogue fix
- Fixed one journal entry

---

About the launcher.. unfortunately the author didn't reply to my email in these two years, so someone would have to take the source code and compile their own version of the launcher...

Dagar · September 9, 2020

Thank you for version 0.2
It is a welcomed surprise.

It's been quite a while since I last played the game. Just loaded my old save and I'm up to the Ice Caverns. Time to pick it back up and finish the game.

Gates of Skeldal (Brany Skeldalu)

Watchdog

Watchdog

Watchdog

Attachments

Keeper of the Watch

Keeper of the Watch

Watchdog

Keeper of the Watch

Watcher

Watcher

Watchdog

Watcher

The Smoker

Watchdog

Watcher

Watcher

Attachments

Traveler

Traveler

Watcher

Watchdog