Bugs

Various bugs appear in Dungeons of Avalon, ranging from spelling mistakes to major issues which make the game unwinnable.

1. Victory conditions don’t trigger
2. Encounters freeze the game on the final level
3. Small magic button switches don’t work
4. NPC locations incorrect
5. Empty dungeon
6. Confusing stat names
7. Spelling errors
8. Not a bug

Victory conditions don’t trigger

Affects: Dungeons of Avalon I, all versions

A major bug prevents DoA1 from triggering the victory event when the final boss is defeated. The game checks the boss fight’s entry in the fixed encounter list to see if the Dark Lord and his entourage have been defeated, but the fixed encounter list is not actually decremented when the monster is defeated.

The final boss is also extremely difficult, featuring 13 Fire Trolls in addition to the Dark Lord himself. Even experienced RPG player “The CRPG Addict”, in his Dungeons of Avalon playthrough, was unable to defeat the final boss with max-level characters.

Solution: It’s possible, using save state editing, to force the win condition to trigger, allowing you to see the victory screen and credits roll as intended. See How to see the Dungeons of Avalon 1 ending.

Encounters freeze the game on the final level

Affects: Dungeons of Avalon II, all versions except 1995 release

Engaging a random encounter in the final level of DoA2 freezes the game. Character animations continue to play, but the controls become unresponsive.

Solution: Play the Sonderausgabe 1/95 re-release version of the game, an updated German version. The adf that has an md5sum of 491e490017831956bd67cc0c98a433ec. You can copy a save game over from the English disk and run through most of the final level in German. The boss battle isn’t affected, so you can bring the save back into the English version to fight the final boss.

Small magic button switches don’t work

Affects Dungeons of Avalon II, English versions

The last two levels of DoA2 have small button switches. Clicking the button is supposed to toggle a wall block like a normal button switch, and clicking it a second time transforms it into a forcefield block.

However, in the English release, these blocks are bugged and you can’t click on them. This makes the final level impossible to complete.

Solution: Play the German version (see solution to previous bug, which will require you to play the Sonderausgabe 1/95 version).

NPC locations incorrect

Affects: Dungeons of Avalon II, all English versions

In the English release of Dungeons of Avalon II, all NPC encounters are bugged. Text strings are cut off at the beginning, NPCs display with the wrong graphics or none at all, and NPCs do not accept or give the correct items to progress the game. DoA2 English is unwinnable.

An unofficial patched version was distributed back in the day, which corrected some spellings and attempted to fix an off-by-one error in the NPC handling code. However, this version still displays incorrect graphics and text.

In fact, the bug appears to be caused by extraneous null bytes in the English NPC text. There may also be some minor text formatting errors. The bug appears in every known English version, but not in the German version.

Solution: Using a hex editor, make the following changes to the main game executable AVALON-II-E:

1. Change the following bytes from 00 to 5f: 0xad06, 0xafae, and 0xb13d.
2. Optionally, correct these minor formatting errors while you’re here: at 0xae73, “cePERMISSION” should be “cfPERMISSION”, and at 0xaf80, “xq” should be “mq”.
3. If you’re using the spelling-corrected version, you will need to remove its wonky patch by editing four bytes at 0x71d2 back from 53 40 61 d2 to 61 00 ff 4a. If it already says 61 00 ff 4a, you’re good. To check your version, try to learn spells from the Wise Three in town: if they say “YOUR WISDOM IS TO LESS”, it’s the original version. If they say “NOT ENOUGH WISDOM” it’s the patched one and you’ll need to make this edit.

Alternative solution: Play the German version using the translations on the map pages at this site, or use Google Translate, which is very good at German to English these days.

Empty dungeon

Affects: Some versions of Dungeons of Avalon, bootleg English translation only

Some users reported that in the original Dungeons of Avalon, entering the dungeon reveals an empty space. You cannot return from here, because there are no stairs up.

This is caused by a missing DUNG file in some versions (see version differences). Someone preparing a pirate copy of the disk appears to have noticed that there were two copies of DUNG on the disk and deleted one, unaware that it was needed by the game. If the version you have says “PARADISE 92” at the bottom of the screen, you may have the bugged version.

Solution: Instead of starting a new game, load from a save game. By default, all save games start at the beginning of the game, and include the blank map as part of the save data. Or, play a different release of the game, such as the official English translation.

Confusing stat names

Affects: Both games, English versions

In German, the two key stats displayed on the inventory screen are “RS” (Rüstungstärke, “armor strength”) and “AS” (Angriffsstärke, “attack strength”). In English, these are translated as WC and AC, respectively. This leads a lot of players to assume that these stats are “Weapon Class” and “Armor Class”. In fact, they’re the other way around. You can see this by equipping or removing armor.

Solution: You might think of WC as “worn class” and AC as “attack class”.

Spelling errors

Affects: Both games, English versions

Too many to list here.

Solution: Just enjoy the quirky translation. Improved translations for some pieces of the game text appear at various pages on this site.

Not a bug

Affects: Dungeons of Avalon II, all versions

A door in the Tower of Roa, level 2 cannot be picked even by a maximum-level Thief, and no key opens it. Some players assume that this is a bug. In fact, it’s not a bug, although it can only be picked by a level 28 or higher thief, when the max level any player character can reach is 16.

However, there is one character who can pick it: Rahven, an NPC thief who is level 32 (but there is no way to know this, since you can’t look at NPC stats). Rahven’s bones are found in a chest the west of the map. Drag their bones into an empty party slot and have them raised from the dead at a temple.