Differences between releases

; Exploring the Dungeons of Avalon, a disassembly project

Various official and unofficial versions of the Dungeons of Avalon series game disks have been distributed, with certain notable differences.

The original Dungeons of Avalon was released in German in April 1992, followed by a buggy bootleg English translation, followed by the official English release which, it turns out, had been ready to go the entire time. There was also an early German alpha release.

Dungeons of Avalon II: The Isle of Darkness received simultaneous English and German releases in October 1992. The author then produced a slightly updated version which adds high-level starting characters and fixes a bug.

There were also various pirate releases of each game, as well as disk variations involving someone’s leftover save game file, file date modifications caused just by starting a game with the disk write-enabled, and variants caused by imprecise disk copying methods.

  1. Dungeons of Avalon, Preview release (German)
  2. Dungeons of Avalon 1 (German)
  3. Dungeons of Avalon 1 (English, official)
  4. Dungeons of Avalon 1 (English, bootleg)
  5. Dungeons of Avalon 2 (German)
  6. Dungeons of Avalon 2 (English)

Dungeons of Avalon, Preview release (German)

This preview release of Dungeons of Avalon is the earliest known version of the game, and has some big differences. This version has a cracktro for piracy group Skidrow, who credit member S.S.R for supplying the original disk. I had to run Relokick to get it to work correctly on an emulated A1200.

The title screen credits A-CRON/CYBERSTYLE, the latter being a game development group from 1989 to 1992 whose members included Dungeons of Avalon coder Hakan Akbiyik and the game’s musician Rudolf Stember.

There is no title music. Clicking turns the mountaintops snowy white, probably a palette shift technique, which does not appear in the final game.

The main game is accompanied by the familiar music, but the layout is radically different. It uses a marble grey palette which resembles Dungeons of Avalon II. The main display area is to the left instead of middle, and only five character slots are available. Much of the art is replaced with temporary stand-in graphics.

Location names are different. The city is named Die Stadt Ghale (rather than H’Khan), the adventurer’s guild (“hotel”) named Zu Den 4 Kronen (rather than Zur Drachenhöle), the temple Ara’s Tempel (rather than Temple des Jahdt), and the trainers Die Beförderer (rather than Die Weisen Drei).

There’s also a pub named Zum Roten Drachen where you can buy drinks (bottle of wine, altbier, Dragonslayer, tea, sparkling water, or milk), listen to music (unimplemented) or talk to the bartender (unimplemented). The final game would use the tavern art for the adventurer’s guild. You can also go right away to Rhateph’s Schloss (Rhateph’s Castle).

File dates on this release are informative. Most game files are dated 08 May 1991 and timed within a few minutes, suggesting that’s the date the developers prepared this disk from a source hard disk. The only exceptions appear to files placed or modified by Skidrow, which are dated 30 September or 01 October.

A folder on disk named CHAR contains all the available player characters. Their names, in order of file write time, are Hakan, Ghalf, Flint, Lizzy, Lady-Arc, Ghatum, ZF, Kruhl, Arnd and LL. Most are written around 0100 hours when the rest of the disk was prepared, but Kruhl and Zf are written around 0400 hours, suggesting someone stayed up late to test the game before release. Arnd and LL were added by Skidrow.

Also written around 0400 hours are the main exe avalon2 and the file cron.pp, presumably powerpacked graphics for the A-CRON falcon intro logo. The group name Zeret does not yet appear in this release. Files suggest there are only two dungeons or levels yet in the game.

Filename Filesize hsparwed Date Time
DATA/pics 43748 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:06:36
dun1A.pp 26628 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:06:46
dun1B.pp 12456 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:06:52
DUNG00 5002 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:06:56
DUNG01 5002 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:00
menu.pp 9568 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:05
TEXT00 392 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:09
TEXT01 166 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:12
CHAR/H.FLINT 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:20
CHAR/H.GHALF 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:20
CHAR/H.HAKAN 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:20
CHAR/H.LIZZY 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:23
CHAR/H.LADY-ARC 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:25
CHAR/H.GHATUM 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:26
DATA/samp.pp 36700 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:41
titel 31536 —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:41
DATA Dir —-rwed 08-May-91 01:07:43
avalon2 47612 —-rwed 08-May-91 03:46:09
cron.pp 4520 —-rwed 08-May-91 04:05:14
CHAR/H.KRUHL 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 04:11:15
CHAR/H.ZF 60 —-rwed 08-May-91 04:13:49
srtext 5156 —-rwed 30-Sep-91 23:53:27
SR_INT 20008 —-rwed 01-Oct-91 00:05:58
system-configuration 232 —-rw-d 01-Oct-91 00:06:33
s Dir —-rwed 01-Oct-91 00:07:51
s/startup-sequence 22 —-rwed 01-Oct-91 00:07:52
CHAR/H.ARND 60 —-rwed 01-Oct-91 00:10:14
CHAR Dir —-rwed 01-Oct-91 00:11:05
CHAR/H.LLL 60 —-rwed 01-Oct-91 00:11:06
l Dir —-rwed 01-Oct-91 21:26:38
l/Disk-Validator 1848 —-rw-d 01-Oct-91 21:26:40

The files TEXT00 and TEXT01 reveal the answers to puzzles, notably:

This is a portmanteau of CYBERSTYLE and A-CRON, presumably the name of the group which would become known as Zeret.

What’s notable about this is that in the final release, save games are XOR’d with the phrase SEFERSALAP in ASCII as a cheat prevention measure.

For more detailed information on the gameplay differences evident in the demo, see early alpha version.

Dungeons of Avalon 1 (German)

I have yet to find an unmodified version of the original German release of this game.

This disk image has been substantially modified, as is evident from the mishmash of file dates as late as 1998 and presence of save games. Save game A contains six characters named Sturm, Caramon, Fizban, Tolpan, Laurana and Raistlin, and is dated 11 Jun 1994.

The game is otherwise functional and will load from Workbench, although I could not get it to boot on an A1200 with or without Relokick.

Ignoring files dated exactly midnight of 1 Jan 1980 (an artifact probably caused by an Amiga without a real-time clock), the earliest files in this release date to 26 Dec 1991. On 28 Dec 1991 the author copied a set of game text files with both English and German versions, suggesting the publisher was already intending on a dual-language release at this point.

A notable difference appears in the end credits files for German and English (TXD and TXE respectively). The German file TXD (dated 28 Jan 1992) says “THE END??” and credits “(C)1992 BY ZERET!”, while the English file TXE (dated 7 Feb 1992) explicitly announces Dungeons of Avalon II, saying “SEE YOU IN PART 2 OF AVALON ???” and ends the credits with “LOOK OUT FOR OTHER PRODUCTS FROM ZERET” and “(C)91/92 BY ZERET”.

The chronologically next set of files dated 17 Feb 1992 consists of finishing touches: icon files, and a startup-sequence. The startup-sequence calls the game “Dungeons of Avalon 1 v1.0”, clearly intending on a sequel. We can assume it was then sent to Amiga Fun for publication in March/April in time for the April 1992 issue.

If we assume TOSEC’s designation of the April 1992 Amiga Fun magazine coverdisk is correct, all files after April 1992 must have been modified post-release by whoever owned the disk.

A mysterious event on 13 Jul 1992 updates all the executables and libraries on the disk. Examining the file ADD21 reveals that it’s 24 bytes larger than another copy, containing the ascii text “PIUS” (hex 50495553). The executable Avalon also contains this extra 24 bytes! This is probably a virus or remnant thereof, but the extra lines don’t appear to contain any excutable code so it appears harmless.

0000 03e8 0000 0003 5049 5553 0000 0118 2eb6 9986 0000 03f2

In other words, this 63,220 byte file isn’t the authentic unmodified executable. However, it does run correctly on an A1200 from Workbench, although I could not get it to run from boot. The Zeret intro is intact and there is no cracktro.

The next modifications occur in 1994 with save game files, naturally, and the readme icon. The readme itself is modified for some reason in 1995.

In August 1998, all the folder times on the disk are updated, perhaps due to a copy retaining filetimes but not foldertimes. DAT/Dung shares the same date since it is modified on play, and therefore takes its time from system time when the game was last played before the disk was imaged.

In this German version, the city is named Die Stadt H’Khan (after the programmer Hakan), the adventurer’s guild Zur Drachenhöhle (though the art is of a tavern), the shop Rudi’s Laden (after musician Rudi Stember), the temple Tempel des Jahdt, and Die Weisen Drei.

A lengthy manual denotes the game Dungeons of Avalon I and shows a copyright notice referencing CompuTec Verlag, presumably publisher of Amiga Fun, as copyright holder:

(W) 1991 by ZERET, (C) 1992 by CT Verlag GmbH & Co.KG

Based on file dates, this appears to be identical to the above except for DAT/Dung, which would be modified on play. They differ only by minutes: this one modified the directory DAT on 12 Aug 1998 at 16:40:01 and its file Dung seconds later at 16:40:05; the previous ADF’s DAT and Dung were modified at 16:42:28 and 16:42:31 respectively.

The likely explanation is that neither disk is the original image, but both were used to boot standard Amigas (real or emulated) without a realtime clock, causing them to take their system time from the .info of the current system disk, dated 12 Aug 1998 at 16:39:10.

Same as before, but the DAT is timed 16:44:16 and the Dung 16:44:18.

Another version with identical file dates and sizes except for DAT (16:47:39) and DAT/Dung (16:47:59).

Another. Although this ADF is the only one TOSEC tags as modified savegame, all of the above have the same save file with Sturm, Caramon, Fizban, Tolpan, Laurana and Raistlin.

A cracked version released by pirate group Tequila. Has a simply boot message, but no cracktro. Plays correctly from Workbench, but gurus on boot on an A1200.

The disk’s .info file is dated 13 March 1992. This is probably the date the April 1992 issue of Amiga Fun (DE) was first available. It’s also possible that the publisher modified the disk on that date for release, and Tequila used a standard Amiga without a realtime clock which took its system time from the disk on boot.

We can easily identify changes made by Tequila because they are all dated 13 March 1992. The changed and added files are simply those necessary for the Tequila group advertisement, followed by DAT/Dung presumably due to loading the game to test.

We can also see what are presumably the original file dates for files which the original ruined. ZERET_INTRO is dated 26 Dec 1991, meaning the group used that name at least as early as this. PICS, S1 and S2 share that date, suggesting the game was essentially finished by then. The main game executable and dungeon design file DUNG were written on 7 Feb 1992, while the manual file TEXT0, crediting CompuTec Verlag, was written on 17 Feb 1992.

Several file dates are one second ahead of the 1998 releases for some reason, perhaps an Amiga filesystem quirk.

The disk’s executables do not have the virus effect of the 1998-based TOSEC releases. For example, C/ADD21 is 280 bytes, not 304.

The !READ_ME.txt does not appear in this release, and appears to have been a later addition (2 July 95, icon 30 Sep 94).

Dungeons of Avalon 1 (English, official)

This is the best English release of Dungeons of Avalon, although the provenance of this disk is not clear.

According to the file dates, the English-langauge executable AVALON_E was either created or copied to disk on 7 Feb 1992, only 55 seconds after than the German executable. In other words, assuming this version is authentic, the complete and official English version already existed before the German version was released.

The .info file is dated 17 Feb 1992.

The game executable has been properly adapted to English. The start screen uses the letters <S> and <N> for Start a Saved Game and Start a New Game respectively. The version on that screen is Dungeons of Avalon I V1.0. The main executable is 62,352 bytes, compared to 63,196 for the original, so it’s not merely a hex-edit.

The city is named The City H’Khan. The tavern / adventurer’s guild is called Dragon’s Cave. The “Armour Shop” (notably a British spelling) is named Rudi’s Shop, and there you can “Identify Items”, not “Indify Items” as in the bootleg translation; even so, Rudi greets you with “GREETIMG HEROS,HOW CAN I HELP YOU?” The temple is called The Temple of Jahdt, and the trainers The Wise Three.

The translation isn’t perfect. Walking into a wall gives the message “OUCH! THIS WALL IS MASSIV!” The cardinal direction of east is still marked O, for the German. Using a healing robe gives the message “CAST CASTS A SPELL: HEALING II AUF SIMARHON.”

The German manual is absent from this release.

Dungeons of Avalon 1 (English, bootleg)

This is a completely different and inferior English translation. It appears to have had an English translation hex-edited in by someone who wasn’t aware the developers had already built an English version. It’s plausible that the official English version wasn’t ready at this point.

This version has a cracktro for pirate group Paradise, and the in-game copyright line has been replaced with “PARADISE 92”. Incredibly, screenshots of this cracked version appear in Amiga Mania #4.

The weaknesses of this translation are clear at Rudi’s Shop, who asks “HELLO CHAMPS, WHAT DO YOU WANT ?” and offers the ability to “INDIFY WEAPONS” (instead of “identify”). A screenshot in Amiga Mania #4 actually shows this screen, with the mouse pointer subtly covering the word INDIFY. Other place names include H’Khan’s City and The Three Wises.

Most significantly, this version is completely unplayable since the dungeon appears empty. The reason for this is clear once we examine the file structure.

The executable Avalon is 122,352 bytes in size, much larger than the original 63,196. This is likely because the original was a cleverly compressed executable to fit on one coverdisk, and had to be uncompressed to hex edit the German text. By comparison, the official English build is only 62,352 bytes.

In order to fit the executable on disk, several files were deleted: the Zeret intro, the German text files (e.g. TX00_D), the German manual, the icon (the disk now boots directly into the game instead of to Workbench), and, critically, the DUNG file in the main directory which stores the main game dungeon data.

Even though DUNG this file is duplicated in the DAT directory, it must also be in the main directory. Loading from a save game bypasses this issue, since the save game contains its own full copy of the DUNG file.

It also appears that this version descends from the German pirate release by Tequila. The C directory contains the commands Maus, Type and Pal, dated 13 Mar 1992, which appeared in the Tequila release and were used to show the intro text.

Examining the file dates of this Paradise release, the .info file is dated 02 Apr 1992, as are is the intro file PARADISE.TXT. The main executable Avalon was also modified on that date, as was DAT/Dung, meaning the game was loaded on that date.

Earlier modifications include save game A, dated 21 Mar 1992. Simarhon is uncharacteristically in the front row here. The file PICS was updated on 29 Mar 1992, but not changed. Most likely, someone attempted to edit the game graphics either when translating or cracking it, but failed and reverted to the original file.

What this suggests is that Paradise acquired the 13 Mar Tequila release one week later on 21 Mar, played it, and spent the next week or so hastily converting it into English. It’s also possible that someone else modded in the English version, and Paradise quickly slapped a cracktro on that and released it.

The cracktro PRD_92 is dated 5 Feb 1992, which is probably inaccurate since that would pre-date even the game’s German completion on 7 Feb 1992. It may have been prepared in advance or edited on an Amiga without a realtime clock.

Another piece of evidence that this is essentially a romhack rather than an official English release is the intro screen, which reads “Dungeons of Avalon I V1.0E”. There is no spacing after the E, suggesting that the letter E was hex edited into the executable here place of an existing space. The official English release simply uses “V1.0” here. Also, the options for load game and new game are the German <F> and <B>, rather than the english equivalents in the final release.

Similarly, the executable is still called Avalon rather than the official release’s AVALON_E. We can see that the latter is the official naming convention with Dungeons of Avalon II, which uses the filenames AVALON-II-E and HD-INSTALL-E.

A modified version of the above. The only difference is that the startup-sequence has been modified to comment out the cracktro.

It’s possible that this is Amiga Mania #4 coverdisk. If this is true, then for some reason, instead of using the official English version that existed, they published this bootleg pirate version with the pirate markings hastily removed.

The startup-sequence was edited around 1400 hours on 30 April, plausibly a deadline date for the coverdisk of the July issue. Perhaps the editors didn’t receive the disk on time, and published a pirate copy instead, believing it to be a working copy of a commercial release of the official English version.

However, if this is true, then when was the official English version released?

Another possibility is that Amiga Mania only ever released the official version noted in the IPF, and that both of these are incorrectly named pirate copies. What we do know is that screenshots of the pirate copy appear in the magazine.

The empty dungeon bug is still present. The DAT/Dung is also modified on 30 April, meaning they probably tested the game by loading a save file.

Dungeons of Avalon 2 (German)

This is, with certainty, an authentic version released by Amiga Games magazine by CompuTec Verlag, as a DMS file on the magazine’s cover CD-ROM with the issue “Sonderausgabe 1/95”, or Special Edition 1/95. This is unlikely to mean Jan 1995, but rather the first CD-ROM special edition of 1995; Web Archive shows that the file dates on the CD read 2 Sept 1995.

Decompressing that DMS archive gives this exact disk, making it a rare verified unmodified version.

There are two strange things about this release. Firstly, the six ready-made characters: Raymon, Phantic, Mion Jeh, Hakan, Lady Shr, and Rahven. All are maximum level (16), except for Rahven who is incredibly level 32, though you can’t see this as Rahven is an NPC. Loading a save game returns the original characters: Avance, Aratak, Letahl, Kresta, Mercus and Beacon.

The second oddity is the game executable, which has a different filesize (119,540 bytes vs 119,480 bytes for other German versions, a difference of 60 bytes). The file date of 15 Oct 1992 does not match the dates on the other files on the disk, suggesting that this is not the original executable. This is supported by another ADF of DoA2 which shows AVALON-II-D dated the same as the other files.

Disassembly of this file suggests it may in fact be an updated build released in by the actual developer. Two CLR.W instructions have been inserted at 0x1d80 which are probably a bugfix for something (some graphical bug is my best guess), all subsequent address references have been updated to match, and data for the new characters has replaced the old in the executable.

This theory is also supported by the character names. Hakan is the name of the game’s programmer, and a character by that name appears in the early Dungeons of Avalon I preview release alongside Lady-Arc, whose name resembles this game’s Lady Shr.

Other than this, it appears that most of the original file dates are intact, at 14 July 1992 for all files except the manual and related files, which are dated 17 July 1992. The variant executable is dated 15 Oct 1992. All three save game files are dated 14 July 1992.

Dungeons of Avalon II no longer uses a compressed executable like the first game, and takes up 56,320 more bytes on disk. This is made possible by DoA2’s smaller dungeon level size compared to its predecessor, 10 levels of 32x32 instead of 9 levels of 50x50.

At two bytes per block, this means the full map file is only 20,480 bytes, rather than 54,000 bytes. Since the full map data is replicated in five places on disk (two DUNG files and three save games), this saves 5 x 33,520 bytes or 167,600 bytes total. The graphics file PICS is also smaller by 50,352 bytes.

For reference, the tavern in this version is named Zum Roten Tonkrug, the city Die Stadt Isla, the weapon shop Rudi’s Laden, the temple Tempel des Paladin, and the trainers Die Weisen Drei. The game is indeed called by the English “Dungeons of Avalon II - The Island of Darkness”, even in German version.

The disk uses a custom icon which reads “MIND ADVENTURES”. The disk name is DOI.

This disk has made by copying files, rather than diskcopy. The disk name is “LEER”, and it uses the standard icon.

The startup-sequence has been edited to simply launch directly into the game. All unnecessary files have been deleted, including the icons for the readme and intro, the .info and Disk.info files, the LIBS and DEVS directories, the HD installer, and unused commands like LWB and END.

All original file dates have been lost, and read a false date in 1980 or 1979, suggesting the copy was made with an Amiga 500 or similar without a real-time clock.

The save games have been modified and contain a game in progress.

Another variant of the “LEER” filecopy version, but the dat and dat/DUNG files have a time of 01:46:28 instead of 01:49:53/54. These files are updated when the game is played without write-protecting the disk.

This appears to be a regular copy of the original release.

The file timestamps are intact. The normal 119,480 byte game executable is here, dated 14 July 1992. Notably, the first save game file DAT/GAMEA is dated 17 July 1992 at 11:29:58, which differs from the “high-level characters” release that has all three saves dated 14 July. Either or both may be valid.

The disk .info file is also a few seconds later than the high-level character release, 09:58:02 instead of 09:57:25. The significance of this difference is unknown.

Other than that, this version’s DAT and DAT/DUNG are dated 20 Oct 1993 at 11:38am, presumably the date this disk’s owner last played the game.

Both this and the “high level characters” release seem to be descended from a true original unmodified release which is unavailable.

Another variant of the “LEER” filecopy version, but the dat folder has a time of 01:49:27, and dat/DUNG has a time of 01:50:41.

Dungeons of Avalon 2 (English)

All the files on this version are dated 23 July 1992 at around 8am. This is about six weeks after the German version, and in plenty of time for the October issue of Amiga Mania.

All the German files, which were marked by the suffix “D” in the German release, have been changed for their English equivalents, with the suffix “E”. This includes the game text files like S/TX00_E, the hard disk installer HD-INSTALL-E, and the executable itself, AVALON-II-E.

Unlike the original Dungeons of Avalon, the German release did not contain the text files for both language versions. Note that the original German executable for DoA2 was called AVALON-II-D, showing that an English release was planned from the outset, whereas DoA’s German exe had simply been named “Avalon”.

The English version also removes the German manual and the MORE text viewer.

The dates on the save game files and DUNG files are in line with the others on the disk, which suggests that this is an unmodified original copy.

A pirate release by group DYTEC.

The only changes from the IPF release are the inclusion of a cracktro and supporting files. The startup-sequence has been edited to include the cracktro and intro message, and loads directly into the game instead of Workbench.

All the edited files are dated 4 Oct 1992, as is DAT/DUNG which was the last file modified when the game was loaded shortly after copying the files to it. This supports the assumption that this is based directly on the Amiga Mania #7 release, and may imply that there was no earlier English release of DoA2.

Identical to the above, but the DAT and DAT/DUNG are dated just over an hour later at 20:06. Probably a version someone downloaded from a DYTEC BBS on the day of release, tested, then redistributed later.

Another variant of the original DYTEC release. Its DAT/DUNG are dated 20:05, almost exactly one minute before the above release. Probably two people downloaded it immediately upon release and started the game at almost exactly the same time.

The executable has been hex edited to correct spelling mistakes in the game: “HEROS” to “HEROES”, “RECIEVE” to “RECEIVE”, “SOME MONSTERS COMES CLOSER” to “SOME MONSTERS CAME CLOSER”, “YOUR WISDOM IS TO LESS” to “NOT ENOUGH WISDOM”, “FOUNDS A TRAP” to “FOUND A TRAP”, “THEY IS A TRAP” to “THERE’S A TRAP”, and “GIVE ME AN ANSWER TO MY QUESTION AND YO CAN PASS” becomes “…AND YA CAN PASS”.

Also, bytes $71d2 to $71d5 of the main game executable have been edited from $6100ff4a to $534061d2, changing a BSR.W instruction into a SUBQ.W #1,D0 followed by a one-byte BSR.S to a separate location. It occurs in the function for handling NPC encounters, and appears to fix an off-by-one issue. It may fix one or both reported bugs in an earlier English release: A screenshot in The CRPG Addict’s review depicts text appearing one character late; and an older review describes NPCs behaving incorrectly (e.g. Thiefs Rabun don’t give key, Prison Guards don’t accept Permission item).

The cracktro has been removed from the startup-sequence. It’s edited on 9 Oct 1992, while the modified executable itself has a 1980 date from an Amiga without a real-time clock. It’s probable that the executable mod occurred separately from the cracktro strip.

Another variant of the DYTEC release, but a trainer (cheat program) has been added to this version by Caesar of group Palace.

The startup-sequence is dated 6 Oct 1992, retains the DYTEC cracktro, and adds the trainer. This is followed a few hours later by the addition of a file advertising BBS TrashCity.

On 7 Oct, the S directory is updated, quickly followed by DAT/DUNG, which suggests that whoever added the trainer copied it to the disk on that date and immediately tested it. On 8 Oct, the trainer itself and an ad text file are added.

On 11 Oct the main AVALON-II-E executable is modified. It possesses the spelling-corrected executable from the above version. It may have been patched before or after Palace’s release.

Regardless of day, all of the changes this disk are made between 17:05 and 17:52, which suggests that perhaps these edits are all made by one person after work, probably Caesar. The exception is the ad files for Trash City.

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