As a present to Chris I started work on importing Amiga ACS Rivers of Light to ACK. I got all the graphics imported [ran into some trouble with capturing sounds using Camtasia, haven't figured out how to prevent the crackling, and the wav capture feature of WinUAE doesn't work at all for me.]
Garth wrote:Hey ACS/ACK enthusiasts. Sorry for taking forever to get around to mirroring this project after the old site disappeared. Heres what I had so far.
Rivers of Light (ACS/Amiga Version) ported to ACK [WIP]
I finished the world map. I started creating all the objects in the game. I didnt get to the critters yet. And I haven't gotten to messages yet. I know you wanted to make this your baby Chris and it still is. I just wanted to do something nice for you to return the favor for all you've done for us with ACK.
I made an archive of this project and included folders with screen caps from the Amiga ACS editor showing all the items and creatures lists and also all the room maps with their names shown in the captures.
Last edited by Garth's Equipment Shop on Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
No, by all means, go as far with this as you want :) Does anyone have a good idea of how the plot progressed in the original? It's been way too long since I've played it through (beyond the swimming skill part at the beginning)
Rivers of Light
This new Stuart Smith epic is set in ancient Egypt and
the Near East at the dawn of human civilization. The
goal is the essence of Osiris, god of the dead and giver
of eternal life.
Your quest begins in the valley of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, the cradle of civilization. Your first
problem is that the world map is full of uncrossable
rivers - uncrossable, that is, for those who don't
know how to swim. The old woman and the hunter
can help.
If you locate the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on a
map in a good atlas, you'll know where to look for
Egypt on the world map of "Rivers of Light."
The adventure is historically accurate in many other
details as well. If you'd like to know more about the
mythology that lies behind this tale, look into some
of the books listed in the bibliography in the
appendix (page 42).
A few words of friendly encouragement and advice.
"Rivers of Light" is a classic adventure filled with
challenging puzzles. There's a powerful weapon,
for instance, in Assur, available to all who can find it.
And there's a substance with great healing power in
the Ancient Valley where the old woman and hunter
live.
I have a copy of the original manual as well, if you need anything scanned (although now that I say that I realize it's packed away -- I'm in the process of moving -- although I know vaguely where it's packed) :)
Thanks guys, but fret not, I have everything I need for the job. I even worked out a systematic way of porting it for ease and efficiency. I've gained much experience from my work on other projects so each new project seems to start off on a better foot than the last.
I had been thinking of tackling a new ACK project that pushed the envelope on map size - I was debating between an Ultima II reboot or a Rivers of Light remake, and it looks from another thread like someone might have Ultima II covered. Rivers of Light would be a huge connection to ACK's inspiration, ACS, so I'm now pondering that again.
It wouldn't be a port, it would be a remake, largely going back to the original Epic of Gilgamesh for inspiration. I'd want to align with the original story where possible, so that IPAT series of videos and the screenshots and such that you provided in that RAR file would be very useful.
Before I start, is anyone already working on a Rivers of Light remake? :)
Go forth and do your magic oh great ACK wizard! Proceed with abandon! Looking forward to playing it again Chris. I'll upload what I had so far to rld's archive.
EDIT: Oh nvm, that link in my last post still works lol.
Is that IPAT on youtube still there?
EDIT: Yeah cool its there. Hers link to the playlist he made for it.
I'm going through Un's IPAT videos again and taking notes to get a clear understanding of the original plot, I'm also researching Sumerian history so I can flesh out the game with appropriate details and graphics. It seems like what made the original interesting was the attention to historical detail, I'd like to build on that in the remake.
I haven't a clue what the new plot will look like. It may be a reboot, it may be a sequel, it may be loosely inspired by. I do know it won't be a straight remake of the same plot.
Anyone got MIDI skills? I'd like to work some ACS music into this. If I could get someone to play the ACS theme on an Oud, that would be so awesome...
If that's sounding good on your system and you have the tools to do it, can you share an mp3 instead?
If I play it on my system I just end up with the same instruments as the original. I unfortunately forgot/lost the MIDI editor I used to convert the Ultima MIDIs, it was very flexible in letting me pick specific instruments from specific soundfonts for each track, so I could get some decent results.
Having said that: there don't seem to be many MIDI instrument samples that allow a middle-east sound. (The fact that they use a different scale is probably most of the problem, but still, a trumpet is way off :)
Oh damn, yeah sorry. I thought the instrument plugin i used would save with it. brb.
EDIT: Ok I exported as wav. It was only option in Anvil Studio. Let me know how it sounds on your rig. It had some crackling in the midi editor so I had to turn off the auto mixer balance and volume leveling and tweak it manually. So it's not as loud as it was originally. But I could experiment some more to achieve better results. I'll look into conversion to mp3. Shouldnt be too hard to do from wav though.
I see what you mean about the noise, but otherwise they sound much better than what I was able to make. Bad sound font maybe?
I don't need them mp3 - they will get converted to .raw with the sox utility, so any digitized format is fine.
I'm taking a page from your playbook and doing some graphic tile work first. :) I want to make an attempt at a non-black background and use a palette with more of a desert feel.
I still haven't managed to find the MIDI editor that I used to do the original conversions of music for the Ultima game and kit, but with a combination of one called GNMIDI to change instruments and Timidity to play the file, I've got something with a bit more of the right sound. The closest instruments I could find that sounded good were Sitar, Pizzicto, Panflute. It ended up with slightly more of an Indian sound, but it still beats Trumpet and Strings.
I'm working on getting a draft version of enough tiles for me to settle on a palette, meanwhile I'm continuing to read up on Mesopotamian history and letting the plot ideas finish forming in my head.
Here's a sample of what the basic look is going to be, although I still need to tweak the cliffs and reeds a bit.
