Blood and Magic
 

Blood & Magic is a real-time strategy game focused on unit management rather than base construction. It takes place in the Forgotten Realms AD&D setting. There are five separate storyline scenarios of increasing difficulty with three missions per scenario, playable from the side of both factions each.

Feel free to comment and discuss the game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and download (if available)

soo, according to the reviewer, if graphics are 5, sound is 4, gameplay is 3 and interface is 5, how the hell is overall 3?

:p

I'm not a math major? :P

In my mind it's not a simple case of finding the average...it's actually an overall rating for the game, and while I'm saying that the graphics and interface are awesome, the sound is good, the gameplay has some setbacks.

Also, for me, gameplay is definitely the deciding factor in the game. Have you played Ancient Domains of Mystery for example?

I love that game. I obviously wouldn't give it a 5/5 for graphics, probably a 1 or 2, and the sound is non existent...but I would feel the need to give it at least a 4 or 5 in gameplay and definitely at least a 4 overall...because the game itself rocks.

I suppose the graphics and sound are in there more just so that the reader knows what to expect...overall is more like out of all games how does this game rank...is it average, is it excellent, or is it one of the best...a 2 would be a bad experience and a 1...well that's not worth playing or having on this site :P

I guess what I'm saying is that each rating is complete separate from the others, but gameplay typically most closely represents the overall.

Ratings are a pretty relative thing I suppose...sorry bout rambling :)

Anyone actually play to the last level(gate of the immortals)? I gotta say that was a fun map!

Not rambling. It's simply that all factors making the score aren't equal.

This is bit odd, I tried to run game, but it crashes, and this error occurs:

Detection System Failed to find hardware at line 694, file soundmgr.cpp

So, what's the problem?

Because that's the intelligent way to rate a game, in direct contradiction to the "modern" way of rating a game.

Graphics and sounds does not make a game. Gameplay does. Plus the fact it was so repetitive so fast, how could this game be rated anything above 3 since gameplay was also rated 3?

Since Abandonia is not trying to get money by selling games which are not great, I fail to see why the "modern" way of rating games should be used. Let's give credit for the reviewer for that. A good review IMHO.

Are you using DOSBox?

Yes I do. Thought it would be self-evident to run game on dosbox, but it seems I was wrong. :P

I actually managed to get game work, but that required to use no sounds. :/ Guess I should try to find right sound settings... Meh.

but that's like saying that other factors don't count at all. no matter what the graphics, sound, story, anything, only gameplay matters

You'd be surprised how many newcomers don't think so. That's why - unless they clearly state it before - this is the first question to ask. :p

I just tested out the version provided in the download link and I managed to get the same error.

I found that using soundblaster on irq 7 made it work, but there was no sound in game.

I think it might have been taken out of the game to make the download size better. It's obviously missing the cut scenes throughout the campaign as well.

I'd suggest downloading the CD version from the .ISO cellar.

the CD version is missing the intro movie, but otherwise the sounds are there. You do need to mount the cd in Dosbox to your primary cd drive letter before starting the game, if you want to hear the music.

I'd suggest putting the .bin and .cue file into your Dos folder to make it easy...
then just type

imgmount e c:\dos\bam.cue -t iso -fs iso

or alternatively you could mount it onto a virtual drive and then mount that virtual drive as cd drive e in dosbox

mount e k:\ -t cdrom

in this case I used K:\ since that's my virtual drive, obviously replace that with your own. and the letter E should be the letter of your primary cd drive, it DOES MATTER!

For me when I mounted to drive d instead of e the cd music wouldn't play.

That's pretty much the truth.

I have some videos on my PC. The graphics and sound are incredible. Does that make a game?

As simple as that. They are the medium, not the content.

Sadly the archive do not contains the cinematics - the only thing that'd make this game worthy to play.

I think the only thing missing is the intro movie...it's an actual problem with the full version release of the game. But, I don't think there are any other movies in the game. You can watch the intro on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRnrWFyPJ9g

Also, I haven't tried this, but apparently if you get the demo version and move the intro video file into your directory the intro will then show.

The intro is included.

But there are cinematics for every quest, and for every side you choose inside every quest (3 cinematics for each quests in all), and those are all missing.

Oh right, I've figured out your problem!

You downloaded straight from the review page...it's a 45 MB size file or so...

You want the version from the ISO cellar...it's 200 or so MB and has all the cinematics...except it's lacking the intro video...that's the version I played.

Like I said, if you pull the intro from the 45MB version you can have it all.

get JDownloader and then use that to download it from the following link:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/1lV-WPNB/BAM.html

Someone ought to make a note right at the top of the review:

"This version lacks cinematics to reduce file size. For the total package, go to the ISO cellar."

ISOcellar isn't an option for me, sry. If it would, I'd never mention the above.

PM me your email.

I'm... actually having trouble with the following suggestion. Once I have the CD mounted in dosbox I can't install. I can't run it from the CD. And copying (and over-writing) the CD files to the main directory (Created by the non-iso version).

Is there any way to simply add the video files to the non-iso install once you've got it set up?

We need to know what commands are you entering and what messages do you receive in return. The exact content of your commands and the responses is needed, so take screenshots and post them here.

Let me just start by apologizing for that post being somewhat... off. It was then, and is now, too early in the morning.

Second, I HATE the little image you have to refresh to post without being a member on these boards... most illegible thing I'd ever seen. I know, not the place to complain, but dear lord...

Alright. As for actually getting this running.

mount D F:\ -t cdrom

F being a virtual CD rom that has the ISO (I have the actual cd for this game somewhere, wonder if that would help... or if I could find it.)

D being my actual CD rom drive. And then... install has a file creation error when it begins (I tried mounting the install drive (E:\. which yes, I mount to e:\)

And BAM seems to search for the interplay/bam directory. I've tried moving the non-CD install, the one lacking all the cinematic to that directory, and discounting the somewhat likely possibility of a typo, it still can't find it, even when I do.

(As much as I like the game play, its the cinematic that make the game. Heck I even enjoyed the book that came with it, the 30 page novella about a paladins wife being kidnapped.)

Is there some step, once you have the ISO to follow when installing it with dosbox that I'm missing? Why can't it create the files? Do I need to alter a permission? I'm on x64 Windows 7.

You need a virtual C:
Win7 instructions:
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=22241
If you want to use partition E:\ (Windows path !!!!) create an \oldgames\ on your E: partition and mount that as virtual C: (yes, indeed as C: ) in dosbox, would be something as:
mount c e:\oldgames\
c:
Windows7 path would then be E:\oldgames\ but dosbox will see that folder as C:\

Sorry for that, but without it we've been flooded by spambots. ReCaptcha (or however it is spelled) was to be installed on the site and forums, but the process wasn't finished; right now only one tech support person has the acces needed, and he's extremely busy.

Puzzle Palace
 

I beat the five stories and am now doing the custom campaigns. When prompted to play the dreaded Puzzle Palace mission, it turned out even worse than I imagined. Unlike story mode, where I started with a nearby Temple, I begin at the 3 o'clock position which contains no foundations. Worse yet, the AI controls every single foundation from the very beginning. Restarting the mission changes nothing, so I'm always limited to building Basal Golems. Trying to take over an enemy foundation is pretty close to impossible since the maze is already crawling with enemy Basal Golems, Zombies, and Gargoyles. My single attempt at a take-over was a pathfinding nightmare that naturally ended with my Golems getting slaughtered. My understanding is that the campaigns have some degree of randomness, so I'm wondering if this was just plain bad luck? Has anyone else been in the same situation with this mission?