Dragonlord

Dragonlord is an Atari ST game developed by Thy & Jo and published by 16-32 Diffusion.

IPS Patch

Here is an IPS patch that fixes 5 bugs listed below.

DragonLord - Fix 1.0.zip

Apply the IPS patch to the STX file:
Dragon Lord - 16-32 Diffusion.stx
File size: 1650272 ($192e60)
SHA1: 3A6BA776A8355EFA01EBCCE84BB889FEBAEA21D3
MD5: 8C5463751AD230AA34183B44C751205B
CRC32: A060188A

Bug fixed:

Numbers above six spelled incorrectly
Transition screen between stage 3 and 4
Wrong palette in final area
Wrong palette on end screen
Words spelled incorrectly on end screen

Bugs (Ending Spoiler)

01 - Misspelled numbers

Original version	Fixed version

02 - Transition screen

The screen for the transition to and from stage 4 flashes for 1 sec and disappears. It’s due to an off-by-one error.

03 - Wrong palette in final area

Original version	Fixed version

The final area uses the shop palette instead of the normal palette.

04 - Wrong palette on end screen + spelling

Original version	Fixed version

The game loads the correct palette but then loads the palette & image for the “insert name” screen. When the end screen is loaded, it kept the wrong palette.
Maybe the “insert name” screen was an afterthought and inserted at the wrong place.

As for the spelling, there’s a minus one after the text is loaded.

Considering the wrong palette at the end, it’s fair to assume that it’s not intentional.

Details of changes

Here are the changes I made. Feel free to double-check, improve it and share it.

Hex Compare

OFFSET IN STX: 000121BC
CODE
0714CE		4EB9 0001 19A2      JSR $119A2
0714D4		4E71				NOP
0714D6		4E71				NOP


OFFSET IN STX: 0002190A
DATA
FIVESIXASEVENAEIGHTANINETENAELEVENTWELV
( encoding below)

OFFSET IN STX: 00127588
CODE
0714CE      4EB9 0001 19B0	    JSR $119B0


OFFSET IN STX: 0012765A
CODE
00EC02		4E71				NOP
(Before: 5342  SUBQ.W #1,D2)


OFFSET IN STX: 001277DB
CODE
00ED80		0C04 0005			CMPI.B #$5,D4

OFFSET IN STX: 0012D431
CODE
0119A2		41F9 0005 E9A0		LEA $5E9A0,A0
0119A8		227C 0004 EFA0		MOVEA L #$4EFA0,A1
0119AB		4E75				RTS

0119B8		4879 0007 7FE0		PEA $077FE0
0119B6		3F3C 0006			MOVE.W #$6,-(A7)
0119B8		4E4E				TRAP #14 
0119BE		5C8F				ADDQ.L #6,A7
0119C2		43F9 0003 BB28		LEA		$3BB28,A1
0119C4		4E75				RTS

dragonlord-encoding.tbl

Extra

Word from the dev

Someone reached out to the dev, who was sixteen at the time and his brother was eighteen, and he confirmed that these were not intentional:

SEVENA, AAAAA and so on are bugs, but I don’t remember them in our version (before 16/32 inserted its intro). The same for the last screen, supposed to be in red/orange and looking like a dawn on Grand Canyon. Again I do not know if it comes from your “disquette”, from your emulator, or from the production stage.

He said that the end of production was rushed and the game barely tested.

Intro

"DRAGONLORD" WAS DESIGNED FOR THE ATARI ST BY THY AND JO( ) : (C) 1988-1989 EDITION ,
CODING BY JO,GRAPHICS BY THY, GAME CONCEPT BY BOTH,ROOMS BY THY .
THANKS MUST BE SEND TO HUGUES R. AND MARC G....
LONG AGO IN A STRANGE LAND,
THERE LIVED DRAGONS . EACH CENTURY THEIR LEADER MUST BE REPLACED.
YOUR TASK IS TO BECOME THE "DRAGON LORD" BY COMPLETING SEVERAL WORKS .
*: YOU MUST IMPROVE YOUR EXPERIENCE AND REACH THE TOP LEVEL.
**: YOU MUST COLLECT THE FOUR ARTEFACTS OF EACH AREA .
***: YOU MUST VANQUISH THE GUARDIAN OF THE PORTAL, WHICH STANDS BEYOND THE HELLS .
KEYS: "F1":SWITCHES BETWEEN 50 AND 60 HZ .
"SPACE":ALLOWS YOU TO CHECK YOUR LEVEL AND NUMBER OF KEYS ....
NOW THIS HORIZONTAL SCROLLING WILL FOLLOW HIS PATH .
IT'S NOW TIME TO PLAY "DRAGON LORD" . YOU MUST HURRY .