Introduction for Commemorative Archive
August 1, 2006

Mike Crawford rekindled my interest in Gates when I got an email asking if I had a copy of the game.  I responded too late to be of much help, since they had already "resurrected" the original disk.  Later on we decided to make try to make maps of all the areas in the game.   I provided a rough layout of the player disk and also the tile hex codes.  Mike wrote a perl script to interpret the hex codes and generate a map in HTML, using tiles from mess screenshots.  Life got complicated for me soon after this, with a baby in the picture now, and unfortuntely I took a hiatus from the Coco scene.  In June of 2006, I finished up college classes for good, and resumed work on the mapping project.  My first task was to get all of the icons in place.  Being a prefectionist, I didn't like the idea of cropping the icons from mess screenshots, (due to the fact that the icons are 'skewed' based on resizing of the Mess window) so I decided to extract the raw 28 byte icon data from the main disk.  One this was done, I wrote a utility in Java to convert these to BMP files.  This presented another issue, which was taken care of later on in the project (lack of artifacting).  I then proceeded to modify the Perl script, which ultimately got re-written for the most part.  It was gradually updated and modified, and now automatically generates a perfect map, with hyperlinks, from the raw source data.  I then proceeded to work through the maps, one by one, extracting them and generating the HTML files.  Some of the maps had to be modified from the original so that they would display correctly as large maps (ie the game designers mapped out Twin Cities with the top section of the map at the bottom - doesn't look good).  I modified the raw data to reflect the changes.  At some point I got the idea to connect the maps via hyperlinks, so a user can simply click on a town, etc, to pull up the map for that town.  Once all the maps were extracted and processed, I decided to tackle the artifacting, which was a pain.  The Java utility was modified to apply a derivative of the artifacting that MESS uses, which turned out to work, and look great.  There are six hues in the icons (black, white, red, orange, blue, turqoise).  Mess appears to use more, but it is hard to tell the difference.  Some icons had to be manually tweaked to look good.  At this point, I still had to finish the hyperlinks.  I made it so that you can click on the "exit area", ie the black area surrounding a castle or town, to go back to the map you came from.  Also, clicking on the appropriate "up ladder" in the top level of a dungeon will return you back.  In the "other world", there is a town you can't see.  If you position your pointer at the area of sea directly in front of the grass "arrow", look up 6 tiles and over to the left 13 tiles, you will see a mountain.  (In the game, you move your ship to this area and Exit the ship to enter the town).  Position your mouse cursor over the mountain and it will change to a town, click to enter it.  At some point during the project I also decided to convert the icons that are animated in the game into animated GIFS so that the maps would look like the landscape looks as you are playing the game.

With everything wrapped up, I decided it was appropriate to integrate the map project into the Gates of Delirium Archive, done back in '04 by Mike, Andrew Ayers and Tim Lindner.  I designed the HTML interface, linking everything up.  I added the cracked version, patched version, and "cheat" version of Gates.  I converted the scanned manual to PDF.  I added in the Moongate chart and several other technical documents (mostly in the 'extras' folder).  

At the last minute I decided to do a "cast of characters".  It's a chart of all the friendly and evil characters, all animated.  I also included the icons that the game places dynamically (these are not on the maps).  

Interesting items of note:

- The game version is 1.3, the only version I believe released to the public.  I am not aware of any other versions publicly released
- The large southern land mass only has a castle and dungeon.  It always seemed intriguing as a kid.  I was disappointed that it was so barren
- There are no moon gates on the Other World
- You have to enter twin city I, enter the dungeon, proceed through 40 levels of dungeons, enter twin city 2, exit twin city 2 to reach the other world
- There is a tower icon, but no towers.  This could have been neat to have in the castle
- The four shrines in the other world are all the same map layout
- There is an airplace and "dog" icon, neither is used in the game
- There are seven gate keys to collect throughout the game.  The gate locks are lined up in the passage to the "gates of delirium" area in the other world
- Despite a few shortcomings, the game is quite big, and complex, for the Coco 2.  Enjoy!
- Watch for Seventh Link Commemorative Archive

readme.txt by Andrew L. Ayers, with editing and proofreading help
supplied by Michael Crawford and Tim Lindner

October 1st, 2004

Introduction
------------

As I sit here writing this, I can't help but think back on the number
of twists and turns this game has gone through to get to this point.
It all started off with me explaining and pleading about my plight
on Slashdot, with regards to copy protection, how it affects us
today, and how it was affecting me in regards to Gates of Delirium.

That is what it boils down to - a game, which was effectively
abandoned by its owner (Dave Dies and Diecom Products), which
appeared to be beyond hope of ever being played again. Despite the
best wishes of Dave, no matter what I did, I couldn't get my copy,
which I had paid for (well, actually, my parents had paid for it
when I was a kid), to work. Had I had a way to back it up when I
had received it, it might have turned out to be a different story.

Time passed, and eventually I got a response. Out of the blue, I
received an email from Michael Crawford on Sunday, July 25, 2004.
This was an email which would change everything. He had an interest
in the game, had played it in the past, and wanted to play it again.

It quickly became apparent that I seemed to have the "last copy" in
North America. As the days went by and our email exchanges continued,
I became interested in the possibility of getting the game running
again...

In the end, a three person team was assembled - Myself, Michael, and
a man by the name of Tim Lindner, who is a contributor to the open
source emulator, MESS. Tim seemed to have fairly intimate knowledge
regarding Diecom Products copy protection mechanism. He had worked
with it in the past, getting other Diecom games to work under MESS.
His knowledge is what enabled us to move forward very rapidly in
bringing this game "back from the dead". We all owe him a huge debt
of gratitude - THANK YOU, TIM!!!

In the end, it turned out well. It still is amazing to me that I can
once again play the game I loved so much as a child...

About the Game
--------------

Gates of Delirium was released by Diecom Products, Inc sometime in
1987, as best as I can tell, for the price of $38.95 US ($52.95 CAN).
I don't know for sure, but it seems that this game was, at one time,
a "vaporware" game:

From old copies of Falsoft's Rainbow Magazine which I own (I only
have January 1987 on forward), in the January 1987 issue, GofD is
shown with a completely different GUI than what the game ended up
being sold with:

The screenshot of the game shows the map on which the player roamed
taking up about 5/8ths of the screen, with a four-line command input
window at the bottom, which also showed the player's statistics 
(health, experience, etc) to the right (see the image in the extras
directory under "advert0187.jpg").

This screenshot didn't change until the June 1987 issue of the
Rainbow, in which the GUI is shown with the familiar look that we
now know (interestingly enough, Diecom also released the games
"Lansford Mansion" and "Caladuril Flame of Light" at this time,
which were two graphical adventure games for the Color Computer).
The image "advert0787.jpg" in the extras directory shows this new
GUI layout.

This change in GUI layout suggests to me that Diecom had the product
available, but not completely ready, but decided to initially market
it with what is likely the "development" GUI - then shipping it with
the more advanced and polished GUI once they had enough orders.
Of course, this is all speculation. One thing that didn't change at
this time, though, was the price (prices didn't drop until sometime
in 1988).

It was finally reviewed in Rainbow Magazine in the October 1987
issue, by Glen Dahlgren, who gave it a favorable review, concluding
with the words "...Gates of Delirium, in my opinion, despite minor
problems, is one of the finest and most professional conversions
of fantasy role playing games available for the Color Computer. It
is exciting, extensive, and pleasing to the eye."

I couldn't put it better myself!

About the Files in the Archive
------------------------------

This archive consists of a few directories and numerous files. The
following is a list of directories and files included in the
archive:

	readme.txt - this file you are reading
	
	\extras - extra files related to the game
	
		advert0187.jpg - scanned jpeg of January 1987 Diecom ad
		advert0787.jpg - scanned jpeg of July 1987 Diecom ad
		dave_dies.txt - text file with email from Dave Dies
		diskcovr.jpg - scanned jpeg of GofD disk jacket
		emails.txt - text file of email exchange of recovery
		gofd1.jpg  - jpeg image of original manual, map and disks
		gofd2.jpg  - jpeg image of original disks
		notes1.jpg - scanned jpeg of map of a dungeon
		notes2.jpg - scanned jpeg of map of a dungeon
		notes3.jpg - scanned jpeg of notes of item prices
		sshot1.png - PNG screengrab of title from MESS
		sshot2.png - PNG screengrab of title from MESS
		sshot3.png - PNG screengrab of title from MESS
		sshot4.png - PNG screengrab of game from MESS
	
	\game - Gates of Delirium game disk images
	
		gofdgame.dsk - GofD Game Disk, DMK format
		gofdplyr.dsk - GofD Player Disk, JVC format
		
	\manual - Scanned jpeg images of manual and map
	
		gofd??.jpg - where ?? = 01-15, pages of manual
		gofdcorr.jpg - jpeg scan of manual corrections page
		gofdmap.jpg - jpeg scan of map page
		
One file of note is "emails.txt" in the "extras" directory. This is a
blow-by-blow account of the recovery of this excellent game, via a long
log of emails (exchanged between me, Michael, and Tim), presented in
chronological order. They give a lot of insight into the process that
went into recovering the game.

About the Manual
----------------

The manual is presented as a series of 15 jpeg scans made from my
original copy of the user's manual for Gates of Delirium. In addition
to these pages, a page of corrections and the map page, which came
with my original copy of the game, is also included.

Please note that the information in the manual is intentionally vague.
Diecom Products was running a contest at the time for the first person
to "solve" Gates of Delirium. No mention is given as to what the prize
was going to be. As far as I know, nobody claimed the prize, or if
they did, it was never publicized by the company.

Also note that on the map I have written (when I was a kid playing
the game) notes relating to the approximate positions of various
towns, dungeons, and other areas of interest.

About the Extras
----------------

In addition to the email exchange about the recovery of GofD, included
in the "extras" directory are a few other items:

The files "advert0187.jpg" and "advert0787.jpg" are both scans of the
advertisement layouts from Diecom Products for their games, from the 
January 1987 and July 1987 issues of the Rainbow, respectively. As was
noted in "About the Game" (above), these two advertisements show the
differences in the GUI from the time of the game's release.

The file "dave_dies.txt" is a copy of the email received by Michael,
from Dave Dies, apparently authorizing the ability to distribute and
run Diecom games for the purposes of preservation and emulation (way
to go, Michael!). I had gotten verbal permission once from Dave, but
it is nice to see it in written form.

The file "diskcovr.jpg" is a jpeg scan I made of the original disk 
envelope in which Diecom distributed Gates of Delirium (and likely
its other products as well).

The file "emails.txt", as noted before, is a blow-by-blow account of 
the recovery of this excellent game, via a long log of emails
(exchanged between me, Michael, and Tim), presented in chronological
order. They give a lot of insight into the process that went into
recovering the game.

The files "gofd1.jpg" and "gofd2.jpg" are photos of the original
manual, map, and disks of the game. This is really how the game
came to me in the mail, no box (other than the cardboard shipping
box it was sent in, which unfortunately is long gone). The disk
jackets display Diecom Product's logo, one in purple (the game
disk) and one in red (the player disk). It is unknown at this time
whether these were random colors picked for the game's floppies, or
if all copies of Gates of Delirium came this way.

The games disk labels are simple dot-matrix printed labels, with no
special font, printed in light blue ink (I couldn't swear to it, but
they may have been printed with the CGP-220 ink-jet printer Radio
Shack sold at the time). The game disk (purple jacket) label reads:

       GATES OF DELIRIUM
(C) 1987 BY DIECOM PRODUCTS, INC.
  REQUIRES 64 K AND DISK DRIVE
   TELEPHONE # (416)-878-8358

The player disk (red jacket) label reads:

       GATES OF DELIRIUM
(C) 1987 BY DIECOM PRODUCTS, INC.
          PLAYER DISK
          DO NOT USE!

There are also included three note file scans ("notes1.jpg",
"notes2.jpg", and "notes3.jpg") which detail one of the dungeons in
Gates of Delirium, as well as a price list for items in the game.
Please be aware that these were notes I had made as a kid, and I
don't remember to which dungeon or town they belong to (most likely
the town of Casa, but I can't be certain).

Finally, a few screenshot images (provided by Michael Crawford) from
the MESS emulation are included. The first three, "sshot1.png" thru
"sshot3.png", are shots of the series of game title screens which
appear when you first boot the game. The last screenshot, "sshot4.png",
shows the player's group standing near water, next to one of the moon
gates in the game (with a skeleton peeking across the water).

About the Game Disk Images
--------------------------

Of course, these are the most important part of this archive - it
is what you downloaded this for, right? Well - don't get into a
hurry. First, sit down and read the manual, and understand it. You
might want to print it out, as well, for future reference as you
play the game.

The game disk image is "gofdgame.dsk", which is the first disk
that is loaded to start playing the game. It is a DMK format disk
image, which means that it can only be read by David Keil's Color
Computer emulator, or MESS 0.61b. Please note that it cannot be
loaded into Jeff Vavasour's emulators - the emulator does not
recognize the disk format. Please also note that you can't save
the image of the disk out into the JVC format (Jeff's disk
format) and attempt to load it that way, either - due to the funky
copy protection on the game which formats the disk image in a
completely non-standard track format (for the first 17 tracks),
it can't be copied or loaded this way.

The player disk image is "gofdplyr.dsk", which is the second disk
of the game. It is a JVC formatted disk image, and may be loaded
and copied in Jeff Vavasour's emulators (but it won't do you much
good without the game disk image). It is in the standard RS-DOS
format for the Color Computer.

Please heed the instructions of the Gates of Delirium manual:

You *MUST* make a copy of this disk image before playing the game.
This is because as you play the game, the disk image is modified,
as well as when you save the game. So, keep the original in a
safe spot (and make it read-only, if you want), and make copies
of it, perhaps one copy per each character you create to play and
explore the game.

To start the game, set up your emulator to read the game disk
image ("gofdgame.dsk"), and type "DIR" at the Color Computer's
flashing prompt within the emulator (after you have booted into
RS-DOS). You should see in the directory listing the binary
file "GATES.BIN". Type LOADM "GATES.BIN and press return. This
should begin the process of loading the game. The game will
later prompt you to insert your player disk (remember, use your
backup!), and from that point you can generate a player and
begin the game.

Conclusion
----------

Well - that is it. There isn't anything more to add, other than
transporting yourself to the land of the Gates. It is a large
game with a fairly engaging world, and very interesting graphics
(which, honestly, can only be done justice on an actual NTSC
television, which makes great use of the artifact coloring of the
Color Computer - emulation looks good, but it isn't exactly the
same).

I hope you enjoy this wonderful game as much as we have enjoyed
bringing it to you.

From all of us: Good luck, and happy adventuring!

Andrew L. Ayers, Michael Crawford, and Tim Lindner
The "Gates of Delirium" Resurrection Team
October 1st, 2004