Dun Darach/Tir Na Nog

edited September 2013 in Games
I've decided once I've finished picking my way through the GBA versions of Castlevania, that I'm going to play these 2 games again. I realised something tonight only minutes ago though when I downloaded them and their text files, Dun Darach comes after Tir Na Nog, from the styles of gameplay and the story of Cuchulainn being dead in Tir Na Nog I thought that it came after Dun Darach, not before.

My ignorance kind of works for me, because I did manage many many years ago to get through Tir Na Nog, but always thought I'd copped out as I'd never finished Dun Durach.

Since I found out I was playing them the wrong way anyway, I don't care anymore.

Now basically all I'd like to say to anybody (especially Cuchulainn), is there an easy way through Tir Falahn: The empty lands? I remember when I was younger spending what seemed like days going through there and wasting a whole A4 refill pad trying to map it out. Many tapes were filled with saves, I think the local Medicentre couldn't keep up with demands for cheap tapes for my Tir Na Nog saves.

With the emulator saves I think I may have an easier time of it, but it's been such a long time since I tried to play these games properly. I played Tir Na Nog for a while in 1999, but gave up due to the fact I was at the go out and get wrecked, do drugs, and fuck anything in a skirt stage.

Now I'm married and slightly more sensible, I'm gonna play these.

After all this time though tips dealing with the Sidhe could be handy, I remember you could use the Old Bones exorcise one of them (somewhere near the Forest of Cern I think). But I can't remember a thing about this game, other than how it looked really and the alter of the seal. I also remember Cernos talking to you at one point of the game (where the big face from the loading screen appeared at the top of the screen gibbering while you were walking along).

I don't want a walkthrough as I'm gonna pretty much try to get through it on my own like I did all those years ago. Just a few pointers really.

As for Dun Darach, I never finished it, but hopefully I will this time around.
Post edited by dm_boozefreek on
Every night is curry night!
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Comments

  • edited April 2007
    Good luck and best wishes and such.

    These were the games I loved to (incorrectly) map when I was younger. Be careful where you tread and don't forget to SAVE EARLY AND SAVE OFTEN!

    Skarpo
    :-)
  • edited April 2007
    Cheers ears!!!
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited April 2007
    Im not sure what you mean by an easy way through, but I can give you a few bits of info. There are the three entrances which appear random, but are logical when it is mapped correctly, then there is the other one which comes from the far south of the plain of lies. Inside you will find the N door which is opened by the egg ( Hens lay eggs ) to get the crystal. The easiest map to follow is mine, about 3ft by 3ft, or next best is the map published in crash, which was based on mine, even though I recieved no credit for it. It was passed on to them from Gargoyle ( believe it or not they had no map of it only lots of pieces of paper which were stuck up everywhere ). Also Barbara and others had copies which they passed off as their own. If you need a copy of my map, I can try to sort it, if you send me your address.

    I have also my map of Dun Darach which would be harder to duplicate, but I can try if you need it. This also appeared, credited to others! Oh and Marsport ( same old story )
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • edited April 2007
    See the Tipshop for my map + walkthrough
  • edited April 2007
    Now basically all I'd like to say to anybody (especially Cuchulainn), is there an easy way through Tir Falahn: The empty lands? I remember when I was younger spending what seemed like days going through there and wasting a whole A4 refill pad trying to map it out. Many tapes were filled with saves, I think the local Medicentre couldn't keep up with demands for cheap tapes for my Tir Na Nog saves.

    Ah man! Don't remind me. I used to get stuck in Tir Falahn on a regular basis. Back then on the Speccy, the save option was ridiculous. It took nearly as long as the loading of the actual game.
    grey key wrote: »
    The easiest map to follow is mine, about 3ft by 3ft, or next best is the map published in crash, which was based on mine, even though I recieved no credit for it. It was passed on to them from Gargoyle ( believe it or not they had no map of it only lots of pieces of paper which were stuck up everywhere ). Also Barbara and others had copies which they passed off as their own. If you need a copy of my map, I can try to sort it, if you send me your address.

    I have also my map of Dun Darach which would be harder to duplicate, but I can try if you need it. This also appeared, credited to others! Oh and Marsport ( same old story )

    Grey Key, it would be great to see these original maps of yours.
    Also, is there a way to avoid getting knocked back by the watchers (?) in most caves. The ones that make you drop each item until you have no more, then if hit again you return to the seal room.
  • edited April 2007
    I honestly don`t know how to go about putting the maps out there. The only thing I can think of is sending copies to someone who can. They are working maps, which make playing the game easier, they were paced out step by step, angle by angle, which took ages, and took away valuable time from playing the game. Tir na nog is 3ft by 3ft, Dundarach is much the same, Marsport is 10 pages of A3, Heavy on the magic is 4 pages of A3. So I am open to suggestions.
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • edited April 2007
    grey key: Please check your PM.
  • edited April 2007
    If sending the maps to america is what is needed, then so be it, however if world of spectrum could do this direct, this would be better. I will wait a while and see if anyone nearer to England can help, if not, then I can send them off. There must be at least half a dozen of each of my maps floating around England from the 80s but probably they have been disposed of by now. So if you can help, let me know.
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • edited April 2007
    2 GREAT games!! Ahh the memories of wandering around aimlessly! !
  • edited April 2007
    If you loved those two games, you would have LOVED the sequel. Walking aimlessly in the clouds, how sureal can you get!
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • edited April 2007
    These games did amaze me back in the day but for me personally belong in the Jet Set Willy/Knight Lore club, eg i used to play them just to find new rooms etc but never had a chance of completing them.

    In Tir Na Nog the 'baddies', could you actually kill them ? I just remember walking round for ages and ages
  • edited April 2007
    Dun Darach...

    I have a question :D

    Did the ending vary at all ?

    I ask as i remember completeing it years ago and nothing really happened as such :(

    I then heard if all the other tasks are done (that arent actually needed to get to the end) then the ending is different... The one in the RZX archive is the quicker one (without anything happened)

    ? :)
  • edited April 2007
    Grey Key, I wish I had had the opportunity to see the sequel "Walking aimlessly in the clouds" sounds great, you were obviously well rewarded by Gargoyle for your dedication to their games.

    Was this sequel meant to be part of the Tir Na Nog / Dun Darach series as although Marsport was in the same style it was in a completely different setting? Mind you it was still great fun.

    I've said it before, though nowhere near as many times as Cuchulainn, but these were great games, if only they'd completed more of them.
  • edited April 2007
    Sorry it was a joke! Although I don`t think that it was a secret that there was a planned third part. The walking aimlessly through the clouds, was based on something that Greg said to me many years ago. Supposedly as a joke, but I think there may have been an element of truth there as it opens up a whole lot of new possibilities in gaming. I`m sure it would have been a bugger to map! They seemed to like the number 3 ( for good luck I suppose ).
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • edited April 2007
    grey key wrote: »
    Sorry it was a joke! Although I don`t think that it was a secret that there was a planned third part. The walking aimlessly through the clouds, was based on something that Greg said to me many years ago. Supposedly as a joke, but I think there may have been an element of truth there as it opens up a whole lot of new possibilities in gaming. I`m sure it would have been a bugger to map! They seemed to like the number 3 ( for good luck I suppose ).

    Doh! Should have seen that one coming!

    Ah well, we can but dream...

    Any idea what Greg and Roy are up to these days?
  • edited April 2007
    psj3809 wrote: »
    In Tir Na Nog the 'baddies', could you actually kill them ? I just remember walking round for ages and ages

    You couldn't kill the Sidhe, but once you got Lugh's Spear you could hit the Sidhe with it. This would make him disappear for a few seconds so you could walk past.

    Also, once in the Forest of Cern, the Sidhe could not harm you once you had the Harp.
  • edited April 2007
    spider wrote: »
    Dun Darach...

    I have a question :D

    Did the ending vary at all ?

    I ask as i remember completeing it years ago and nothing really happened as such :(

    I then heard if all the other tasks are done (that arent actually needed to get to the end) then the ending is different... The one in the RZX archive is the quicker one (without anything happened)

    ? :)

    The aim of Dun Darach was to find the key to exit the city, which led you to an ongoing path. I remember when completing it thinking 'Is That It?', but thinking about it now that was the most sensible way to end it. It makes it more real as it's supposed to be an adventure not a game with the ending "Congratulations". Tirnanog was the same, no fantastic ending.

    BTW, I don't recall there supposedly being multiple endings, but I could be wrong.
  • edited April 2007
    Im going back years but i seem to remember that after leaving the city it was just dark (ie was in a street in total darkness)

    I assumed (and read in Crash i think) that the other things that needed doing (such as moving objects around to the correct places , sorry thats a bit vague, i cant remember that much now) would change the ending...

    :)
  • edited April 2007
    I am possitive that there were no alternative endings in any of them. In fact after talking to the team, they said that they were a little dissapointed with the anticlimax endings, but that they used up every last ounce of memory on the games themselves. This also meant leaving out a large amount of extra gameplay and animations as well. But I did rib them about the lack of endings at the time and they never mentioned any extras. As for moving things around in Dun darach, I think that was a confusion about the series of actions that you have to take to pass through the castle. Skas pearl originally opened the brothel door, but that was removed for the final release because it may have offended some people.
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • edited April 2007
    Ah i see ok :)

    Thanks for explaining :)
  • edited August 2013
    I have always wondering about the Nathair in Tir na Nog.

    This serpent guards Dagdas Cauldron. You can pass through him having torc activated. But, when you actually take cauldron, serpent suddenly wakes up.

    So no way to pass through him back.

    There is alternate route, using daisy to open back door. If follow this route, you do not even need torc.

    So... Is there really no way to pass Nathair back without using daisy? As seems in this case whole quest for finding and reuniting torc parts is meaningless...
  • edited August 2013
    Nathair will destroy everything it can see. The Torc makes Cuchulainn invisible when, as you say, it's the active item. IIRC when the Cauldron is selected then that will become the active item, so the Torc has to be re-selected before attempting to pass Nathair.
  • edited August 2013
    Nope, if all was so easy, i would not be asking here :) in reality when you have cauldron, invisibity just do not turn on, no matter if you have torc selected or not, same for Nathair - he never sleep if you have cauldron.
  • edited August 2013
    I always used to use the Tir Na Nog map from the inside of the Rebound re-issue inlay.

    I can't find it in the archive though, maybe it hasn't been uploaded yet.
    (I'm pretty sure the other Gargoyle/Rebound re-issues had maps, but I can't find these either)

    While on the subject of Tir Na Nog has a bugfix been submitted yet for this bug:

    The clues in the Ogham script to find where to dig for Calum's Hammer are corrupted, so they don't reveal the proper location. The garbled translation comes out as "CROLLROADTEBB", whereas what it was supposed to have said was "CROSSROADTENN", which gives the position of Calum's Hammer relative to the cross in Stormbase ("[from the] crossroad ten [paces] north").


    Cheers, Neil
  • edited August 2013
    Neil L wrote: »
    While on the subject of Tir Na Nog has a bugfix been submitted yet for this bug

    This cannot be fixed.

    See Battle Bunny's explanation here.
    Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
  • edited August 2013
    Oh bother, I'd just typed up an explanation, forgetting that I'd already explained it two years ago. Here's a small footnote anyway.

    "The program is so tightly coded that the bytes immediately after the message are used, so it can't be extended in situ. According to Gargoyle there were only 37 bytes free when they finished the game and they used them for the end effect, so there's nowhere else to put the extended message."
  • edited August 2013
    In the spirit of digging up this old post, did anyone get a copy of the Giant Alpha Maps offered in this thread Grey Key
  • edited August 2013
    This cannot be fixed.

    See Battle Bunny's explanation here.
    I am sure i fixed that in my trdos version, if i remember correctly with accurate font changing all fits without any problem. I can check tomorrow or if you're curious you can take it on Virtual TRDOS, i implemented there also extended final cut only for 128k
  • edited August 2013
    I am sure i fixed that in my trdos version, if i remember correctly with accurate font changing all fits without any problem. I can check tomorrow or if you're curious you can take it on Virtual TRDOS, i implemented there also extended final cut only for 128k

    Please let us know!

    I was checking this game just before you posted. It seems the redefined font has enough empty characters (from "E" to "P") that could be used to create a "custom" image for this message in particular. The tricky part is how to be sure none of these characters are used anywhere else... I'm glad you have already worked it out!
    Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
  • edited August 2013
    Please let us know!

    I was checking this game just before you posted. It seems the redefined font has enough empty characters (from "E" to "P") that could be used to create a "custom" image for this message in particular. The tricky part is how to be sure none of these characters are used anywhere else... I'm glad you have already worked it out!

    Grab it here - http://zx.logtech.ru/Tir Na Nog - Bugfixed.zip

    Back in the days (I made it in 2011 or 2010 I believe) I completed the game, so this fix do not affect gameplay in any new bugs or anything like that.
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