Albion
Albion was programmed by Jurie Horneman, drawn by Thorsten Mutschall and composed by Matthias Steinwachs.
Impressively, Albion displays in 256-color square-pixel VGA 360x240. However, it is unfortunate that Blue Byte decided to go with a mix of dimetric perspective and 3D exploration rather than just go with isometric perspective all the way, which would have been far superior.
Albion Features List
- 360x192 top-down scrolling drawspace
- 360x192 real-time texture-mapped 3D drawspace
- Icon-driven interface
- Drag and drop grid-based inventory
- Right-click pop-up menus
- Hardware mouse cursor
- Six-person party
- 6x characters stats and 4x character skills
- Magic Resistance & Magical Talent
- 52x spells & 10x negative status effects
- 150,00 word storyline (yawn)
- 2D top-down and 3D exploration
- Automapping in 3D mode
- Turn-based combat with close-range & long-range combat attacks
- Lock-picking (so much fun!)
- NPCs: Traders, Trainers, Healers, Blacksmiths
Albion is a tedious cRPG that reminds me of console RPG games: just like Thalion's lame predecessors, Albion is suspiciously console-like.
Albion writing is extremely boring to read, its exploration is a teeth-grinding chore and its combat system absolutely sucks. Moreover, it has "Tell me about" [a long list of things]. Sorry, but the world, characters and lore are not interesting enough for "Tell me more".
In short, I don't like this game. I don't like it at all. And I didn't mind that Blue Byte abandoned the Amiga in respect to this franchise, which I always considered to be weak.
The only thing that interests me about Albion is that it displays in 360x240 resolution.
Albion Technical
Albion requires an i80486 CPU and 8 megs of RAM. Albion is a v1.97 Rational Systems' DOS/4GW Protected Mode Run-time.
Albion was distributed on 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Albion Installation. The install size is 2.5 megs and consists of 63 files.
Albion audio is configured via the Miles Design Audio Interface Library and Sound Configuration Utility.
Albion MIDI music supports Roland MPU-401 General MIDI, Yamaha WaveForce DB50-XG, Ensoniq SoundScape, Gravis UltraSound MIDI Synth, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE-32, Sound Blaster Pro/New, Sound Blaster Pro/Old, Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum Old/Plus/16, AdLib Music Synthesizer Card, AdLib Gold Music Synthesizer Card, ESS Technology ES688 FM Audio, ESS Technology ES1688, ES1788, ES1888 Enhanced FM Audio, Generic Yamaha OPL3-based FM Music Synthesizer, Roland MT-32 MIDI with MPU-401 MIDI Interface, Tandy 3-voice music and IBM Internal Speaker music.
Albion digital audio supports Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster AWE-32, Roland RAP-10, Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum, Gravis UltraSound, New Media Corporation WaveJammer digital audio, Ensoniq SoundScape digital audio, Microsoft Windows Sound System and ESS Technology ES688 digital audio.
Origins of Albion
Albion has its origins in Dragonflight, Amberstar and Ambermoon, three cRPGs from Thalion Software of Germany. Both Dragonflight and Amberstar originated on the Atari ST whereas Ambermoon originated on the Amiga. Albion is PC-only.
Dragonflight Atari ST 1990
Thalion Software released Dragonflight for the Atari ST in 1990. Dragonflight is an ST-first cRPG that was ported to the Amiga in 1990.
The original Atari ST version of Dragonflight was designed and drawn by Erik Simon, programmed by Udo Fischer and composed by Jochen Hippel.
Dragonflight Features
Dragonflight employs side-on battles and a combination of top-down and first-person flip-screen exploration.
- Predefined 4-Hero party (no character creation)
- Heroes constituted by Hitpoints, Magic, XP, Character, Weapon Points, Armor Points
- Heroes gain experience points by killing enemies
- Only the Hero that lands the killing blow gets XP
- 8-way movement on top-down tile-rigged map with LoS (line of sight)
- 277x144 active drawspaces in top-down and side-on perspectives
- 160x112 active drawspace in first-person perspective
- Day/night cycle
- Icon-driven, mouse-controlled interface
- Mouse-control supports left/right-clicking
- Movement via arrow-icons or numpad
- Side-on Turn-based Battle: Move, Attack (Melee or Range), Cast Spell, Parry
- Side-on Turn-based Battle: 4-way movement with facing on 12x10 square-grid
- 10x dungeons
- 12x urban areas
- 11x White Magic spells
- 9x Black Magic spells
- 9x "Everyday" spells
- 13x enemy-types
- Arms & Armor
- Potions, Wands & Adornments
- ~150x usable items
- Lightsource required in dungeons (torches)
Atari ST Dragonflight displays in 16-from-512 color 320x200.
Atari ST Dragonflight requires 512K of RAM and was distributed on 3x 3.5" 720kB diskettes. A blank, formatted disk is also needed.
Dragonflight manual: 104 pages
Dragonflight copy protection: reference to game manual: page, line, word.
Amberstar Atari ST 1992
Thalion Software released Amberstar for the Atari ST in 1992. Amberstar is an ST-first cRPG that was ported to the Amiga in 1992. Set in the medieval fantasy world of Lyramion, Amberstar is successor to Dragonflight and constitutes the first part of the never-completed Amber Trilogy.
The original Atari ST Amberstar was designed by Karsten Köper, lead-programmed by Jurie Horneman, lead-drawn by Monika Krawinkel and composed by Jochen Hippel.
The object of Amberstar is to collect the 13 fragments of the Amberstar talisman and defeat the demon lord God of Chaos, Tarbos.
Amberstar added an automap, recruitable companions, a dialogue system and directional on-screen arrows to the top-down view.
Amberstar Features
- 15-character PC name
- Maximum six-person party
- 7x Races, 8x Classes, 9x Stats
- 12x percentage-based class abilities
- Level 50 cap
- Party formation setting
- Battle Mode: Flee, Move, Attack, Cast Spell & Parade
- 11x negative status effects and cures therefor (herbs)
- Joinable guilds and promotions
- Purchaseable boats, horses and rafts
- 28x White Magic Spells
- 26x Grey Magic Spells
- 22x Black Magic Spells
- Spells are single-target friend, foe or object and AoE friend or foe
- Thieving: Search, Find Trap, Disarm Trap and Pick Lock
- 7x trap-types (poison, disease, gas etc.)
- Keyword dialogue (text input)
- Vision radius modified by time of day
- First-person active drawspace 144x144 (explore) / 176x112 (battle)
Atari ST Amberstar requires 1 meg of RAM, was distributed on 3x 3.5" 720kB diskettes and installs to hard disk drive via Amberstar Installation. The install size is 2½ megs.
Amberstar character creation only appears during the game installation procedure of Install.prg. Players name their character, choose gender and portrait, and roll and reroll their attributes. After that, players choose whether to install Amberstar to 3x separate 3.5" diskettes or hard disk drive. Amberstar is then run from Amberstar.prg.
Naturally, playing Amberstar from hard disk drive is far better than disk-swapping and waiting for the game to load all the time. However, the vast majority of ST owners did not own hard disk drives in 1992.
PC DOS Amberstar requires 590,848 bytes of free conventional memory and takes advantage of EMS and XMS memory.
Amberstar Manual: 162 pages.
Ambermoon Amiga 1993
Thalion Software released Ambermoon for the Amiga in 1993. Ambermoon is an Amiga-first cRPG that never saw an Atari ST release. Ambermoon is the sequel to Amberstar; its in-game action set 90 years after the events of Amberstar.
Amiga Ambermoon was lead-programmed by Jurie Horneman, composed by Matthias Steinwachs, designed by Karsten Köper and Erik Simon, and drawn by Thorsten Mutschall, Monika Krawinkel, Erik Simon and Henk Nieborg.
Ambermoon Features
- 32-from-4096 color 320x200
- 6-person party
- Interpolated first-person exploration
- 144x144 active drawspace (explore) / 320x95 (battle)
Amiga Ambermoon requires 1 meg of RAM, was distributed on 9x 3.5" 880kB diskettes and extracts and install to hard disk drive via Ambermoon Installation. The install size is 7 megs.
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