Dungeons of Avalon II: The Island of Darkness

Dungeons of Avalon II: The Island of Darkness is a CRPG released as a free coverdisk with German magazine Amiga Fun, and later received an English release as a coverdisk of UK-based magazine Amiga Mania issue 7. It is the sequel to Dungeons of Avalon.

Like its predecessor, it featured bugs that made the game unwinnable and a pirate release that actually fixed a bug and improved the translation.

Sub-Pages#

Bugs

Unused end cutscene#

Like the previous game, Dungeons of Avalon II has an end credits roll that is inaccessible due to a major bug which prevents the game from being completed. It is, however, a completely different bug to the first game. This time, the game crashes when entering a random encounter on the final level.

The German version received a re-release on an Amiga Games magazine CD-ROM which patches the bug, allowing it to be completed. However, the English version never received the patched re-release; even worse, it has two other bugs which also prevent progress.

To cheat and view it, just like in the last game, use a memory editor to find 0113 050e 060f and replace it with all zeroes.

Unused Traps#

The following room traps are unused.

Additionally, the following chest traps are unused. All chest traps used in this game are acid traps.

Hidden Devmessages#

The final map of the game has a hidden message which spells "END" in trap squares. Unlike the Dungeons of Avalon Castle level 2 which spells FINAL, "END" is partly accessible.

Debug Features#

Like in the first Dungeons of Avalon, there is a Monster Gallery. However, it is unlocked by beating the game. It is therefore only accessible in the bugfixed German version.

Unused Monsters and Monster Art#

Number	Image	Notes
00		Dummy image.
04		Dummy image. Byte-for-byte identical to 00. This slot was used in the previous game for the other city, but there is only one city in the sequel.
09		Dummy image.
14		Eagle. Monster and its art are unused.

Unused Items#

The following items appear in the game code, but are not obtainable by any means. The sprite for Dragonslayer is also unused. Unlike the previous game, there are no unused chests.

ID	Sprite	German	English	Notes
0x0D		DIAMANT	DIAMOND	An item with a buy price of 500 g, sells for 438 g. Uses DoA1's Wizard-Staff's item slot.
0x1D		----	----	Dummy item. Replaces DoA1's The Rune. English name has an extra space at the start.
0x2D		DRACHENTÖTER	DRAGONSLAYER	Replaces DoA1's Ruby Dagger. A powerful weapon which adds +2 attack, +1 armor, and deals 40 damage.
0x32		SCHRIFTROLLE 3	SCROLL 3	A scroll which reads "TEXT2".
0x3E		-----	----	Dummy item. German name is five dashes, English is four dashes. Replaces DoA1's Gnom Bones.
0x3F		-----	----	Dummy item. Replaces DoA1's Dwarf Bones.
0x4E		ENT. FALLE	DISARM TRAP	Scroll of the spell.

Unused Text#

Dungeon 1 Message 00 appears to be a ruler used to measure the maximum length of a text line. It's empty in English.

Regional Differences#

Like its predecessor, the offiical English translation of Dungeons of Avalon II was produced in-house. File dates suggest that the German and English builds were made a few days apart, on 14 July 1992 and 23 July 1992 respectively. The games are mechanically the same, and only difference appears to be the inclusion of English text.

However, the English translation introduces new bugs which also make the game unwinnable. It also omits the intro screen story, which is several pages long in the German version. There are also various mistranslations and misspellings in the English version, but that's par for the course.

Revisional differences#

October 1992 patch#

An updated bugfix release of the German version of Dungeons of Avalon II appeared on a cover CD-ROM with German magazine Amiga Games, Sonderausgabe 1/95 (Special Edition #1 1995). The build date is 15 October 1992, a few weeks after the game's original release. This is consistent with a fix made to following a bug report after the game's release.

The bugfix appears to resolve the problem where random encounters on the final level will crash the game (see bugs). The bugfix appears to have never been made in English.

Unusually, the six default characters have also been replaced with maximum level characters named Raymon, Phantic, Mion Jeh, Hakan, and Lady Shr, and the NPC Rahven. These may be the developer's own test characters; Hakan is named for the programmer.

Other#

Various pirate releases existed which modified the game somewhat. Pirate group DYTEC released the English version on 4 October 1992, which adds a cracktro and then boots straight into the game instead of loading Workbench. A modified distribution of the DYTEC release, dated 9 October 1992, attempts to fix the NPC bug and makes spelling and grammar corrections. This in turn received a modified release dated 11 October 1992, which adds a trainer (cheat program) by Caesar of group Palace.

References#