CBoE downloads gone?

[SkeleTony_13]

Hello,

 

I decided to play some BoE scenarios but evidently I only have the original freeware release of BoE from Spiderweb which I determined after noticing I could not have more than like 10 or 12 scenarios in my scenarios folder (or actually that it all that will show up when I boot the game and try to select a custom scenario). So I came here to get a newer version that still runs in Windows XP but the download links to the 'Calref' pages are not working.

Is there an alternate download link somewhere (with notes about versions not running in Win XP)?

 

Edit: ACK! In the above I meant x32 bit Win XP BTW.

Edited April 18, 2018 by SkeleTony_13
Added clarification

[Ess-Eschas]

Hello SkeleTony_13,

 

Thankfully, several of the old links in the forum header have been preserved by the excellent Internet Archive. I'm not a Windows user myself, so I'm afraid I can't test this, but I believe you can find the version of BoE you are looking for at this link:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20171027113618/https://blades.calref.net/files/BoE-1.2.0a-win32.exe

[SkeleTony_13]

Hello Ess-Eschas,

 

Sadly I think the version you linked to above is the same 1.2 version I already have (the 'older' version I mentioned in the OP which does not seem to allow for many custom scenarios).

 

EDIT: Ack again! Your above version is indeed fitting my OP request. I was looking at the '1.2' number and thinking the version I had was 1.2 (it is actually 1.01 or some such and not CBoE but just BoE) . Thanks much!

 

Digging around on my PC I found a version of CBoE that runs for the most part (lot of buggy error messages when I open some function or close the programs though) but apparently is  not compatible with older BoE scenarios. It uses a different 'CBOES' file type which the three included scenarios all have (Small Rebellion, Za-Khazi run etc.) but since the older custom scenarios do not use such I think they will not load in CBoE.

Edited April 19, 2018 by SkeleTony_13
Corrected information

[Celtic Minstrel]

...was there ever a version of BoE that uses .cboes as a file extension? The open source version uses .boes (no C). You could give it a try if you want, though I think it's still not stable. It can definitely open old .exs scenarios, too.

[SkeleTony_13]

I may have mistakenly added the 'C' to the 'boes'  extension Celtic'. All I know was that I had a version that could not open or run any scenarios save for the three included (Za Khazi, Small Rebellion, Valley...) which themselves had the '.boes' extension. I don't think I want to mess with newer, unstable versions for several reasons : I am on Windows XP and now days fewer and fewer games will run on such and also I don't think I have the time or patience right now to deal with massive bugs.

[Celtic Minstrel]

As far as I know, the unstable version is the only one that uses a .boes extension, and it can still load .exs scenarios too. In theory it also runs on XP, though this hasn't been extensively tested.

 

If you want a stable version your best option is probably to either find the Ormus version or (provided your Windows is not 64-bit) just download the original version from Spiderweb's site.

[SkeleTony_13]

The version I am using (the one Ess Eschas linked to above) works fine, save for the occasional weird crash to desktop. The version on Spiderweb's site (which is what I was using before I started this thread) is no good for me because it only seems to allow for a handful of custom scenarios and I have played through Valley of the Dying Things, A Small Rebellion etc. far too many times so the custom scenarios being as plentiful as possible is a must for me.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Huh? The version from Spiderweb's site should be able to run all existing scenarios with the exception of Sylae's more recent one (I forget what it was called though). It's true that it can't show more than a certain number of scenarios in the scenario selection dialog, but you can get around that by manually moving around the scenario files. I guess it's a bit tedious but it should work.

[Richard Bacon]

On 4/27/2018 at 8:57 PM, Celtic Minstrel said:

Huh? The version from Spiderweb's site should be able to run all existing scenarios with the exception of Sylae's more recent one (I forget what it was called though). It's true that it can't show more than a certain number of scenarios in the scenario selection dialog, but you can get around that by manually moving around the scenario files. I guess it's a bit tedious but it should work.

What happen to the version you gave me that was in a zip archive?

[Celtic Minstrel]

If it was one of the experimental builds from my website, it's still there. The links in the forum header are actually outdated, but they should still redirect to the correct place. I'll update them though.

 

If it wasn't one of the experimental builds, then I don't know what happened to it. The version downloadable from Spiderweb's site should still work, though they require XP or older (or WINE if you're not on Windows, and if you're on Vista or later you probably need something like VirtualPC to emuate XP).

 

(Actually those builds may well work on Vista too, I'm not sure; but they won't work on Windows 7 unless you have an emulator, though Win7 Pro does ship with one specifically for this purpose.)

[keira]

my bad, blades.calref.net stopped being a thing a few months ago for Reasons. i've attached all the files that were uploaded there tho, for posterity.

 

apologies for breaking all these links 😔

alint-0.9.1_sytest1-win32.zip

BoE Scenario Editor PWF.exe

BoE-1.2.0a-win32.exe

BoE-Carbon-latest.zip

CBoE-x86_64.zip

[Chopkinsca]

All those attachments give me an error.

 

sorry, there is a problem

This attachment is not available. It may have been removed or the person who shared it may not have permission to share it to this location.
Error code: 2C171/1

[Ess-Eschas]

27 minutes ago, Chopkinsca said:

All those attachments give me an error.

 

Ah, this is something that's come up before, so I just thought I'd give a heads up here. The attachments that keira put up can only be accessed by moderators; I don't think that's made very clear when a moderator is logged in.

A setting needs to be changed to make them accessible to regular users, but I think only keira or another moderator can do that.

[Celtic Minstrel]

I've uploaded the four BoE files to OpenBoe.com.

[BainIhrno]

When I downloaded the Windows version, I noticed the graphics seem to be missing. Do I have to download them separately?

[Celtic Minstrel]

I wouldn't think so? That would be really weird.

[Richard Bacon]

On 3/21/2019 at 7:12 PM, Celtic Minstrel said:

I wouldn't think so? That would be really weird?

is blades of exile build_05.02.2011 version 1.20a?

[BainIhrno]

Well, I tried putting all the Windows graphics files in the same folder - doesn't seem to work.

[Richard Bacon]

On 6/19/2019 at 11:08 AM, BainIhrno said:

Well, I tried putting all the Windows graphics files in the same folder - doesn't seem to work.

What do you mean

[BainIhrno]

Well, I downloaded CBoE - I just seem to get a dark screen when I open the game, with no graphics. I thought if I put the windows graphics files in the same folder (i.e. MONST1, MONST2) it would work but it doesn't.

[michaelweb1]

I'm having the same issue. I downloaded the boe-1.2.0a-win32.exe and tried to install and got error with no way to continue the install and had to abort.

 

I then transitioned to downloading, unzipping, and running cboe-x86_64.zip, got it running but it is dark/there are no graphics. Should I download the rest of the files in openboe.com link and put them all in the same folder?

[Celtic Minstrel]

So, if that .exe download really is the game executable and not an installer, what I would recommend trying is to download the free version from Spiderweb's website, then just replace the executable.

[michaelweb1]

 

On 9/13/2019 at 8:39 PM, Celtic Minstrel said:

So, if that .exe download really is the game executable and not an installer, what I would recommend trying is to download the free version from Spiderweb's website, then just replace the executable.

Thank you, that seems like a great idea. However, when I try to download and install straight from the source I am unable to.

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by michaelweb1

[Celtic Minstrel]

I just double-checked, but it looks like my wild theory was incorrect - the file "BoE-1.2.0awin32.exe" is an installer, not a program file. On the other hand, if you were using the file "CBoE_x86_64", it looks like it did indeed omit the resources for some reason, so I've copied the resources from the installer into that archive. Try redownloading; if they're still missing, try again after clearing your browser cache. (Something like that really shouldn't be in your browser cache, but I was having problems with it in Firefox, so maybe something's misconfigured somwhere.) I tested that the game runs properly with those graphics as far as the title screen; I didn't verify they work correctly in the actual game, though. Let me know how it goes.

[michaelweb1]

Thank you very much, it worked! The game runs fine and I can go adventuring again! Much appreciated!

 

By the way, you wouldn't know where the character editor is? To help heal your party, restock inventory, etc? It didn't come with the download package.

[Celtic Minstrel]

My understanding is that the people who worked on the version known as "CBoE" didn't bother with the character editor… though I'm pretty sure they did work on the scenario editor, which is also missing in that package for some reason. If the "BoE-1.2.0a-win32.exe" installer doesn't work for you, then there's probably nothing to be done about it. :(

 

There are experimental versions somewhere, which do include the character editor; however, the save files in those versions are not compatible with those in CBoE, and the game itself may not be entirely stable.

 

Since you can't use the character editor, it might be possible to heal your party using debug mode, which enables a number of cheats. I think CBoE might require you to enter the scenario's password to activate that, though. Still... it could be worth a try. Debug mode is activated with Shift+D, after which you can press / to see a list of additional cheat codes.

[michaelweb1]

 

On 9/16/2019 at 12:08 AM, Celtic Minstrel said:

My understanding is that the people who worked on the version known as "CBoE" didn't bother with the character editor… though I'm pretty sure they did work on the scenario editor, which is also missing in that package for some reason. If the "BoE-1.2.0a-win32.exe" installer doesn't work for you, then there's probably nothing to be done about it.

 

There are experimental versions somewhere, which do include the character editor; however, the save files in those versions are not compatible with those in CBoE, and the game itself may not be entirely stable.

 

Since you can't use the character editor, it might be possible to heal your party using debug mode, which enables a number of cheats. I think CBoE might require you to enter the scenario's password to activate that, though. Still... it could be worth a try. Debug mode is activated with Shift+D, after which you can press / to see a list of additional cheat codes.

 

Thanks again, it works and it helps! Healing was all I really needed. If/when I want to get additional scenarios, am I able to add to this version of Blades that I have and is there a list of scenario passwords?

[Celtic Minstrel]

You can add scenarios to that version, sure. I don't know about a list of scenario passwords though...

[michaelweb1]

On 9/18/2019 at 8:54 PM, Celtic Minstrel said:

You can add scenarios to that version, sure. I don't know about a list of scenario passwords though...

 

I see. Thanks again for all your help!