King's Bounty version 1.01 (unofficial):
1. Two more optimal CGA palette combinations have been added to the existing 8, and one has been replaced with a less optimal one.
2. When running in CGA mode on EGA/VGA/SVGA/MCGA, 4-color and 3-color palettes have been added, replacing palettes 6 and 7.
3. The skills, parameters, and costs of all creatures have been rebalanced.
4. Resettlement has been carried out according to morality groups.
5. Now only winged creatures can fly.
6. Castle troops are now found in roaming, joinable units.
7. All 17 villains now have themed and/or high-morale armies.
It runs on the version from the HoMM disc.

Wow, nice one. Didnt have a chance to try it out yet, but I love how there is still improvement work done on old games.

Will check it out for sure. 😀

After several months of development, a compatibility package for various graphics cards is set to be released:

┌───────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
│    320x200    │ 640x200/400/480 │       720x348/350        │
├───────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ M - MCGA      │ W - SVGA         │ I - Hercules color      │
│ V - VGA       │ 4 - TMS34010     │ H - Hercules monochrome │
│ E - EGA       │ 8 - IBM 8514/A   │ R - Orchid monochrome   │
│ C - CGA       │ X - XGA          │ 3 - 3270 PC              │
│ T - Tandy     │ G - PGC          ├───────────────────────────┘
│ P - Colorplus │ S - Sigma        │
│ Q - Quadcolor │ A - PC1512       │
│ B - GP II     │ D - DEB          │
└───────────────┤ O - Olivetti     │
                │ Y - WY-700       │
                │ N - NGA          │
                └──────────────────┘

Great work, I wonder what other software supports Orchid

Color Graphics Adapter:

Enhanced Graphics Adapter:

Video Graphics Array:

Sigma Designs Color 400:

Professional Graphics Controller:

Didn't know they fixed PGC in 86Box

Amstrad PC1512:

Hercules Graphics Card:

IBM 3270 PC:

Olivetti M24:

Wyse WY-700:

Quadram Quadcolor:

The remaining graphic modes generate images identical to the existing ones.

Interesting as I still play this game from time to time. Can you give more details about "The skills, parameters, and costs of all creatures have been rebalanced"?
Nice that you want to add support for less known graphic cards. SVGA version to come - any reason to use it instead of VGA?

eM-!3 wrote on Yesterday, 08:17:

Interesting as I still play this game from time to time.

Came across it completely by chance in late 1990 during a visit to the Palace of Pioneers in Kiev. From there, transferred it to the Young technicians' station. Played on black-and-white and four-color CGA monitors.

eM-!3 wrote on Yesterday, 08:17:

Can you give more details about "The skills, parameters, and costs of all creatures have been rebalanced"?

Of course can, but will it be interesting to play? There are hints of changes in the text output by the patch itself.

eM-!3 wrote on Yesterday, 08:17:

SVGA version to come - any reason to use it instead of VGA?

On a real monitor of that time, of course, but DOSBox can scale anyway. =)

CGA Composite:

yevrowl wrote on Yesterday, 10:15:

Came across it completely by chance in late 1990 during a visit to the Palace of Pioneers in Kiev. From there, transferred it to the Young technicians' station. Played on black-and-white and four-color CGA monitors.

I also discovered KB in early 90s before HoMM was released.

yevrowl wrote on Yesterday, 10:15:

eM-!3 wrote on Yesterday, 08:17:

Can you give more details about "The skills, parameters, and costs of all creatures have been rebalanced"?

Of course can, but will it be interesting to play? There are hints of changes in the text output by the patch itself.

I saw info but there are no details. Which units were changed? Did you change HP, cost etc.? I want to know what was balanced and how. What was the goal behind it. Is this a one man effort or is it a work of some community which discusses shortcomings of the game?

Last year I made a useless change to the game. With AI assistance and https://moddingwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/King%27s_Bounty info I was able to extract endpic.256 file which allowed me to delete 416.cc file and still be able to run the game without any issues. It saved me over 300 kB so I can fit it on my custom DOS floppy image.

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 08:40:

I saw info but there are no details. Which units were changed? Did you change HP, cost etc.? I want to know what was balanced and how.

Salary:
Sprite - weekly pay = 2, not 1
Skeleton - weekly pay = 3, not 4
Archer - weekly pay = 10, not 25
Pikemen - weekly pay = 15, not 30
Dwarf - weekly salary = 25, not 30
Elf - weekly salary = 30, not 20
Nomad - moves 4 squares, not 2
Giant - moves 2 squares, not 3

Gnomes now have a one magic attack.
Archmages are no longer a lifting force on the map.
Sprites no longer prevent others (Vampires, Demons, Dragons) from flying, but they themselves are not a lifting force on the map.

Units have been reassigned according to their morale groups:
Wagon: Peasants, Dwarves, Nomads, Barbarians, Giants
Tree: Sprites, Gnomes, Elves, Druids, Archmages
Cave: Wolves, Orcs, Ogres, Trolls, Dragons
Crypt: Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Demons
SL is set according to the levels in the lairs. Removed cheating SL=6 (for demons and dragons).

Among the joining roving squads, there are now also troops from the central castle (this was not the case in the original).
In villainous castles, troops are selected by theme, in accordance with the preface, and primarily with a focus on high morale as per the table in the manual.

There may be some other minor details; not all of the discussion was documented in any way.

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 08:40:

What was the goal behind it.

The goal is about 30 years late. =)
The idea came about by chance. We saw how the The 8-Bit Guy made Planet X3 for a variety of graphics adapters and decided to try it on King's Bounty. And at the same time, we wanted to try changing what we would have liked in our happy Soviet childhood. =)
We found time for this because most of our company is confined to their apartments due to mobilization raids.
P. S. We're currently considering adding a number of sound adapters — King's Bounty sound

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 08:40:

Is this a one man effort or is it a work of some community which discusses shortcomings of the game?

We received tips and tricks from several game enthusiasts we knew, but the actual AI work and some manual edits using our limited knowledge of DOS programming were done by two people.

yevrowl wrote on Today, 14:08:

We received tips and tricks from several game enthusiasts we knew, but the actual AI work and some manual edits using our limited knowledge of DOS programming were done by two people.

Perhaps this is yet outside of your current scope, but in addition to appreciating you project as it is, here's hoping that maybe it will also motivate you to create your own retro game sometime!

yevrowl wrote on Today, 14:08:

Giant - moves 2 squares, not 3 Gnomes now have a one magic attack. Archmages are no longer a lifting force on the map. SL is set […]
Show full quote

Giant - moves 2 squares, not 3
Gnomes now have a one magic attack.
Archmages are no longer a lifting force on the map.
SL is set according to the levels in the lairs. Removed cheating SL=6 (for demons and dragons).

Looks like you targetted many top tier units and made them worse. Giants were useless already as they are available on last continent when it's too late to want them in the army. Archmages are not available in numbers so they required Clone spell to be useful in late game when they become available. Without fly ability there is no reason to have them.

I like your idea to give Gnomes single shot. It will make them more interesting and also more challenging to fight against them with no casualties.

I don't know how important SL is. Does it mean that Peasants and Sprites can finally kill Demons and Dragons? Does it affect their fight results vs other units?

Anyway I will surely try it out.

MrFlibble wrote on Today, 15:31:

yevrowl wrote on Today, 14:08:

We received tips and tricks from several game enthusiasts we knew, but the actual AI work and some manual edits using our limited knowledge of DOS programming were done by two people.

Perhaps this is yet outside of your current scope, but in addition to appreciating you project as it is, here's hoping that maybe it will also motivate you to create your own retro game sometime!

I've been creating simple logic puzzles with long breaks in between since 1989 year — http://sf.net/u/yevrowl

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 16:23:

Giants were useless already as they are available on last continent when it's too late to want them in the army. Archmages are not available in numbers so they required Clone spell to be useful in late game when they become available. Without fly ability there is no reason to have them.

A typical playthrough on the impossible difficulty level involves quickly finding the maps to the next continent and the Time Stop, Town Gate, and Castle Gate spells. After that, on the second or third continent, use load-save tactics (or find the lair) to recruit a flying unit to collect as much as possible from the maps, and also visit all the cities and castles. Next, form a highly moraled ranged army of elves, druids, archmages, and giants, which clears the first three continents with almost no losses. Amat victoria curam.

P. S. You've brought up an interesting idea about adding a maximum log population in the patch — 250 units in each, regardless of type.

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 16:23:

I like your idea to give Gnomes single shot. It will make them more interesting and also more challenging to fight against them with no casualties.

Is equal to half their melee attack: since the shot is magical (like those of druids and archmages), it has no effect on dragons.

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 16:23:

I don't know how important SL is. Does it mean that Peasants and Sprites can finally kill Demons and Dragons? Does it affect the […]
Show full quote

I don't know how important SL is. Does it mean that Peasants and Sprites can finally kill Demons and Dragons? Does it affect their fight results vs other units?[/qute]
Yes, can now. SL affects the effectiveness percentage relative to higher- and lower-level enemies. Moreover, the formula is designed such that a 5-SL gap makes it impossible to deal damage. Therefore, the 6th SL level, which the two mentioned types were on, has been removed entirely.

eM-!3 wrote on Today, 16:23:

Anyway I will surely try it out.

Please try the editor mentioned in the first post of this thread. It should run from the game directory (requires 416.CC and 256.CC). What do you think?