[Beemans]

Landscape profile designed for a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

The Black Cauldron is an unusual Sierra adventure that uses their parser-based AGI engine, but has no text parser. Instead, actions are performed via context-sensitive hotkeys. This unique design makes the game well suited to touchscreen adaptation.

Most functions are straightforward and/or according to the manual, apart from the “Auto” button which toggles character movement behavior:

• With Auto on, keyboard movement is emulated. Your character will keep moving in the direction pressed until manually halted. To stop, repeat the current direction or use the d-pad’s red center button. Auto is on by default.

• With Auto off, joystick movement is emulated. Your character will only move while a direction is held and stop on release. This is useful for areas that require precise movements.

To advance text messages, tap any action button or the main picture window.

If the profile breaks somehow, an invisible reset button in the bottom-left corner of the screen should fix most problems.

Magic Dosbox settings:

For the profile to work properly, the settings joystick=2axis and cycles=2000 should be left as is. Changing the cycle count can cause game errors, including joystick calibration issues, and might affect some widget timings.

This profile is set to use Tandy emulation to take advantage of the game’s 3-Voice music and sound effects, but these settings will be overwritten if you update your paths using Magic Dosbox’s “Get” function. To restore Tandy emulation, Expert Commands must be enabled with these settings:

[dosbox]
machine=tandy

[speaker]
tandy=true
tandyrate=44100

Tandy mode is optional and only affects sound.

Attachments:

1. Cauldron.mgc

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