Britannia47: Hello!
I am playing the "Heirs of Skull Crag" adventure that was included in "Unlimited Adventures" as an example.
After closing DOSBox in an ill-fated fight and restarting I wanted to load and the game says "Disk Read Error", and after clicking it says "Insert Disk 3". Nothing more.
This is or all saves (except new ones after the error, but that means starting new).
Can this be fixed?
Or at least prevented? Maybe by saves backup? Where are the saves?
Is this a risk also in the Pool- and Frontier-series? I did not encounter such problems them in the Krynn-series.
If you can find the character data files you can back them up and transfer them to a new saved game. Or toss in the save game files, too--maybe backing up just the character and save game files and reinstalling will work. You can't work with just the save game files, you need the character files, too.
For where the saved games and other important files are, you should really master this in one of the other Gold Box games first. No, I don't remember where you can find the directory/folder on gog games.
But when you find it, there should be another subdirectory [I'm showing my age here] called SAVE and also a subdirectory called cloud_saves or something which will have very simlar data. (Sorry I don't know which you're supposed to go to, I keep forgetting how cloud saves work in this series. From here on I'm assuming the Save folder.) When you find the correct subdirectory, you'll find the following types of files:
Character name files. They're named after your character. They have an extension, like .ITM, .CHA, and may be up to two to three per character. These are
not characters in your saved games. They're usually characters available to be added to a party from the main menu or a training ground. And you will find some inconsistencies. Sometimes they appear even though you have an active game. Sometimes they don't.
--For these files (as well as character data files within your saved games), each extension carries a separate piece of data about the character. There's one that carries their basic statistics: usually .CHA. There's a file for their inventory: .ITM. And there's also usually one that carries their active special effects.
Save game files: SAVEGAMX, where X is the name of the game save (SAVEGAMA, SAVGAMB, etc.) They're named after save games A-J. These files mark your location (triggered events, etc.) in the game. Nothing else.
Character data files, in the form of CHARDATX#.YYY (e.g. CHARDATA1.ITM, CHARDATA2.CHA, CHARDATA2.ITM, CHARDATB1.ITM, etc)
Where X = the saved game (A-J) the character data is in.
YYY is the extension and thus the type of data being stored (stats, items, effects)
And # is the position of the character in the party in that saved game, from 1-8.
Finally, titles with a Vault tend to have only one Vault save per save folder. Which is problematic.
Unlimited Adventures is only slightly different. Basically, the FRUA folder is an additional umbrella folder above. Under the FRUA folder, it's like it's carrying several different Gold Box game titles (Heirs of Skull Crag and an other modules that you make), each with their own lists of files and their own save/cloud_save folders.
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So there's a couple of things you can do.
Probably the most conservative thing you can do is make backups of your Save and Cloud_save folders, and switch which set of files the game is reading from, so see where the corruption is. You may have backups you didn't realize you had.
The second most conservative thing you can do is make a backup of the entire Save file [and the cloud_save file], and uninstall and reinstall the game (making sure the Save file is deleted on uninstall), hoping that the corrupted data is in the other game files and not the save files.
To answer your question more directly, if you copy a BACK UP of your character data files from one saved game, make a new save corresponding to the same letter, and then replace the character data files, you'll effectively transfer your characters from one part of the game to another. I warn you that it is very easy to make errors and miss a file or two. [And it's even more troublesome with the gog version].
Similarly, if you think your game installation is corrupted but your saved games and characters are otherwise intact, you can back up your save game and character files, and then uninstall and reinstall the game--making sure the save files are deleted when you uninstall.
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Something like this does happen in Pool of Radiance at times when you try to add characters to a party. It happens when you've removed a character from a party, reloaded from a save that has that character, then try to add that character to another save. I think it also happens if you start a new game, quit without saving, and try to add one of your newly created characters (although in some other games you simply lose the character).
I wouldn't expect you to run into this error through this method in Unlimited Adventures because it and Dark Queen of Krynn are pretty aggressive at making sure you don't lose characters in this way.
