So, I've finished the castle, been a heck of a ride going through the ol' game. But I noticed there's two spots on my map that I haven't visited. A small bit around 12N2E, and a larger bit around 7N18E. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get into either one.

The smaller one just doesn't have a door, nor any teleport leading in. The larger one actually has an entrance, but it's blocked by a teleporter that sends the party far away. There's no other path in. Phase Door and Apport don't work on this floor. It's been so long since I've played BT1, I can't even recall if I ever managed to get into these areas, or forgot they existed completely.

Anyone know if these areas are even reachable?

There is no entrance to the 1x2 rectangle at 12N 2E. No secret door, and no teleporter that I'm aware of.

As for the larger 2x4 area, I think that's just blocked by the teleporter, and there's nothing you can do about it if APAR is blocked. There's nothing critical in either of these areas. At least, there wasn't in the original game.

It's put there to drive people with OCD crazy.

How do you think I figured that out? :)

This sort of reminds me of a couple bugs in the DOS version of Bard's Tale 3; one bug (that was present in DOS BT1 and DOS BT2) would allow you to gain a level by being level drained, having it healed at a temple, and then go to the review board, but another bug makes it impossible to get level drained in the first place.

(In case you're wondering, to discover this bug, I hacked my save file so that the game thinked one of my charaters had been level drained, and then went to the temple to get the level restored.)

These areas were entirely unreachable in the C64 & Apple IIe & Apple IIgs versions of the original game.
The Amiga port incorrectly permitted phase dooring into these areas. In Harkyn's 2 it kind of doesn't matter because these unreachable areas make no real sense. It feels a little more galling on Mangar 1 where the thematic infinite corridor can be bypassed.

None of them have anything in them, not even fixed encounter squares.

Except that Mangar 1 is teleport-allowed in both versions I have played.

In BT1, the only levels where teleport seems to be forbidden are:
Catacombs 3
Harkyn's 2 (but not 3)
Kylerian's 1
Mangar's 4 and 5

Also, for whatever reason, you can teleport into Mangar's 3 from another floor, but can't teleport with Mangar's 3 without first teleporting to a different floor (which resets the riddle).

Of course, you could reach these areas by hex-editing a save state, or in the remaster, the save game, but that isn't what I would call "normal gameplay".

Edit: I am reminded of another question that can't be answered without hacking; in BT2, does the Grey Crypt allow teleporting? (I would guess that it's allowed on the first floor but not the second, but there's no way to test that without hacking, as the entire dungeon is an anti-magic zone.)

In some ports you can teleport directly to Mangar 3, and in some ports you cannot. In the originals (apple IIe and c64) you cannot.

In all of them you can teleport directly to the Mangar 2 stairs up to Mangar 3.

I don't believe in the original games you can teleport to the hidden area in Mangar 1, though you can teleport to other areas. APAR-capability seems to be slightly more complex there than simply a level-wide flag, though mostly it is the level flag.


Meanwhile, no, the Grey Crypt in the versions I have played in recent years (c64, IIgs, IIe) does not allow Apport Arcane in any fashion on either level. It's deliberately a deadly environment where you have to figure out how to get out again via a puzzle (which is communicated to the player explicitly.) Of course the save-anywhere feature on Amiga/DOS/IIgs mitigates the danger quite a bit.

Have you actually tested this by hacking the game to allow spells to be cast there? Or, alternatively, have you checked the game data to see whether the levels are flagged to allow APAR (never mind the fact that you can't normally use the spell there because it's an anti-magic zone)?

By the way, do you know what versions allow the use of spell-casting items in this dungeon? I know the DOS version does, but the Commodore 64 and Apple 2gs versions do not. (Being able to cast spells from items there helps, as you can use a Staff of Lor for healing, and can also get a magical light.) Also, which versions allow special party members to use magic successfully (the DOS version does), and which versions cause enemy ranged attacks to fizzle (happens in the the DOS version, and is rather silly).

I don't understand. I thought you were asking if APAR could be used in an unmodified game. I'm not interested in knowing whether APAR might work if you removed the antimagic effect. If you are, I think you'll have to investigate on your own. No, I consider it a bug when these items work. I'm interested in playing a game without the bugs, not so much exploiting them.

I consider it to be, perhaps, a trade-off for the fact that, in the DOS version (unlike the 2 other versions I listed) you can only use items you have equipped. In particular, I note that this restriction makes the Staff of Lor rather useless outside the Grey Crypt, as you are going to want a Mage Staff or Conjurstaff equipped at all times, and your Monk probably won't want to equip it.

Also, it looks like using a spell casting item is the only way to recruit the Vampire Dragon into your party. (Transfer the Spectre Snare from BT1 and use it on this boss.) In versions where that doesn't work, it appears that this particular monster is simply unavailable as a party member.

By the way, regarding SPBI:
* In BT1 2gs, I have seen it work (via item) on Mangar; given the in-game description of the Spectre Snare, this feels intentional. It can fail, however (it once failed for me on the Soul Sucker in Mangar 2, but a second attempt was successful).
* In BT2 DOS, it seems to work on everything except for Lagoth Zanta himself. (It's fun getting the likes of Fanskar to join your party.)
* In BT3 Apple 2, it seems to reliably work on everything I was able to try it on, including bosses (I didn't reach Tarjan).
* In BT3 C64, it seems to not work on bosses, and it can fail against other enemies (game probably gives them a saving throw); this seems to be the most balanced behavior.
In BT3 DOS, I was not able to get the spell to work at all.

Edit: I am also curious to know how versions differ in terms of bugginess, especially when the bugs affect the strategy (in some Amiga versions, Warriors are useless because they don't get extra attacks, for instance).