Welcome to Nox Archaist Companion! It is a fully self-contained multiplatform application for running Nox Archaist, the great Apple 2e RPG of 2020. It goes beyond simple emulation, and provides you with an automap, configurable windows to display all sorts of useful in-game information, a customizable CRT shader, as well as an auto-log which continuously copies conversations into a window that you can edit, translate, save...
Nox Archaist Companion also provides GameLink support for Grid Cartographer, a Windows-only commercial program that helps you map as you play (or use existing maps).
Nox Archaist Companion's emulation layer is based on AppleWin, the canonical Apple 2 emulator. This program would never have seen the light of day without the amazing work of the AppleWin developers.
- Copy the Nox Companion folder anywhere you want.
- Run the companion executable or MacOS bundle. The first time you run it, it will ask you to select the Nox Archaist .HDV file you want to use. It will remember it for future sessions.
The Companion embeds a heavily modified version of AppleWin, and will automatically load Nox Archaist after you select the Nox .HDV file.
There are a number of emulation options, all directly accessible from the main menu bar. Playing at max speed automatically disables sound, and it will generally play so fast that you won't see battle animations. This is highly discouraged unless you've become very adept at the game.
Version 3 of Nox Companion has an integrated automapping tool, with the ability to right click to create an annotation on any tile. This doesn't replace a full mapping tool (see GridCartographer below), but it significantly improves the quality of life in playing the game, for those who want it.
Right click on the map to add a tile annotation. You can have annotations be hover-only or always visible.
One of the key features of the Companion is its data windows. A data window renders a template, which is JSON document that specifies what the Companion should display. The Companion has support for many types of data in memory, including being able to translate numeric identifiers into strings (something very useful when you want to show "Short Sword +1" instead of 0x0b).
The documentation for these is sorely lacking, but I've included a number of templates for Nox Archaist in NoxData/templates. Feel free to experiment and ping me for more info.
The Companion provides support for Grid Cartographer's Gamelink feature. Grid Cartographer is a commercial app https://store.steampowered.com/app/684690/Grid_Cartographer/ for map creation, and Nox Archaist Companion can be used alongside it to significantly improve your mapping experience. If you own GC, run it, and go to Game Browser > Auto Tracking > Import. When the filesystem browser shows up, point it to your Nox Archaist Companion folder, inside Profiles > Grid Cartographer Profiles, and select the file there.
Once this one-time setup is done, whenever you run the Companion and GC, you'll be able to map your way through the game while always knowing where you are, and in which region.
The Companion automatically logs all conversations, and optionally combat. When logging combat, you should probably activate the "combat math" by pressing SHIFT+8 while in combat (this is a Nox Archaist Feature). You can show the log file from the menu. You can copy, paste, or otherwise modify the text within the log window. You can (also from the menu) load and save the log.
WARNING: Save or copy the log window content somewhere else before you quit the app or it is lost forever!
There's a Hacks window you can access via the Companion menu. Use at your own risk. :)
Happy retro RPG gaming, and see you on the Nox Archaist Discord server: http://discord.noxarchaist.com
Rikkles, Lebanon, 2021-2026.
@rikretro on twitter https://github.com/hasseily/NoxArchaistCompanion