VOGONS


First post, by Wogoat

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I am unable to get the CD version of Gabriel Knight 1 to work in DOS

The sierra logo with the moutain and little jingle work just fine but when it tries to load the title screen it boots me out.

I have deduced that this is a sound related problem, as when I have 'no sound' selected for speech this does not happen.

Is it not recognizing the SoundBlaster? That's my best guess but all the methods that usually work for Sierra games don't seem to work for this one.

Any suggestions?

Reply 1 of 4, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Originally posted by Wogoat Any suggestions?

At the risk of sounding rude, you can start with following the "Posting Guidelines" (Important: Follow These Guidelines... at the top of each forum).

We need to know things like the OS you are using, your processor and it's speed, the souncard you are using, etc... Without hands-on access to your equipment, we need that info to narrow down the number of potential issues down to a few million possibilities...

Having said that, you might be able to glean some info from past posts by using the "Quick Search" box and typing in "Gabriel Knight".

BTW, if you don't want to hassle with posting your specs each time, simply place them in your profile, and we can pull them up quickly for each question you have.

Reply 2 of 4, by Wogoat

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Sorry bout that.
I'm using the dreaded Win XP
1.4 GHz Celeron with 128MB SDRAM
I believe my sound is SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio (that's what's listed on my Device Manager)

Well, little extra background here
I've not had problems getting most Sierra games to run, usually I just install their soundblaster patch and it works fine, usually I don't even have to use VDMSound.
I would assume this error is similar to the "Can not initialize audio hardware" message that it gives on most Sierra games when it can't play sound, except for this one it just boots me out instead. I don't know that for sure, of course, but it's my best guess.

I've searched for any Gabriel Knight posts and I have found a few which mention it, but so far nothing mentioned in past posts seems to work.

Reply 3 of 4, by Snover

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Gabriel Knight is a departure from most of Sierra's earlier SCI releases, since it is the first (I believe) to utilize full motion video. I can't give you many details, but I can tell you that if you wait until you get to the map screen to save the Windows interpreter works just fine. 😀

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 4 of 4, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Originally posted by Wogoat I've not had problems getting most Sierra games to run, usually I just install their soundblaster patch and it works fine, usually I don't even have to use VDMSound.

*gack* The native SoundBlaster emulation in XP is rather weak (emulates v2.0 of the card) and it's FM support for music is even worse (apparently dependent on you actually having an OPL chip...even then it sometimes it won't work). VDMSound will emulate a SB16 card to give you 16-Bit Stereo sound. Even if you have to "degrade" your soundcard choice for better performance (or bypass a technical glitch), it's still a better choice whenever possible.

I would assume this error is similar to the "Can not initialize audio hardware" message that it gives on most Sierra games when it can't play sound, except for this one it just boots me out instead.

I'd say it's similar, but not necessarily related. Even when these were played on the "ideal" hardware of the time, there were still bugs in many of them. It's just that with newer, faster hardware they become glaringly obvious (and sometimes prevent playing altogether...).

I've searched for any Gabriel Knight posts and I have found a few which mention it, but so far nothing mentioned in past posts seems to work.

Like Snover said, the most successful situation seen so far in XP has been to run the Windows version with all compatibility options being used and waiting until you the reach the in-game map before saving or restoring.