Exactly the same problem here.

I'm running WinXp on a P3 1Ghz.

with VDMSound I get exactly the same problem as Yoni.

I also tried DOSbox (crashes in the sound setup)
and ScummVM (doesn't run at all)

so VDMSound is best till now, but has this nasty left-scroll-glitch 🙁

Any new conclusions about this topic, today?

Thanks, PrivatePanic

But this crash happens without VDMSound as well, right?
Any type of video card in particular?
V.

Yes, setup doesn't run without VDMSound, but when set up once, the game WILL run without VDMSound. The music then is messed up and the sounds work, but the left-scroll-crash is there, too. I only prefer to run it with VDMSound because of the music 😉

Then, I can't say about Videocards apart from mine, and that is a ASUS V8440 GeForce4 TI4400 w/ 128 Mb DDR RAM and the Detonator 40.71 drivers.

All signs point to a poorly coded game. Not a whole lot we can do, although maybe someone that's in the know around here can do some poking around in the code and make a patch.

Speaking of patches, are there any (and have you tried them)?

Yes, there is one, indeed.

I d/l'ed it and tried it, and it says "simon.wav not found". I looked on the CD, there's a "simon.voc". So, I did a little bit of research in the net, and found the tool "simon2mp3" that should convert this voc file into a mp3 (the file is NO standard Soundblaster-VOC-File, by the way.)

When I tried to run that tool, it crashed and demanded the lame.exe; so I searched and d/l'ed the newest LAME encoder and put it into the same folder, and tried again to run simon2mp3.

It ran then, converting a whole hour (or so), producing a whole lot of verbose output on my screen.

The mp3 file resulting, though, was no valid mp3 - couldn't open it with any mp3 player/editor.

So, I then forgot the patch and posted here 😉

Sounds like that's the only patch available (Patches-Scrolls was the only place I found it)
http://www.dlh.net/cgi-bin/dp.cgi?lang=eng&re … ps&sys=pc&cap=s

I'm guessing that the CD(s) you have is/are DOS only? It sounds like running the Win9x version is about the only way out.

There's also the option of emulating the Amiga version (AGA: 256-color/RTG version available), but I think that was based on a floppy version.

PrivatePanic wrote:

I also tried DOSbox (crashes in the sound setup)
and ScummVM (doesn't run at all)

That's funny - ScummVM sez it's almost completable.
http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/

Are you using SCUMMVM v0.30 (just came out last week)?
See the compatibility list:
http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/compatibility.php

No, the thing is that if I want to run it with ScummVM, it also needs the simon.wav... (yes, downloaded it yesterday)

but as I couldn't convert the simon.voc to a mp3 correctly, I'm also not able to make a wave out of it 🙁

The Patch you posted the link to is the same I allready got.

Well I will see if I can get a manual for that patch... in the meantime, maybe you have an idea how to convert the voc file correctly 😀

Thanks, PrivatePanic

Found this:
For Simon the sorceror 1+2, they do not run properly when used on a PC with an MMX or higher processor. To get round this problem there is a patch for both games to make them work properly under new computers

They didn't have a patch to download though...not sure what to make of it.

http://www.adventuresoft.com/patches.htm
The MMX patches are there. Hope they help.

Well the MMX Patch seems to be identical to the one Nicht Sehr Gut posted earlier today.

But well, I managed to make a simon2.wav 😀 Now under ScummVM, it runs, but only without music.

And if I try to run it with the MMX patch (that is, without ScummVM), it doesn't start, it immediately quits with the error msg: "Failed to create DirectSound buffer". I looked up the FAQ on the Simon2 troubleshoot page, but the solutions there didn't work, either.

*sigh* it seems I'll have to wait some more until I can play Simon2 again...

I'll stick to Day Of The Tentacle then, that's running perfectly under VDMSound...

or has anybody another suggestion for Simon2? 😀

PrivatePanic

Converting a VOC file to MP3 and then to WAV is a terrible way to do that. However, it doesn't sound like it matters. There are a bunch of possibilities. Perhaps Ender has some ideas. My most immediate thought is that it's using redbook audio and ScummVM wants a WAV of that. Just a thought.
I use Cool Edit Pro 1.2a (2.0 crashes on my machine for whatever reason) to do audio editing. 😀

Hm. The reason why I converted first to mp3 and then to wave is, that the simon2.voc was NOT a standard SB-Voc format. My voc2wav converter and Cool Edit wouldn't open it.

Then, there was that simon2mp3 converter, that made a mp3 out of it. This, however, was NO standard mp3 as well, as cool edit didn't open it.

For some strange reasons, winamp 2.7 WAS able to open the mp3, and with the disc-writer plugin of winamp, I was able to write a wav-file from it.

*g*

Err...yeah...okay...

maybe the .VOC was actually a .WAV in disguise?

Originally posted by PrivatePanic ...or has anybody another suggestion for Simon2?

Try and find the Win9x version (I thought they were packaged together) or emulate the Amiga version.

That's all I have for now.

Ender should know about this thread. Email him, or pop over to the SCUMMVM forums on sourceforge.

Yes. Thanks to everybody so far, and have a nice x-mas 😉