What version of Windows are you running?

SIERRAW.EXE is a Windows-native version of the Sierra SCI interpreter, so running it with VDMSound wouldn't make sense. There is a DOS version on the CD that you can run with DOSBox (or maybe VDMSound) though. Also, there are patches available (try http://www.dlh.net/ and http://www.geocities.com/belzorash/ and http://www.sierra.com/)

I haven't tried running it natively in XP SP2 because I was pretty sure it would be a pain in the ass...

The Windows version is not stable in XP. You keep getting a waveout error message. After you click off the error message about a couple of dozen times, the game will continue with out music. The DOS version runs perfectly in DOSBox, especially with NewRisingSun's new patch.

http://geocities.com/belzorash/qfg4cd.zip

If you apply this patch, you can even play the game with VDMS.

Note: do NOT apply any of the Sierra patches, as these are for the floppy version.

Well, it's XP SP2 - as the third person already figured it out,thanks for the link for the patch, and telling me about the DOS edition, it works perfectly. 😀

Hallo,

ich habe auch Probleme mit QFG4, die sich allerdings ausschliesslich auf den Aspekt der Sprachausgabe beziehen. Ich habe die Dos-Version der engl. Sprachversion unter Win XP/SP2 installiert und daraufhin den Patch von New Rising Sun installiert.

1. normaler Start unter Windows

Das Spiel läuft wunderbar, Musik und Soundeffekte sind zu hören - nur die Sprachausgabe ist extrem "verknittert" und voller kleiner Störungen. Gibt es eine Möglichkeit, das Problem zu beheben?

2. Start mit Dos-Box / D-Fend v2

Die zweite Alternative war der Versuch mit Dos-Box/ D-Fend v2. Auch damit lässt sich das Spiel starten, Musik und Soundeffekte sind zu hören - allerdings tritt dabei das oben schon einmal angesprochene Problem auf: keine Sprachausgabe und die Textfenster bleiben i.d.R. nur 1-2 Sekunden geöffnet, schliessen also wieder sehr schnell.

Kann es sein, dass diese Probleme gewissermassen irreparabel mit meiner Systemkonfiguration zusammenhängen?
Athlon 64 3000+
2GB Ram
Audigy 2
Geforce 6800 GT

Vielleicht gibt es ein Problem mit der Audigy..

Über ein paar Tips würde ich mich sehr freuen.

Andreas

PLEASE, DO NOT CROSS-POST.

An on second thought. English is the commonly accepted language here. Maybe someone who can speak German can help you, though.

Sorry for writing in german, I completely´d forgotten the basic rules,
so here comes the translation:

I also have some problems with QFG4 which refer exclusively to the speech-problem. I installed the dos-version of the english-speech version under win xp/SP2 and installed subsequently the patch from New Rising Sun.

1. normal start from windows

The game works well, there are music and soundeffects - but the speech operates extremely "disturbed" - the quality of speech is not very good and there are many interferences (at least it appears like that). Is there a possibiliy to fix this problem?

2. Starting with Dos-Box / D-Fend v2

The second alternative was to try to start it with Dos-Box/D-Fend v2. The game initiates as well, music and sound effects are all there - but the above-mentioned problem arises here too: there is no speech, and the text-windows open and close extremely quickly.

Is it possible that those problems might be related to my system configuration?

Athlon 64 3000+
2GB Ram
Audigy 2
Geforce 6800 GT

maybe there is a problem with my audigy2 soundcard.

I´d be glad to receive some hints.

Andreas

It sounds like the CD isn't being detected 😒 I don't own the anthology cd so I'm not sure, I have the original.

How did you mount the cd? Mount the base "D:\" and don't go any further into the subdirs.

Also try my no-cd method to see if it helps. (See sig)

The game crashes for me under XP. I forgot about New Rising Sun's patches though.

In DOSBox the voice quality is poor, but it's my belief that this is how the game originally sounded. We just didn't notice such things back then, as the signal-to-noise ratios of sound cards and computer speakers were much lower and so was the general quality of game sound.

The lack of speech and fast text is due to the game not detecting the files on the CD. This probably means you've mounted the CD or installed the game incorrectly. Probably the game is looking on the wrong drive letter for the CD or something. I would recommend avatar's no-CD guide for putting the game data files on your hard drive.

Poor quality? Nope....its not dosbox's fault. I played this game all the time in windows 98 and ms-dos and it sounds perfect to me.Just set dosbox to a sample rate of 44100 for soundblaster and it will be exactly as it was in dos. 😉 The original sound quality was never really that good, basically that was all that was availble at the time.

The DOS version of the game will run perfectly with VDMS (with great sound,) if you use NewRisingSun's patches. Though the patches work for the Windows version, too. it will keep giving a "wave out" error message after which you lose the music. The DOS version is less buggy.