VOGONS

Common searches


First post, by vogamer

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi, does anyone actually have this release? It says "Ghosts in Town" on the title-screen.

Is this release just the DOS CD version with a 16-bit Windows installer? Thanks.

Reply 1 of 25, by Osprey

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

According to MobyGames:

Alternate Titles […]
Show full quote

Alternate Titles

"鬼屋魔影3" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
"Alone in the Dark 3: The God's been unearthed, now only secrets remain..." -- Tag-lined title
"Alone in the Dark 3: Ghosts in Town" -- Windows 3.1 in-game title
"AITD3" -- Common abbreviation

MobyGames doesn't list any Windows releases of the game, so it sounds like the original DOS version included a 16-bit Windows (3.1) installer, like you suspected, which installed a different in-game title screen than the DOS version for some unknown reason.

Reply 2 of 25, by vogamer

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi, if anyone has the "Ghosts in Town" version, please let us know if there is a native Windows game executable.

For AitD 1+2+3, I want the best versions of each and I think for 1/3 the DOS CD versions are the best. However for 2, according to Wikipedia, the PS1/Saturn version has the best graphics, and I think the PS1 version is best because I think the Saturn version has a black border around the screen. Thanks.

Reply 3 of 25, by filipetolhuizen

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Yes, Ghosts in Town has a native Windows game exe.
For all of them I prefer the Macintosh CD versions, because they all run in 640x400/480 mode.

Reply 4 of 25, by vogamer

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
filipetolhuizen wrote:

Yes, Ghosts in Town has a native Windows game exe.
For all of them I prefer the Macintosh CD versions, because they all run in 640x400/480 mode.

Please provide a screenshot of the native Windows game exe running.

Reply 7 of 25, by filipetolhuizen

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
vogamer wrote:

Cool, the EXE is a 16-bit Windows executable?

It seems to be Win32 as its icon appears on Win7 (Win7 won't show win16 .exes icons on explorer).

Reply 8 of 25, by vogamer

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi, Alone in the Dark 3: Ghosts in Town is a 32-bit Windows executable and works, however the installer is 16-bit.

These resolutions are available and I don't yet know if the CD Audio tracks work in W10.
320x200
640x400
960x600

Reply 9 of 25, by filipetolhuizen

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Selecting a higher resolution just seems to stretch things out, unlike the Macintosh version, which also makes things look sharper.

Reply 13 of 25, by filipetolhuizen

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I wonder if there's a hex change that would make things look sharper as the resolution increases (as well as displaying 640x400 in AITD 1 and 2 for PC as the Macintosh versions had that resolution).

Reply 14 of 25, by Nightshades

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
filipetolhuizen wrote:
Alone3.png

Hello sir, i'm a fan of alone in the dark 1/2/3 i played them in my childhood and i'm a french !, i am now 22 😀
I'm currently interested about it, is it really a 32bits executable ?

I'm currently trying to reverse engine Alone in the dark 2 with IDA + IdaDos (plugin) to debug the game based on IDA view but it's damn hard... 16bits... ida can't even translate the opcode to "C" which make the read complex, and the function too...

I would like to know if this is really a 32bits executable, thanks you !

And hello @http://vogons.org/ i'm new 😀

Reply 15 of 25, by filipetolhuizen

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Nightshades wrote:
Hello sir, i'm a fan of alone in the dark 1/2/3 i played them in my childhood and i'm a french !, i am now 22 :) I'm currently […]
Show full quote
filipetolhuizen wrote:
Alone3.png

Hello sir, i'm a fan of alone in the dark 1/2/3 i played them in my childhood and i'm a french !, i am now 22 😀
I'm currently interested about it, is it really a 32bits executable ?

I'm currently trying to reverse engine Alone in the dark 2 with IDA + IdaDos (plugin) to debug the game based on IDA view but it's damn hard... 16bits... ida can't even translate the opcode to "C" which make the read complex, and the function too...

I would like to know if this is really a 32bits executable, thanks you !

And hello @http://vogons.org/ i'm new 😀

Hello! Ghosts in Town is a 32-bits exe. I know something else that might be able to help you. Just look for "Free In The Dark" or "Dream In The Dark" code over the net. I also posted a compiled exe on another topic here in the forum, but it's still too buggy and haven't been updated for ages. It launches AITD2 but it's the least supported one. It's supposed to run AITD1 to a finishable state, but it seems to crash for me 99% of the time after the intro. Oh, and there's also a branch for merging Free In the Dark into ResidualVM.

Reply 16 of 25, by Nightshades

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
filipetolhuizen wrote:
Nightshades wrote:
Hello sir, i'm a fan of alone in the dark 1/2/3 i played them in my childhood and i'm a french !, i am now 22 :) I'm currently […]
Show full quote
filipetolhuizen wrote:
Alone3.png

Hello sir, i'm a fan of alone in the dark 1/2/3 i played them in my childhood and i'm a french !, i am now 22 😀
I'm currently interested about it, is it really a 32bits executable ?

I'm currently trying to reverse engine Alone in the dark 2 with IDA + IdaDos (plugin) to debug the game based on IDA view but it's damn hard... 16bits... ida can't even translate the opcode to "C" which make the read complex, and the function too...

I would like to know if this is really a 32bits executable, thanks you !

And hello @http://vogons.org/ i'm new 😀

Hello! Ghosts in Town is a 32-bits exe. I know something else that might be able to help you. Just look for "Free In The Dark" or "Dream In The Dark" code over the net. I also posted a compiled exe on another topic here in the forum, but it's still too buggy and haven't been updated for ages. It launches AITD2 but it's the least supported one. It's supposed to run AITD1 to a finishable state, but it seems to crash for me 99% of the time after the intro. Oh, and there's also a branch for merging Free In the Dark into ResidualVM.

Hey thanks for the info, i knew since many years free in the dark (i followed it in the background =D), sadly the source code is complex and to be honest i wish to reverse the 32Bits executable, nothing is better than "understanding" yourself how things works, and having a nice "Puzzle" solved with IDA (function/structure/variable) -> Rename -> Pseudo-Code to "C".

The goal is to later try to code a working version of AITD3 in C/C++ with visual studio 2017 🤣, the game is relatively small, 300K lines of source code of something (if i remember the french interview).

And where did you got that 32Bits exe (ghost in town) ? i downloaded from somewhere AITD3 (from trilogy CD) it doesn't seem to contain it, can't find it anywhere 🤣, I just installed a win XP pro (32bits) VM with Sound Blaster emulation (VDM Sound 2.1.0).

It's slow so i think it's still the best to run the game on the main OS...

Edit: Ok i got WAITD3 from archive.org (not english though) -.-
Maybe you could upload me your install dir/iso (English/French) and PM (if you are willing to) thanks.

Nightshades.

Reply 17 of 25, by Nightshades

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I HAVE GREAT NEWS FOR EVERY FANS OF ALONE IN THE DARK 3, THIS RUN ON WIN7 64 Bits ! (Thanks IDA Pro 😊 )

So i got a portugal version from archive.org (sux hard) but better than nothing, i quickly disassembled the executable and i have check that "wing32.dll" was ALSO available, i was like "oh wtf this game on 64 Bits 🤣 seriously" So i downloaded wing32.dll and placed it in: "C:\Windows\SysWOW64"

And now behold:
(image is big so you might scroll at the right)
https://i.imgur.com/ujxJqw2.jpg

I seen that there is a little issue with the input (double tap forward make it hard to "Run") and when the inventory is open the animations are fast as hell, it's probably solvable by checking where is the MainLoop of the game or maybe GetTickCount() who knows...

If someone could upload a RETAIL iso (english/french) and PM me it would be great (if it's allowed off course...).

So yeah you can probably put this in STICKY somewhere and write that THIS IS WORKING on 64 Bits system 😀.

After some docs on the web it appear that wing.dll was only made for 32Bits pc (kind of wrapper for DOS) while wing32.dll is compiled and working fine with 64bits architecture (lucky !), from IDA if we check a bit at the bottom we see "WinGCreateDC" Create Device Context for the rendering 😀

Hope that you like this post =d.

Reply 18 of 25, by Nightshades

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok i spotted the issue, it's a problem with the Message, will post a patched version soon (if it's allowed here ?).
This fix Crazy Animation speed and make the game act as normal so when we tap forward 2 time we can run now.

Reply 19 of 25, by filipetolhuizen

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Nightshades wrote:

Ok i spotted the issue, it's a problem with the Message, will post a patched version soon (if it's allowed here ?).
This fix Crazy Animation speed and make the game act as normal so when we tap forward 2 time we can run now.

Hello again,
Sorry for not getting in touch with you sooner. I certainly appreciate your efforts of supporting these games on modern OSes. I'd recommend you to take a look at the macintosh version of AITD which is able of running in hi-res (as well as AITD2 and 3). These versions actually do make the graphics sharper in hi res mode (WAITD3 will just stretch things out). Here's a video of AITD1 for mac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErUT8vE1RRI
The CD version of AITD 1 also has remastered sceneries for hi-res mode and will look much better than the disk version. The crazy animation speed in the video is a side effect of the game being run under Sheepshaver.