Broken Sword 1 (DOS) - video playback problem \ VOGONS

Broken Sword 1 (DOS) - video playback problem

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First post, by crusher

Posted on 2026-01-31, 10:53

crusher Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 220
Joined: 2024-02-03, 20:36
Location: Berlin

Hello fellow Vogons,

I have a problem with the game Broken Sword under pure DOS.
The game works fine except for the video playback. Starting with the intro I have a black screen but can hear the audio.
When the game starts I have normal video output.
Seems like a problem of playing the Smacker (.smk) video files.

I'm using a S3 Trio64 video card.
I tried S3VBE as well as UniVBE but have no luck with playing the videos.

Does anybody know this problem or have an idea how to fix this?

Reply 1 of 2, by NeoG_

Posted on 2026-01-31, 11:01

NeoG_ Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 511
Joined: 2024-12-27, 09:49
Location: Australia

The first 22 seconds of the intro video are intentionally black, in case you are skipping the intro before it gets to the first logo

98/DOS Rig: BabyAT AladdinV, K6-2+/550, V3 2000, 128MB PC100, 20GB HDD, 128GB SD2IDE, SB Live!, SB16-SCSI, PicoGUS, WP32 McCake, iNFRA CD, ZIP100
XP Rig: Lian Li PC-10 ATX, Gigabyte X38-DQ6, Core2Duo E6850, ATi HD5870, 2GB DDR2, 2TB HDD, X-Fi XtremeGamer

Reply 2 of 2, by crusher

Posted on 2026-01-31, 11:11

crusher Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 220
Joined: 2024-02-03, 20:36
Location: Berlin

Hahaha my bad!
You are totally right 😀
Video plays as intended. I didn't know the first 22 seconds are intentionally black.
Thank you so much for the information.

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