Status update - Got it loading on Vista!

I put together a new xobglu32.dll file that publishes the functions that would normally be thunked to the 16-bit DLLs on Win9x.

The game now loads and seems to work (can walk around).

The new DLL logs any attempt to use one of the old 16-bit functions... will need to play the game a bit more to catch the different usage paths.

No video upscaling yet, but making progress 😀

Wow, wow, and triple wow!!

I will refrain from spreading this news as I know you are still working on this, but it sounds like the future of Amber on Windows XP/Vista is in your hands. The gaming world awaits for further developments. 😀

Haven't heard from you in a while, jafa. Good to see that you are still working on the wonderful classics. Any more progress with KQ6?

Hi C,

Been distracted recently... the last weekend was the first chance to get back into things.

KQ6 is a Win3.1 game which complicates matters. I will take another look after Amber.

Ok, first test release is out...

http://www.squirtthecat.com/games/amber/index.html

Feedback welcome.

Nick

Fantastic 😳

On my basic laptop (EN-GB XP SP3, ATI gfx running at 1024x768) it worked without a hitch! I didn't do a lot - up into the house and through a few rooms. Yet again you've done an excellent job!

A quick question.... Is there any way of getting AMBER to run without the CD in the drive? I copied the content of 'CD_DATA' from the CD to 'GameData' but still had a 'no CD in the drive error message'.

It looks like there are still a few video glitches and I have seen a crash (twice) in the ice/water part. Will continue to poke.

Not sure about running without the CD.

Nick

Well, Amber finally runs on my XP. Nice job. No crashes as of yet. It does seem to hang momentarily when changing views, sometimes. I imagine that it is trying to read something off of the CD. This is one of the main reasons that I like to set things up to run completely from the HDD.

Try setting the Transitions to "Better" rather than "Best".

"Better" = software. should work well.
"Best" uses Windows GDI and doesn't work too well with Direct3D.

Nick

Best seems to work the fastest for some reason.

I'm using 'Best' and have no pauses between transitions... now running on another PC (EN-GB XP SP3, GF6600 @ 1280x1024).

One [small] I found that seems to happen is the screen sequence can be a 'frame' out. This seems to happen when you open a door then examine something that was behind it. An example of this is in the shower in the bathroom. Enter the room, spin the view so the shower is facing, open the door then examine the items at the bottom. When you examine the items, the first screen to show is that of the door closed before a close up of the items is provided.

It will only do this once so if you exit the closeup then close the shower door leaving your view as it is then repeat the sequence, the closed door frame will not be shown. You have to spin off the door view and back again to get it repeat the 'problem'.

I installed Amber under Win98 to compare and it doesn't show the door closed in the above example.

Hi guys,

There a few quirks to work through.

New update - fixes the missing animation in some places (such as the writing on the bathroom mirror):
http://www.squirtthecat.com/games/amber/index.html

Nick

I was going to report the out of sequence frames from pulling back from a closeup view, but Reckless beat me to it.

jafa wrote:

New update - fixes the missing animation in some places (such as the writing on the bathroom mirror)

I had noticed that one. You could hear it, but not see it.

The frame sequence problem is related to the "Best" transition mode. Using "None" or "Better" will avoid the frame sequence problem.

Nick

Downloaded update and can confirm bathroom animation working and lowering the transitions setting to better corrected the animations. Will test (play) more tomorrow 😀

Too bad this game isn't more widely available. (I heard secondhand that the original developers got thoroughly fed up with the gaming industry and want nothing more to do with it.)

The installer seems to work great... have never played this game before so I look forward to trying it out.

Say, didn't Bad Day on the Midway and The Residents: Freak Show have similar compatibility problems due to their use of Director? (Maybe if they can actually be made to work under XP/Vista, the owner of the rights could be persuaded to rerelease them.)

Worth a shot:)

Jorpho wrote:

Say, didn't Bad Day on the Midway and The Residents: Freak Show have similar compatibility problems due to their use of Director? (Maybe if they can actually be made to work under XP/Vista, the owner of the rights could be persuaded to rerelease them.)

If they are based on an old version of Director then the same approach will probably work - I am happy to take a look. The key requirement is that the main executable is 32-bit (Win95 or later).

I have been flat out for the last few weeks but I hope to dedicate some time soon... I have been meaning to clean up the last of the Amber quirks.

Nick