@CDRayan I think I got it. Download this .rar, extract and execute the .bat file. Probably that will fix everything.

Note: Since this should fix river-cross videos, are there any other problems.
Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego is more difficult, I will need more time to find what's the issue

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-04-26, 07:58:

@CDRayan I think I got it. Download this .rar, extract and execute the .bat file. Probably that will fix everything.

Note: Since this should fix river-cross videos, are there any other problems.
Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego is more difficult, I will need more time to find what's the issue

Great! I've included it in my Win11 update now. It seems to work properly. The only issue I found was that Alt-F4 during the opening logo gives the fatal error "Couldn't create the Quicktime window" which can be safely ignored, since the game was exiting anyway.

CDrayan wrote on 2022-04-26, 12:31:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-04-26, 07:58:

@CDRayan I think I got it. Download this .rar, extract and execute the .bat file. Probably that will fix everything.

Note: Since this should fix river-cross videos, are there any other problems.
Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego is more difficult, I will need more time to find what's the issue

The only issue I found was that Alt-F4 during the opening logo gives the fatal error "Couldn't create the Quicktime window" which can be safely ignored, since the game was exiting anyway.

You mean Alt+F4 when the first video plays? Yes that error happens even on Windows 98. But why would you press Alt+F4 here, this would close the game.

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3) and mounted them through PowerISO, switching images as requested by the game.
The game uses 2 special fonts, which are in CD 1's FONTS directory. Just open them to install them.
This game uses Smacker for its live-action videos. The version of SMACKW32.DLL (3.1L) included with the game does not seem to be fully compatible with modern Windows, as the videos get messed up after a few are played. It's not because of the videos themselves; they play correctly in VLC.

As an unrelated side note, I dug into OTEng.lng and OTLocal.tlc and found a TON of source code fragments for the game. Perhaps they will be helpful in reverse-engineering?

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-01, 12:30:

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3 […]
Show full quote

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3) and mounted them through PowerISO, switching images as requested by the game.
The game uses 2 special fonts, which are in CD 1's FONTS directory. Just open them to install them.
This game uses Smacker for its live-action videos. The version of SMACKW32.DLL (3.1L) included with the game does not seem to be fully compatible with modern Windows, as the videos get messed up after a few are played. It's not because of the videos themselves; they play correctly in VLC.

As an unrelated side note, I dug into OTEng.lng and OTLocal.tlc and found a TON of source code fragments for the game. Perhaps they will be helpful in reverse-engineering?

I will look into OT3 when possible.

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-01, 12:30:

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3 […]
Show full quote

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3) and mounted them through PowerISO, switching images as requested by the game.
The game uses 2 special fonts, which are in CD 1's FONTS directory. Just open them to install them.
This game uses Smacker for its live-action videos. The version of SMACKW32.DLL (3.1L) included with the game does not seem to be fully compatible with modern Windows, as the videos get messed up after a few are played. It's not because of the videos themselves; they play correctly in VLC.

As an unrelated side note, I dug into OTEng.lng and OTLocal.tlc and found a TON of source code fragments for the game. Perhaps they will be helpful in reverse-engineering?

First problem. There is no sound.
Edit: NVM got it. Now could you explain how the videos get messed up?

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-02, 12:05:

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-01, 12:30:

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3 […]
Show full quote

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3) and mounted them through PowerISO, switching images as requested by the game.
The game uses 2 special fonts, which are in CD 1's FONTS directory. Just open them to install them.
This game uses Smacker for its live-action videos. The version of SMACKW32.DLL (3.1L) included with the game does not seem to be fully compatible with modern Windows, as the videos get messed up after a few are played. It's not because of the videos themselves; they play correctly in VLC.

As an unrelated side note, I dug into OTEng.lng and OTLocal.tlc and found a TON of source code fragments for the game. Perhaps they will be helpful in reverse-engineering?

First problem. There is no sound.
Edit: NVM got it. Now could you explain how the videos get messed up?

When talking to people, the videos seem to play okay at first. After a few times, however, they start jumping eratically. This can be tested by starting a new game and talking to Gramps (the old guy on the first screen). He seems normal at first, but then the problems appear after talking to him several times.

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:01:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-02, 12:05:

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-01, 12:30:

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3 […]
Show full quote

Oregon Trail 3rd Edition will run, but I haven't found a way around the CD check. For now, I've made ISOs of my CDs (version 1.3) and mounted them through PowerISO, switching images as requested by the game.
The game uses 2 special fonts, which are in CD 1's FONTS directory. Just open them to install them.
This game uses Smacker for its live-action videos. The version of SMACKW32.DLL (3.1L) included with the game does not seem to be fully compatible with modern Windows, as the videos get messed up after a few are played. It's not because of the videos themselves; they play correctly in VLC.

As an unrelated side note, I dug into OTEng.lng and OTLocal.tlc and found a TON of source code fragments for the game. Perhaps they will be helpful in reverse-engineering?

First problem. There is no sound.
Edit: NVM got it. Now could you explain how the videos get messed up?

When talking to people, the videos seem to play okay at first. After a few times, however, they start jumping eratically. This can be tested by starting a new game and talking to Gramps (the old guy on the first screen). He seems normal at first, but then the problems appear after talking to him several times.

I went all the way upto "Pick your tavern partner..." dialogue and I don't see any erratic movements. Can you give a video demonstration of how it occurs on your end?

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:50:

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:01:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-02, 12:05:

First problem. There is no sound.
Edit: NVM got it. Now could you explain how the videos get messed up?

When talking to people, the videos seem to play okay at first. After a few times, however, they start jumping eratically. This can be tested by starting a new game and talking to Gramps (the old guy on the first screen). He seems normal at first, but then the problems appear after talking to him several times.

I went all the way upto "Pick your tavern partner..." dialogue and I don't see any erratic movements. Can you give a video demonstration of how it occurs on your end?

What about other characters, like the innkeeper, the shopkeeper, and the party members? I know this happens with them as well. I'd been using my ThinkPad, so maybe I should try my desktop to see if it's an issue with video drivers. I haven't figured out how to record a video of it in action, sorry.

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-04, 00:12:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:50:

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:01:

When talking to people, the videos seem to play okay at first. After a few times, however, they start jumping eratically. This can be tested by starting a new game and talking to Gramps (the old guy on the first screen). He seems normal at first, but then the problems appear after talking to him several times.

I went all the way upto "Pick your tavern partner..." dialogue and I don't see any erratic movements. Can you give a video demonstration of how it occurs on your end?

What about other characters, like the innkeeper, the shopkeeper, and the party members? I know this happens with them as well. I'd been using my ThinkPad, so maybe I should try my desktop to see if it's an issue with video drivers. I haven't figured out how to record a video of it in action, sorry.

I went to the store where you can organize the wagon party and I tried both skipping dialogues or playing it entirely, I don't see any issue. Maybe it is a driver issue, how old is the device? Maybe you can record with a camera directly, phone camera maybe.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-04, 04:42:

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-04, 00:12:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:50:

I went all the way upto "Pick your tavern partner..." dialogue and I don't see any erratic movements. Can you give a video demonstration of how it occurs on your end?

What about other characters, like the innkeeper, the shopkeeper, and the party members? I know this happens with them as well. I'd been using my ThinkPad, so maybe I should try my desktop to see if it's an issue with video drivers. I haven't figured out how to record a video of it in action, sorry.

I went to the store where you can organize the wagon party and I tried both skipping dialogues or playing it entirely, I don't see any issue. Maybe it is a driver issue, how old is the device? Maybe you can record with a camera directly, phone camera maybe.

I did test it on my desktop with the original CDs, and got the same issue. Screw it. If you're not having issues, it's probably a problem on my end. I did get the DVD edition of OT3 off eBay. In general, that version's better in many ways (all on one disc, can get advice from party members, more NPCs, etc.) That one seems to be the definitive version of OT3, and I found no issues with the Smacker videos.

I'll be testing more Learning Company games now that I've made ISOs of them. I ordered some off Selectsoft, and I even got an email reminding me that the games are not Win10 compatible. Not to worry, I responded with an assurance that I knew what I was doing. The games are Treasure Mountain, Treasure Cove, Operation Neptune, and Spellbound. All of these games have Win32 executables, so getting them to work on modern Windows is not out of the question. It's just that the installers are Win16-only, so I have to figure out how to bypass them.

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-05, 03:25:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2022-05-04, 04:42:

CDrayan wrote on 2022-05-04, 00:12:

What about other characters, like the innkeeper, the shopkeeper, and the party members? I know this happens with them as well. I'd been using my ThinkPad, so maybe I should try my desktop to see if it's an issue with video drivers. I haven't figured out how to record a video of it in action, sorry.

I went to the store where you can organize the wagon party and I tried both skipping dialogues or playing it entirely, I don't see any issue. Maybe it is a driver issue, how old is the device? Maybe you can record with a camera directly, phone camera maybe.

I did test it on my desktop with the original CDs, and got the same issue. Screw it. If you're not having issues, it's probably a problem on my end. I did get the DVD edition of OT3 off eBay. In general, that version's better in many ways (all on one disc, can get advice from party members, more NPCs, etc.) That one seems to be the definitive version of OT3, and I found no issues with the Smacker videos.

I'll be testing more Learning Company games now that I've made ISOs of them. I ordered some off Selectsoft, and I even got an email reminding me that the games are not Win10 compatible. Not to worry, I responded with an assurance that I knew what I was doing. The games are Treasure Mountain, Treasure Cove, Operation Neptune, and Spellbound. All of these games have Win32 executables, so getting them to work on modern Windows is not out of the question. It's just that the installers are Win16-only, so I have to figure out how to bypass them.

I can't think and figure out why the character would jump in your case. It doesn't seen like a game wherr there will be physics problem. Anyways you aren't having issues now with your CD so probably that's it.

The other games you told about should work after installation. How do you intend to install them? OTVDM?

I can just copy the game directories to my hard drive. No need to use the 16-bit installers. Of course, the HLP files are in WinHlp32 format, so OTVDM's WinHlp replacement is needed for those. But that's not specific to any game.

EDIT: With OT3 DVD: The game expects a drive containing the DATA directory and its contents, as well as blank files in the root directory identifying the CD number. DxWnd has the ability to make a virtual CD drive from a directory. So I did that, and was able to get past the DVD check!
I had to use DDrawCompat to ensure that the text fields in the game are not drawn over by the window's background. I don't know how to fix this bug in DxWnd, but I do know it's a compatibility issue with DirectDraw.
Maybe there's a simpler way to do all this, but I'm burned out now. I should get to playing this game; it's actually got more content than the CD version!

Schoenfeld Chris wrote on 2022-01-05, 13:13:

filipetolhuizen wrote on 2021-11-30, 03:12:

Speed Busters GOG version Problem: Crashes a lot while playing making it impossible to finish even a whole lap on any track. OS: […]
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Speed Busters GOG version
Problem:
Crashes a lot while playing making it impossible to finish even a whole lap on any track.
OS: Win7 x64.
Tried dgvoodoo2 ,singleprocaffinity and disabling VPN service (which causes access violations crashes on MTM2) but no changes. Anyone else experiencing this? The original game was already as buggy as hell, no wonder why even GOG wasn't able to fix it 100%.

This Game work Perfekt on my Hardware

Original version or GOG?

Here's another one for the Problematic Games Ward: .F.E.A.R (2005) runs fine -in vanilla form, that is- on recent versions of Windows thanks to the recent community patches that are available on the web. The problem starts when trying to uptate it to the latest version as the installer misdetects the language region setting. (It thinks i've got either the USA-NTSC or PAL British versions of the game. #Weird)
Could it be that my antivirus (Microsoft Defender) is acting up on me or a hardcoded flag on the installer itself? What do you guys think?

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 enhanced and Others..

D800 P-M w/ GeForce Go 4200
W500 C2D w/ FireGL V5700

no luck.. Crash at Splash Screen.
real problematic Game. NFS2, NFS3, NFS4 working without Problems.

GokuSS4 wrote on 2022-07-25, 22:59:

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 e […]
Show full quote

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 enhanced and Others..

D800 P-M w/ GeForce Go 4200
W500 C2D w/ FireGL V5700

no luck.. Crash at Splash Screen.
real problematic Game. NFS2, NFS3, NFS4 working without Problems.

Did you try renaming gimme.dll? That works for me with nGlide in XP and 10.

I have the EA Classics release and it's unSafedisc'd so YMMV.

GokuSS4 wrote on 2022-07-25, 22:59:

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 e […]
Show full quote

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 enhanced and Others..

D800 P-M w/ GeForce Go 4200
W500 C2D w/ FireGL V5700

no luck.. Crash at Splash Screen.
real problematic Game. NFS2, NFS3, NFS4 working without Problems.

Have you tried compatibility mode on the exe with Windows 2000 and/or 98? I remember I solved the issue that way a long time ago...

Flight Simulator for Windows 95 crashes when the 2D cockpit is brought up after cycling views, specially when cycling views backwards (Shift + S). Flight Simulator 98 crashes upon startup, and Combat Flight Simulator is fairly unstable as it is prone to crashing when fiddling in the menus a bit much. The former two only have problems with 64-bit Windows, as in 32-bit they work well.

Ethaniel wrote on 2022-07-26, 22:02:

GokuSS4 wrote on 2022-07-25, 22:59:

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 e […]
Show full quote

can't get Need For Speed Porsche working on my XP Rig.. tried Nglide Glide Wrapper, native d3d, tried various Patches like 3.5 enhanced and Others..

D800 P-M w/ GeForce Go 4200
W500 C2D w/ FireGL V5700

no luck.. Crash at Splash Screen.
real problematic Game. NFS2, NFS3, NFS4 working without Problems.

Have you tried compatibility mode on the exe with Windows 2000 and/or 98? I remember I solved the issue that way a long time ago...

Same here. It runs wonderfully on my machine (Ryzen 5000-Series/RX580/Vengeance LPX/B550-F/Win 11 Pro) thorough DXWnd on Windows 98/ME compatibility with Administrative privileges. Have yet to test it with my new gamepad (MS XBOX One S) though.