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Problem with XP + King's Quest 6

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First post, by isochronous

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I'm trying to run king's quest 6 on an XP machine. I read the below thread about Sierra games, but I think VDMSound should work, I just don't know exactly what I'm doing wrong.

Basically, the game runs... but I get no sound, or video, past this screen. After it shows that, it gives me the little "walking man" cursor... until I move the mouse, that is. Then it just reverts to the starndard windows arror, and the screen looks like this. Now, I've tried running the game with both VESA mode on by default, and by running the game, then hitting alt-enter to switch to fullscreen. In the first case, it maximizes, shows the VDMSound text, then goes back to that screen in a window. No amount of hitting alt-enter could get it to work.

In the second case, it does exactly the same thing, only without the initial switch to VESA mode.

I'm running on a desktop machine, I have an nVidia video card (Geforce 3 Ti200), so I don't think it's lack of hardware support... but I just can't figure out what's wrong.

Oh, and just in case this is of ANY use at all, here's the log from VDMSound for this program.

@I - 01:09:25.562 - VDMServicesProvider
VDMServices initialized (hInstance = 0x10000000)
@I - 01:09:25.562 - SysExIndicator
ActivityLights initialized
@I - 01:09:25.702 - MIDIPlayer
MIDIOut initialized (device ID = -1, 'Microsoft MIDI Mapper')
@I - 01:09:25.702 - DMATransferManager
Transfer Manager thread created (handle = 0x00000180, ID = 2556)
@I - 01:09:25.702 - DMATransferManager
TransferMgr initialized (minPeriod = 5ms, maxPeriod = 15ms)
@I - 01:09:25.734 - AdLibWavePlayer
Garbage collector thread created (handle = 0x00000190, ID = 1036)
@I - 01:09:25.734 - AdLibWavePlayer
WaveOut initialized (device ID = -1, 'Primary Sound Driver / ')
@I - 01:09:25.734 - AdLibController
Using performance counter (3579545 ticks/s) for AdLib timing
@I - 01:09:25.734 - AdLibController
Playback thread created (handle = 0x00000194, ID = 744)
@I - 01:09:25.734 - AdLibController
AdLibCtl initialized (base port = 0x388)
@I - 01:09:25.734 - SBWavePlayer
Garbage collector thread created (handle = 0x0000018c, ID = 3116)
@I - 01:09:25.734 - SBWavePlayer
WaveOut initialized (device ID = -1, 'Primary Sound Driver / ')
@I - 01:09:25.749 - DMATransferManager
DMA processing rate recovered to its normal value (upper bound =
15ms, last period = 15.00ms, current period = 15.00ms
@I - 01:09:25.749 - SBController
SBCompatCtl initialized (DSP version = 4.05, base port = 0x220, IRQ =
7, 8-bit DMA = 1, 16-bit DMA = 5)
@I - 01:09:25.749 - MPU401Controller
MPU401Ctl initialized (base port = 0x330, IRQ = 2)
@I - 01:09:25.749 - MIDIPlayer
Garbage collector thread created (handle = 0x00000178, ID = 1196)

Reply 4 of 21, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Unregistered wrote:

If I right-click on the king's quest 6 EXE, go to compatability, and choose "run in 256 color mode", it still does the same thing.

You're running the DOS version or the Windows version here?

Reply 6 of 21, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Harekiet wrote:

You can't hit alt-enter with the windows version as far as i know 😀

Yes, but he posted this after you referred him to the Windows version and also he referred to the "compatibility" tab which (as you know) is useless for DOS titles.

Reply 7 of 21, by Snover

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Not only is it useless, it doesn't exist. 😉

You'll probably need to MANUALLY switch to 640x480x8 (640x480 w/ 256-colours) in Control Panel > Display, then switch back to whatever your normal display mode is when you're done.

Vlad: earn some brownie points by making a utility that actually does this, unlike the compatibility tab and ACT which don't actually succeed in doing it 😀

Oh, and this isn't a VDMSound problem, so I'm moving this thread to the Guide.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 8 of 21, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Snover wrote:

Not only is it useless, it doesn't exist.

Well I can't speak for Win2K, but it's working on my XP. Confirmed it with "Mario Teaches Typing 2". The weird one was "Out of this World" which only worked if you left it "Windowed" mode.

Reply 9 of 21, by isochronous

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Snover wrote:
Not only is it useless, it doesn't exist. ;) […]
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Not only is it useless, it doesn't exist. 😉

You'll probably need to MANUALLY switch to 640x480x8 (640x480 w/ 256-colours) in Control Panel > Display, then switch back to whatever your normal display mode is when you're done.

Vlad: earn some brownie points by making a utility that actually does this, unlike the compatibility tab and ACT which don't actually succeed in doing it 😀

Oh, and this isn't a VDMSound problem, so I'm moving this thread to the Guide.

I've done that. Still gives me the exact same problem.
For some reason, I think this version of King's Quest is dos and windows - I seem to remember (back in the days of 3.1) being able to run it from DOS, or from windows 3.1

Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know... *sigh*
I should probably just get this old PII 300 that I have sitting around up and running 98, that would most likely be the easiest thing.

Reply 11 of 21, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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isochronous wrote:

I seem to remember (back in the days of 3.1) being able to run it from DOS, or from windows 3.1

You can check to see if there's a Windows version on your CD by looking at the executables with Windows Explorer. If you see executables with distinct icons (as opposed to the plain "rectangle window" icon), then there's probably a Windows version there. Otherwise, it's DOS. Possible you were playing the DOS version within Windows 3.1?

Reply 14 of 21, by brainiac744

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There are two different modes on the CD. I just looked at mine, and the file INSTALL.EXE is for DOS and the file SETUP.EXE is for Windows. On my system the game won't even start though. 😠

Reply 15 of 21, by Nicht Sehr Gut

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Originally posted by brainiac744 There are two different modes on the CD.

Yes. That had already been pointed out.

On my system the game won't even start though.

If you are running Win2K or XP, did you try running SETUP.EXE with all the compatibility modes switched on?

Reply 16 of 21, by collector

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I finally got the Win version of King's Quest VI to run under Windows XP, but it hangs on the logo avi and the into movie. I copied all the game files to my hard drive without "Hdlogo.avi" or "Toon.avi" even the 335 mb "RESOURCE.AUD" in my KQ6 directory and modified the "win\sierra.ini" file to reflect the new paths. This allows me to run it without it trying to play the logo avi.

Since VDMSound didn't want to run with a Win exe, I created a bat file that simply has "Sciwv.exe win\sierra.ini" in it and saved it in the KQ6 folder. Set the compatability tab on the "SCIWV.EXE" to Win 95 and 256 colors. If only using compatibility mode without VDMSound, when you try yo start the game "wowexec.exe" (the Windows Win16 Application Launcher) just seems to hang and not even a window is created.

The game runs pretty well with the exception of one odd bug; the look of the cursor does change when you switch modes, i.e. "walk" "talk" etc. The action of the cursor changes but not the appearance unless you quickly dodge the cursor out of the window and back in.javascript:smilie('😕')
confused

Reply 18 of 21, by collector

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Snover wrote:

VDMSound is for DOS GAMES ONLY. Of course it won't work with the Windows interpreter!!

But it does. I know VDMSound is meant for only for DOS, but I've been trying to get the windows version to work for a while (the Win version has features that the DOS one does not, such as high rez talk boxes) and have tried everything I could think of to no avail. Out of desperation I tried VDMSound via the batch file. and it WORKED. As far as I know, I'm the first to get the Win version to work. That VDMSound is designed for DOS or not is not the point. The fact is IT WORKS!!