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Descent - Can't install 1.4a

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First post, by jami3rez

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I've just iunstalled Descent on a Windows 98 machine from the original 1.0 CD. The game launches (from what I can tell) ok.

I've just tried to install 1.4a patch that I got from Internet Archive and it won't complete. It goes throgh the Readme and FAQ ok and then when it comes to updating Descentr.exe it halts and says 'error ept0015: Old File does not exist'. It definitley does exist and is in the default install location of C:/Games/Descent.

Oddly, I tried manally removing the .exe to replace it with the one from the CD again, but the .exe is protected by Windows, saying 'Access denied' if I try and rename or delete it. It's not set to ReadOnly or anything like that. Perhaps that's why the patcher can't update it??

EDIT: Also noticed now that I can't actually unistall the game by deleting the folder as I can't delete Descentr.exe from my Recycle Bin?? There doesn't seem to be a proper uninstaller from what I can see.

Reply 1 of 5, by dr_st

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That's weird, I do not think Windows 98 protects files. Could it be that the game is still running in the background?

Descent is a DOS game, Windows 98 has a DOS mode. How about trying to install and then patch the game from DOS?

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Reply 2 of 5, by jami3rez

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Good shout, but sadly tried installing the patch from within DOS and got the exact same error message. It’s also strange because it says the Readme and FAQ files already exist when it tries to update them, but when I open them they are for 1.0, not 1.4a, so it’s not updating them for some reason.

Also, after a couple of reboots I was able to delete the files that were in the Recycle Bin though. Baffled !

Reply 4 of 5, by jami3rez

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dr_st wrote on Yesterday, 06:48:

Are you running the patch from inside the Descent directory?

I wasn’t, but now I have and that’s done the job! Thanks for pointing out, seems obvious now.

Now I just have to try and resolve the fact it runs way too fast and isn’t recognising my Sidewinder FF Pro 1 properly! Hopefully Throttle will do the job.

Reply 5 of 5, by NeoG_

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You can also try run "descent -640x480" to quadruple the pixel count, it will slow down the game considerably

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