I tried to see if the Win98 and Win11 AMOKTEMP.EXE is identical, and yes it is. Maybe the game is using some kind of encryption on top of it?

huh2 on SourceForge helped me with a tool I deleted sometime.
Download this, this is an unobfuscated amoktemp.exe and put it over to the Temp folder as Read only
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/ge … ent/amoktemp.7z

Whaaa...??? Obfuscated? Why? I mean, yay, it works indeed! Thank you so much! Looks dope, by the way!

But why would they obfuscate it in the times of Windows 95? The executable without any piracy protection? What for? Or is that the piracy protection itself? Is this why Win11 doesn't want to run it? Does it see the file is obfuscated? And I thought I saw it all.

Anyway, the modified executable works, only you can't run it directly of course. And it also seems that a file could be deleted even if it has a "Read-only" attribute. Even by the user without elevated privileges. Was it always like this? Do "System" privileges are applied for what AMOKWIN.EXE is doing?

For those who struggles with that game:

1. Download the file provided by Been_Nath_58 (attached it to this post)
2. Extract the exe file from the 7z archive to x:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp
3. Rightclick the extracted file and open properties -> security tab -> Advanced button. Change the Owner to Administrator. Close and reopen this window and press "Disable inheritance". Then press "Change permissions", select your account and press edit and then remove Full Control, Modify and Write permissions. Leave Read and Read & Execute.
4. Repeat the same for SYSTEM account.
5. In the File Properties mark the Read-only attribute.
2. Extract the exe file from the 7z archive to any directory.
3. Copy the contents of the AMOKFILS directory from the CD image to the same directory where you extracted the AMOKTEMP.EXE
6 (optional). Copy dgVoodoo files to the same directory (without dgVoodoo the game may or may not instantly exit) and configure it according to your preferences.
7. Setup any winmm emulator to get the redbook audio music.
8. Run AMOKTEMP.EXE, press F2 to go high res and enjoy!

Steps 1 through 6 need to be done only once. Other than that, the game runs flawlessly. dgVoodoo's borderless screen works fine, though I'd recommend ticking off "Application controlled fullscreen/windowed state" and "Disable Alt-Enter to toggle screen state" in the dgVoodoo settings, since the game would exit if it detects the loss of focus.

Again, thank you so much for helping me with that! Now on to finishing it. 😀

Zoomer wrote on 2025-01-10, 10:57:

Whaaa...??? Obfuscated? Why? I mean, yay, it works indeed! Thank you so much! Looks dope, by the way!

I checked again, its not obfuscated, but its a format modern Windows doesn't recognise correctly. This tool helped:
https://www.ctpax-x.org/index.php?goto=cxsoft … show=71&lang=en

The game seems to delete the executable on exit. Since I wasn't sure with changing SYSTEM rights, I used DxWnd to keep the executable AMOKTEMP.EXE static and run from anywhere.

Thanks! Somehow I never faced these errors even though I run lots of retro games. Well, the more you know.

Huh, indeed. It seems, this app intimidated me, haha.

You can in fact copy the AMOKFILS directory from the CD to any location and then copy the modified AMOKTEMP.EXE to the root of that directory (so, AMOKFILS\AMOKTEMP.EXE) and then run it directly. It also works with the built-in Windows 11 directdraw emulation, so no need for dgVoodoo if you're fine with it. Also, it seems that AMOKTEMP.EXE is being deleted by AMOKWIN.EXE and since you're no longer running AMOKWIN, nobody's gonna delete AMOKTEMP and so there's no need to fumble around with the access permissions.

In the end you only need any winmm emulator and then there's no need in the virtual cd-rom at all.

A total WIN! Thanks again!

Zoomer wrote on 2025-01-10, 11:30:

Thanks! Somehow I never faced these errors even though I run lots of retro games. Well, the more you know. […]
Show full quote

Thanks! Somehow I never faced these errors even though I run lots of retro games. Well, the more you know.

Huh, indeed. It seems, this app intimidated me, haha.

You can in fact copy the AMOKFILS directory from the CD to any location and then copy the modified AMOKTEMP.EXE to the root of that directory (so, AMOKFILS\AMOKTEMP.EXE) and then run it directly. It also works with the built-in Windows 11 directdraw emulation, so no need for dgVoodoo if you're fine with it. Also, it seems that AMOKTEMP.EXE is being deleted by AMOKWIN.EXE and since you're no longer running AMOKWIN, nobody's gonna delete AMOKTEMP and so there's no need to fumble around with the access permissions.

In the end you only need any winmm emulator and then there's no need in the virtual cd-rom at all.

A total WIN! Thanks again!

Yes right the file copying works. The game also has 256 and 32 bit colour modes, so the latter shouldn't be a problem ever atleast

Regarding games, there were at least 2 more games that needed this tool: Agent Armstrong 1997, and Ice and Fire 1995

Thanks for confirming! I've attached your modified file to my post. Hope you don't mind? And also edited the instructions 😀

Yeah, regarding the resolution. You can press F2 at any point in game to switch to high res (contrary to what the readme says). The game settings don't get saved, but that's what it's like in Windows 98 too. There aren't too many of them anyway, you only have to remap controls each time. The defaults are fine to, but I found it best to have forward-backward-strafeleft-straferight on WASD and turning left-right on cursor keys. But that's just my preference 😀

Zoomer wrote on 2025-01-10, 11:45:

Thanks for confirming! I've attached your modified file to my post. Hope you don't mind? And also edited the instructions 😀

Yeah, regarding the resolution. You can press F2 at any point in game to switch to high res (contrary to what the readme says). The game settings don't get saved, but that's what it's like in Windows 98 too. There aren't too many of them anyway, you only have to remap controls each time. The defaults are fine to, but I found it best to have forward-backward-strafeleft-straferight on WASD and turning left-right on cursor keys. But that's just my preference 😀

Sure no worries.

Thanks! Well, this topic is closed then. We got everything and even better 😁

The game's nice. Very underappreciated, I think. It's very Desert Strike-like, only not that pressing with timed missions and forgiving in the sense that you can fail some sub-mission, but still continue playing.

Are you currently playing the game? I was reported that there was a crash in mission 3, but then it got resolved. If you encounter, let me know

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2025-01-10, 11:05:

The game seems to delete the executable on exit. Since I wasn't sure with changing SYSTEM rights, I used DxWnd to keep the executable AMOKTEMP.EXE static and run from anywhere.

2 possible fixes:
1) read-only

2), copy it, eg game.bak have a bat copy it on run. eg copy game.bak game.exe, run

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2025-01-11, 17:53:

Are you currently playing the game? I was reported that there was a crash in mission 3, but then it got resolved. If you encounter, let me know

I do, and I'm on mission 3 phase 1. The game has whopped my backside several times, but I haven't experienced any crashes yet. I'll report back if there's anything.

The password is XABXAB, if you're interested to test it yourself 😀

Edit: I kept thinking about the crash. Excluding the fact, that this could be simply a random game bug, this game does some weird things. It keeps one of the cpu cores at 100% (14900k). It also has some weird FPS lock of 42.

So if you'll get another report, maybe it would be a good idea to impose an external FPS limit? Maybe the engine crashes the moment the internal FPS limit is disabled e.g. during screen transitions or loading?

myne wrote on 2025-01-12, 04:31:

2 possible fixes: 1) read-only […]
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BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2025-01-10, 11:05:

The game seems to delete the executable on exit. Since I wasn't sure with changing SYSTEM rights, I used DxWnd to keep the executable AMOKTEMP.EXE static and run from anywhere.

2 possible fixes:
1) read-only

2), copy it, eg game.bak have a bat copy it on run. eg copy game.bak game.exe, run

The #1 won't work as the file is deleted anyway if you won't setup the r/w permissions properly, I discuss this in detail in my previous post, and

#2 isn't necessary since you can simply copy the executable to any random place together with game files from the CD and run it from there - again, see above. Since the exe's path to be deleted is hardcoded to the system temp folder, it won't get deleted any longer from another location.

I wouldn't recommend running it from the temp folder anyway, it's pretty stupid as this area is volatile and you also have to keep a copy of the dgVoodoo files there. It's not worth it.