Running Discworld Noir on XP?

[Ali]

Hi chaps,

Has anyone succeeded in running Discworld Noir on XP? My version crashes after the opening spash screen. Searching seems to suggest that there are patches available, but most of the links seem to have been removed, and the ones I found weren't in english and were on a suspicious looking site.

I'd appreciate any advice,

Ali.

[Akatosh]

Hah, I know that problem. I never got it to run under XP, but if you can manage to acquire a copy of Windows 98 / ME, you can set up a virtual machine, and that works like a charm.

[poc301]

There is also a program called DOSBox which might help.  I've run some old programs on XP and Vista with it in the past.

-Bill

[ALPHATT]

As far as I know Noir is not designed to run under dos so dosbox won't help here =(
I can only suggest what akatosh said.

[HillBilly]

I've got it to run on XP but I think I only ran it in compability mode and got lucky. You say your game crashes right after the splash screen; have you tried ESC-ing through them and then bring up the F1-menu? (Or something along those lines)

[Jakerpot]

i play toris passage this way: I click with right button on the icon of the exe and select in the last label COMPABILITY or something like this, and then select windows 98. It will run on 256 colors and work!

[Rincewind]

Sure, I've gotten it to run on both XP and Vista, albeit with some slight trickery.
Apparently the "TIN3_DXD.exe"-file has some sort of copy protection thing that clashes with XP, so you need to do a full install of the game and then download a patched/fixed .exe and replace the original one. You should be able to fix it with the files and the instructions from this site: http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_discworld_noir.shtml

Sadly, this doesn't fix a bug which crashes the game if you try to load a saved game from the main menu, so you'll have to start a new game every time and skip through the intro and then load a game if you want to avoid that.

Damn, now I got a craving to replay it myself... Heh.

[Ali]

Thanks for the feedback. I might have my old Windows 95 disk, but I don't know anything about setting up a virtual Machine - any suggestions on where I could look? I'm afraid the game crashes before I even get to the splash screen if I use a compatibility mode!

Rincewind: It was good wasn't it. I'm afraid I use a public computer and the firewall blocks that link... possibly because that site contains cracks for other non-outmoded games? Any alternatives you know of?

[OneDollar]

I might have my old Windows 95 disk, but I don't know anything about setting up a virtual Machine - any suggestions on where I could look?

EDIT: Fixed some earlier problems by making a number of changes to this guide. Mainly recommending Virtual PC 2004 over 2007, simplifying the motherboard driver section by uploading some floppy disk images you can use instead of making your own and reinstalling Windows a second time to get rid of the missing file errors.


You asked for it!

It's rather more complicated with Windows 95 than with, say, XP, so if you decide to have a go set yourself up for an hour or so's project. It's not as hard as it looks, though! Much of it is just clicking through installers, it's knowing which bits to install that's the hard part. Everything's done on a virtual machine so you can't break anything and it is kind of fun (in a very geeky way) to get Windows 95 up and running again. Having lost my Windows 95 virtual somewhere, I went through the install again and threw a step-by-step guide together while I did it...

(I need some tutorials to stick on my website anyway )

FILES MIRRORED ON MY WEBSITE (right-click, save link/target as)
=======================
Windows 98 boot floppy image
Motherboard driver floppy 1 image
Motherboard driver floppy 2 image


INSTALL VIRTUAL PC 2004
==================
1) Get Virtual PC 2004 (not 2007) from Microsoft (free download). Virtual PC 2007 has stopped officially supporting emulating Win 95. It does still work but the version of Virtual Machine Additions (extras for better interaction with virtual machines) that comes with it doesn't work on Windows 95. Feel free to uninstall 2004, install 2007 and import your virtual once you've got everything set up.
2) Install Virtual PC 2004.
3) Start Virtual PC and use the New Virtual Machine wizard to make a new virtual. Name it and choose where to save it, then select 'Other' as the operating system. Adjust the RAM to 32MB or something (it *is* Windows 95 after all), make a new hard drive with whatever size you want (2GB? 5GB?) and finish.

DOWNLOAD BOOT FLOPPY
==================
1) The first part where this is more complicated than XP is that the Win 95 CD wasn't bootable, so you need to download a bootable floppy disk image. There's some here but Google around if you can't get to them. Windows 95 boot disks didn't have CD-ROM support, so you need a Windows 98 (or later) disk. You also want to try and find an image (.img) file rather than something that extracts to a real floppy disk (especially if, like me, you don't actually have a physical floppy drive). Anyway, if you can get to the site, this is the image you want. (Or the one mirrored on my website here).

PREPARE FOR INSTALL
================
1) Put your Windows 95 CD in your CD drive and from the Virtual PC console start the virtual you just created.
2) On the Floppy menu of you virtual choose 'Capture Floppy Disk Image' and open up the boot disk image you downloaded.
3) On the CD menu make sure the virtual is set to use the physical drive that you put the Windows 95 CD in (You'll have the option to 'Release Physical Drive D:' if its using drive D:).
4) If the virtual doesn't boot to the floppy (it sits there trying to do DHCP or something) go to the Actions menu of the virtual, choose 'reset' then click 'reset' to the prompt.
5) Choose option 1 (Start computer with CD-ROM support).
6) At the A:\ prompt enter 'fdisk' (without apostrophes).
7) Enter 'n' for no at the 'Enable large disk support' prompt.
8) Choose option 1 (Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive).
9) Choose option 1 (Create Primary DOS Partition).
10) At the 'Do you wish to use the maximum available size...' prompt enter 'y' for yes.
11) Press Escape to exit fdisk, then choose 'reset' on the virtual's 'action' menu. Click reset.
12) Once the virtual has restarted type 'format c:' at the A:\ prompt.
13) Enter 'y' to proceed with the format.
14) Give it a label and press enter.

INSTALL WINDOWS 95
================
1) At the A:\ prompt enter 'd:' (without apostrophes) to switch to the CD drive (assuming D:\ is the drive you put the Windows 95 CD in).
2) At the D:\ prompt enter 'setup'
3) Press Enter to do the scan
4) Press Escape to continue with installation
5) A GUI! Note that at this point whenever you click inside the virtual machine it will capture your mouse. To get it back press the Alt Gr button on your keyboard (right alt button, to the right of the space bar).
6) Choose the continue option.
7) Click yes.
8) Next to start setup.
9) Next to install in C:\Windows
10) Choose 'Typical' then next.
11) Enter your Windows 95 product key. Next.
12) Enter your name and company. Next.
13) Check the Sound, MIDI or Video Capture card option but not the Network Adapter option. Next.
14) Wait for the Get Connected screen to appear, then click next without selecting any of the options.
15) Choose 'Install the most common components' then click next.
16) Choose 'No, I do not want a startup disk' and click next.
17) Click next to start the install
18) On the floppy menu of the virtual click 'Release "windows98.img"'.
19) Click finish to restart.

SETUP WINDOWS 95
===============

1) At the prompt about setting up networking click ok.
2) Enter a workgroup name (like 'workgroup'?) and click close
3) Click ok to the 'Cannot find the Windows CD-ROM' prompt
4) At this point I was given a whole bunch of files that couldn't be found on the CD. Skip them all.
5) Setup your timezone.
6) Click cancel on the printer select screen to cancel installing a printer.
7) Click Ok to restart.
8) Press any key to all the missing files.
9) Press any key to the blue screen of death.
10) Action menu, reset, reset.
11) If you get a startup menu option, choose to boot normally (option 1)
12) Press any key to all the missing files again.
13) Press ok to the two windows networking prompts
14) Welcome to Windows 95!

MISSING DRIVERS
============
1) One last thing to sort, because Windows 95 is so old it doesn't support the emulated motherboard that Virtual PC is saying it has (Intel 440BX), so we need to update the motherboard drivers.

2) Get the INF Update Utility - Zip Format (first download on that page)
3) Here's the fun bit, how on earth do we get the drivers onto the virtual? My solution last time was to transfer them in two goes on virtual floppy disk (due to the lack of drivers your Windows 95 machine can't see the CD drive anymore, so you can't install Virtual Machine Additions which lets you drag and drop files onto the virtual).
4) I've used VFD (Virtual Floppy Drive) in the past, so download that from here (or direct download)
5) Extract the files to a new folder and run vfdwin.exe.
6) On the driver tab click 'install' then 'start'.
7) On the drive0 tab click 'Change' next to the Drive letter and give it a persistent/global drive letter. Click Ok.
8) Click 'open'
9) Click 'browse' next to the image file, choose a directory to hold your image and give it a file name ('board1.img'?). Click open.
10) Set disk type to RAM, media type to 3.5 1.44MB and make sure write protect is unchecked. Click Create.
11) Find the .zip file with the motherboard drivers you downloaded and extract the files to a new folder.
12) Open up My Computer and observe your shiny new floppy drive. Copy as many files as you can from the motherboard folder into the floppy drive (they won't all fit). Close the My Computer window.
13) Back in VFD click Save on the Drive0 tab. Check 'overwrite an existing file' then 'Save'.
14) Now click 'close' and make a second floppy image as before (open, browse, board2.img, open, RAM, 3.5 1.44MB, create).
15) Open the floppy in My Computer again and copy the rest of the files onto it (they should fit on two floppies, but make a third if you have to). Close My Computer, then in VFD 'Save', 'Overwrite an existing image', 'Save'. Now click 'Close'

Alternatively to the above, download the two floppy images from my website here and here

16) Back in the virtual machine on the 'Floppy' menu click 'Capture floppy image' and open the first motherboard floppy image (board1.img if you downloaded mine). Create a new folder on the desktop then open the Virtual's 'My Computer' and then the Virtual's floppy drive.
17) Copy the contents of the floppy disk into the new folder, then close all the open windows. Go to the Floppy menu and choose 'Release "board1.img"' (or whatever you called your image). Now capture your second floppy disk image (board2.img) and do the same, copying the files into the same folder. Release the second image.
18) Open the folder and run 'Setup.exe'.
19) Next
20) Yes to the license agreement.
21) Next to the readme
22) 'Yes I want to restart my computer now' and Finish.
23) Press any key to the missing files and 'ok' to the two network messages.
24) Wait for the new drivers to be installed.
25) Use the Windows Default Driver for the PCI BUS Master IDE Controller
26) 'Yes' to restart your computer
27) Any key to missing files and 'ok' to network errors if you get them
28) 'Yes' to restart your computer
29) Any key to missing files and 'ok' to network errors if you get them
30) 'Yes' to restart your computer
31) One working Windows 95 machine, complete with CD-ROMs!

REMOVE THE VFD PROGRAM
===================
1) If required, open up vfdwin.exe again, go to the driver tab then click 'stop' then 'uninstall'.
2) Close the program and delete all the files.

FIX THE NETWORK AND MISSING FILE ERRORS
================================
1) Now we've got a working motherboard, we can install Windows properly.
2) On the virtual open My Computer, right-click the CD-ROM drive and choose 'open'.
3) Double-click setup.exe to launch the install again.
4) Click ok.
5) Click 'yes' to the license agreement.
6) Next
7) Next to C:\Windows
8) Choose typical and next.
9) Enter the license key again and click next.
10) Check the CDROM drive box and click next
11) Make sure all the components are unchecked.
12) Install the most common components and next.
13) Leave the name, workgroup and computer description as they are and click next.
14) 'No I do not want a startup disk' and next.
15) Next
16) Finish to restart the computer
17) No missing files!
18) Enter a username and (if you want) a password and click ok. Confirm the password and click ok.
19) The timezone probably hasn't changed since you last set it, so click close.
20) Click 'ok' to restart
21) Enter username and password and click ok

INSTALL VIRTUAL MACHINE ADDITIONS
===========================
*Not required, but makes it easier to use your virtual*
1) The Virtual Machine Additions CD that comes with Virtual PC 2007 doesn't install on Windows 95, so you have to use the Virtual PC 2004 version.
2) On the virtual's 'Action' menu, choose 'Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions'. Click continue.
3) Click next to start the install.
4) Finish
5) Yes to restart
6) You can now do fancy things like dragging and dropping files on and off the virtual machine onto your physical host, and don't have to press Alt Gr to release the mouse.

I spent an entire day figuring this out the first time, just to play Toonstruck (which works like a dream on it ) It is worth it if you have a couple of non-DOS non-XP games that you want to play again though.

[Rincewind]

Ali: Ah, yeah, that sounds probable... A rather shady-looking site on the whole, but the DWN-patch-thingie did work fine and without problems for me, anyway. I took the liberty of uploading a zip-file with the corrected .exe I use myself here, I hope that will work for you.

[Ali]

Thanks for the assistance guys, I feel well equipped to tackle the problem now!

EDIT: In case anyone with the same problem discovers this thread, Rincewind's patch sorted the problem. The game still crashes occasionally, but that's a bit nostalgic for me because the same thing happened when I played it on Windows 95. Running in Window's 2000 compatibility mode and saving frequently has helped a lot.

It's a great game, I'd almost forgotten how well plotted it is. It's only a pity it's such a puzzle to get it working!

Thanks again chaps!