Every time I try to download The Chef (http://realityonthenorm.info/game.php?id=120), Avast picks it up as a suspicious file and blocks further attempts at downloading it. If I do manage to download it, the zip file is unreadable. Is there any chance we could get a download mirror or something?
Ah the joys of Avast. I use it too and there are times when I want to reprogram it with a very large axe when it starts getting fussy with AGS programs.
Anyway, you can find a rar copy of The Chef at this archive (http://bicycle.agsarchives.com/ron/). It's listed as #28.
Strangely enough, even that threw up a warning from Avast, "Win32:Evo-gen [Susp]". I managed to get the file, tried extracting it, and then Avast threw up another warning when I tried extracting it, blocking the extraction process and causing it to fail, so back to square one.
What on earth is in this specific game that's got Avast so worried? This hasn't happened with any other AGS game before.
EDIT: Scanning the file itself brings up no warnings. It's only when I try to either download it or extract it that Avast throws a wobbly.
I've encountered a few false positives from Avast. It once threw a .dll file straight into the quarantine vault when I opened an old game of mine with AGS 2.7 as I needed to check some lines for a port project I'm working on.
You may have to get Avast to either exempt the files you're trying to extract or turn it off briefly as it's clearly being pig-headed.
Well, I added an exception and got the file to extract, and now there's a new problem! Trying to run "CHEF.exe" (the only file in the .rar) brings up the message "Error ST02: could not load game file 'AC2GAME.DAT'." Clicking OK brings up a second message, "You must create and save a game first in the Room Editor before you can use this engine." How strange.
I've re-zipped the version of The Chef (click here for link to games page (http://www.realityonthenorm.info/game.php?id=120)) that's at the RoN site & uploaded it. Hopefully you'll have some luck with that.
Well, that one downloaded and extracted without Avast throwing a wobbly. However, clicking the .exe gives the error "There was a problem initializing graphics mode 320x200. (Problem: 'Can not set video mode')". However, I was able to get it to work by copying and pasting the winsetup.exe from another game and changing the name of the main .exe to match. Thanks for the help!
I find Compatability Mode on Windows 7 and above works quite nicely on getting the older games to run if you have any further problems.