Unable to play some of these games

[Kara Jo Kalinowski]

I'm trying to play all of the main games that pertain to the storyline according to that other post, BUT some of them don't work on my computer. My computer doesn't support 320 x 200, and there are 2 of them don't work so far.

Return of Die Vie Ess works when resized to a higher resolution, but it freezes shortly after the first cutscene with the two people talking.

The Lost Treasure of RON I cannot get to start, and the setup file isn't doing anything.

Not sure if anything can be done at this point but I'd like to make my own RON game and I'd like to have the basics down first.

[Leon]

The setup doesn't work with me but I can run Die Vie Ess in full screen mode (640x480). I had to adjust the resolution manually though.  Here's my acsetup.cfg:

Code: ags

[sound]
digiindx=0
digiid=-1
midiindx=0
midiid=-1

[misc]
screenres=1

Plays perfectly past the intro and on...
Let me know if this works for you.  I'm checking on Lost Treasure.

[Hudders]

Hello

I've never played a RON game but I was intrigued enough to look into it yesterday. I thought I'd start from square one and download Lunchtime of the Damned and then see where that took me.

However, I have to say that I found the game pretty much unplayable. It ran very slowly, every time I tried to do something it stalled annoyingly with the music turning into a repetitive loop of the last couple of bars played each time.

Does anyone have any advice as to how to get the game to run properly? I'm guessing the reason is down to it being an old version of AGS. I'm running it in Win95 compatibility mode, (because otherwise it doesn't even run), in WinXP. Any help on this would be appreciated.

I would dearly like to play the games but if they're all like this then it really is pointless trying, both for myself and any other newcomer to the series.

[Leon]

I've used Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 which is free and installed a genuine version of Windows 95 on it. I also made a virtual machine for DOS on the same installation. This way you can run the original games on the original OS'es.

[Ghost]

This way you can run the original games on the original OS'es.

Seconed, I use the same software for running old AGS stuff and some even older obscure abandonware. Best to give them the OS they want- emulators can only ever do so much.

[Hudders]

As useful as that advice is, (and, barring any alternative, I will probably follow it), you must admit that having to do all that would be somewhat daunting for anyone coming to the franchise for the first time?

[Leon]

Agreed that when you're new to AGS and RON, you wouldn't start with those. But the same goes for classics like Monkey Island etc. If you want to play that you'll need emulators as well.  Apart from the fact that you need to go to some trouble to install the software, it also takes (quite) some resources of your machine. What you could do is what JetXL did: make a video walkthrough of the game and archive that. If newbies want to catch up they can watch the video. If they are really interested, they can alway install the software.

I noticed that there are quite a number of good games made in the early days of AGS, not only from RON. It would be a shame not to go through the trouble of installing VPC once and enjoy the games forever. 

[DeviantGent]

There are talks of a remastered version of Lunchtime of the Damned, with improved graphics, extra puzzles and whatnot. I've got the resources sitting on my desktop, when my exams are over I'll be posting them.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure it would take the best part of a week to recompile a new version of the original.

[Hudders]

But the same goes for classics like Monkey Island etc. If you want to play that you'll need emulators as well.

Yes, but installing SCUMMVM isn't much compared to installing Windows 95 on a virtual PC. If you weren't particularly technically inclined, it would be a huge barrier.

There are talks of a remastered version of Lunchtime of the Damned

It is something that I think should be addressed, if you want new people to join in with this project.

Are there video walkthroughs of the early games, as Leon mentioned? If so, where can they be found?

[DeviantGent]

Here's Lunchtime of the Damned, Jet's done a couple of the older games too.

And don't worry, it's on the cards. Somewhere behind the primer (which has about 145 rooms and counting now).

A number of the older games have been given the recompiling treatment, including The Repossessor, Monty on the Norm, Paranormal Investigaton and The Underworld - I'd recommend checking those out as well.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Brilliant work updating the older games for non-dos friendly machines.  Oddly enough, I've never had trouble loading any of the games in vanilla xp, although sometimes the sound doesn't work (but with RoN you already know the theme, anyway).

[Renegade Implementor]

There's also Dosbox, which I've had some success at getting some of the games to run.  This does remind me that the faq needs to be updated with this information.

[Hudders]

There's also Dosbox, which I've had some success at getting some of the games to run.  This does remind me that the faq needs to be updated with this information.

I tried using Dosbox. It doesn't work with the games I've tried as it tells you that you're trying to run the Win95 version and you should download the DOS version instead, (which I'm not sure even exists).

Thanks for the link to the video walkthrough, DC. It ran even faster than I had imagined, meaning that it was running on my machine even slower than I had first thought. I will probably watch a bunch of them rather than try and get them to work and play them properly.

EDIT: So I watched the video of Lunchtime of the Damned and also of Vengeance of the Chicken. I Spy didn't need one as it works on my machine, but I've not managed to get Return of Die Vie Ess to work or find a video walkthrough of it - does anyone know whether one exists for that game? Everything post that one I can get to work.

[DeviantGent]

There are also video reviews for Vengeance of the Chicken and I Spy.

Hmm... Im wondering if any of these can be edited together to give interested parties some 'highlights' as to important stuff.

[lostbuthappy]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread but I think it is the right place to add some advice on how to run the old DOS-games like Blastoff, I Spy etc.:

- get Dosbox and install it: http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
  it's basically a DOS emulator and has versions for multiple operating systems,
  including Windows and Linux.
- get CWSDPMI.EXE. That is a DOS extender, that ags apparently used in the old days.
  I found it here: http://tdold.teadrinker.net/mr/cwsdpmi.zip

If you never used Dosbox before, the procedure is rather simple:
Create a shortcut on your desktop or anywhere else you like, copy the CWSDPMI.EXE into the game directory and then drop the game executable on the dosbox shortcut. Alternatively you can use a shell like cmd.exe or bash:
"dosbox path/to/my/game.exe"
You can use alt+tab to leave the window and alt+enter to switch from window- to fullscreen-mode (and apparently to reset the game ;-)). When you're done, type exit to leave the command line.

[Hudders]

I found that for some games that don't work, you can simply copy the setup.cfg from another game, (or create your own), into the directory and that will sort it out. Games that this works with are typically the ones with the older setup.bat files that appear not to do anything in WinXP.

This includes The Lost Treasure of RON.

Sorry for resurrecting this thread but I think it is the right place to add some advice on how to run the old DOS-games like Blastoff, I Spy etc.

Do you have a list of the games that are DOS based? All the ones I have downloaded from the RON website are Win95 versions.

[Leon]

While on the subject (again), I can't get Nightwatch running. As soon as I answer the question wether to see the intro (and no matter what my answer is), the game crashes. I've tried DOSBox, DOS 6.2 and WIN95 (the last two both on Windows Virtual PC).



Anyone with suggestions?

[lostbuthappy]

Do you have a list of the games that are DOS based? All the ones I have downloaded from the RON website are Win95 versions.

Well, I just started playing the ron games in the order they were made (mostly canon), so please excuse that my list is rather short:
- 003: The Soviet Union Strikes Back
- 005: I Spy
- 008: Blastoff!
- 011: Nightwatch

Leon:
I get the exact same error:

Code: ags

Adventure Creator v2.21 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2000 Chris Jones
ACI version 2.21.168
486 CPU detected.
Checking sound inits.

Error: the program has exited without requesting it.
Program pointer: +4002  (write this number down), ACI version 2.21.168
If you see a list of numbers above, please write them down and contact
Chris Jones. Otherwise, note down any other information displayed.

*shrugs* Could be anything.