A solution for win KQ6 in XP(along with several other games)

[DaveO]

Originally Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:53 pm

Ok, I got out of bed yesterday with a goal, to solve the remaining sierra related problems I was having, most specifically around King’s quest 6. I have been using the VDMS solution for KQ6 up until now, and so I spent 3 hours setting up Win3.1 in DOSBox to no avail.

Then I tried to get the movies working with the VDMS solution, again nothing. I had all but given up.

Then I spent a while comparing the MIDI between the dos and windows versions of various games, it was at this point that I realised, Hang on, I’m using the windows version of eco quest 1, and it’s not supposed to work in windows XP. Of course then the computer realised too, and refused to run it or the windows version of SQ4 CD (which I didn’t think there were supposed to be problems in)

At this point I tried to work out why they had ran, and wasn’t able to figure it out, but found the win version of Eco quest 2 still worked, and had the idea of trying it’s exe with the other games, which solved ALL the problems!!!!

Almost
KQ6 would start but crash at the logo movie, presumably because it uses AVIs, unlike other games. So I thought, Larry 6 (lo res) was one of the later games to use SCI1.1, so I gave it a try and sure enough it worked, it doesn’t have any of the Icon problems that happen normally, but the movies don’t work, but they didn’t anyway.

Until I looked at the INI file to try and fix it, and thought of trying setting the movieplayer= to 0 instead of 1, which fixed it in the VDMS version, so now I have to decide between icons (and not having to use VDMS) or videos, But I can always just watch the intro so I think Icons is the obvious choice. Unless anyone can think of another game that uses AVIs to try the EXE from?

Anyway is anyone able to host a ZIP file of the EXEs? only 187kb
So that they can be avlible for all to share and easily (if sometimes temperamentally) run the windows versions of games, which have better MIDI music

- SCIWV.EXE – from ECO2, works with Eco1 and Sq4
- SIERRAW.EXE – from Larry 7 (works with KQ6 fine but in other games stops speech from playing)
- A selection of the DLLs required for the EXEs to run
- As well as a sample Sierra.ini file (for those who want to try it with games where they don't have the win version) which needs to be in a win sub directory of the game and pointed to in a shortcut like so:
C:\Sierra\ECO2\SCIWV.EXE C:\Sierra\ECO2\win\sierra.ini
C:\Sierra\KQ6CD\SIERRAW.EXE C:\Sierra\KQ6CD\win\sierra.ini

All the games [like every win SCI game on my computer (1 & 1.1 but not SCI32)] leave artefacts as the characters move around, EG as Alexander moves in kq6 ghosts of his tile are left around the screen. Does anyone have a solution for this? I’m not sure if this is just my computer. It is an annoyance but the games are still playable.

Finally, does anyone know of an alternative Music driver for sierra games (useable in DOSBox) that could give the win quality MIDI?


If you post this solution and files else ware please credit me

EDIT: Ok, I've found that the 1.1 games have a genral midi driver for dos (i had been trying to get it to work in kq5-SCI1) which gives the windows quality music in those games (eco1/2 sq4/5), my uess is that with win/the genmidi driver it is useing the soundcards defult MIDI layout (and haveing a sound blaster audigy this gives much higher quality), where as the previous driver (sound blaster/adlib) uses DOSBox's emulation and so thats how the game would sound on that card.
However the genmidi driver file won't work with KQ5, anyone know if there is a version that will?

[Collector]

It seems improbable that swapping the executables from one game to another would work. The SCI engine was heavily modified from one game to the next. The source for the engine was stored with each game because of this reason. The only one that I have heard of that you can swap is the full version of SQ4 and the demo of SQ4.

I don't mean to doubt your claims, but would like to see for myself. If you could get the files to me, I am willing to see. If it works I'll gladly put your solution up on the Sierra Help Pages, with credit to you.

The artifacts sound like your display is not set to 256 colors, but I'm assuming that you know that these games need to run in 256 colors.

Audio drivers tend to be game specific and will error out if you use one not designed for the game. There are a couple of Gen MIDI drivers that Sierra put out after the fact. These came with patches for specific games. I have not found one for KQ5.

BTW, welcome to the forums.

[DaveO]

well it works for me, at least it has so far, I haven't played all the way through the game yet though

I've gone back to dos for all the others apart from KQ5&6 since the MIDI driver gives the win quality music, so now they are the only ones with the ghosting. The games are runing in 256 colour mode, thats why i posted it here, thought it was odd. Could be my graphics card?

If you PM me your email address I could send the files to you as an attachment

Edit: I played the game through realy quickly today and everything worked fine exept that in the ending when jollo steps fword to give casima away at the wedding his character portrait is empty and no sound plays, but he works at other points in the game, i'l include savegames in the zip for others to try

[Collector]

Got the zip. I'll check it out this weekend.

[DaveO]

I found some awsome genral MIDI patches today

http://sierra.voyd.net/
has a MIDI/digital combo driver (mmmm combo) for games like SQ1 which use one driver for both

http://www.rarefied.org/sci/drivers.html
has unofficial MIDI patches for various games including kq5 (it's not exactly the same as the win version but verry verry close, and equaly as good [don't be fooled by the off pitch sierra logo music]) as well as for earlier SCI0 games like kq4.
all of these patches are adaptions of the mt-32 tracks for gen MIDI and they sound pretty good

[DaveO]

Ok, This moarning I played through the game with the VDMS solution, and it has the exact same problem with jolos character portrait not appearing. So it would seem that this is a game bug and not a side effect of the differen't interpreter. I even tried the game (just copied the save game) on my old laptop (233mhz pentium 2, 64mb rab, win98 which runs the game without hickup. I did a clean install and ran it from the CD and it still had the problem.

I used the exact same walkthrough for the game each time (I skiped through all the games speech each time too but i don't see how that could make a difference), so i guess it's just one of these freak bugs to do with the exact order of events. I will post the walkthrough here (at the end of the post), if memory serves it's a walkthroygh i got of the net somware but then (like I for som reason did with all wakthroughs when i was 12) I edited it and changed the text formating.

Interestingly enough, ith the original interpreter the girl in the tower music doesn't play in the credits (i'm useing the CD version from the first collection, which has it as a track on the cd) and it gives me an error (i know this is nothing new as i have read about this problem before).
However with the EXE from larry 6 (in one of the posts above it sais 7, typo) it plays the music (with speech) even without the CD in the drive, so I presume there was also a digital version in the games data files.

--Get royal insignia ring,
--Move plank,
--Open the box,
--Get the coin,
Walk to village,
Go in "Ali's Books",
--Talk to owner to learn of location,
--Talk and learn about ferryman,
Leave,
Go to the docks,
Ignore the swimming boy,
--Nock on the ferry door,
--Talk to the ferryman,
--Talk to the ferryman until he repeats himself,
--Get the rabbit's foot,
Leave the ferry,
Walk to the village,
Enter the pawnshop,
--Get a mint,
--Talk to owner about magic map,
--Trade ring for map,
--Trade coin for nightingale,
Leave the shop,
Go back to the seen with the house,
Go back to the village,
--Look through the garbage outside the pawnshop,
Go to the beach,
--Use magic map to teleport to the Isle of the sacred mountain,
--Get the flower,
--Use magic map to teleport to the Isle of wonder,
Walk north,
--Use the flower to get past the first gnome,
--Use the nightingale to get past the second gnome,
--Use the mint to get past the third gnome,
--Use the rabbits foot to get past the forth gnome,
--Use the small bottle to get past the fifth gnome,
Walk to the garden,
--Get an iceberg lettuce,
Go to the beach,
--Use the magic map to teleport to the Isle of the beast,
Go north,
--Throw the lettuce in the boiling pond,
Cross the pond,
Don't go through the gates,
--Get the brick,
Walk back to the beach,
--Use magic map to teleport to the Isle of the crown,
Go to the village,
Enter the pawnshop,
--Trade nightingale for flute,
Leave the pawnshop,
Go to the beach,
--Use magic map to teleport to the Isle of wonder,
Go to the garden,
--Look through the hole in the wall,
--Try to get the hole in the wall,
--Play the flute,
--Get the hole in the wall,
Enter the gates,
Walk towards the knights,
--Get the scarf,
Walk back to the beach,
--Use magic map to teleport to the Isle of the crown,
Go to the village,
Enter the pawnshop,
--Trade flute for tinder box,
Leave the pawnshop,
Go to the beach,
--Use magic map to teleport to the sacred mountain,
--Look at the writing on the cliff,
--Click on R-I-S-E,
Climb the steps,
--Look at the puzzle,
--Using the alphabet translator in the guide book spell out S-O-A-R,
Climb the steps,
--Look at the third puzzle,
--Press them in the order 4 1 and 2 (#1 being the leftmost),
Climb to puzzle #4,
--Look at the puzzle,
--Again using the translator click on the symbols for:
azure, caterpillar, tranquility, & air,
Climb steps,
--Look at puzzle #5,
--Click on A S C E N and D,
Climb to the top of the cliffs,
Ignore the old lady until she leaves,
--Enter small cave near the bush,
--Light candle in tinder box,
Enter next cavern (entrance at far right of screen),
--Take some peppermint leaves,
Exit from these caves,
Take the path toward top of the screen,
Watch the action until you are put in the catacombs,
*(Note: all directions in the catacombs are given N, S, E, & W with respect to the top, bottom, left, & right of the screen!)*,
Walk N, N, N, W,
Walk one square at a time in this order: N, SW, SW, N, N, NW, SW, S, W Walk N,
--Take the shield on the wall,
Walk N, N, E,
--Use brick to stop the gears before the ceiling crushes you,
Walk E, E, N, E and fall through to level 2 of the catacombs,
--Use tinder box to light the room up,
Walk W, W, W, W, W, S, S, E,
--Use Hole-in-the-wall on E wall to spy on Minotaur,
Walk W, W, W, S, S, E, S, E, E, N, E, N, N,
--Look behind tapestry to open the secret door,
Enter Minotaur's Lair to the East,
Walk further in to get Minotaur's attention,
--Use the Red Scarf when Alexander backs up by the fire,
Watch ensuing scenes ending with you on the beach,
--Use magic map and teleport to Isle of the Mists,
Go west to the village,
--Get the scythe,
Go back to the beach,
--Use the magic map to teleport to the Isle of the beast,
Go to the stone archer,
--Use the shield to defend yourself against the archer,
--Get a white rose,
Walk north and you are blocked by the plants,
--Use scythe to get through hedges,
Go north to beast's garden,
Go back to the beach,
--Use the magic map to teleport to the Isle of the crown,
Go to the house with the roses,
--Give the white rose to the girl,
--Give beast's ring to the girl,
You are automatically taken back to The isle of the beast,
Go back to the beach,
--Use the magic map to teleport to the Isle of the crown,
Go to the village,
Enter the pawnshop,
--Trade the tinderbox for the nightingale,
Leave the pawnshop,
Go to the castle,
--Where Beauty's clothes as a disguise to get into the castle,
Walk up the left staircase,
--Put the wind up nightingale on the floor when the guards are facing away from you,
Hide behind the pillar to your right (go east then click hand on pillar to hide),
--Once the guards are gone move the picture,
--Get the nail,
Go out into the hallway,
Enter the Vizier's room,
--Pick the lock on the trunk with the nail,
--Get the top letter,
Leave the room,
--Replace the nail and the picture,
Go to the north hall,
--Talk to Cassima through the door,
--Give dagger to Cassima,
Go back to the west hallway,
--Hide behind the pillar,
Go out into the hallway and go down the stairs,
--Show the letter you got form the Vizier's room to Saladin,
--Talk to Cassima,
--Show the mirror to Cassima,
Follow the Vizier upstairs,
--Give the Peppermint to the Genie,
--Get sword from the wall,
--Fight the Vizier with the sword,
Wait till Cassima stabs him,
--Quickly hit the Vizier with the sword,
Watch the ending.
Score: 116 of 231

[Collector]

OK, I've had a chance to try this. It fixes the cursor problem, but cannot play the AVIs. I noticed that it will play the DOS intro. Not all versions of LSL6 work. I have tried a number of other executables from games of the same year, most error our before starting the game. I had hopes for GK1, since it can play AVIs, but no go.

Could you send me the Eco 2 executable? It would be nice to have both a cursor fix and be able to play the AVIs.

[DaveO]

the eco 2 just craches at the logo screen, the lsl6 one is the only one i've found that works. it's a shame that the avi's don't play but I personaly find the cursor bug more annoying, but hey, that's entirly up to you. As i'v said, for me, normaly the girl in the tower music doesn't play in the credits because it has a problem readin the track off the disk, the LSL exe fixes this problem for me and uses the version in the games files (i didn't even know there was a verson in the games files, but there must be).

On an interesting note the DOS version (at laest my dos version) doesn't use that intro, it has an animated intro too, the only other time i've seen that one was when i was trying to get it to work with win 3.1 in dos box but it would only run in 16 colour.

The EXEs not a perfect fix but it's all about compremises, put up with the cursor bug with VDMS so you can run the win version, use the LSL EXE but put up with watching the intro seperatly, it's all about what annoys you less

EDIT: I suppose if you can get it to run in 3.1 in DOSBox then that's obviously the best way, but for people who can't (like me) then you just have to choose

[Collector]

Even that is not a perfect solution, as you have to put up with the crappy Win 3x sound quality, though it may be best for the Win 64 people. It is still is better than the crappy VPC sound emulation.

It is too bad that the source for the original exe is not available. The problems with it could be addressed and then recompiled for 32 bit for modern OSs.

I will write up a page for the LSL fix for the game and put the file up for download as an alternative and include it in the patch for the new collection. It might take me a little while to get around to it. I need to redo the patch for DOSBox 0.72, anyway.

[Tawmis]

It is too bad that the source for the original exe is not available. The problems with it could be addressed and then recompiled for 32 bit for modern OSs.

Not that I know a thing about it, but couldn't someone who DOES know how to do it, decompile the exe file?

[Collector]

It would have to be RE'ed. It would have been written in one of the C variants. My understanding is that unlike other languages, a C decompiler is impossible. I guess that it could be disassembled, but that is a long way from getting back to an object oriented language.

[DaveO]

even without source, it's to bad it can't be done to simply convert them to 32 bit if nothing else

EDIT: would visual studio .net be able to do it?

[Collector]

It would probably be less work to start with FreeSCI to rebuild a 32 bit executable than it would be to start with the original EXE. The Free SCI team have already done a fair amount of RE work on SCI, but that project is near dead, especially with the Windows port.

There are only a few Win only SCI games (mostly SCI 32) that it would be nice to have FreeSCI for, and they are the games that are the furthest form being supported by the project. All the DOS SCI games play very nicely in DOSBox. KQ6 is the only DOS/Win game that the Win version is so much more desirable over the DOS. The DOS KQ5 could be improved with just a good GM patch.

[DaveO]

plus there's a resonable existing GM patch that could be modded if someone had the time and the skill