SHP Forums

i noticed there isn't an installer for this game, or did i overlook it somehow?? thanks in advance.

No, I never did one. I am not sure if it is even required. Does the original installer have problems?

i haven't tried it yet. i wanted to check here cause i was sure someone here has already tried it. i'll try it tonight when i get off work and let you know the results. i don't have time this morning, but from what i have seen so far it might be ok.

well it doesn't seem to work after all. the autorun works ok, but when i click install nothing happens. i get the same effect when i try the setup.exe itself. the disc doesn't have any scratches on it or anything. not sure what the problem might be.

Took a quick look and the installer starts with no issues for me on my Win7 x64 Pro. I can't say about how the game itself works. I can never promise anything when it comes to Windows games. They are more hit and miss. They rely on antiquated or obsolete APIs. Timer issues cannot be easily addressed by turning down cycles as in DOSBox. Some games will choke on modern capacities of memory, HDD space. Many games do not like Hyperthreading and/or multi-core CPUs. This latter can usually be fixed by assigning affinity to just one core. Many games insist on 16-bit color, which require 3rd party utilities to set color depth down automatically (256 colors is easy with compatibility Mode.)

Compatibility issues can be difficult to track down. Some games, themselves may have no problems on modern Windows, but refuse to start because the DRM won't run on Vista/Win7. If any compatibility issues are with the with the game itself, it is sometimes possible to create a compatibility patch the the Application Compatibility Toolkit. This can sometimes take a fair bit of trial and error. Some problems have to be addressed in other ways, with various wrappers, replacement runtime files or directly editing the EXE. The latter is getting beyond my abilities, though I have had a couple of successes.

All of this can take time to explore and I still might not find a workable solution. If the only problem is with the installer, I can track the installation in XP Mode to create a replacement installer, but if it with the game, itself, there is no point in a new installer if I can't also fix the game.

A few more capable than I have developed installers/patches for Windows games, but usually only a couple that they might especially like. The developer of the "Squirt the Cat" installers, jafa has disappeared from the scene. One of the most promising things that I have heard of for old Windows games is from the developer of the Java port of DOSBox where he was experimenting with adding elements of WINE to his version of DOSBox to run Windows games in it, but he has not posted anything on this in a while.

http://sierrahelp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2911

well after reading that you had no problems, i tried again. this time it worked. i'm not sure what was going on with it. i'm sorry you had to go through the trouble of checking it, but for some reason it wasn't doing anything. i hope it wasn't to much trouble for you. thanks for all the help anyway. it's kinda sad that i am able to get better tech support here than i have ever gotten from any actual company. anyway thanks again!!

update: game works fine, thanks again!!