For those of you who are still playing (and loving) Phantasmagoria 2, and have been unsuccessful in running the game under modern operating systems, I have created a solution.
Almost one year ago this month I created a small application called Phan2XP, which is basically an automatic installer written in Visual Studio of an MS-DOS emulator (DOSBox) and my own fixed version of the original Phantasmagoria 2 sound driver. I posted it over at the ‘new Sierra’ forums (http://forums.vgames.com/thread.jspa?threadID=52715), and have been updating it for a while. There’s still a few bugs, and I plan to include an option to play from the hard drive in the next release (all operation requires the original Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh CD-ROMs, so this program is in no way used to circumvent owning the discs or to promote piracy).
My solution is better than others because it uses the original (with my patches) fixed version of the Phantasmagoria 2 .exe, and doesn’t require any complicated VDM/FreeDOS configurations. It also eliminitates most problems associated with those methods, such as unresponsive mouse movements or slow playing videos (opening P.A.W.’s desk drawer on the first disc, for example, was a troublesome spot in the VDM method).
You can go downlaod your copy over at my website, http://www.moccio.net/projects/phan2xp.php specificly. Phan2XP is starting to really get some attention now: it’s had well over 2,000 downloads since last year, and I’ve had many lovely e-mails about it… and one thanks in real life!
If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to reply to this thread or drop me an e-mail.
P.S… I just found out that Ken and Roberta actually post in these message forums. That’s awesome. You guys rule!