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I just finished replaying Phantasmagoria on my new computer and it actually worked perfectly for me without any tweaking whatsoever – didn’t even have to use XP’s compatibility mode or anything at all!
I’ll probably purchase these compilations if only because all the versions of the games I currently have are so worn out and scratched up that they barely work anymore anyway. It would be nice if they made them playable without emulation… but if not, I have VDMSound which works great with pretty much every single old game I have, and with far far less annoyance than using DOSBox.
For movies I’ve got a few scripts worked out, and have used them for things like the 1990-91 video catalog: http://www.sierra-collector.com/games/catalogs.cfm and the demos of some games like http://www.sierra-collector.com/games/about/67/index.cfm
I plan to do more in the next few months and would be interested in hosting the videos.
I use a program called Sorenson Squeeze to prep them for the web, and wrote a script to stream the files to my site (allows you to jump to any part of the video without waiting for it to download)
http://www.realitystorm.com/experiments/flash/streamingFLV/index.cfmOh my god Ken, that video was awesome! The quality of it was the last thing on my mind. I’d never seen that commercial before and can’t wait to see what other gems you’ve got laying around.
Also, who was involved with Sierra’s marketing department? That video was very well done and seems so ahead of its time in terms of its quality.
Quote:
…Savage, Steve, 2006-09-14 07:21:13Ken, when you said you were ‘watching some old video from Phantasmagoria’ do you mean from a video tape made during the original production? or from some other source? …
I wondered if anyone would catch that…I have been digitizing the old Sierra marketing videos, and found some amazing footage, including some ‘video’ from the live shoot on Phantasmagoria. My hope is to put a lot of that video online here. I posted one video – on the Archives page; an old TV commercial from INN, and didn’t like how it looked, and couldn’t get it to work right. Those who REALLY want to can download it — but, you won’t be impressed.
I’m leaving tomorrow to go out of the country for three weeks. I ran out of time to work on this for now. When I get back I’ll try to focus on it — and, on how to get some good looking video going. These videos are too great to be lost. One that is particularly embarrassing is from a big budget news show ( a 20 minute piece from a Dateline-style show ) that has me and Roberta in about 1980 talking in depth about Sierra and the industry. Roberta looks about 10 years old, and I look like an absolute jerk. Hilarious footage ( not deliberately!)
-Ken W
Since the new compilations don’t offer anything new from the older collections, and actually offer less, there aren’t a lot of reasons to purchase them if you already own the previous collections. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will just be the old DOS games bundled with DosBox or some sort of DOS emulator.
I like going back and playing the old games every once in a while. I especially like the old IIgs AGI games because the sound for that time was amazing.
I wish Vivendi at least padded these new releases with other old Sierra games, then I’d be a lot more interested. There are lots of games that have never been rereleased and probably never will even though they should be. Or they should just open source the games, even though I don’t have the knowledge to take advantage of that, I’m sure there are lots of fans who would love to update the games to work on modern systems and add new features.
Well Ken,
Thanks for your kind Response.Theres always DOSBox. I ran some of the old sierra games on there with out a problem like Kings Quest 1-7 with out a problem. I have read about people running Phantasmogoria under DOSbox but If you dont monunt the cd rom drive correctly it wont work other than that It should work.
Ken, when you said you were “watching some old video from Phantasmagoria” do you mean from a video tape made during the original production? or from some other source?
Hmmm… I hadn’t thought about it…
I already have copies of the old games here, and could play them if I really wanted. My guess is that we won’t buy copies.
That said, I was watching some old video from Phantasmagoria this weekend, and had forgotten how awesome it was. I would defnitely play it again. I don’t know how well it plays on today’s computers, but plan on finding out.
-Ken W
Ken,
Im wondering if you are going to buy the Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police quest and Leisure Suit Larry Compilations to enjoy all the hours of work that you and Roberta and the rest of your staff put in that made these games possible?I know that your busy people with your current hobbies ect. It would be cool if the creator and the programmer could play its master piece on a new computer.
Sierra probably isn’t going to help you since they don’t support those games anymore. It sounds like you’re trying to run a Windows executable instead of a DOS executable. Did you already install it? There are two install programs, setup.exe is a Windows file and install.exe is a DOS file. The CD should have both versions, Windows and DOS versions of KQ5. If you want to install the DOS version, you need to run the proper install file, which is probably install.exe or install.bat in the KQ5 directory.
Thanks for the information, but now I seem to have a new problem. When I try to run it, it tell s me that the program can’t be run in DOS mode. I have been trying to contact sierra about this problem, but have had very little luck. I’m not sure if the number that I got with the book is still right or not becuase all I get are buisy signals. I was thinking that maybe it was a problem with my computer, but I installed it on 2 other computers with XP and it does the same thing with those as well. Thanks again for the help, i will keep searching for other options also, and if I do find one I will post it to help anyone else out too…. Thanks again.
Best option is probably to install DosBox and I’d recommend installing D-Fend with it. DosBox is a DOS emulator that plays nearly all DOS games extremely well, including KQ5. D-Fend is a ‘front-end’ for DosBox that basically makes configuring and loading games a lot easier, since it does all of the command line stuff for you that DosBox wants to properly load a game. If you install both and load up D-Fend, it’s pretty hard to set it up wrong.
Set the cycles to around 10000, it all depends on how fast your computer is. If you hit CTRL + ALT + DEL and click the Performance tab in Task Manager while DosBox is emulating a game, you can see how much CPU usage the emulator is using, basically you don’t want it at 100% because then the emulator will start slowing down. Then you just lower the CPU cycles a little in the emulator and adjust it until it’s playing good, but 10000 should be good if you have a decent computer.
Other than that, the only thing you need to worry about is ‘mounting’ the disks. When you’re creating a profile for a game, D-Fend will ask you to select which disks you want to mount. Easiest way is to hit Auto-mount and it will automatically configure C:, and that’s all you need to do unless it’s a CD game like KQ5 CD-ROM version, in which case in addition to mounting C:, you’ll also have to mount your CD drive (D: or E: usually).
That should be all. It might sound confusing reading, but if you try it out, it’s pretty easy. And then if you want, you can mess around with more advanced settings, like opengl or ddraw rendering (use opengl if you have Nvidia graphics, and ddraw if you have ATI). You can also try a different scaler. I like advinterp2x the best. It smooths the jagged edges.
There’s lots of other stuff you can do, but if you just want to play the games how you remember them then all you need to worry about is the drive mounting and CPU cycles. Unless you’re hoping to play with MT-32 sound, then you’ll have to figure out some other stuff.
You can also try VDMSound, which emulates Soundblaster cards rather than the entire DOS operating system. It works good for old games too.
If you want to play old Windows games, that’s harder to get working right. Best way is to make a shortcut of the .exe for the game, right click the shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Compatibility tab and select Windows 95, and select the other options there for best compatibility.
The Original KQ3 box had Mannannan looking into a crystal ball with Alexander inside of it….I just looked at it again right now to confirm my memory
What would be cooler is if they supplied a simple XP/Vista upgrade for those of us who already own the floppy versions and/or a prior compliation on CD….
Totally…… I am buying at least three copies of King’s Quest, one for me and then two for family member’s kids for Christmas gifts.
About Vevendi rereleasing these its cool that they are doing this. I don’t think its gonna make a lot of money, but its cool that they are finally listening to the fans. Its been about 20 years since I got into Sierra games, and it would be neat to get a copy of the Kings Quest compilation for my cousins, as well as neice and nepthews, since they are all about the same age as I was when these games first came out. Who knows, if by some fluke they are successful, maybe they will make some new installments? I know its not the original folks there anymore, but it would be nice. 🙂
I agree. Adventure games are making a comeback on portable systems,
such as the Nintendo DS, and it would be great to have these classic
games on the go.I’m not too concerned about XP compatibility either, but some games do need to be updated to work on current systems. King’s Quest VIII is the first one that comes to mind, but I’m sure there are others too. And not everyone knows how to use DosBox, so while a lot of the old games might work, not everyone will know how to get them to work properly. Also, anyone who doesn’t have an MT-32 system will never hear that quality of music, unless they spend a lot of time trying to figure out emulating it. I would’ve liked new drivers (maybe general midi?) that supported that quality music without needing actual MT-32 players. I think only fans who grew up with these games will be interested them, and they won’t be attracting a lot of new people to the series. And that’s why I wish they included a lot more. I was expecting the bare minimum of every game in each series being in each collection, and I’m suprised that it looks like that isn’t happening.
If anything, I was hoping they would’ve ported the Apple IIgs versions of the AGI games to DOS/Windows so that players could at least have the option to play with high quality sound rather than PC Speaker sound. I have to play my old IIgs games through emulation because I refuse to play the DOS versions.
I agree, the guy in the crystal ball is Connor and the wizard is definitely Mannannan and I’d assume they’re leaving KQ8 out. Or maybe Vivendi just can’t count and they’re really including all of the games. And do the numbers on the boxes include or exlude the remakes? There’s no reason for them not to include the remakes, but then you’d think they’d use those to bolster the number of games on the box. I’m so confused.
I think Vivendi should just open source these games.
i think that the compatibility thing isn’t an issue. people are too hard on microsoft, saying that things are not compatible enough. that’s simply not true. windows 3.1 apps still work on xp, and all xp software will continue to work on windows vista. the fact that the games are made for xp will be just fine. the only reasons we have compatibility problems with sierra dos games is because of the old hardware is not in the system (the isa soundcards) and new computers are too fast for sierras bad timing programming. both are non os problems. the only thing i dont understand is why ms doesn’t have their own a full blown msdos emulator built into windows. that would be nice, and logical.
im not happy that they aren’t including all of the main series of each game. thats too bad for all of us that missed out on the old collectors editions. i have all the games already, but the only collectors disk i have is quest for glory. i was hoping to pick up all the different ones. i dont know now.
i still have a hard time trying to figure out why vu is even doing this. there can’t be demand enough for a set of games that are all so old. as much as all of us love sierra, most people dont even realize who they are. they are now more popular for releasing half life than they are for kings quest.
did anyone else notice they listed the genre for them as action/adventure? thats funny.
Hmm, I don’t know who that’s supposed to be. Connor or Alexander maybe. Even the evil guy, Manannan ..or an old Mordack?
Either I need to play the series again or the cover artist didn’t know too much about the series. 😉
Well….. its cool that these are no longer just a rumor. I like the box for Space Quest the most. Reminds me of the lightsaber Return of the Jedi poster. I’m disappointed that King’s Quest is only going to be seven games. What is interesting about that box is it looks like its Connor in the crystal ball. And they are leaving that game out most likely?
Yeah, but not everyone is going to rush out and update their computers. I still have an old computer just for old Sierra games. Sometimes it’s a hassle figure out how to run Dosbox or get games to work other ways but the arrival of these new compilations will allow adventure gamers to play games they just simply can’t get ahold of.
I wish they’d put more goodies in as well but at least Vivendi has at least a little sympathy for the longtime fans who never played them or never finished the series.
Even though Vivendi has been toying with our minds for the past year, seeing the box covers gives a little reinforcement that it very well could be the real deal.
Though I’m waiting for more details on these releases, I agree that things don’t look very promising. If that’s the way Vivendi plans on handling the re-release they are wasting their time and money.
They start off at the wrong foot declaring that the games would run on Windows XP, because by now Sierra fans are wise enough to know that whatever runs on XP today would be useless on whatever system Microsoft will issue five years from now. That’s why they all have DosBox. They don’t need to buy the games again.
I also think that including bonus materials with the games would be a good idea. How about stuff like Peter Spear’s books? This is something fans can’t find anywhere else. Perhaps arranging new interviews with the original designers? If they want me to buy these collections, than they’ll have to give them some added value.I agree that smaller titles like the Laura Bow games and the Conquest series (and perhaps even stuff from the earlier days, like what was included in the Roberta Williams anthology) could have also made good candidates for re-release, but perhaps Vivendi is testing the water with the bigger names. In this respect, at least, I hope they will succeed.
I’m not sure what to tell you since I never played it before. You could try asking on the sierra boards for help. There may be more Hunter Hunted players there.
