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King's Quest Collection and DOSBox Help in Vista

Started by MangoMercury, November 02, 2009, 03:05:34 PM

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MangoMercury

I swear I'll stop posting topics eventually, but this one is bothering me right now - I know there is a KQ in Windows XP guide, but it was last updated three years ago, before this collection came out (to my recollection), so any help would be appreciated!

As you probably can tell with my explosion of topics on this forum, I've played through, completed, and enjoyed King's Quest 7 courtesy of the most recent Collection (even if that fire cracker exploded me 69 times in the space of three screens).  I decided to play KQ6, but it won't run.  Same with all of the others.  I've tried downloading a DOSBox patch from http://www.sierrahelp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47, but to no avail - perhaps it's something I'm doing wrong?

Can anyone help me resolve this problem, please?  I would really like to continue with my King's Quest high!
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Jafar

Have you tried reinstalling the Collection?

If that doesn't work, maybe you could try downloading Dosbox seperately and running the games from there without the launcher.
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MangoMercury

I have just tried reinstalling the collection, and still no success.

Is there something I'm supposed to do to link the DOSBox patch to the installed version of the collection?  I did try opening the DOSBox version of KQVI from the start menu and it just opens a DOSBox prompt.  Leaves me pretty clueless!
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Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

Haids1987

I had the same problem, and sadly, it never got resolved.  I tried everything, even emailing the company, and even their suggestions failed. Eventually, I loaded the Collection onto my laptop (which has Vista), and it worked fine.  Did you trying Googling a patch for it?  Perhaps one has been created since I last checked...
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MangoMercury

That's a shame, Haids - it seems weird that you have a Vista laptop that runs the whole collection fine, and I have a Vista laptop that only wants to run KQVII.  I would just run them on my Windows 98 laptop, but then I have the older collection for that (plus I'm not at home right now!).

I think I'm going to have to remove everything DOSBox, as well as the Collection (again), and see if it wields any results.
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Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

SurfnSwells80

Have you tried to create images of the CD's and use their IMGMOUNT them as suggested on the DosBox website? It appears that if you are trying to run these from the CD, there are some issues with that which are being worked on. It may be worthwhile to try this out.

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox_and_Vista
David Johnson
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jtrippy

Hey Mango, I just saw your topic, so hopefully you've resolved this but... I've had the same problem. I found that running the executable with a different install of DOSBox worked for me (specifically, I dragged and dropped the KQ6 executable to the DOSBox icon and it ran fine. Use Alt+Enter to make it full screen).

dark-daventry

It's not just you that's having issues with the collection. The collection was made for Windows XP, and there definite errors when trying to run them in Vista. One of the problems is that the version of DOSbox that the collection uses is out of date, with the newest one supporting Vista much better. I had some trouble myself, but I got all the games to work somehow. I can't remember how, but there is a way for them to work. I think I had associated the collection with the newest version of DOSbox, but I'm not too good on the technical side of things. I did it at my friend's house, and he's better at the technical things than I am... Nonetheless, there is a way for them to work. Try googling your problem and seeing what you get for results. That's pretty much what I did. There are walkthroughs to help you get the collection working floating out on the internet somewhere, but it's a matter of finding them.
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MangoMercury

Whoa, I haven't been on this post in forever - I did try Googling in the first instance, but again, it just really didn't do anything.  I am at home again now though, so can just play my 1 - 6 collection on my Windows 98 laptop, and then use the later collection for KQ7 (since my 7 disc stopped working for reasons unknown).  Thanks for all the help though, everyone; I hope that I can resolve it in the future perhaps!
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Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

dark-daventry

I just wish that activision-blizzard would release a new collection, that includes all 8 games and are made compatible for windows 7 in 64 bit. But I know that's wishful thinking on my part... They could even cut costs down by making it a digital download and release it on steam... Perhaps we should get a petition going... But that's a discussion for another thread. If you need any more help with the games, you know where to turn for help. We're always here to help out!
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MangoMercury

Which I very much appreciate!  I may have to try to get them working again soon.

It would be great if they'd update them though for compatibility purposes - I know the current collection is on Steam, but they can't even guarantee functionality.
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Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

dark-daventry

The problem with the collections is that they're built for windows XP, but they're not as reliable in Vista. While they can still run, they're not perfect, and sometimes getting them to work involves a lot of hassle. Activision is releasing some of Sierra's back catalog on GOG, but I'm unsure if these games are compatible with vista/7. I've never used GOG, and thus cannot vouch for it, and I am not positive that any of the king's quest games are on it. GOG did recently add some space quest games and Phantasmagoria though, if you're interested in those titles.
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