Mask of Eternity troubles

[Enchantermon]

*crawls out from under his rock*
Oh hi.
So.....about Mask of Eternity.
I was finally able to start recording again, and I've quite unfortunately hit that little well-known snag concerning the cutscene at the windmill. For those who don't know what I'm talking about:

Spoiler (mouse over to reveal):

right after you get the axe and step outside, the black knight appears for the first time and attempts to claim the Mask piece from you. After Connor says "En garde!" you should be able to move forward and attack the knight. But in this case, I can't. The music plays, the characters cycle through their idle animations and I can open and close the map and the interface, but I can't do anything else. I can't move Connor in any way, there's no mouse cursor, I can't switch between first-person and third-person views and I can't return to the menu. My only option is to Ctrl-Alt-Del to force-minimize the game and end it through the Task Manager.

This is, of course, a known issue with MoE. I've tried all of the suggestions listed at the Sierra Help Pages here. I've only been able to get it working once, and at that point I had been messing around so much that I wasn't prepared to record. I then reloaded my save from inside the windmill without even exiting out of the game or changing anything, and it stopped working again and hasn't since.

I've also tried two different versions of the game: GOG's version (the patch doesn't run on this one; I assume it's already patched) and the standard CD-ROM version. Neither work. I've tried starting a new game. I've tried leaving the windmill, doing other things and coming back later. I've tried changing graphics options. I was going to try sacrificing a young goat at midnight under the full moon, but figured the neighbors wouldn't appreciate the mess.

Anyway, I've pretty much run out of options. I'm on XP Pro SP3; I wasn't able to get the darn thing working properly on 7, though I'm trying again at the moment. If anyone has any suggestions, I would really love to hear them. I have nothing to offer, unfortunately, other than an honorable mention in my MoE LP and my wholehearted gratitude. Thanks!

[Bludshot]

I think I encountered that once.  Don't know what we did, but we were just kids so probably just kept restarting until it didn't happen. 

Was this an issue ever covered in the patch?

[Numbers]

If I recall correctly, I just screwed around with the 1st/3rd-person perspective, the walk/run cycle, and the weapon out/weapon concealed modes. Usually, it froze at least twice before working the third time. There is no definitive answer to this issue, as it's very much a matter of trial and error.

Of course, there's an even worse instance of this bug later on in the Barren Regions, but we'll deal with that troll, as they say, when we come to that bridge.

[Enchantermon]

Was this an issue ever covered in the patch?

People have reported that patching the game fixed the problem, but I'm thinking that it was pure coincidence; otherwise, logically, it would work for everyone.

If I recall correctly, I just screwed around with the 1st/3rd-person perspective, the walk/run cycle, and the weapon out/weapon concealed modes. Usually, it froze at least twice before working the third time. There is no definitive answer to this issue, as it's very much a matter of trial and error.

I was afraid of that. Didn't try messing with walk/run, though...

Of course, there's an even worse instance of this bug later on in the Barren Regions, but we'll deal with that troll, as they say, when we come to that bridge.

Oh goodie, lol.

[waltzdancing]

I did encounter that bug recently.  I could not fix it but when I restarted the computer it was fine. The only patch that I know of out there is for the statue head in the Dimensions of Death. Other than those few speed bumps, everything run fine.

[KatieHal]

So...you might say that completing this game...'tis beyond your reach?

 

[Enchantermon]

I did encounter that bug recently.  I could not fix it but when I restarted the computer it was fine.

Did that, too. Drats.

So...you might say that completing this game...'tis beyond your reach?

 

Heh heh heh. Yeah, you might say that.

[Blackthorne]

Well, your first trouble is that you are playing "Mask of Eternity".

To fix this problem, I suggest you either remove the CD from your drive, of if it is a digital copy, delete it off of your computer.  This will prevent you from encountering this error again.


Bt

[Numbers]

I and many others have already tried this. It doesn't work. No matter what you do, Mask of Eternity will never go away. Once you have first opened the application, you have already lost. It will rip, and tear, and mutilate the innocent, your friends and family, again and again, and on and on. You are trapped, you can never escape, and your pain will never end...

...no wait, I'm thinking of Telltale Games products. Never mind.

[Bludshot]

Well, your first trouble is that you are playing "Mask of Eternity".

To fix this problem, I suggest you either remove the CD from your drive, of if it is a digital copy, delete it off of your computer.  This will prevent you from encountering this error again.


Bt

So much hate.  Mask of Eternity is just as much a King's Quest game as any other in the series.  Remember that time Graham talked about grain?

[Lambonius]

Well, your first trouble is that you are playing "Mask of Eternity".

To fix this problem, I suggest you either remove the CD from your drive, of if it is a digital copy, delete it off of your computer.  This will prevent you from encountering this error again.


Bt

I'd still rather play it than KQ7.

[Blackthorne]

Heh heh heh.  I tease, I tease.  I don't actually hate the game more as I'm ambivalent to it.  I just don't care, really.  I don't like it, but I don't hate it.  It's more like that box of cereal that's been in your cupboard for ages.  You don't want to eat it, but you haven't bothered to throw it away either.  You just don't care.


Bt

[Enchantermon]

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I don't hate it, but it's fun enough to make me want to revisit it every now and then.

[darthkiwi]

I think the first level (Daventry) is expertly put together. I love the way you're introduced to various game systems, weapons and armour, and the way they're all placed on the map. It feels very fluid to me, and there's a real sense of progress.

The Dimension of Death... not so much. One square kilometre of repetitive labyrinth? Not fun. And it's been ages since I played beyond the DoD (I started replaying it a year ago but stopped there) so I can't comment on anything beyond that; I was too young and impressionable to have reliable taste when I first played it.

Having said that, I don't think it's really a King's Quest game. It just feels so different to the other games in the series. I feel kind of sorry for it, actually: if they'd made it as a standalone game, with no links to the KQ series at all, I think it'd be a much-loved classic with a small but determined cult following. As it is, all the people who know about it are also KQ fans, so it gets nothing but hate.

Anyway, sorry, got rather off-topic there. I'm afraid I don't know how to fix the problem. I take it you've tried fiddling with the troubleshooting sliders in XP? (Or am I thinking of '98 there?)

[crayauchtin]

I'm with Darthkiwi -- I have two problems with Mask of Eternity.

1) I just don't think it was ever *finished* -- it just doesn't feel like they were ready to release it when they did. Some parts are polished nicely, but most of them aren't at all.

2) It got called a King's Quest. Like, an extension of the series. It should have been a standalone game or the beginning of a total separate spin-off series, so they could have marketed it as a standalone game AND marketed to King's Quest fans. But that's not what they did -- and that's probably the biggest downfall of the game.

[Numbers]

I'd still rather play it than KQ7.

I'm with you there. I've always preferred gritty over kiddie.

Besides, MoE pretty much has its own continuity, as opposed to KQ7, which not only retconned an important plot point, but completely threw preexisting character personalities to the wind. Which, of course, is a dick move if ever there was one.

If KQ7 and MoE haters can agree on something, it's that MoE is easier to ignore. It meanders off into its own little world (Daventry and King Graham are what they are in name only, for instance); however, you can't just forget that Edgar's entire back-story was changed for the sake of making him into a cliched Prince Charming for the equally cliched Barbie protagonist to hook up with.

[Enchantermon]

I take it you've tried fiddling with the troubleshooting sliders in XP? (Or am I thinking of '98 there?)

Not sure what you're referring to...

[Bludshot]

I'd still rather play it than KQ7.

I'm with you there. I've always preferred gritty over kiddie.

Besides, MoE pretty much has its own continuity, as opposed to KQ7, which not only retconned an important plot point, but completely threw preexisting character personalities to the wind. Which, of course, is a dick move if ever there was one.

If KQ7 and MoE haters can agree on something, it's that MoE is easier to ignore. It meanders off into its own little world (Daventry and King Graham are what they are in name only, for instance); however, you can't just forget that Edgar's entire back-story was changed for the sake of making him into a cliched Prince Charming for the equally cliched Barbie protagonist to hook up with.

Yeah KQ7 was definitely a step in the wrong direction.  KQ5 brought in a ton of new fans with an interface that is easy to use and has aged very well, and KQ6 offered a new standard of lore and story arc to the series. 

KQ7 managed to mess up both, it's not even incredibad like KQ5.

[crayauchtin]

I don't completely hate KQ7 -- I actually do like the plot, I don't mind the retcon of Edgar's backstory... but I despise the changes to both Valanice and Rosella as characters, I completely can't stand the interface... and can we stop for a second and wonder why anyone thought an animation style where humans have four fingers instead of five was at all acceptable?

[KatieHal]

Ask the creator of the Simpsons about that one.

I don't hate KQ7 either. It has its issues, but it was still fun enough. I think of everything, my biggest dislikes are also the changes to the two characters, and that the first chapter of the game was so god awful boring.