Wizardry 4

zakhal · May 21, 2008

JDR13 said:
Well I finally give up on trying to run Wizards and Warriors on WindowsXP. I've wasted about 6 hours now trying to get it to work correctly to no avail, nothing I've read on the net seems to work for me.

I just received my w&w today and tested it:

1.Game version newest (xplosive) I bought the budget one incase it had any "fixes"
2.Graphics card 8800GTS640
3.Graphics Drivers - Old (I havent updated)
4.Windows XP Home SP2
5.Ran setup program with windows98/me compatibility (somtimes the install program must be run in combatilibity mode too)
6.Ran game with windows98/me compatibility

The only problem I have is slow mouse but I can easily fix that with my razor mouseconfig. All graphic modes work but direct3d looks bad. Software looks nice though in high resolution. Videos run fine and I have no problems clicking anything. The game runs great - its all ready for som serious wizarding!

Where do you get weapons in this game? During the testing I ran naked with one char towards the woods but multiple thiefs and goblics ambushed me. I barely escaped them with a horse I stole (after giving the thiefs few black eyes with fists), only to ride into a river and get eaten alive by piranhas.

JDR13 · May 22, 2008

zakhal said:
I just received my w&w today and tested it:
Where do you get weapons in this game? During the testing I ran naked with one char towards the woods but multiple thiefs and goblics ambushed me. I barely escaped them with a horse I stole (after giving the thiefs few black eyes with fists), only to ride into a river and get eaten alive by piranhas.

There is an armory right there in the starting village, all your characters begin with 200 gold.

Mmmm, maybe I should try to install it in compatbility mode. We have similar systems except that I have XP Pro (could that be the problem?) and the newer Geforce 8800GTS 512. I can not start the game at all in software mode, it runs fine in D3d except for the mouse targeting bug which ultimately makes it unplayable.

Also, my version of W&W is the original, but I don't think that should make a difference.

Fenris · May 22, 2008

Well, you should be able to enter the buildings (one of them a Blacksmith) in the City-Screen by clicking on them - but with Windows XP that doesen't work anymore (at least for me).

JDR13 · May 22, 2008

Fenris said:
Well, you should be able to enter the buildings (one of them a Blacksmith) in the City-Screen by clicking on them - but with Windows XP that doesen't work anymore (at least for me).

That is a known problem, here is the solution.

6.1) Can´t enter buildings in town or exit through the gates
Problem: Your town*.avi files are compressed and won´t work in Windows 2000/XP
Solution:

Download Virtualdub. First, copy each townmskn.avi file to townmskn_orig.avi in the W&W\townavi folder. This takes about 4.5 MB of space, and will let you put the original versions back if you need them. Next, delete the original townmskn.avi files. Third, use virtualdub to open each of the townmskn.avi files. Save each file in Vdub with the "Save old-format AVI" option with a new file name (townmskn_new.avi ). You should see some strange graphics appear; you will get back a large 32MB file. Fourth, exit Virtualdub and then in Windows Explorer copy each new file from townmskn_new.avi to townmskn.avi. Try to play the game at this point; if it works, stop here. If it doesn't, repeat the process with the three townhubn.avi files. Note that this will require an extra 90Mb of diskspace for each set of three files.

JDR13 · May 22, 2008

zakhal said:
5.Ran setup program with windows98/me compatibility (somtimes the install program must be run in combatilibity mode too)

This might be a stupid question, but how do you do that? Do I just right click on the setup icon on the W&W disc and set it to Windows98 mode and then double click to start the setup?

zakhal · May 22, 2008

JDR13 said:
There is an armory right there in the starting village, all your characters begin with 200 gold.

Ok thx found it.

JDR13 said:
Also, my version of W&W is the original, but I don't think that should make a difference.

If they are exactly the same then how come i.e the avi files in the budget version are not compressed (if they were they wouldnt work)? I dont need to do the virtualdub thing. Just wondering.

JDR13 said:
This might be a stupid question, but how do you do that? Do I just right click on the setup icon on the W&W disc and set it to Windows98 mode and then double click to start the setup?

Find the setup.exe from the cd and open its properties rmb => win98. Its just like any file on the harddrive. Dont know about w&w but this fix does work with other oldies like rainbow six. If it doesnt work then Im guessing its the nvidia drivers. I have old ones because some of the newer ones have problems with my hdtv.

JDR13 · May 22, 2008

zakhal said:
If they are exactly the same then how come i.e the avi files in the budget version are not compressed (if they were they wouldnt work)? I dont need to do the virtualdub thing. Just wondering.

I didn't need to do it either.

zakhal said:
Find the setup.exe from the cd and open its properties rmb => win98. Its just like any file on the harddrive. Dont know about w&w but this fix does work with other oldies like rainbow six. If it doesnt work then Im guessing its the nvidia drivers. I have old ones because some of the newer ones have problems with my hdtv.

Tried it, didn't work.

I give up on W&W for now, I have too many other games to keep wasting time trying to get this thing to run. I'll give it another try in a few weeks when I pick up my copy of Windows Vista.

zakhal · May 22, 2008

Well thats weird. Considering its the software mode thats having problems then it most likely isnt the nvidia driver either. And if you have intel processor (c2d most likely) thats out of the question too. It could be xp pro of course. Theres naturally som obvious reason for this.

I have given up only once - with d3d mode in early total war games. So much time wasted - never could get them to run.

Lucky Day · May 22, 2008

here's an interesting find

http://www.carltonfields.com/agreenberg/#

now that I know his email I wonder if he'd agree to an interview.

zakhal · May 22, 2008

Lucky Day said:
here's an interesting find

http://www.carltonfields.com/agreenberg/#

now that I know his email I wonder if he'd agree to an interview.

What does attorney at law have to do with wizardry? Just curious.

EDIT:

Andrew C. Greenberg (born 1957) co-created Wizardry with Robert Woodhead, which was one of the first role-playing games for a personal computer. He was also involved with the production of the game Q-Bert and several of the later Wizardry games in the 1980s.

With Rick Dutton, Walter Freitag, and Michael Massimilla he created Star Saga: One - Beyond The Boundary & Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace, in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Both were released by Masterplay Publishing

The name of the evil wizard in the first Wizardry game is Werdna, Andrew spelled backwards.

He is now a patent attorney with Carlton Fields, a law firm in Florida. Greenberg is the Vice-Chairman of the Intellectual Property Committee for the IEEE.

So the arch-villain of the series is actually a lawyer. Perfect. Too bad he wasted his talents as a lawyer instead of making a comeback as an evil wizard.

Lucky Day · May 23, 2008

good one.

He's also the copyright holder. I'm suspecting he became a lawyer after 8 years of law suits against Sir-Tech Canada trying to get the money they owe him. A couple of years ago I found a briefing from NY State Appellette court on a decision in his favour that he can proceed to sue them. You'll also note some of his accomplishments are successfully suing some Japanese named companies but that just may be a coincidence.

Now I wonder what Trebor is up to...

JDR13 · May 24, 2008

zakhal you need to edit that post and remove those links, that is a known warez site and the material there is not abandonware.

zakhal · May 24, 2008

JDR13 said:
zakhal you need to edit that post and remove those links, that is a known warez site and the material there is not abandonware.

Ok I removed them just incase but what makes you think the site is not abandonware? The games were like 10 years old. Many of them japanese that were never even sold outside japan. There were no new games - I didnt see a single one.

The sites been up since atleast 2006 so its hard to believe ESA would let it share direct link to games if they were not considered abandonware.

JDR13 · May 24, 2008

Come on now, you know better than that. Playstation games are a loooong way from being abandonware yet.

As to why the site hasn't been forced to shut down yet I can't answer that, most sites of that type don't last very long.

zakhal · May 24, 2008

JDR13 said:
Come on now, you know better than that. Playstation games are a loooong way from being abandonware yet.

Whats the difference between 10 year old pc game and 10 year old psx game if are not sold anywhere? I dont see why only pc game should be considered abandonware. You do know that psx was originally released 1994 - thats 14 years ago.

The link I provided was to a game that was never released outside japan - the game is not even mentioned anywhere except on that site and one other english site that has the translation patch.

JDR13 · May 24, 2008

Not all 10 year old PC games are abandonware, it depends on the developer\publisher. None of those console games are abandonware because Nintendo\Sony\Sega etc, are still going strong and own the rights to those games.

The link I provided was to a game that was never released outside japan - the game is not even mentioned anywhere except on that site and one other english site that has the translation patch.

Then by all means download it and play it, just don't post links to it, that's how the trouble starts.

If someone else wants to know about it then send them a PM.

Lucky Day · May 28, 2008

Man, Level 6 seems down right impossible and random. Where's a compass when you need one?

Wizardry 4

zakhal

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JDR13

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Fenris

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zakhal

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Lucky Day

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JDR13

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zakhal

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zakhal

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JDR13

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Daywatch