Zaphie 2 issues :(

[questname]

This particular game (Zaphie 2 Resurrection) http://www.legendsworld.net/site/downlo ... irror=2880 is giving the following problem-

When I activate the game I leave the following default settings as is-

Choose a Directdraw Driver:
Primary Display Driver (display)

Choose a Direct3d Device:
Direct 3d HAL

Choose resolution:
640x480

The game runs fine until the opening FMV is over (with a car crash), at this point the game crashes and a dialog box pops up simply asking if I want to check Windows for an online solution since the game is not working. I've clicked that before but the box just goes away, without a response to checking for such a solution. The game has only once been able to go past the FMV, when I first installed it. After exiting upon first playthrough, I can't seem to go back the FMV anymore.

I'm running this on Windows 7, an Intel GMA 4500M with 4GB of memory. I've tried changing the screen resolution and changing Windows' compatibilty mode to various other versions of Windows by right clicking the EXE file, but nothing has worked.

I'm aware that there is a NOCD link associated with the game that's broken http://www.legendsworld.net/site/downlo ... irror=1728, so for the time being the game is installed on my hard drive but to run it the image file is also mounted via virtual drive. Has anyone else tried this game and encountered any issues, do I need the NOCD file to make it fully work? Thanks in advance.

[TigerTheGreat]

32 bit or 64 bit? 64 bits tend to have problems w/ compat.

[hfric]

yes the no CD exe was the only way , for me to play this game back in the time i had 32bit Vista

[questname]

32 bit or 64 bit? 64 bits tend to have problems w/ compat.

Ack I forgot to mention, it is in fact Windows 64bit.

To hfric, the No CD exe was just reuploaded, gave it a try and it still crashes. But now, for the first time though, I've received this DirectX error message - DDER_SURFACELOST

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Is it a DirectX issue? Is it possible the game files are corrupt and needs to be reuploaded? I've seen torrent sites have it as Zaphie2.iso, and am curious to see if that version would work any better but there are no peers to download from. Any help would be great, I'm a sucker for survival horror games and would love to play this one.

[TigerTheGreat]

A DirectX problem? Try compatibility settings for the executable. Make it w/ Windows 98, disable visual themes or screen scaling etc. Try stuff. Damn, experiment.

[questname]

A DirectX problem? Try compatibility settings for the executable. Make it w/ Windows 98, disable visual themes or screen scaling etc. Try stuff. Damn, experiment.

I guess you didn't see when I said in my first post that I HAVE been trying stuff!

This is the first time the DirectX error has come up though... but guess what? I did exactly what you suggested- made it Windows 98 with both visual themes and screen scaling disabled and voila! Now it seems to run! You're just lucky your suggestion was right on the money, LOL. Thanks for that tip.

Just you wait till it crashes again, I'll be right back here to say you were wrong all along, Lol!

[TigerTheGreat]

XD

See, Aero and all those nifty visual themes in Vista and 7 are immense f.u.c.k.u.p when it comes to old games. If something else doesn't make such a game crash, they probably will.


Just remembered that most likely I had the same bug but either it was something I found on google or attempted myself -- anyhoo, I forgot about that problem ever since.

The non-cracked crash had a whole different reason to it though. The game was protected with one of the fairly early SafeDisc iterations (which is why I managed to crack it in the first place, I used a generic unwrapper), that iteration being hardly compatible even with the good old XP, let alone Vista or Seven. So, the crack ALSO saved your ass. Coz many procedures either require admin rights (you passed that already during your experiments since compat with XP and below automatically prompts you for admin rights via UAC) or are simply incompatible with the new CD/DVD drivers no matter what compatibility settings you run this on. You just NEED to have the protection removed, PERIOD. FULL STOP. That's why I hate DRM of any kind in the first place.