SQ4 CD update- sort of a new game!

[Alistair]

http://forum.spacequest.net/viewtopic.php?t=1067 (I assume the new policy accepts links to Sierra-related forums? Not sure. Don't see why not..)

Gist is, because the SQ4CD has poor versions of the disk's artwork, NewRisingSun decided to update the whole game. There's links to a ZIP minus the huge resource.aud. I strongly urge anyone who likes SQ4CD (why wouldn't you, Owens rocks) to give this a go.

Once again, SpaceQuest.Net helps the Sierra community!

Regards,
- Alistair

[Ari]

Sounds neat!
I'll give it a try.

[Ari]

I played around with it a little.
Seems to work just fine for the most part.
The only thing is, on the streets of Xenon right at the beginning, there seems to be no trace of neither the zombie nor the droid-o-death. probably a timing thing, but still... it kind of loses the frightful effect of that part of the game...

[achile464]

Hope that it have the timer issues corrected

[Ari]

it does, so far. at least on my p2-266.

[laxdragon]

Played with it for a bit under dosBOX. It does fix all the timer issues, bit I don't think the graphics are that much different. I noticed the keys in the time pod are easier to read and overall the graphics are a bit brighter.

But, it did totally graphically glitch for me when the paradactyl flew over on Estros. The screen when all funky colored.

If you want a better timer fix patch, get the one from here:
http://geocities.com/belzorash/

[Alistair]

Could you guys contact NewRisingSun or post in the linked to thread with your bugs you encounter?

And laxdragon, that's really not helpful.. NewRisingSun is the guy who invented the timer patches (at the SQ.Net message board, I might add) and this is also his creation. It should be a vast improvement over the CD DOS version with the timer fix.

Hope none of you are trying to play the SQ4 Windows version with this fix!

- Alistair

[laxdragon]

Windows Never! Why would I run the windows version under DOSbox? Seems like a stange thing to do.

I had no idea the patches were from the same person. After the game freaked out on me I reverted back to the regular CD data files. Thats when I also notced the timing error playing the first part of the game again. So on a seperate search I game accross the SQ4 and other SCI game fixes.

[Ghost_Rider]

I just downloaded DOSBox a couple of days ago.  Man it is awesome.  I'm fortunate enough to have access to older computers... but in order to play older games on my newer computer, I thought might as well try this thing out.  Some old games like the original Red Baron never seemed to work right, except on my old 486DX 33MHz PC.  Well it works just fine using DOSBox on my P4 3.4GHz.  Same thing for Aces of the Deep, and a whole ton of other games.  It's also really cool how you can adjust the speed (cycles).

Just one question, is there a way to make it full screen?  I can't drag the window to make it any larger and the maximize button is shaded out.

[laxdragon]

You can either set the fullscreen=true in the config, or simply hit ALT+ENTER to switch between window and fullscreen modes. If you are running on Windows set render to ddraw, I find that gives the best performace that way. I experimented with the config file quite a bit to get just the right settings.

On the space quest 4 patch. I reported my issues to the other forum, but eneded up looking like a jerk because I didn't read the instructions fully. NOTE to others, this is a full game of SQ4, not a patch, all you need from the CD is the resource.aud file. Just copy that into a new dir where you unzip this game. I made the mistake of copying the zip on top of my existing SQ4 install. That is why I had problems. Teach me for not RTFM. :-D

[Alistair]

On the space quest 4 patch. I reported my issues to the other forum, but eneded up looking like a jerk because I didn't read the instructions fully. NOTE to others, this is a full game of SQ4, not a patch, all you need from the CD is the resource.aud file. Just copy that into a new dir where you unzip this game. I made the mistake of copying the zip on top of my existing SQ4 install. That is why I had problems. Teach me for not RTFM.

I noticed you ran into NewRisingSun. Does AWESOME things for the community, but does not suffer fools (who he perceives as fools, anyway, whch is most people) gladly, as you noticed.

I'm Spikey at the SQ.net forum, by the way.

Even took me a while to realise it was the whole thing minus resource.aud! When I posted here I didn't know that.

I found the dodgy colour palette issue- the file's been updated now, by the way. Not that it's any big deal.

- Alistair

[laxdragon]

but does not suffer fools (who he perceives as fools, anyway, whch is most people) gladly, as you noticed.

Ha. I noticed. Didn't bug me though. I'm quite used to be being the lower geek in a high tech company. Software developers (real ones, not Web wenies like me) can be a bit high strung. But, thats what makes them damn good developers.

[Ghost_Rider]

You can either set the fullscreen=true in the config, or simply hit ALT+ENTER to switch between window and fullscreen modes. If you are running on Windows set render to ddraw, I find that gives the best performace that way.

Thanks for the info!