HOW-TO: Installing & Playing Zork Games

[DataAngel]

I did some work recently on a how to... ENJOY!

HOW-TO: Installing & Playing Zork Games: Forum Post.

[DrPaul]

It's not that you haven't done enough work already, but here's what I was wondering:

The solutions you posted for running Nemesis or ZGI on XP involve copying the CDs to the hard disk and then playing the games from there without requiring CDs.  Is it possible to copy the Nemesis CDs to a DVD instead of the hard disk and running the games from the DVD drive?  Or do we run into the same problem with the game not finding the disk drive?

[DataAngel]

The read error I believe is probably due to some form of copy protection on the original disc. I don't see why it wouldn't work if you were to burn them to a different DVD, just make sure to fix the .zix files to reflect the new location for the files.

[DataAngel]

Pffft that was easy. Hey I modified the zix files and it reads from the DVD just fine. Now if you do not want to run it from the hdd you don't have to. I have edited the how-to page.

[DrPaul]

Before I started, I didn't realize that your solution was for the DVD versions of the games.  I didn't know there was a DVD version of Nemesis.  Anyway, I got it to work using the info from the "ZGI and Nemesis problems under XP" thread.  

Presently, I'm running Nemesis from the hard disk because I don't have any blank DVDs to try it with yet.  I figure that I ought to be able to copy all the files to a DVD and adjust the .zix file for that.  Then I can free up a lot of hard disk space.

The problem is that it is running way too fast, so it's still unplayable.  I looked at the "Zork Nemesis - too speedy" thread, but the solutions don't seem to be very satisfactory.

I don't understand the last comment you (Data Angel) made on the  "too speedy" thread.   You said, " Nemesis works just fine on my 3.2ghz but um KB panning is the answer, I will try out CPUkiller too."

What in the heck is "um KB panning?"

[Siriusstar]

Interestingly, I got everything to work fine on my new Vista desktop, but nothing seems to make either Z:GI or Nemesis work on my XP laptop. Everything was going fine until I hit the last step and it simply would not save the changes no matter what I did. It isn't that big a deal since I have my desktop, but it is annoying.

[DataAngel]

Yes there is a DVD version of GI and on it Nemesis is included. The How-To shouldn't be any different for the CD version of Nemesis, because if you edit the .zix file it should be fine.

KB=keyboard, it was very fast, but I replayed both Nemesis and GI and just frankly put up with the speed, it otherwise ran fine.

As for cpukiller, basically all it did was cause massive lag  when it was set high enough to slow down the mouse panning it also killed the game speed, the issue isn't the game, its the panning and unless someone can find a way to fix that specific issue I think we are all hosed.

You hit the last step? Explain?

[DrPaul]

YOu know, it's interesting that in the znemesis.ini file there are settings for the keyboardTurnSpeed and the PanaRotateSpeed (the mouse panning speed.)  Unfortunately, even setting PanaRotateSpeed to 0 (the default value is 540) it doesn't seem to make any difference.  Dang!  

However, the keyboard rotation speed is not too bad.  

Another nice thing to do is to set LineSkipVideo=1 or 2.  This makes the videos brighter and cleaner because it doesn't skip every other line.  I highly recommend this.

[DataAngel]

now you know why i used kb panning :-}

[Siriusstar]

My laptop would not save the modified files of the second disk for Z:GI, even when I used the trick of saving the modified folder to the desktop, deleting the old folder, and then pasting in the new folder. That's what I had to do with the Vista computer, and it worked fine for disk one on the laptop, too, but would not work for disk 2. It said I didn't have permission to modify the files, even though I apparently had 'permission' for the first disk. It did the same thing for disk 1 of Nemesis. [smiley=huh.gif]

I might try the second disk again sometime, just to see if it wasn't some dumb issue with the anti-virus software. (I've since switched to a different one.)

[DataAngel]

Don't forget that when you move files around etc. that you do so from within folders that contain "everyone" permission so that you dont run into issue, for example doing it from the desktop may make the files admin. only etc. and then moving the files later may cause issues with rights and permissions.

anyways gl, youll get it.

[DataAngel]

My how-to page has been majorly updated today! Much has been added and many things fixed!

Sorry for all that time during which the how-to's were seriously lacking, I spent a lot of time on them and thought when i was done the first time, that they were perfect.... WRONG. So... as I was updating it for the Nemesis on CD I realized how many other things were wrong and so I double checked things and fixed steps in my how-to's so that they are %100 now. I also added ZGI CD to the how-to's.

I am unable to get the CD versions to run from them as the way the game has been coded cannot find the drive without specifying the drive letter. The problem is that with multiple discs it still doesnt know what to do when it cant find the data on the disc, cause theres multiple cd's needed. It would work fine if you owned the cd versions and burnt them to a single dvd then theres no need for it to ask to insert a different disc or having the game being unable to locate the files.