Nemesis/XP: On start screen goes dark, then nothing

[Winjektiv]

Hi,

I am trying to get Zork Nemesis to work on WinXP SP3. As the normal install doesn't work (fatal dialog box error early on in the process) I followed the instructions given for a manual install, but when I start znemesis.exe the screen just goes dark completely, the hourglass comes on and after I while I have to use the task manager (which shows a constant high CPU usage of the program) to kill the application.

Has anyone experienced something like this before? I already tried running in Win95 compatibility mode and 640x480 resolution to no avail. What might I have missed?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

[DataAngel]

If you have followed the guides and copied the necessary files to your hdd and used one of the modified NEMESIS.ZIX files then I am at a loss of what to recommend. Please post back here if you did already try the modified ZIX files, one for use if you will be running the game from the DVD and the other if you plan to run the game from the HDD. You should be able to do the same thing for the CD version of Nemesis, however I am always able to run the CD versions from the hdd just fine.

[Winjektiv]

Thanks for your reply. I have the CD version, so followed the instructions given at http://www.kevinbecker.net/zorkguides/zn-win.html which are more or less equivalent to yours with two exceptions:
- nem_man.exe is not mentioned and I can't find it on my CD
- the nemesis.zix file contains only the top bits not the long list of file names, but I tried your version with the appropriate changes at the top as well. I believe this to be the real problem because your version contains 19 lines between the ------ lines and the following files list is preceded by numbers from 1 to 19, whereas the CD version has 24 lines between the ---- lines but I am missing the rest which probably has a files list preceded by numbers from 1 to 24. Meaning Zork probably can't find some of the files it needs and gets stuck.

So: you said you have the CD version running properly, could you post a full version of nemesis.zix for that and I'll try to change the header in it? This appears to be the most promising route to me at this point.

Thanks again.

[DataAngel]

I am bit confused...

The 3 .zix files have several hundred lines, but the only parts you change are what directory contains the data. So whether you run from the hdd or the dvd or the cd you will need to modify the files so that when you run the game it can find the folders. Cut and paste the entire zix file or attach it to this thread so I can look at it. I don't have the CD version installed, but the principal is the same, copy the 3 cd's to your hdd and modify the zix file so it can find the folders and viola!

As for the nem_man.exe, znemhelp.gid, znemhelp.hlp files, they are only help/manual files and shouldnt be needed to run the game.

[Winjektiv]

As mentioned in my first post, the instal from CD fails, so I am going through the manual copy process. There is no nemesis.zix on the CD, so I presume it normally gets created by the installation. This means I don't have a nemesis.zix to modify (just the header lines taken from the other website referenced above) and I can't use the one for the DVD version because I am almost certain that there are differences in the body of the file between the DVD and the 3CD versions (as discussed in my previous reply some files seem to be distributed differently across the three disks). Perhaps I am wrong, but just to be sure my question if anyone out there could post a full working nemesis.zix based on the 3CD version.

[DataAngel]

Ok I understand what you mean now. I cant say for certain if its created during the install or not, it should be the same file however. I will have to get my CDs out and check them for you.

[Winjektiv]

Would be really great if you could do that. The link I posted before shows modified headers for the 3CD version and the DVD version and they look different. For example it seems that the temple assets are spread across CDs 1 and 3 whereas they are in one single directory of the DVD. I couldn't find nemesis.zix on the CDs, it may be in some other perhaps compressed file, but I didn't find that either.

[DataAngel]

Okay, the nemesis.zix file is just a renamed medium.zix or small.zix file found on the first disc under \NEMESIS\ZNEMSCR based on the small or medium install you do. You can copy and rename one of them to nemesis.zix and place it in the folder with the nemesis.exe and the game will run. I am noticing some issues in modifying the zix file properly. Later tonight I will update the how-to...

[Winjektiv]

Thanks a lot for your help. I suppose I could have found that myself... Anyway please find attached a modified nemesis.zix based on medium.zix that works for me (at least I can start the game, make some moves, save and restore). This is assuming the assets are copied to subfolders CD1, CD2 and CD3.

Thanks again.

[DataAngel]

Good job! Thats correct! As promised I updated my how-to's. In fact I majorly updated almost everything on the page all because someone wanted to get the CD version to run and I had assumed that my how-to would be sufficient to get it working. Which it was not. In either case, my how-to page is updated, feel free to browse.

http://thezorklibrary.com/phpbb/viewtop ... f=15&t=327