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I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:28 am
by schemingsanity
I hate to say it, but I have a question about running King's Quest 7 on Vista. I'm sorry, I read the last thread about running King's Quest 8, and I followed the advice on it and did some research on http://www.sierrahelp.com/ and I followed some of the links that the recommended. However, that being said, none of the advice I could find offered any help on how to run King's Quest 7 or KQ8 on Vista.

I've tried running both of these games, as well as Myst on DOS box, but every time I attempt this, Dos Box will repeatedly tell me the following. "This program cannot be run in dos mode."

Grudgingly accepting Dos Box's answer, I try once again to run KQ7 and KQ8 on Windows. (I have the last re-release of the King's Quest Collection which includes games 1-7.) I try running the game through the King's Quest Collection, and I try opening and running the .exe file manually under "program files." I try running KQ7 normally. I've tried every single compatibility mode possible when I right-click the .exe's properties. I've also tried all the "settings" under the .exe's properties. So I've tried changing color modes and resolution modes, and no matter what changes I attempt to make Windows always leaves me with the same answer.

"The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you are running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher."

I have honestly done a lot of research on my own, and have followed the links that people were kind enough to post for help on King's Quest 8, and the information that I find either doesn't help me because it doesn't apply to Vista, or I just don't understand it well enough to even begin trying to apply it.

If anyone has the time or is kind enough to give me an answer, any answer on how I might be able to run KQ7 or Myst on Vista, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've also looked through posts on the Off-Topic forum to see if I could find any other answers for the question that I'm posting, but I didn't find what I was looking for.... so if someone already has answered my question on this subject and I missed it, I'm sorry. I geniunely did try to find the answer before bothering you guys here.

So thanks for your time, even if the answer is just, "there's nothing we can really do." I just appreciate the fact that someone was willing to read the post and try to help out if they could.

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:46 am
by MusicallyInspired
Myst is a Windows-only game and will not work in DOSBox. Unless you have the Masterpiece Edition, I doubt Myst will work at all.

Your version of KQ7 probably doesn't contain the DOS interpreter (not all of the releases have it). What you need for King's Quest VII is one of the installers that'll update your version to the DOS version and copy all the files to your hard drive automatically and allow you to play the game without the CD. It's available at the Sierra Help Pages here. Scroll down until you see the KQ7 installers. Choose the appropriate one for your version of the game and run it.

http://www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updat ... llers.html

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:20 pm
by Brainiac
MusicallyInspired wrote:Unless you have the Masterpiece Edition, I doubt Myst will work at all.
*cough* realMYST *cough*

Interestingly enough, some of the newest releases of the original game (the PSP downloadable and lackluster DS port) include the Rime Age from realMYST in a format closer to the original game.

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:49 pm
by MusicallyInspired
Neat! I need to find this!

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:56 pm
by Brainiac
Presuming you're talking about the handheld Myst ports, I'd get the PSP one. The DS port is pretty reviled.

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:55 pm
by MusicallyInspired
Is the Rime age in the DS port?

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:59 pm
by Brainiac
Yes, but as I said, that port is pretty bad. Just a warning.

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:09 pm
by MusicallyInspired
I know. I've played it.

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:34 pm
by Brainiac
Ah. So since you wondered about Rime, I assume you couldn't slog your way through the horror of the port all the way to the end?

Re: I hate to ask, but does anyone know how to run KQ7 on Vista?

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:26 pm
by MusicallyInspired
Well I didn't feel bothered to go through the whole game again. Especially since I didn't know the Rime age existed in the DS port. The Rime age is the extra age only present in realMyst, right?

I also wondered why everyone was saying that the DS port has an alternate soundtrack. When I played it it was the exact same soundtrack as the PC version. What are people talking about?