King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

Report bugs or find solutions to hardware problems regarding KQ1VGA and KQ2:RTS.

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King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#1 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Wed Dec 04, 2002 4:09 pm

Last Updated: 18th November, 2010

In order to cut down on the amount of new posts in this forum and to prevent things from getting too cluttered, We've compile a FAQ of the most common issues encountered in the King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones. Please consult this FAQ before posting in the Technical Forum to see if your question has already been answered. You should only make a new post if you have confirmed that your issue can not be solved by following the advice below or if you have a new bug to report.

If you have new information to report about a KNOWN bug, make sure you locate the appropriate thread for that bug and post your information in there, rather than creating a new thread. Ultimately, this will keep things running smoothly and allow people will be able to get help faster.

One final request: Please post a DETAILED description of the problem that you're experiencing. Don't just type "Help!" or something like that. For example, an ideal title would be "KQ2 bug: Game crashing when giving pearl to merchant."

The latest Version of King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (v3.1), can be downloaded here.

Patch Update v3.1 to v3.1b. (Windows only)


Important: Please install the latest version of the game and any patches listed above before reporting any bugs. If you are running the latest version, try these steps first as they may resolve your issue without requiring further help!

1) Update your video & sound card drivers to the latest versions released by the manufacturer. You should be able to obtain your cards' make and model from the Control Panel in Windows. Alternatively, use Windows Online Update (Internet Explorer required) to run a custom search to check if there are any updated video/sound card drivers that you can install on your system. For most common cards, they'll be be automatically detected in the process.

2) Download and install the very latest version of DirectX

3) Reboot and run the game again to see if the issue is fixed.


KING'S QUEST II: ROMANCING THE STONES TECHNICAL FAQ

Q) I'm using Windows 95/98/ME and after installing the game, it won't run.

A) The latest version of the game only runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. This is because Microsoft no longer officially supports its older Operating Systems (Windows 98 and below) and AGD Interactive's games rely on NET framework features which are not compatible with them.

Q) The game crashed with an Illegal Exception error message.

If the game crashes and you receive an "Illegal Exception" error message, you should press CTRL+C while the error message box is still on-screen in order to copy the information to the clipboard, and then press CTRL+V to paste it temporarily into notepad (or someplace safe). Make a detailed note of what you were doing at the time of the crash. The report should then be posted on the AGS technical forum here:

http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?board=2.0

Please post the full error message and also upload the generated CrashInfo.dmp file which will be located in your game directory. This way, the problem can be looked into. If you don't have upload space, you can simply report the issue here in the AGD Interactive technical forums and use the "Upload Attachment" feature when adding your post.

Q) I loaded and game, played it for a while, and then exited it. Later, I tried to play again but after running the game, it crashes on the title screen with the following message:
Error Message wrote:An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS. (ACI version 3.12.1074)

in "room288.asc", line 404
Error: FileWrite: invalid file handle; file previously opened or has been closed
A) If you are running in Windows Vista or Windows 7, you need to go to the folder where you installed the game and right click on the Kq2vga.exe file. From the menu, set it to "Run as Administrator". Do exactly the same thing for the winsetup.exe file. Try to run the game again after this and the problem should be resolved.

This issue will be addressed in a subsequent release.


Q) Can the game's resolution in the settings panel be set to 640x400 like previous versions? I don't see it anywhere when I run winsetup.exe.

A) In the winsetup.exe program, select the "2x Nearest-Neighbor" option from the drop-down menu. This will run the game in a double-sized window. Selecting the "3x Nearest-Neighbor" and "4x Nearest-Neighbor" options will make the window larger still. However, be aware that the larger the filter used, the slower the game will run, so ensure that you have a fast system before using the higher filter settings.

Q) I can play the game in windowed mode, but full-screen mode just gives me a black screen.

If the game seems to work in windowed mode, but not full-screen mode, you could try clicking the "Run in a window" checkbox in winsetup.exe and then select the "4x nearest neighbour" filter from the drop down menu. This will run the game in a window that's so large, it looks like full-screen mode. However, be forewarned that using this filter will probably slow gameplay down significantly unless you have a fast system. Slowdown would be most noticeable in the cutscenes, as they'd likely start to lag behind the music.

Q) When I try to run the game using Hq2x and Hq3x filters, it gives this error message upon start-up and then the game crashes:
Error Message wrote:Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occurred in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00519561 ; program pointer is -3, ACI version 3.12.1074, gtags (2883,21)
A) This has been confirmed as a bug in the AGD engine and will be fixed for a later version.


Q) When I load the game, the screen constantly flickers on and off every few seconds. I have tried using all different resolutions and checking the option for CRT monitors and then unchecking it. But nothing works!

A) There are a number of suggestions to help solve this issue:

1/ Close all other applications before you run the game.
2/ Click the "Letterbox resolution" option in the setup program.
3/ If all else fails, try downloading the latest drivers for your video card, downloading the latest version of DirectX and lowering your video card's refresh rate.


Q) Why is my MIDI Music Volume so low/high?

A) Version 3.1 of the game contains a digital music soundtrack only, which means that there are no longer any such issues with varying music volume levels. We can no longer provide technical support for older versions of the game that still utilize MIDI music. If you're running an outdated version, please upgrade King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones to the latest version (3.1) by uninstalling your current game and downloading the new version here

Note: savegames made with previous versions will not be compatible with version 3.1.


Q) I'm having trouble with the midi music feature it says failure to initalize. Any suggestions?

A) See the question above.

Q) I'm having trouble with the digital sound feature (sound effects) it says failure to initialize.

A) Try selecting a different option for digital sound from the setup program or, as a last resort, playing with "No digital sound" selected.

Q) Sometimes the game seems to lock-up and freeze unexpectedly when music or a sound effect is playing. The "wait" cursor is displayed - it won't disappear and I can't continue playing the game.

A) Try pressing the ESC key - it might get rid of the Wait icon in some timed cutscenes. We're not really sure why this is the case. It seems to be related to the Sound and Music problems that other people have been experiencing in different areas of the game where the wait icon won't disappear.

Another possible solution: If this lock-up happens and the ESC key won't skip the scene, you can try running the setup program and playing the game with the 'No digital Sound' option selected temporarily, to bypass areas where the problem occurs. However, this bug should no longer occur in Version 3.1 of the game.

Q) I can't see any Video scenes during the game.

A) Make sure that you're running the newest version of the game. As of version 3.0, all movie files have been encoded in Ogg Theora format and are played internally by the game engine. In previous versions, the game simply "hijacked" Windows Media and used it to play MPEG-1 cutscenes. This prevented them from playing back on non-Windows based systems. Version 3.1's movie cutscenes are now fully compatible under Linux and Mac when using and emulator like Wine.



Additional topics and updated information will be added to this FAQ as things are brought to our attention.

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Re:  King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#2 Post by Lady Sibyl » Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:36 am

KING'S QUEST 3.0 FULL-SCREEN PICTURE PROBLEM
I've read all the Technical FAQs carefully and can't find my question there so I'm asking it here.

I have the latest version of King's Quest (3.0) on my laptop. The picture/video works perfectly in the window setting but all I see is black in the full-screen setting. I've tried lauching it from the folder (C:\Program Files\AGD Interactive\King's Quest II) twice now and it refuses to give me any picture and/or video in the full-screen. The strange thing is, the sound works fine in both settings. What is going on?

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Re: King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#3 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:38 am

Try running the winsetup.exe program (or clicking on the "Settings" button from the Launcher Menu) and in the "Graphics Filter" drop-down menu, select the "2x nearest-neighbour filter". Then click on the 'Save" button.

See if that makes any difference.

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Re:  King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#4 Post by Yendor » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:02 pm

I had a similar problem (with all the games), and trying that did nothing, but checking "Force alternate letterbox resolution" did the trick.

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Re:  King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#5 Post by Lady Sibyl » Tue Mar 17, 2009 3:12 am

I've tried both of those suggestions but neither work.

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Re: King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#6 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:06 am

Make sure that you have the latest drivers installed for your graphics card, and also the latest version of DirectX installed.

Failing that, I'd recommend posting the issue on the AGS technical forum here, where they might be able to give you better advice:

http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?board=2.0

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Re:  King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#7 Post by Lady Sibyl » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:50 pm

OK, I downloaded the DirectX. All I know about my video is that it is 1024 x 768 in 32-Bit Color, {23A77BF7-ED96-40EC-AF06-9B1F4867732A} Ver. 5.1 operating on a Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3. What sort of drivers do I need?

And I haven't said this before because I figured it was rather obvious, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this remake. The graphics are like living paintings and the music is incredible! And all of the voice-over actors/actresses are so talented -- I'd love to just listen to Graham and the narrator all day, and I love Hagatha's sneering, and Possum is so cute (and Anastasia so cool), the accents of Pegasus and the dwarf and Count Caldaur, and even the monk's voice is just so...wow! Smooth and rich like honey or butter or warm roasted chestnuts...I mean when he's human and not all Lon Chaney. And Valanice totally rocks. "I'm sure it would have rhymed." And the Sharkee king could double for Darth Vader. "(Deep asthmatic breath) Trident...I am your master. (Deep asthmatic breath)"

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Re: King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#8 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:20 am

Thanks for the comments, it's good to hear such feedback. A few of the voices were actually completely redone for this latest version of the game (Hagatha, Monk, and Sharkee King, for example), while others were just enhanced from the original versions and made to sound a bit clearer.

In regards to your screen Display issue, did installing Direct X fix the problem? After installing it, you should try to run the game in both normal full screen mode and with the 2x nearest-neighbour filter to see if either of those settings work now.

You should be able to find out the model and brand of your video card by clicking on the Start Button, then going to Settings>Control Panel>Display. In the Display box, click on the 'Settings' tab, and then on the "Advanced" button. Somewhere in this section it should show the graphics card and driver you are currently using. It should be something like NVidia, ATI, etc. Once you have determine which model you have, just go to the manufacturer's website and download/install the drivers for your model.

You may also be able to run the Windows update at this address:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

To automatically install the latest drivers for your installed hardware. You need to select "custom" and if there are new drivers available for your card, they should be listed under the "Hardware, Optional" section.

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Re:  King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#9 Post by Lady Sibyl » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:31 pm

Nothing's working. I downloaded the DirectX 10 but it's not helping. I found the Control Panel and the Display and the Advanced option, but I can't find out what kind of video card or graphic drivers I have. The only thing I know I have is Windows Media player.

In an aside, I feel like I'm unjustly monopolizing this forum: if such is the case, is there someone specifically I could talk to?

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Re: King's Quest 2 VGA Technical FAQ (consult before posting)

#10 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:12 am

Try posting in the AGS technical forum here:

http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?board=2.0

The creator of the AGS engine (which we used to make the game) or other users with a wider variety of experience with different computer settings might be able to shed some light on things.

Also, if the game seems to work in windowed mode, but not full-screen mode, you could try clicking the "Run in a window" checkbox and then select the "4x nearest neighbour" filter from the drop down menu. This will run the game in a window that's so large, it looks like full-screen mode. However, be forewarned that using this filter will probably slow gameplay down significantly unless you have a fast system. Slowdown would be most noticible in the cutscenes, as they'd likely start to lag behind the music. It might be worth a try though.

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#11 Post by Cassima » Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:30 am

I just downloaded King's Quest II VGA onto my Vista laptop and installed Direct X. When I try and open KQII, an error message pops up that says "file contains invalid contents". Apparently the file type isn't supported by Direct X, because I couldn't open it with it. So, I tried copying it into a ZIP file, but when I tried to open it with Direct X, I couldn't find the file. Does anyone have any suggestions at all?

(I know you're supposed to check whether you have the latest graphics driver, but is there another way to do this besides Windows Update, because the updates are harmful to my computer?)

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#12 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:08 pm

Sounds like your file might not have downloaded completely. Your best bet would be trying to re-download the file again from the AGDInteractive site.

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#13 Post by Cassima » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:11 pm

Ok, I re-downloaded it and this time I could at least install it. When it ran from the exit install window, it ran fine. But when I tried to open it from the game icon on my desktop, it got to the options screen "intro, new game", etc. and it shut down. An error message popped up that said the problem was probably not a bug in the game itself, but was with the script. Then it said "FileWrite: invalid file handle, file was not previously opened or was closed". Those weren't the exact words, but they're close enough. What now?

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#14 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Feb 06, 2010 5:30 pm

Did the message mention anything about room 288? And are you running Windows Vista?

If you can post the exact error message you're getting, that would be best. When the pop-up error box appears you should be able to press CTRL+C to copy the text and then CTRL+V to paste it here in the forum.

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#15 Post by Cassima » Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:02 pm

Whoops, it did say that and I see that there are already instructions as to how to solve that problem. I'll go try them out.

---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#16 Post by TheMetalPaladin » Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:35 am

When Graham was Looking In the Magic Mirror when Its About to Be 3D Then it Freezes and I Have to Wait Intil it Show's Graham's Reflection again,Also when I Press "Play" it Crashed And telled me about A Room and says Line 404 after it :(

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#17 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:47 am

Which version of King's Quest II are you running and what operating system?

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#18 Post by TheMetalPaladin » Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:00 am

I downloaded King's Quest II Remake v3.0 so I copyed my Settings from a Working King's Quest 1 so Its Fixed still its Bad you should make it Start in the Menu instand of Starting The intro Because Some people's Computers can support 3D In this Game in Scenes so You can skip The intro Scene If someone Already Seen it

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#19 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:42 am

You can press ESC to skip the introduction sequence.

You should re-download the game and get the newly released version 3.1 instead. You may have to click the download button a few times because there are still a few older versions of version 3.0 being hosted. Just go to the KQ2 download page and keep clicking the download button until you see the filename is Kq2vga31.exe.

Uninstall the current version 3.0 from your system and install version 3.1 Instead. But be aware that any savegames you made will not be compatible in the new version. This should fix the crash on the title screen that you mentioned.

Also, the game uses Ogg Theora for video cutscenes. This problem might be fixed in the new version. But it seems more likely to be something related to your own system. Try updating to the newest graphics drivers for your video card, as well as updating to the latest version of DirectX before running the game. That might help.

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#20 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:48 pm

TheMetalPaladin wrote:I downloaded King's Quest II Remake v3.0 so I copyed my Settings from a Working King's Quest 1 so Its Fixed still its Bad you should make it Start in the Menu instand of Starting The intro Because Some people's Computers can support 3D In this Game in Scenes so You can skip The intro Scene If someone Already Seen it
There is no 3D in the game. The 3D cutscenes are video files not real-time 3D graphics.

And oh my gosh, I see capitals but no periods. I can't tell whether this is a run-on sentence or a title.

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#21 Post by daventry » Sun Dec 07, 2014 9:21 pm

I dont expect an answer since the Forum is pretty much dead, but when i take screenshots with Irfanview, they appear little block sizes instead of full size images

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Re: King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones Technical FAQ

#22 Post by adeyke » Sun Dec 07, 2014 10:48 pm

The game has a resolution of 320x200. A screenshot will thus also be 320x200, which will only cover a tiny part of a modern screen. IrfanView gives you the option of displaying an image fullscreen (F) or resizing it (ctrl-R).

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