QG4 Problem... and it's NOT the infamous Error 52

[Earthsetjake]

I've managed to defeat the cave entrance bugs and the Error 52 bugs but encountered another issue while fighting a wraith. As soon as I defeat the wraith, and flex my muscles, the game freezes up. I've tried a billion different ways to approach the fight but to no avail. Any ideas/comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Peter Swinkels]

What operating system are you using? Also, are you running Quest for Glory inside an emulator such as Dosbox?

[Earthsetjake]

Using XP and running CD version of QFG. I'm Using VDMSound which up to this point has proven to be just as effective as DosBox.

[Bigfan]

That sounds similar to a problem I've always had. I usually run it in DOSBox, but no matter what I do, the Adventurer's Guild door freezes up every time I go through it. The problem is usually solved incrementally by moving my mouse over the toolbar and then back into the game window. Doing this a half dozen times gets me through it. Might be worth a shot.

[Schloss Ritter]

Right after installing the game, always apply the patch from this site: http://geocities.com/belzorash/

[MusicallyInspired]

DO. NOT. USE. VDMSound. It's deprecated. It's not updated anymore and it's glitchy (like MIDI music being played back at annoyingly slower speeds). Basically it seems abandoned in favour of DOSBox. That's the way to go.

[Solarkid]

Really? im surprised you say that, i've used VDMsound for ages now with many many games and never had a problem, it's so much simpler than dosbox, you just start the game and go.

Dave

[AlcoholicPenguin]

Try turning your speed bar all the way up and your detail all the way down. You'd be surprised how many problems that fixes.

[Schloss Ritter]

If you use one of the frontends for DosBox (D-Fend is what I have used), you can "just start the game and go" as the frontend should save all the DosBox settings you need to run that game aln load DosBox for you. You can even set up a shortcut to run the game without loading the frontend or DosBox first.

[Kloreep]

Yeah, once you familiarize yourself with setting up a .conf file (mostly it's just copying the original conf file and then adding in the commands to navigate to the game) you can create a shortcut and click & go. DOSBox is just far more powerful. VDMSound emulates, well, sound; everything else about the game that can screw up due to modern system speeds will still do so. DOSBox emulates everything, and so can (potentially) fix everything.

Far be it from me to tell you what to do if you already know what you want. But VDMSound is definitely not as effective as DOSBox.

[MusicallyInspired]

Bottom line is you can't expect to play an old DOS game flawlessly without getting used to using something like DOSBox. There's no easy point&click shortcut solution. At least not without a bit of work beforehand.

[Kloreep]

As far as DOSBox goes, it's really not too much work anyhow, at least once you learn the four or five lines in the DOSBox file you actually need to worry about. Sure, it might take you about 15 minutes of testing to get the game running to your satisfaction, but isn't that worth good performance in a game you'll be playing for hours?

Anyway, I'm sure people who are getting by just fine without DOSBox are wondering what I'm up on this soapbox for, so I should probably get off.

[DonQuixote]

I have the same problem with I use VDM Sound--all my battles freeze up, some more quickly than others, no matter how much I fiddle with anything else. Using DOSBox completely solves this problem.

I used to use VDMS for QG1EGA & VGA, QG2, and QG3; and just use DOSBox for QG4 (some times just for the battles); after awhile and after becoming more and more comfortable with DOSBox over the years, I don't even use VDMS anymore because DOSBox really is that much better.

[SirFuzzi]

I suppose I'll bug here, and I think my problem's error 52; lemme check. It's the one what with the Chernovies and the Mad Monk's Tomb.

(checking...)

Yeah, it's error 52. I used the patch from ArcadeTimesSquare or whatsitcalled, and even restarted my game, and yet still to no avail. I'm running off DOSBox, if that makes any big difference.

Also, should I not have Reversal active when I go to them? (it errors with or without, just asking)

[MusicallyInspired]

Did you install the unofficial script patch fix from this site?

[SirFuzzi]

That's the one I downloaded, yes, but it seems to have done nothing. I extract it to my QFG4 folder, right? I did that, but it had no effect. Should I be reinstalling my QFG4 as well or something?

[Brainiac]

If you fire up a saved game right on the Error 52 screen from BEFORE the patch was applied, it usually won't fix things. If you have other saves not on that screen, try those. You could also try slowing the speed both in the game and in DOSbox's cycles; that can often fix the problem without patching.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yes good point. Restoring a save game after installing a patch is like pretending you never installed the patch at all. You'd have to start over.

[random_name]

If you don't want to restart, try slowing down Dosbox as much as possible. You want it just fast enough to run the game without immediately crashing, but slow enough not to encounter the bug

[MusicallyInspired]

I just found a brand new second patch that apparently solves some problems that the previous patch does not. Give it a try.

[SirFuzzi]

That did it! After ten years, I can finally beat QFG4!!!

Thank you!

[MusicallyInspired]

[Herethos]

Its always the same wraith isn't it? the other ones don't lockup.
I remember the floppy version doing the same thing on my 486dx2 80, only way to fix it was to disable the internal or external cache in the bios I don't remember which. Since the game uses a memory extender dos4gw iirc other issues could be fixed by not running with emm386.exe or himem.sys or something like that. I don't think one can fiddle with those in dosbox though.

[Kloreep]

SirFuzzi (and anyone else having trouble post-belzorash patch): You also want to make absolutely sure that the patch is being used. This can be a problem if you're using DOSBox and mount a subdirectory as C:

The easiest way to be sure is to edit the resource.cfg file in your QFG4 directory and make sure the patchDir line is this:

patchDir=.\

Rather than a full path name, which is easily disrupted by DOSBox or by moving the game folder around.

This may well not be the problem, and it any mid-game patching is indeed going to be spotty at best in fixing things, but it's definitely something any QFG4 user should check if they're having problems running the unofficial patch.