Broken games not quite so broken
jjstraka34
Member Posts: 9,850
So over the past year especially, I've been archiving anything I can on my laptop and backing up on my external hardrive every RPG I can get my hands on. Steam, GOG, Abandonware through DOSbox, emulators for old console games. While by no means definitive or complete, I have what can basically be described as the entire history of the genre accessible and neatly organized on my computer, including any documentation.
However, there were two games (out of hundreds) that I could never get to work at all, and one I refused to install based on it's reputation. The technically challenged games were Wizards and Warriors and Might and Magic IX. Both were fundamentally broken on modern operating systems. I finally got both to a state where they are playable, but by no means ideal.
Getting Wizards and Warriors to work on any modern system is a long and arduous process that you can piece together if you like, and even then you have to fiddle with a Graphics patch and match it with a resolution, but once you hit the jackpot, the game plays. HOWEVER, the graphics, while not unplayable, are a ugly mess. The alternative, however, is having smooth graphics but mouse lag on the left menu that makes the game totally unplayable. That being said, I'm happy enough with it (even with my OCD nature of not only having the games installed but making sure they work properly) that I'll chalk it up as "fixed" in my head.
An even bigger and more annoying conundrum for me was Might and Magic IX, even more so because there were supposed fixes for this game and it's sold by GOG in a state that is nearly unplayable. For the last year, I've checked back on the forums there was any solution. Combat would be super-fast, the game would freeze for 30 seconds every time a menu or inventory was opened, etc, etc. Lo and behold, today (the same day I find a sort of workaround for Wizards and Warriors) I revisit the GOG forum and find a new post about IX. Some wonderful user, halfway down, had linked to a forum post from 2008 on some obscure message board that included one simple .dll file replacement. I figured what the hell, I've come this far. To my absolute joy, I ran my usual tests in the starter town and it was fixed.....except for the fact that once you leave the tutorial area, if you are outside between 6 and 6 at night in the game world, the entire screen is black and you can't do anything. However....there doesn't happen to be a food mechanic in this game that I can see or remember, so if you simply always use the rest option "til dawn" (which takes you to 6:02) I don't see this as game-breaking. Again not perfect, but a fix I can live with after alot of headaches.
Which brings me to Ultima IX. I never installed this game for two reasons. It's reputation, and the fact that I couldn't get Might and Magic IX to work and it didn't seem fair :P. But as soon as I did, I figured why not. And the game is still patently ridiculous in many respects. But if you don't care about the lore (and really, Ultima lore isn't really Shakespeare to being with) or maybe especially if you were wanting to give a younger person a older RPG that they could dive right into, there are worse games than this to pick, and it deserves to be included simply based on it's 3D semi-open world (do we get great games like Gothic without it??) and just the fact that is is SO utterly maligned and hated.
Anyway there's no point to this post....just a catalog of my trials and tribulations with some very quirky titles.
However, there were two games (out of hundreds) that I could never get to work at all, and one I refused to install based on it's reputation. The technically challenged games were Wizards and Warriors and Might and Magic IX. Both were fundamentally broken on modern operating systems. I finally got both to a state where they are playable, but by no means ideal.
Getting Wizards and Warriors to work on any modern system is a long and arduous process that you can piece together if you like, and even then you have to fiddle with a Graphics patch and match it with a resolution, but once you hit the jackpot, the game plays. HOWEVER, the graphics, while not unplayable, are a ugly mess. The alternative, however, is having smooth graphics but mouse lag on the left menu that makes the game totally unplayable. That being said, I'm happy enough with it (even with my OCD nature of not only having the games installed but making sure they work properly) that I'll chalk it up as "fixed" in my head.
An even bigger and more annoying conundrum for me was Might and Magic IX, even more so because there were supposed fixes for this game and it's sold by GOG in a state that is nearly unplayable. For the last year, I've checked back on the forums there was any solution. Combat would be super-fast, the game would freeze for 30 seconds every time a menu or inventory was opened, etc, etc. Lo and behold, today (the same day I find a sort of workaround for Wizards and Warriors) I revisit the GOG forum and find a new post about IX. Some wonderful user, halfway down, had linked to a forum post from 2008 on some obscure message board that included one simple .dll file replacement. I figured what the hell, I've come this far. To my absolute joy, I ran my usual tests in the starter town and it was fixed.....except for the fact that once you leave the tutorial area, if you are outside between 6 and 6 at night in the game world, the entire screen is black and you can't do anything. However....there doesn't happen to be a food mechanic in this game that I can see or remember, so if you simply always use the rest option "til dawn" (which takes you to 6:02) I don't see this as game-breaking. Again not perfect, but a fix I can live with after alot of headaches.
Which brings me to Ultima IX. I never installed this game for two reasons. It's reputation, and the fact that I couldn't get Might and Magic IX to work and it didn't seem fair :P. But as soon as I did, I figured why not. And the game is still patently ridiculous in many respects. But if you don't care about the lore (and really, Ultima lore isn't really Shakespeare to being with) or maybe especially if you were wanting to give a younger person a older RPG that they could dive right into, there are worse games than this to pick, and it deserves to be included simply based on it's 3D semi-open world (do we get great games like Gothic without it??) and just the fact that is is SO utterly maligned and hated.
Anyway there's no point to this post....just a catalog of my trials and tribulations with some very quirky titles.
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